Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/364

 348 METAPONTUM, ticular honours to Aristeas, who was said to have appeared in their city 340 years after he had dis- appeared from Cyzicus. They erected to him a statue in the middle of the forum, with an altar to Apollo surrounded by a grove of laurels. (Herod, iv. 15 ; Athen. siii. p. 60r), c.) From their coins they would appear also to have paid heroic honours to Leucippus, as the founder of their city. (Millingen, I. c. p. 24.) Strabo tells us, as a proof of their Pylian origin, that they continued to perform sacri- fices to the Neleidae. (Strab. vi. p. 264.) The site and remains of Metapontum have been carefully examined by the Due de Luyncs, who has illustrated them in a special work (^Metapo7ite, fol. Paris, 1833). It is remarkable that no trace exists of the ancient walls or the theatre of which Pansa- nias speaks. The most important of the still existing monuments is a temple, the remains of which occupy a slight elevation near the right bank of the Bra- danus, about 2 miles from its mouth. They are now known as the Tavola dei Paladini. Fifteen columns are still standing, ten on one side and five on the other ; but the two ends, as well as the whole of the entablature above the architrave and the walls of the cella, have wholly disappeared. The archi- tecture is of the Doric order, but its proportions are lighter and more slender than those of the celebrated temples of Paestum : and it is in all probability of later date. Some remains of another temple, but prostrate, and a mere heap of rains, are visible nearly 2 miles to the S. of the preceding, and a short distance from the mouth of the Bradanus. This spot, called the Chiesa di Sansone, appears to mark the site of the city itself, numerous foundations of buildings having been discovered all around it. It may be doubted whether the more distant temple was ever included within the walls; but it is im- possible now to trace the extent of the ancient city. The Torre di Mare, now the only inhabited spot on the plain, derives its name from a castellated edifice of the middle ages; it is situated above IJ mile from the sea, and the same distance from the river Basiento, the ancient Casuentus. Immediately op- posite to it, on the sea-shore, is a small salt-water basin or lagoon, now called the Lac/o di Sta. Pela- gina. which, though neither deep nor spacious, in all probability formed the ancient port of Meta- pontum. Metapontum was thus situated between the two rivers Bradanus and Casuentus, and occupied (with its port and appurtenances) a considerable part of the intermediate space. Appian speaks of " a river l)etween IMetapontum and Tarentum of the same name," by which he probably means the Bradanus, which may have been commonly known as the river of Metapontum. This is certainly the only rivet- large enough to answer to the description which he gives of the meeting of Octavian and Antony which took place on its banks. (Appian, B. C. v. 93, 94.) The coins of Jletapontum, as already observed, com OF METAPONTUM. JIETAUEUS. are very numerous ; and many of the later ones of very beautiful workmanship. Those of more an- cient date are of the style called incuse, like the early coins of Crotona and Sybaris. The one in the annexed figure has on the obverse the head of the hero Leucippus, the founder of the city. But the more common type on the obverse is the head of Ceres. [E. H. B.] METARIS (Merapls, Ptol. ii. 3. § 6), an estu- ary in Britain ; the Wasli between JSiorfolk and Lincolnshire. [C. R. S.] METAUEUJI (JSlaravpos, Steph. B.), a city on the W. coast of Bruttium, at the mouth of the river of the same name. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, it was a colony of the Locrians, but seems never to have risen to any importance ; and its name is chiefly known because, according to some accounts, it was the birthplace of the poet Stesi- chorus, who was more generally regarded as a native of Himera. (Steph. B. s. v.; Suid. s.v. 2tt;(7i- Xopos.) Steplianus erroneously calls it a city of Sicily; but Suidas, who writes the name Matauria, correctly places it in Italy; and there can be no doubt that both mean the town at the mouth of the Jletaurus, which is called by Latin writers Me- taurum. Solinus ascribes its foundation to the Zanclaeans. Mela inentions it as if it were a still existing town; but Strabo speaks only of the river Metaurus, with an anchorage or roadstead of the same name : and Pliny also notices the river (" Me- taurus amnis ") without any mention of a town of the name. (Strab. vi. p. 256; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10, Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Sohn. 2. § 11.) [E. H. B.] METAURUS (MeVaupos). 1. A river of Umbria, flowing into the Adriatic sea, near Fano, and one of the most considerable of the numerous streams which in this part of Italy descend from the eastern decli- vity of the Apennines into the Adriatic. It is still called the Metauro or Metro; and has its sources in the high group of Apennines called the MontcNerone, from whence it has a course of between 40 and 50 miles to the sea. It flows by Fossomhrone (Forum Sempronii), and throughout the latter part of its course was followed by the great highroad of the Flaminian Way, which descended the valley of the Cnntiano, one of the principal tributaries of the Metaurus, and emerged into the main valley of the latter river a few miles below the pass of Intercisa or II Furlo. Its mouth is about 2 miles S. oiFano (Fanum Fortunae), but has no port; and the river itself is justly described by Silius Italicus as a violent and torrent-like stream. (Strab. v. p. 227; riin. iii. 14. s. 19; MeL ii. 4. § 5; Sil. Ital. viii. 449; Lucan, ii. 405.) The Metaurus is celebrated in history for the great battle which was fought on its banks in B. c. 207, between Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, and the Roman consuls C. Claudius Nero and M. Livius, in which the former was totally defeated and slain, — a bat-tie that may be considered as the real turning- point of the Second Punic War, and therefore one of the most important in history. (Liv. sxvii. 46 — 51; Oros. iv. 18; Eutrop. iii. 18; Vict, de Vir. III. 48; Hor. Cai-m. iv. 4. 38; Sil. Ital. vii. 486.) Un- fortunately our knowledge of the topography and details of the battle is extremely imperfect. But we learn from Livy, the only author who has left us a connected narrative of the operations, that M. Livius was encamped with his army under the walls of Sena (i. e. Sena Gallica, now Sinigaglia), and Hasdrubal at a short distance from him. But as