Modiolus
Modiolus the diminutive of MODIUS is used for various kinds of small vessels: for a drinking-cup, Dig. 34, 2, 36; for the buckets on the edge of the tympanum, by which water was raised (Vitr. 10.10), and generally for any kind of bucket or small cistern in hydraulic machinery (ib. 12, 13); and hence, from its shape, it is also used for the box or nave (πλήμνη) of a wheel (Plin. Nat. 9.8; Vitr. 10.14), for the nave or socket into which the axle of the crusher in an oil press fits (TRAPETUM), and for other kinds of sockets (Vitr. 10.18).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.