Mela
- a Roman proper name, Cic. Phil. 13, 2, 3: Pomponius Mela, a Roman geographer, a native of Spain, under the emperor Claudius; v. Teuffel, Röm. Litt. § 291.
MELAor MELLA, a river of Gallia Transpadana, still called the Mella, which rises in the Alps, flows through the Val Trompia, anciently the residence of the Triumpilini, enters the plain of Lombardy near Brixia, and falls into the Ollius ( Oglio) more than 20 miles below that city. Catullus speaks of it as flowing throughthe city of Brixia, but this is an inaccuracy or a poetical license, as it passes, in fact, about a mile to the W. of it. [BRIXIA] Both he and Virgil describe it as a placid and winding stream. (Catull. 67.33; Verg. G. 4.278; Philargyr. ad loc.)
[E.H.B](1) M. Annaeus. Youngest son of M. Annaeus Seneca, the rhetorician, brother of L. Seneca, the philosopher, and father of the poet Lucan.
(2) Pomponius. A native of Tingentera in Spain, under Claudius or Caligula, and author of an excellent Latin work on geography, entitled De Situ Orbis Libri III., containing a description of the world as known to the Romans of his time. It is written in a clear and simple style; and, though very concise, is enlivened by bits of interesting description of manners and customs. The number of geographical names mentioned by Mela amounts to more than 1500. The principal MS. of the work is in the Vatican, and dates from the tenth century. Editions are those of Voss (last ed. Franeker, 1700); A. Gronovius (Leyden, 1696); Tzschucke (Leipzig, 1807), revised by Parthey (Berlin, 1867); and Frick (Leipzig, 1880). See Fink, Pomponius Mela und seine Chorographie (1881); and the article geographia.
See also Mella.