Metellinum
METELLI´NUM (It. Anton. p. 416; Metelion, Geogr. Rav. 4.44), or METALLI´NUM (Colonia Metallinensis, Plin. Nat. 4.21. s. 35), a Roman colony of Lusitania on the Anas, 24 Roman miles from Augusta Emerita, now Medellin. The modern town lies on the southern side of the river, so that the ancient town ought to have been included in Baetica. Hence some modern writers have conjectured that the Anas may here have changed its bed. The form of the name would lead to the supposition that the colony was founded by Metellus, in which case Metellinum would be a more correct form than Metallinum.
Town on the S bank of the Guadiana, ca. 43 km E of Mérida. The date of its foundation as a colony is not known, but its name is derived from that of Q. Caecilius Metellus, who was consul in 80-79 B.C. It was administratively part of the province of Lusitania and is mentioned by Pliny (4.117), Ptolemy (2.5.6), in the Antonine Itinerary (416.2), and by the Cosmographer of Ravenna (315.8). The road from Augusta Emerita ran through Metellinum, crossing a bridge of which parts still survive, although it is not certain that these pillars date from the Roman period.
Some sections of the defensive wall have been identified, and some stretches of the foundations of the mediaeval wall are probably of Roman origin. A small theater on the side of the hill crowned by the mediaeval castle is being excavated. The top of the cavea has been seriously damaged, but its total diameter appears to be ca. 60 m. A number of Roman inscriptions have been unearthed (CIL ii, 605ff). Excavations, not yet published, have identified pre-Roman native settlements yielding Greek pottery.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. R. Mélida, Catálogo Monumental de España. Provincia de Badajoz (1926) I, 367-71; M. Almagro Gorbea, “La necrópolis de Medellín,” Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico 16 (1971) 161-202I.
L. G. IGLESIAS