METELLINUM
(Medellín) Badajoz, Spain.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. 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) 161-202
I.
L. G. IGLESIAS
