METTIA, a family of uncertain rank, and little known in Roman history.----There are coins inscribed with the name of M. Mettius, of which the greater part present on their obverse the head of Julius Caesar, one of whose moneyers he appears to have been. Indeed, Caesar, in two passages of his Commentaries, mentions M. Mettius as having been bound in chains, and afterwards liberated by Ariovistus. Mettius is also named by Cicero.----Two very rare quinarii, each bearing (the first on its obverse, the second on its reverse) the type of Juno Sispita, would warrant the inference that the Mettii were of Lanuvian origin; "unless perhaps (says Eckhel) it may rather be supposed that this goddess and her attributes were engraved on these coins, in consequence of Lanuvium having, from a municipium, been made a colony, and surrounded by a wall, by J. Caesar, as is affirmed by Frontinus (de coloniis)."----Eight varieties are given by Morell.