μητρόπολις, μητροπολεως, ἡ (μήτηρ and πόλις), a metropolis, chief city; in the spurious subscription 1Ti_6:1-21 :(22) at the end; (in this sense from Xenophon down).

not given

μητρό -πολις , -εως , ἡ , [in LXX for H1 etc.;] a metropolis, chief city: ITi, subscr. ( Rec. ).†

μητρόπολις [page 411] This subst., which in the NT is confined to the late subscription of 1 Tim, may be illustrated from P Fay 28 .2 (A.D. 150 1) (= Selections , p. 81), where a notice of birth is addressed to certain men as γραμματεῦσι μητροπόλεως . See also the letter of the prodigal BGU III. 846 .6 (ii/A.D.) (= Selections , p. 93), γεινώσκειν σαι θέλω ὅτι̣ οὐχ [ἥλπ ]ιζον ὅτι ἀναβένις εἰς μητρόπολιν , I wish you to know that I had no hope that you would come up to the metropolis, and the Index to OGIS s.v. Apart from ecclesiastical use, the expression seems to have disappeared in early Byzantine times : see Chrest. I. i. p. 78. For μητροπολίτης cf. the land-survey P Ryl II. 216 .33 al. (ii/iii A.D.), where one category is land belonging to citizens and assessed at 3 dr. τρίδραχμος μητροπολιτῶν .

μητρόπολις "the mother-state", in relation to colonies, as of Athens to the Ionians, Hdt. , Thuc. ; of Doris to the Peloponn. Dorians, Hdt. , Thuc. "one's mother-city, mother-country, home", Pind. , Soph. "a metropolis" in our sense, "capital city", Xen.

μητρό-πολις, -εως, ἡ [in LXX for אָב etc. ;] a metropolis, chief city: ITi, subscr. (Rec.).† (AS)