MITRA (μίτρα), in general a band of any kind, and specifically, (1) A
belt or girdle worn by warriors round the waist. [ZONA.]--(2) A broad
band of cloth worn round the head, to which the name of _anadema_ was
sometimes given. [COMA.]
MODĬUS, the principal dry measure of the Romans, was equal to
one-third of the amphora, and therefore contained nearly two gallons
English. (See the Tables.) The modius was one-sixth of the medimnus.
MŎLA (μύλος), a mill. All mills were anciently made of stone, the
kind used being a volcanic trachyte or porous lava (_pyrites_,
_silices_, _pumiceas_). Every mill consisted of two essential parts,
the upper mill-stone, which was moveable (_catillus_, ὄνος, τὸ
ἐπιμύλιον), and the lower, which was fixed and by much the larger of
the two. Hence a mill is sometimes called _molae_ in the plural. The
principal mills mentioned by ancient authors are the following:--I.
The hand-mill, or quern, called _mola manuaria, versatilis_, or
_trusatilis_. The hand-mills were worked among the Greeks and Romans
by slaves. Their pistrinum was consequently proverbial as a place of
painful and degrading labour; and this toil was imposed principally
on women. II. The cattle-mill, _mola asinaria_, in which human labour
was supplied by the use of an ass or some other animal. III. The
water-mill (_mola aquaria_, ὑδραλέτης). A cogged wheel, attached to
the axis of the water wheel, turned another which was attached to the
axis of the upper mill-stone: the corn to be ground fell between the
stones out of a hopper (_infundibulum_), which was fixed above them.
IV. The floating-mill. V. The saw-mill. VI. The pepper-mill.
MŎNARCHĬA (μοναρχία), a general name for any form of government
in which the supreme functions of political administration are in
the hands of a single person. The term μοναρχία is applied to such
governments, whether they are hereditary or elective, legal or
usurped. In its commonest application, it is equivalent to βασιλεία,
whether absolute or limited. But the rule of an _aesymnetes_ or a
_tyrant_ would equally be called a μοναρχία. Hence Plutarch uses it
to express the Latin _dictatura_. It is by a somewhat rhetorical use
of the word that it is applied now and then to the δῆμος.
MŎNĒTA, the mint, or the place where money was coined. The mint of
Rome was a building on the Capitoline, and attached to the temple
of Juno Moneta, as the aerarium was to the temple of Saturn. The
officers who had the superintendence of the mint were the _Triumviri
Monetales_, who were perhaps first appointed about B.C. 269. Under
the republic, the coining of money was not a privilege which belonged
exclusively to the state. The coins struck in the time of the
republic mostly bear the names of private individuals; and it would
seem that every Roman citizen had the right of having his own gold
and silver coined in the public mint, and under the superintendence
of its officers. Still no one till the time of the empire had the
right of putting his own image upon a coin; Julius Caesar was the
first to whom this privilege was granted.
MŎNĪLE (ὅρμος), a necklace. Necklaces were worn by both sexes
among the most polished of those nations which the Greeks called
barbarous, especially the Indians, the Egyptians, and the Persians.
Greek and Roman females adopted them more particularly as a bridal
ornament. They were of various forms, as may be seen by the following
specimens:--
[Illustration: Monilia, necklaces. (British Museum.)]