Meander
A meander is a kind of pattern that Greek and Roman artists used to decorate the borders or edges of pictures. The earliest examples are on Greek vase paintings from the Geometric period, about 800 BC.
They're called meanders because "meander" means to wander, and these are lines that wander around before they get anywhere. Some are simple like the example to the left, and others are more complicated like the one at the top of this page.
You can see another complicated meander pattern carved into the Ara Pacis, the Altar of Peace, in Rome, which was built under the emperor Augustus about 30 BC. This was right after the Romans had conquered Greece, and the Romans wanted to show that they were cool and could use Greek art ideas, but in their own way.
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