MILDEW (roll'dri), (Heb. Yay-raw-kone', pale), is properly a species of fungus or parasite which, settling oil plants, destroys their leaves, and causes them to wither. lts origin is uncertain. God threatens and sends mildew as a judgment (Deut. xxviii:22; Amos iv:9; Hag. ii:t7).
MILE (mil), (Gr. taXiov, mitee-on, the Greek form of the Lat. milliarzum).
This word is only mentioned in Matt. v :41, where Christ says, 'If any one compel thee to go with hini one mile, go with him two.' The mile was originally (as its derivation from 'a thousand,' implies) a Roman measure of t,000 geometrical paces (passus) of five feet each, and was therefore equal to 5,000 Roman feet. Taking the Roman foot at 11.6496 English inches, the Roman mile would be 1,618 English yards, or 142 yards less than the English statute mile. By another calculation, in which the foot is taken at x 1.62 inches, the mile would be little more than 1,614 yards. The number of Roman miles in a to have had four havens, one of which was capa• ble of holding a fleet.
It was noted tor a famous temple of Apollo, the oracle of which is known to have been con sulted so late as the fourth century (Apollodorus, De Orig. Deor. iii:t3o). There was, however, a
Christian church irt the place, and in the fifth. seventh and eighth centuries we read of bishops of Miletus, who were present at several councils (INIagdeburg, Hist. Eccles. ii:192; iv :86; :3 ; vii :254; viii :4). The city fell to decay after its conquest by the Saracens.
Some take the Miletus where Paul left Trophi mus sick (2 Tim. iv :2o) to have been in Crete, and therefore different from the above; but there seems no need for this conclusion.
Near the site of the ancient city is a small Turkish village called Melas. The most note worthy ruins of former grandeur are the theater, with its many tiers of seats in good preservation, and the temple of Apollo, of which a few columns are yet standing. The wandering channels of the degree of a large circle of the earth is very little more than 75. The Roman mile contained eight Greek stadia (see Smith's Dirt. of Greek and Ront. Antiq., art. 'Milliare'). The Greek stade hence bore the same relation to the Roman nnle which the English furlong does to the English mile.