Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Meta

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

ME'TA. Any object with a broad circular base, gradually tapering off to the top, like a cone (Liv. xxxvii. 27. Cic. Div. ii. 6. Plin. H. N. ii. 7.); whence the following characteristic applications of the term.

1. (καμπτήρ, νύσσα). The goal or turning post in a race-course, which consisted of a group of three conical-shaped columns, placed upon a raised basement, and situated at the end of the barrier (spina), round which the chariots turned, each race comprising seven circuits round the course. (Prop. ii. 25, 26. Suet. Dom. 4.) There were necessarily two metae, one at each extremity of the spina, marked respectively C and D on the ground-plan of a circus at p. 165. The one nearest the end from which the chariots started was called meta prima; the other, at the further extremity, meta secunda. The driver in turning always kept these on his left hand, or, as we say, on his near side, which a Roman called on his inner wheel (interiore rota. Ov. Amor. iii. 2. 12.); and the great art of driving well consisted in getting round these points without taking too large a sweep, so as to let an antagonist cut in between, nor by shaving too close, to run the risk of an upset by coming into contact with the base on which the columns stood; hence the writings of the poets abound in metaphorical allusions to the chances and accidents which here occurred. (Ov. Trist. iv. 8. 35. Hor. Od. i. 1. 5. Cic. Cael. 31.); and as the race which commenced at the first meta also ended there, the word is frequently used, like our term goal, for the boundary or conclusion of any other object or thing. (Virg. Ov. Stat. &.) The illustration (Meta/1.1) is copied from a Roman bas-relief, representing a circus. The doorway under the columns gave access to a small chapel in which the altar of the god Consus was placed. Tertull. de Spectac. 5.

2. The innermost or lowest of the two stones in a mill for grinding corn, (Paul. Dig. 33. 7. 18. § 5.), which was formed in the shape of a cone, as exhibited by the annexed example (Meta/2.1), representing a section and elevation from an original found in a baker's shop at Pompeii. The outer one, called catillus (Dig. l. c.), it will be observed, is made in the shape of an hour-glass, the lower portion of which fitted on to the conical head of the meta, as a cap (section on left hand); and the upper part served as a hopper to receive the corn, which gradually dropped through a small orifice at its base, and was ground into flour against the head and sides of the meta, by turning the outer stone round it. Before the discovery of the mills at Pompeii, by which the real form of a Roman mill has been ascertained, it was the common notion that the upper stone was the meta, and the lower one the catillus — an error which is still left uncorrected even in our best dictionaries.

3. Meta foeni. A hay-rick; which the Roman farmers made up into a conical shape, with a very sharp point (Columell. ii. 19. 2.); like the annexed example (Meta/3.1) from the column of Antoninus. Thus, also, other articles, such as cream cheese, when made up into a conical mass, were designated by the same name. Mart. i. 44. iii. 58. 35.

4. Meta sudans. A fountain at Rome, near the Flavian amphitheatre, which was designed to imitate a cone, over which the water distilled from the top. (Sext. Ruf. de Reg. Urb. 4.) Remains of this fountain are still to be seen between the Coliseum and the arch of Constantine; and representations of it exist on several medals, testifying the appropriateness of the name, which was also given to other fountains of a similar pattern. Seneca (Ep. 56.) mentions one at Baiae.

• 
  Meta/1.1
• 
  Meta/2.1
• 
  Meta/3.1