A classical dictionary containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table (part 8 of 10)
=Pharsălus=, now Farsa, a town of Thessaly, in whose neighbourhood is a large plain called Pharsalia, famous for a battle which was fought there between Julius Cæsar and Pompey, in which the former obtained the victory. In that battle, which was fought on the 12th of May, B.C. 48, Cæsar lost about 200 men, or, according to others, 1200. Pompey’s loss was 15,000, or 25,000 according to others, and 24,000 of his army were made prisoners of war by the conqueror. Lucan, bk. 1, &c.――Plutarch, Pompey & Cæsar.――Appian, Civil Wars. ――Cæsar, Civil War.――Suetonius, Cæsar.――Dio Cassius. ――――That poem of Lucan, in which he gives an account of the civil wars of Cæsar and Pompey, bears the name of Pharsalia. See: Lucanus.
=Pharte=, a daughter of Danaus. Apollodorus.
=Pharus=, a Rutulian killed by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 322.
=Pharusii=, or =Phaurusii=, a people of Africa, beyond Mauritania. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 4.
=Pharybus=, a river of Macedonia, falling into the Ægean sea. It is called by some Baphyrus.
=Pharycadon=, a town of Macedonia, on the Peneus. Strabo, bk. 9.
=Pharyge=, a town of Locris.
=Phasēlis=, a town of Pamphylia, at the foot of mount Taurus, which was long the residence of pirates. Strabo, bk. 14.――Lucan, bk. 8, ch. 251.――Cicero, On the Agrarian Law, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Phasiana=, a country of Asia, near the river Phasis. The inhabitants called Phasiani, are of Egyptian origin.
=Phasias=, a patronymic given to Medea, as being born near the Phasis. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7.
=Phasis=, a son of Phœbus and Ocyroe.――――A river of Colchis, rising in the mountains of Armenia, now called Faoz, and falling into the east of the Euxine. It is famous for the expedition of the Argonauts, who entered it after a long and perilous voyage, from which reason all dangerous voyages have been proverbially intimated by the words of sailing to the Phasis. There were on the banks of the Phasis a great number of large birds, of which, according to some of the ancients, the Argonauts brought some to Greece, and which were called on that account pheasants. The Phasis was reckoned by the ancients one of the largest rivers of Asia. Pliny, bk. 10, ch. 48.――Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 62.――Strabo, bk. 11.――Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, &c.――Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 44. ――Orpheus.
=Phassus=, a son of Lycaon. Apollodorus.
=Phauda=, a town of Pontus.
=Phavorīnus=, a writer, the best edition of whose Greek Lexicon is that in folio, Venice, 1712.
=Phayllus=, a tyrant of Ambracia.――――The brother of Onomarchus of Phocis, &c. See: Phocis. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 2.
=Phea=, or =Pheia=, a town of Elis. Homer, Iliad, bk. 7.
=Phecadum=, an inland town of Macedonia. Livy, bk. 31, ch. 41.
=Phegeus=, or =Phlegeus=, a companion of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 765.――――Another, likewise killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 371, &c.――――A priest of Bacchus, the father of Alphesibœa, who purified Alcmæon of his mother’s murder, and gave him his daughter in marriage. He was afterwards put to death by the children of Alcmæon by Callirhoe, because he had ordered Alcmæon to be killed when he had attempted to recover a collar which he had given to his daughter. See: Alcmæon. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 412.
=Phellia=, a river of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Phelloe=, a town of Achaia near Ægira, where Bacchus and Diana each had a temple. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 26.
=Phellus=, a place of Attica.――――A town of Elis, near Olympia. Strabo.
=Phemius=, a man introduced by Homer as a musician among Penelope’s suitors. Some say that he taught Homer, for which the grateful poet immortalized his name. Homer, Odyssey.――――A man who, according to some, wrote an account of the return of the Greeks from the Trojan war. The word is applied by Ovid, Amores, bk. 3, li. 7, indiscriminately to any person who excels in music.
=Phemonoe=, a priestess of Apollo, who is supposed to have invented heroic verses. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 6.
=Phenēum=, a town of Arcadia, whose inhabitants, called Pheneatæ, worshipped Mercury. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3.
=Pheneus=, a town with a lake of the same name in Arcadia, whose waters were unwholesome in the night and wholesome in the daytime. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 22.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 165. ――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 332.――――A son of Melas, killed by Tydeus. Apollodorus.
=Pheræ=, a town of Thessaly, where the tyrant Alexander reigned, whence he was called Pheræus. Strabo, bk. 8.――Cicero, bk. 2, de Officis.――Ovid, Ibis, li. 321.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 13.――――A town of Attica.――――Another in Laconia in Peloponnesus. Livy, bk. 35, ch. 30.
=Pheræus=, a surname of Jason, as being a native of Pheræ.
=Pheraules=, a Persian whom Cyrus raised from poverty to affluence. He afterwards gave up all his possessions to enjoy tranquillity in retirement. Xenophon, Cyropaedia.
=Pherĕclus=, one of the Greeks during the Trojan war. Ovid, Heroides, poem 15.――――A pilot of the ship of Theseus, when he went to Crete. Plutarch, Theseus.
=Pherēcrătes=, a comic poet of Athens, in the age of Plato and Aristophanes. He is supposed to have written 21 comedies, of which only a few verses remain. He introduced living characters on the stage, but never abused the liberty which he had taken, either by satire or defamation. He invented a sort of verse, which from him has been called Pherecratian. It consisted of the three last feet of an hexameter verse, of which the first was always a spondee, as for instance, the third verse of Horace’s bk. 1, ode 5, Grato Pyrrha sub antro.――――Another, descended from Deucalion. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes.
=Pherecȳdes=, a philosopher of Scyros, disciple of Pittacus, one of the first who delivered his thoughts in prose. He was acquainted with the periods of the moon, and foretold eclipses with the greatest accuracy. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was first supported by him, as also that of the metempsychosis. Pythagoras was one of his disciples, remarkable for his esteem and his attachment to his learned master. When Pherecydes lay dangerously ill in the island of Delos, Pythagoras hastened to give him every assistance in his power, and when all his efforts had proved ineffectual, he buried him, and after he had paid him the last offices, he retired to Italy. Some, however, suppose, that Pherecydes threw himself down from a precipice as he was going to Delphi, or, according to others, he fell a sacrifice to the lousy disease, B.C. 515, in the 85th year of his age. Diogenes Laërtius.――Lactantius [Placidus].――――An historian of Leros, surnamed the Athenian. He wrote a history of Attica, now lost, in the age of Darius Hystaspes.――――A tragic poet.
=Pherendates=, a Persian set over Egypt by Artaxerxes.
=Pherephate=, a surname of Proserpine, from the production of corn.
=Pheres=, a son of Cretheus and Tyro, who built Pheræ in Thessaly, where he reigned. He married Clymene, by whom he had Admetus and Lycurgus. Apollodorus.――――A son of Medea, stoned to death by the Corinthians, on account of the poisonous clothes which he had given to Glauce, Creon’s daughter. See: Medea. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3. ――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Halesus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 413.
=Pheretias=, a patronymic of Admetus son of Pheres. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 291.
=Pheretīma=, the wife of Battus king of Cyrene, and mother of Arcesilaus. After her son’s death, she recovered the kingdom by means of Amasis king of Egypt, and to avenge the murder of Arcesilaus, she caused all his assassins to be crucified round the walls of Cyrene, and she cut off the breasts of their wives, and hung them up near the bodies of their husbands. It is said that she was devoured alive by worms, a punishment which, according to some of the ancients, was inflicted by Providence for her unparalleled cruelties. Polyænus, bk. 8.――Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 204, &c.
=Pherinum=, a town of Thessaly.
=Pheron=, a king of Egypt, who succeeded Sesostris. He was blind, and he recovered his sight by washing his eyes, according to the directions of the oracle, in the urine of a woman who had never had any unlawful connexions. He tried his wife first, but she appeared to have been faithless to his bed, and she was burnt with all those whose urine could not restore sight to the king. He married the woman whose urine proved beneficial. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 111.
=Pherūsa=, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus, bk. 1.
=Phiăle=, one of Diana’s nymphs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.――――A celebrated courtesan. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 238.
=Phialia=, or =Phigalia=, a town of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Phiălus=, a king of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Phicores=, a people near the Palus Mæotis. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.
=Phidias=, a celebrated statuary of Athens, who died B.C. 432. He made a statue of Minerva, at the request of Pericles, which was placed in the Pantheon. It was made with ivory and gold, and measured 39 feet in height. His presumption raised him many enemies, and he was accused of having carved his own image and that of Pericles on the shield of the statue of the goddess, for which he was banished from Athens by the clamorous populace. He retired to Elis, where he determined to revenge the ill-treatment he had received from his countrymen, by making a statue which should eclipse the fame of that of Minerva. He was successful in the attempt; and the statue he made of Jupiter Olympius was always reckoned the best of all his pieces, and has passed for one of the wonders of the world. The people of Elis were so sensible of his merit, and of the honour he had done to their city, that they appointed his descendants to the honourable office of keeping clean that magnificent statue, and of preserving it from injury. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 4.――Cicero, On Oratory. ――Strabo, bk. 8.――Quintilian, bk. 12, ch. 10.――Plutarch, Pericles.
=Phidilē=, a woman. See: ♦Phidyle.
♦ ‘Phidyle’ not referenced in the text.
=Phidippĭdes= a celebrated courier, who ran from Athens to Lacedæmon, about 152 English miles, in two days, to ask of the Lacedæmonians assistance against the Persians. The Athenians raised a temple to his memory. Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 105.――Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades.
=Phiditia=, a public entertainment at Sparta, where much frugality was observed, as the word (φειδιτια, from φειδομαι, parco) denotes. Persons of all ages were admitted; the younger frequented it as a school of temperance and sobriety, where they were trained to good manners and useful knowledge, by the example and discourse of their elders. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 34. ――Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Phidon=, a man who enjoyed the sovereign power at Argos, and is supposed to have invented scales and measures, and coined silver at Ægina. He died B.C. 854. Aristotle.――Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 127. ――――An ancient legislator at Corinth.
=Phidy̆re=, a female servant of Horace, to whom he addressed bk. 3, ode 23.
=Phigalei=, a people of Peloponnesus, near Messenia. They were naturally fond of drinking, and negligent of domestic affairs. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 39.
=Phila=, the eldest daughter of Antipater, who married Craterus. She afterwards married Demetrius, and when her husband had lost the kingdom of Macedonia, she poisoned herself. Plutarch.――――A town of Macedonia. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 67; bk. 44, chs. 2 & 34.――――An island called also ♦Phila.
♦ ‘Phla’ replaced with ‘Phila’
=Philadelphia=, now Alahasher, a town of Lydia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.――――Another, in Cilicia,――――Arabia,――――-Syria.
=Philadelphus=, a king of Paphlagonia, who followed the interest of Marcus Antony.――――The surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt, by antiphrasis, because he destroyed all his brothers. See: Ptolemæus II.
♦=Philæ=, a town and island of Egypt, above the smaller cataract, but placed opposite Syene by Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 9. Isis was worshipped there. Lucan, bk. 10, li. 313.――Seneca, Quæstiones Naturales, bk. 4, ch. 2.――――One of the Sporades. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.
♦ ‘Phile’ replaced with ‘Philæ’
=Philæni=, two brothers of Carthage. When a contest arose between the Cyreneans and Carthaginians, about the extent of their territories, it was mutually agreed that, at a stated hour, two men should depart from each city, and that, wherever they met, there they should fix the boundaries of their country. The Philæni accordingly departed from Carthage, and met the Cyreneans, when they had advanced far into their territories. This produced a quarrel, and the Cyreneans supported that the Philæni had left Carthage before the appointment, and that therefore they must retire or be buried in the sand. The Philæni refused, upon which they were overpowered by the Cyreneans, and accordingly buried in the sand. The Carthaginians, to commemorate the patriotic deeds of the Philæni, who had sacrificed their lives that the extent of their country might not be diminished, raised two altars on the place where their bodies had been buried, which they called Philænorum aræ. These altars were the boundaries of the Carthaginian dominions, which on the other side extended as far as the columns of Hercules, which is about 2000 miles, or, according to the accurate observations of the moderns, only 1420 geographical miles. Sallust, Jugurthine War, chs. 19 & 79.――Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 704.
=Philænis=, or =Phileris=, a courtesan. See: Phileris.
=Philæus=, a son of Ajax, by Lyside the daughter of Coronus, one of the Lapithæ. Miltiades, as some suppose, was descended from him.――――A son of Augeas, who upbraided his father for not granting what Hercules justly claimed for cleaning his stables. See: Augeas. He was placed upon his father’s throne by Hercules. Apollodorus, bk. 2.
=Philammon=, a celebrated musician, son of Apollo and Chione.――――A man who murdered Arsinoe, and who was slain by her female attendants.
=Philanthus=, a son of Prolaus of Elis, killed at the Olympic games. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Philarchus=, a hero who gave assistance to the Phocians when the Persians invaded Greece.
=Philēmon=, a Greek comic poet, contemporary with Menander. He obtained some poetical prizes over Menander, not so much by the merit of his composition, as by the intrigues of his friends. Plautus imitated some of his comedies. He lived to his 97th year, and died, as it is reported, of laughing, on seeing an ass eat figs, B.C. 274.――――His son, who bore the same name, wrote 54 comedies, of which some few fragments remain, which do not seem to entitle him to great rank among the Greek comic writers. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 12――Quintilian, bk. 10.――Plutarch, de Cohibenda Ira.――Strabo, bk. 14.――――A poor man of Phrygia. See: Baucis.――――An illegitimate son of Priam.
=Philēne=, a town of Attica between Athens and Tanagra. Statius, Thebaid, bk. 4, li. 102.
=Philēris=, an immodest woman, whom Philocrates the poet lampooned. Martial, bk. 7.
=Philĕros=, a town of Macedonia. Pliny.
=Philesius=, a leader of the 10,000 Greeks after the battle of Cunaxa.
=Philetærus=, a eunuch made governor of Pergamus by Lysimachus. He quarrelled with Lysimachus, and made himself master of Pergamus, where he laid the foundations of a kingdom called the kingdom of Pergamus, B.C. 283. He reigned there for 20 years, and at his death he appointed his nephew Eumenes as his successor. Strabo, bk. 13. ――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A Cretan general who revolted from Seleucus, and was conquered, &c. Polyænus, bk. 4.
=Philētas=, a grammarian and poet of Cos, in the reign of king Philip, and of his son Alexander the Great. He was made preceptor to Ptolemy Philadelphus. The elegies and epigrams which he wrote have been greatly commended by the ancients, and some fragments of them are still preserved in Athenæus. He was so small and slender, according to the improbable accounts of Ælian, that he always carried pieces of lead in his pockets, to prevent being blown away by the wind. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 14.――Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, poem 5. ――Propertius, bk. 3, poem 1.――――An historian.
=Philetius=, a faithful steward of Ulysses, who, with Eumeus, assisted him in destroying the suitors, who had not only insulted the queen, but wasted the property of the absent monarch. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 20, &c.
=Philĭdas=, a friend of Pelopidas, who favoured the conspiracy formed to expel the Spartans from Thebes. He received the conspirators in his own house.
=Philides=, a dealer in horses in the age of Themistocles. Plutarch, Themistocles.
=Philinna=, a courtesan, mother of Aridæus, by Philip the father of Alexander.
=Philīnus=, a native of Agrigentum, who fought with Annibal against the Romans. He wrote a partial history of the Punic wars. _Cornelius Nepos_, Hannibal.――Polybius.
=Philippei=, or =Phillippi=, certain pieces of money coined in the reign of Philip of Macedonia, and with his image. Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 284.――Livy, bk. 34, ch. 52; bk. 37, ch. 59; bk. 39, chs. 5 & 7.
=Philippi=, a town of Macedonia, anciently called Datos, and situate at the east of the Strymon on a rising ground, which abounds with springs and water. It was called Philippi after Philip king of Macedonia, who fortified it against the incursions of the barbarians of Thrace, and became celebrated for two battles which were fought there in October, B.C. 42, at the interval of about 20 days, between Augustus and Antony, and the republican forces of Brutus and Cassius, in which the former obtained the victory. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 284.――Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 45.――Florus, bk. 4, ch. 7. ――Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 7, &c.――Appian, bk. 2, Civil Wars. ――Plutarch, Antonius.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 490. ――Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 2.
=Philippĭdes=, a comic poet in Alexander’s age.――――A courier, called also Phidippides.
=Philippŏpŏlis=, a town of Thrace, near the Hebrus, built by Philip the father of Alexander. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 53.――――Of Thessaly, called Philippi.
=Philippus I.=, son of Argæus, succeeded his father on the throne of Macedonia, and reigned 38 years, B.C. 640.――――The second of that name was the fourth son of Amyntas king of Macedonia. He was sent to Thebes as a hostage by his father, where he learnt the art of war under Epaminondas, and studied with the greatest care the manners and the pursuits of the Greeks. He was recalled to Macedonia, and at the death of his brother Perdiccas, he ascended the throne as guardian and protector of the youthful years of his nephew. His ambition, however, soon discovered itself, and he made himself independent. The valour of a prudent general, and the policy of an experienced statesman, seemed requisite to ensure his power. The neighbouring nations, ridiculing the youth and inexperience of the new king of Macedonia, appeared in arms, but Philip soon convinced them of their error. Unable to meet them as yet in the field of battle, he suspended their fury by presents, and soon turned his arms against Amphipolis, a colony tributary to the Athenians. Amphipolis was conquered, and added to the kingdom of Macedonia, and Philip meditated no less than the destruction of a republic which had rendered itself so formidable to the rest of Greece, and had even claimed submission from the princes of Macedonia. His designs, however, were as yet immature, and before he could make Athens an object of conquest, the Thracians and the Illyrians demanded his attention. He made himself master of a Thracian colony, to which he gave the name of Philippi, and from which he received the greatest advantages on account of the golden mines in the neighbourhood. In the midst of his political prosperity, Philip did not neglect the honour of his family. He married Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus king of the Molossi; and when, some time after he became father of Alexander, the monarch, conscious of the inestimable advantages which arise from the lessons, the example, and the conversation of a learned and virtuous preceptor, wrote a letter with his own hand to the philosopher Aristotle, and begged him to retire from his usual pursuits, and to dedicate his whole time to the instruction of the young prince. Everything seemed now to conspire to his aggrandizement, and historians have observed, that Philip received in one day the intelligence of three things which could gratify the most unbounded ambition, and flatter the hopes of the most aspiring monarch: the birth of a son, an honourable crown at the Olympic games, and a victory over the barbarians of Illyricum. But all these increased rather than satiated his ambition; he declared his inimical sentiments against the power of Athens, and the independence of all Greece, by laying siege to Olynthus, a place which, on account of its situation and consequence, would prove most injurious to the interests of the Athenians, and most advantageous to the intrigues and military operations of every Macedonian prince. The Athenians, roused by the eloquence of Demosthenes, sent 17 vessels and 2000 men to the assistance of Olynthus, but the money of Philip prevailed over all their efforts. The greatest part of the citizens suffered themselves to be bribed by the Macedonian gold, and Olynthus surrendered to the enemy, and was instantly reduced to ruins. His successes were as great in every part of Greece; he was declared head of the Amphictyonic council, and was entrusted with the care of the sacred temple of Apollo at Delphi. If he was recalled to Macedonia, it was only to add fresh laurels to his crown, by victories over his enemies in Illyricum and Thessaly. By assuming the mask of a moderator and peacemaker he gained confidence, and in attempting to protect the Peloponnesians against the encroaching power of Sparta, he rendered his cause popular, and by ridiculing the insults that were offered to his person as he passed through Corinth, he displayed to the world his moderation and philosophic virtues. In his attempts to make himself master of Eubœa, Philip was unsuccessful; and Phocion, who despised his gold as well as his meanness, obliged him to evacuate an island whose inhabitants were as insensible to the charms of money, as they were unmoved at the horrors of war, and the bold efforts of a vigilant enemy. From Eubœa he turned his arms against the Scythians, but the advantages which he obtained over this indigent nation were inconsiderable, and he again made Greece an object of plunder and rapine. He advanced far into Bœotia, and a general engagement was fought at Chæronea. The fight was long and bloody, but Philip obtained the victory. His behaviour after the battle reflects great disgrace upon him as a man, and as a monarch. In the hour of festivity, and during the entertainment which he had given to celebrate the trophies he had won, Philip sallied from his camp, and with the inhumanity of a brute he insulted the bodies of the slain, and exulted over the calamities of the prisoners of war. His insolence, however, was checked when Demades, one of the Athenian captives, reminded him of his meanness, by exclaiming, “Why do you, O king, act the part of a Thersites, when you can represent with so much dignity the elevated character of an Agamemnon?” The reproof was felt; Demades received his liberty, and Philip learned how to gain popularity even among his fallen enemies, by relieving their wants and easing their distresses. At the battle of Chæronea the independence of Greece was extinguished; and Philip, unable to find new enemies in Europe, formed new enterprises, and meditated new conquests. He was nominated general of the Greeks against the Persians, and was called upon as well from inclination as duty to revenge those injuries which Greece had suffered from the invasions of Darius and of Xerxes. But he was stopped in the midst of his warlike preparations; he was stabbed by Pausanius as he entered the theatre, at the celebration of the nuptials of his daughter Cleopatra. This murder has given rise to many reflections upon the causes which produced it; and many who consider the recent repudiation of Olympias, and the resentment of Alexander, are apt to investigate the causes of his death in the bosom of his family. The ridiculous honours which Olympias paid to her husband’s murderer strengthened the suspicion, yet Alexander declared that he invaded the kingdom of Persia to revenge his father’s death upon the Persian satraps and princes, by whose immediate intrigues the assassination had been committed. The character of Philip is that of a sagacious, artful, prudent, and intriguing monarch: he was brave in the field of battle, eloquent and dissimulating at home; and he possessed the wonderful art of changing his conduct according to the disposition and caprice of mankind, without ever altering his purpose, or losing sight of his ambitious aims. He possessed much perseverance, and in the execution of his plans he was always vigorous. The hand of an assassin prevented him from achieving the boldest and the most extensive of his undertakings; and he might have acquired as many laurels, and conquered as many nations, as his son Alexander did in the succeeding reign, and the kingdom of Persia might have been added to the Macedonian empire, perhaps with greater moderation, with more glory, and with more lasting advantages. The private character of Philip lies open to censure, and raises indignation. The admirer of his virtues is disgusted to find him amongst the most abandoned prostitutes, and disgracing himself by the most unnatural crimes and lascivious indulgencies, which can make even the most debauched and the most profligate to blush. He was murdered in the 47th year of his age, and the 24th of his reign, about 336 years before the christian era. His reign is become uncommonly interesting, and his administration a matter of instruction. He is the first monarch whose life and actions are described with peculiar accuracy and historical faithfulness. Philip was the father of Alexander the Great and of Cleopatra by Olympias; he had also by Audaca, an Illyrian, Cyna, who married Amyntas the son of Perdiccas, Philip’s elder brother; by Nicasipolis, a Thessalian, Nicæa, who married Cassander; by Philinna, a Larissæan dancer, Aridæus, who reigned some time after Alexander’s death; by Cleopatra the niece of Attalus, Caranus and Europa, who were both murdered by Olympias; and Ptolemy the first king of Egypt by Arsinoe, who in the first month of her pregnancy was married to Lagus. Demosthenes, Philippics & Olynthiacs.――Justin 7, &c. ――Diodorus, bk. 16.――Plutarch, Alexander, Demosthenes, & Apophthegmata Laconica.――Isocrates, ad Philippum.――Curtius, bk. 1, &c.――Æschines.――Pausanias, Bœotia, &c.――――The last king of Macedonia, of that name, was son of Demetrius. His infancy, at the death of his father, was protected by Antigonus, one of his friends, who ascended the throne, and reigned for 12 years, with the title of independent monarch. When Antigonus died, Philip recovered his father’s throne, though only 15 years of age, and he early distinguished himself by his boldness and his ambitious views. His cruelty, however, to Aratus, soon displayed his character in its true light; and to the gratification of every vice, and every extravagant propensity, he had the meanness to sacrifice this faithful and virtuous Athenian. Not satisfied with the kingdom of Macedonia, Philip aspired to become the friend of Annibal, and wished to share with him the spoils which the distresses and continual loss of the Romans seemed soon to promise. But his expectations were frustrated; the Romans discovered his intrigues, and though weakened by the valour and artifice of the Carthaginian, yet they were soon enabled to meet him in the field of battle. The consul Lævinus entered without delay his territories of Macedonia, and after he had obtained a victory over him near Apollonia, and reduced his fleet to ashes, he compelled him to sue for peace. This peaceful disposition was not permanent, and when the Romans discovered that he had assisted their immortal enemy Annibal with men and money they appointed Titus Quinctius Flaminius to punish his perfidy, and the violation of the treaty. The Roman consul, with his usual expedition, invaded Macedonia; and in a general engagement which was fought near Cynocephale, the hostile army was totally defeated, and the monarch saved his life with difficulty by flying from the field of battle. Destitute of resources, without friends either at home or abroad, Philip was obliged to submit to the mercy of the conqueror, and to demand peace by his ambassadors. It was granted with difficulty. The terms were humiliating; but the poverty of Philip obliged him to accept the conditions, however disadvantageous and degrading to his dignity. In the midst of these public calamities the peace of his family was disturbed; and Perses, the eldest of his sons by a concubine, raised seditions against his brother Demetrius, whose condescension and humanity had gained popularity among the Macedonians, and who, from his residence at Rome as a hostage, had gained the good graces of the senate, and by the modesty and innocence of his manners, had obtained forgiveness from that venerable body for the hostilities of his father. Philip listened with too much avidity to the false accusation of Perses; and when he heard it asserted that Demetrius wished to rob him of his crown, he no longer hesitated to punish with death so unworthy and so ungrateful a son. No sooner was Demetrius sacrificed to credulity, than Philip became convinced of his cruelty and rashness, and, to punish the perfidy of Perses, he attempted to make Antigonus, another son, his successor on the Macedonian throne. But he was prevented from executing his purpose by death, in the 42nd year of his reign, 179 years before the christian era. The assassin of Demetrius succeeded his father; and with the same ambition, with the same rashness and oppression, renewed the war against the Romans till his empire was destroyed and Macedonia became a Roman province. Philip has been compared with his great ancestor of the same name; but though they possessed the same virtues, the same ambition, and were tainted with the same vices, yet the father of Alexander was more sagacious and more intriguing, and the son of Demetrius was more suspicious, more cruel, and more implacable; and according to the pretended prophecy of one of the Sibyls, Macedonia was indebted to one Philip for her rise and consequence among nations, and under another Philip she lamented the loss of her power, her empire, and her dignity. Polybius, bk. 16, &c.――Justin, bk. 29, &c. ――Plutarch, Titus Flamininus.――Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 8.――Livy, bk. 31, &c.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 8.――Orosius, bk. 4, ch. 20.――――Marcus Julius, a Roman emperor, of an obscure family in Arabia, from which he was surnamed Arabian. From the lowest rank in the army he gradually rose to the highest offices, and when he was made general of the pretorian guards he assassinated Gordian to make himself emperor. To establish himself with more certainty on the imperial throne, he left Mesopotamia a prey to the continual invasions of the Persians, and hurried to Rome, where his election was universally approved by the senate and the Roman people. Philip rendered his cause popular by his liberality and profusion; and it added much to his splendour and dignity that the Romans during his reign commemorated the foundation of their city, a solemnity which was observed but once every 100 years, and which was celebrated with more pomp and more magnificence than under the preceding reigns. The people were entertained with games and spectacles, the theatre of Pompey was successively crowded during three days and three nights, and 2000 gladiators bled in the circus at once, for the amusement and pleasure of a gazing populace. His usurpation, however, was short; Philip was defeated by Decius, who had proclaimed himself emperor in Pannonia, and he was assassinated by his own soldiers near Verona, in the 45th year of his age, and the 5th of his reign, A.D. 249. His son, who bore the same name, and who had shared with him the imperial dignity, was also massacred in the arms of his mother. Young Philip was then in the 12th year of his age, and the Romans lamented in him the loss of rising talents, of natural humanity, and endearing virtues. Aurelius Victor.――Zosimus.――――A native of Acarnania, physician to Alexander the Great. When the monarch had been suddenly taken ill, after bathing in the Cydnus, Philip undertook to remove the complaint when the rest of the physicians believed that all medical assistance would be ineffectual. But as he was preparing his medicine, Alexander received a letter from Parmenio, in which he was advised to beware of his physician Philip, as he had conspired against his life. The monarch was alarmed; and when Philip presented him the medicine, he gave him Parmenio’s letter to peruse, and began to drink the potion. The serenity and composure of Philip’s countenance, as he read the letter, removed every suspicion from Alexander’s breast, and he pursued the directions of his physician, and in a few days recovered. Plutarch, Alexander.――Curtius, bk. 3.――Arrian, bk. 2.――――A son of Alexander the Great, murdered by order of Olympias.――――A governor of Sparta.――――A son of Cassander. ――――A man who pretended to be the son of Perses, that he might lay claim to the kingdom of Macedonia. He was called Pseudophilippus. ――――A general of Cassander, in Ætolia.――――A Phrygian, made governor of Jerusalem by Antiochus, &c.――――A son of Herod the Great, in the reign of Augustus.――――A brother of Alexander the Great, called also Aridæus. See: Aridæus.――――A freedman of Pompey the Great. He found his master’s body deserted on the sea-shore, in Egypt, and he gave it a decent burial, with the assistance of an old Roman soldier, who had fought under Pompey.――――The father-in-law of the emperor Augustus. ――――A Lacedæmonian who wished to make himself absolute in Thebes. ――――An officer made master of Parthia, after the death of Alexander the Great.――――A king of part of Syria, son of Antiochus Gryphus.――――A son of Antipater in the army of Alexander.――――A brother of Lysimachus, who died suddenly after hard walking and labour.――――An historian of Amphipolis.――――A Carthaginian, &c.――――A man who wrote a history of Caria.――――A native of Megara, &c.――――A native of Pamphylia, who wrote a diffuse history from the creation down to his own time. It was not much valued. He lived in the age of Theodosius II.
=Philiscus=, a famous sculptor, whose statues of Latona, Venus, Diana, the Muses, and a naked Apollo, were preserved in the portico belonging to Octavia.――――A Greek comic poet. Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 9. ――――An Athenian who received Cicero when he fled to Macedonia.――――An officer of Artaxerxes, appointed to make peace with the Greeks.
=Philistion=, a comic poet of Nicæa in the age of Socrates. Martial, bk. 2, ltr. 41.――――A physician of Locris. Aulus Gellius, bk. 7, ch. 12.
=Philistus=, a musician of Miletus.――――A Syracusan, who, during his banishment from his native country, wrote a history of Sicily, in 12 books, which was commended by some, though condemned for inaccuracy by Pausanias. He was afterwards sent against the Syracusans by Dionysius the younger, and he killed himself when overcome by the enemy, 356 B.C. Plutarch, Dion.――Diodorus, bk. 13.
=Phillo=, an Arcadian maid, by whom Hercules had a son. The father, named Alcimedon, exposed his daughter, but she was saved by means of her lover, who was directed to the place where she was doomed to perish, by the chirping of a magpie, which imitated the plaintive cries of a child. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Philo=, a Jewish writer of Alexandria, A.D. 40, sent as ambassador from his nation to Caligula. He was unsuccessful in his embassy, of which he wrote an entertaining account; and the emperor, who wished to be worshipped as a god, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Jews, because they refused to place his statues in their temples. He was so happy in his expressions, and elegant in his variety, that he has been called the Jewish Plato, and the book which he wrote on the sufferings of the Jews in the reign of Caius, met with such unbounded applause in the Roman senate, where he read it publicly, that he was permitted to consecrate it in the public libraries. His works were divided into three parts, of which the first related to the creation of the world, the second spoke of sacred history, and in the third the author made mention of the laws and customs of the Jewish nation. The best edition of Philo is that of Mangey, 2 vols., folio, London, 1742.――――A man who fell in love with his daughter, called Proserpine, as she was bathing. He had by her a son, Mercurius Trismegistus.――――A man who wrote an account of a journey to Arabia.――――A philosopher who followed the doctrines of Carneades, B.C. 100.――――Another philosopher of Athens, tutor to Cicero.――――A grammarian in the first century. ――――An architect of Byzantium, who flourished about three centuries before the christian era. He built a dock at Athens, where ships were drawn in safety, and protected from storms. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 14.――――A Greek christian writer, whose work was edited at Rome, 4to, 1772.――――A dialectic philosopher, 260 B.C.
=Philobœotus=, a mountain of Bœotia. Plutarch.
=Philochorus=, a man who wrote a history of Athens in 17 books, a catalogue of the archons, two books of olympiads, &c. He died B.C. 222.
=Philŏcles=, one of the admirals of the Athenian fleet, during the Peloponnesian war. He recommended to his countrymen to cut off the right hand of such of the enemies as were taken, that they might be rendered unfit for service. His plan was adopted by all the 10 admirals except one; but their expectations were frustrated, and instead of being conquerors, they were totally defeated at Ægospotamos by Lysander, and Philocles, with 3000 of his countrymen, was put to death, and denied the honours of a burial. Plutarch, Lysander.――――A general of Ptolemy king of Egypt.――――A comic poet. ――――Another, who wrote tragedies at Athens.
=Philocrātes=, an Athenian, famous for his treachery, &c.――――A writer who published a history of Thessaly.――――A servant of Caius Gracchus. ――――A Greek orator.
=Philoctētes=, son of Pœan and Demonassa, was one of the Argonauts, according to Flaccus and Hyginus, and the arm-bearer and particular friend of Hercules. He was present at the death of Hercules, and because he had erected the burning pile on which the hero was consumed, he received from him the arrows which had been dipped in the gall of the hydra, after he had bound himself by a solemn oath not to betray the place where his ashes were deposited. He had no sooner paid the last office to Hercules, than he returned to Melibœa, where his father reigned. From thence he visited Sparta, where he became one of the numerous suitors of Helen, and soon after, like the rest of those princes who had courted the daughter of Tyndarus, and who had bound themselves to protect her from injury, he was called upon by Menelaus to accompany the Greeks to the Trojan war, and he immediately set sail from Melibœa with seven ships, and repaired to Aulis, the general rendezvous of the combined fleet. He was here prevented from joining his countrymen, and the offensive smell which arose from a wound in his foot, obliged the Greeks, at the instigation of Ulysses, to remove him from the camp, and he was accordingly carried to the island of Lemnos, or, as others say, to Chryse, where Phimachus the son of Dolophion was ordered to wait upon him. In this solitary retreat he was suffered to remain for some time, till the Greeks, on the tenth year of the Trojan war, were informed by the oracle that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules, which were then in the possession of Philoctetes. Upon this Ulysses, accompanied by Diomedes, or, according to others, by Pyrrhus, was commissioned by the rest of the Grecian army to go to Lemnos, and to prevail upon Philoctetes to come and finish the tedious siege. Philoctetes recollected the ill-treatment which he had received from the Greeks, and particularly from Ulysses, and therefore he not only refused to go to Troy, but he even persuaded Pyrrhus to conduct him to Melibœa. As he embarked, the manes of Hercules forbade him to proceed, but immediately to repair to the Grecian camp, where he should be cured of his wounds, and put an end to the war. Philoctetes obeyed, and after he had been restored to his former health by Æsculapius, or, according to some, by Machaon, or Podalirus, he destroyed an immense number of the Trojan enemy, among whom was Paris the son of Priam, with the arrows of Hercules. When by his valour Troy had been ruined, he set sail from Asia, but as he was unwilling to visit his native country, he came to Italy, where, by the assistance of his Thessalian followers, he was enabled to build a town in Calabria, which he called Petilia. Authors disagree about the causes of the wound which Philoctetes received on the foot. The most ancient mythologists support that it was the bite of the serpent which Juno had sent to torment him, because he had attended Hercules in his last moments, and had buried his ashes. According to another opinion, the princes of the Grecian army obliged him to discover where the ashes of Hercules were deposited, and as he had made an oath not to mention the place, he only with his foot struck the ground where they lay, and by this means concluded he had not violated his solemn engagement. For this, however, he was soon after punished, and the fall of one of the poisoned arrows from his quiver upon the foot which had struck the ground, occasioned so offensive a wound, that the Greeks were obliged to remove him from their camp. The sufferings and adventures of Philoctetes are the subject of one of the best tragedies of Sophocles, Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 46. ――Pindar, Pythian, poem 1.――Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, ch. 14. ――Seneca, Hercules.――Sophocles, Philoctetes.――Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bks. 9 & 10.――Hyginus, fables 26, 97, & 102. ――Diodorus, bks. 2 & 4.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 329; bk. 9, li. 234; Tristia, bk. 5, poem 2.――Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, ch. 2.――Ptolemy, Hephæstion, ch. 6.
=Philocyprus=, a prince of Cyprus in the age of Solon, by whose advice he changed the situation of a city, which in gratitude he called Soli. Plutarch, Solon.
=Philodamēa=, one of the Danaides, mother of Phares by Mercury. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Philodēmus=, a poet in the age of Cicero, who rendered himself known by his lascivious and indelicate verses. Cicero, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2.――Horace, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 121.――――A comic poet, ridiculed by Aristophanes.
=Philodĭce=, a daughter of Inachus, who married Leucippus.
=Philolāus=, a son of Minos by the nymph Paria, from whom the island of Paros received its name. Hercules put him to death, because he had killed two of his companions. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A Pythagorean philosopher of Crotona, B.C. 374, who first supported the diurnal motion of the earth round its axis, and its annual motion round the sun. Cicero, Academica, bk. 4, ch. 39, has ascribed this opinion to the Syracusan philosopher Nicetas, and likewise to Plato; and from this passage some supposed that Copernicus started the idea of the system which he afterwards established. Diogenes Laërtius.――Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 3.――Plutarch.――――A lawgiver of Thebes. He was a native of Corinth, and of the family of the Bacchiades, &c. Aristotle, bk. 2, Politics, final chapter.――――A mechanic of Tarentum.――――A surname of Æsculapius, who had a temple in Laconia, near the Asopus.
=Philolŏgus=, a freedman of Cicero. He betrayed his master to Antony, for which he was tortured by Pomponia the wife of Cicero’s brother, and obliged to cut off his own flesh by piece-meal, and to boil and eat it up. Plutarch, Cicero, &c.
=Philomăche=, the wife of Pelias king of Iolchos. According to some writers, she was daughter to Amphion king of Thebes, though she is more generally called Anaxibia daughter of Bias. Apollodorus, bk. 1.
=Philombrŏtus=, an archon at Athens, in whose age the state was entrusted to Solon, when torn by factions. Plutarch, Solon.
=Philomēdus=, a man who made himself absolute in Phocæa, by promising to assist the inhabitants. Polyænus.
=Phĭlŏmēla=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens, and sister to Procne, who had married Tereus king of Thrace. Procne separated from Philomela, to whom she was particularly attached, spent her time in great melancholy till she prevailed upon her husband to go to Athens, and bring his sister to Thrace. Tereus obeyed his wife’s injunctions, but he had no sooner obtained Pandion’s permission to conduct Philomela to Thrace, than he became enamoured of her, and resolved to gratify his passion. He dismissed the guards, whom the suspicions of Pandion had appointed to watch his conduct, and he offered violence to Philomela, and afterwards cut off her tongue, that she might not be able to discover his barbarity, and the indignities which she had suffered. He confined her also in a lonely castle, and after he had taken every precaution to prevent a discovery, he returned to Thrace, and he told Procne that Philomela had died by the way, and that he had paid the last offices to her remains. Procne, at this sad intelligence, put on mourning for the loss of Philomela; but a year had scarcely elapsed before she was secretly informed that her sister was not dead. Philomela, during her captivity, described on a piece of tapestry her misfortunes and the brutality of Tereus, and privately conveyed it to Procne. She was then going to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus when she received it; she disguised her resentment, and as, during the festivals of the god of wine, she was permitted to rove about the country, she hastened to deliver her sister Philomela from her confinement, and she concerted with her on the best measures of punishing the cruelty of Tereus. She murdered her son Itylus, who was in the sixth year of his age, and served him up as food before her husband during the festival. Tereus, in the midst of his repast, called for Itylus, but Procne immediately informed him that he was then feasting on his flesh, and that instant Philomela, by throwing on the table the head of Itylus, convinced the monarch of the cruelty of the scene. He drew his sword to punish Procne and Philomela, but as he was going to stab them to the heart, he was changed into a hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow, and Itylus into a pheasant. This tragical scene happened at Daulis in Phocis; but Pausanias and Strabo, who mention the whole of the story, are silent about the transformation; and the former observes that Tereus, after this bloody repast, fled to Megara, where he destroyed himself. The inhabitants of the place raised a monument to his memory, where they offered yearly sacrifices, and placed small pebbles instead of barley. It was on this monument that the birds called hoopoes were first seen; hence the fable of his metamorphosis. Procne and Philomela died through excess of grief and melancholy, and as the nightingale’s and swallow’s voice is peculiarly plaintive and mournful, the poets have embellished the fable by supposing that the two unfortunate sisters were changed into birds. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 14.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 4.――Hyginus, fable 45.――♦Strabo, bk. 9.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, fables 9 & 10. ――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, lis. 15 & 511.――――A daughter of Actor king of the Myrmidons.
♦ ‘Stabo’ replaced with ‘Strabo’
=Philomēlum=, a town of Phrygia. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 5, ltr. 20; Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 83.
=Philomēlus=, a general of Phocis, who plundered the temple of Delphi, and died B.C. 354. See: Phocis.――――A rich musician. Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 5.
=Philon=, a general of some Greeks, who settled in Asia. Diodorus, bk. 18.
=Philonides=, a courier of Alexander, who ran from Sicyon to Elis, 160 miles, in nine hours, and returned the same journey in 15 hours. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 71.
=Philonis=, a name of Chione daughter of Dædalion, made immortal by Diana.
=Philonoe=, a daughter of Tyndarus king of Sparta by Leda daughter of Thestius. Apollodorus.――――A daughter of Iobates king of Lycia, who married Bellerophon. Pliny, bk. 2.
=Philonŏme=, a daughter of Nyctimus king of Arcadia, who threw into the Erymanthus two children whom she had by Mars. The children were preserved, and afterwards ascended their grandfather’s throne. Plutarch, Pericles.――――The second wife of Cycnus the son of Neptune. She became enamoured of Tennes, her husband’s son by his first wife Proclea the daughter of Clytius, and when he refused to gratify her passion, she accused him of attempts upon her virtue. Cycnus believed the accusation, and ordered Tennes to be thrown into the sea, &c. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 14.
=Philonŏmus=, a son of Electryon king of Mycenæ by Anaxo. Apollodorus, bk. 2.
=Philonus=, a village of Egypt. Strabo.
=Philopător=, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt. See: Ptolemæus.
=Philophron=, a general who, with 5000 soldiers, defended Pelusium against the Greeks who invaded Egypt. Diodorus, bk. 16.
=Philopœmen=, a celebrated general of the Achæan league, born at Megalopolis. His father’s name was Grangis. His education was begun and finished under Cassander, Ecdemus, and Demophanes, and he early distinguished himself in the field of battle, and appeared fond of agriculture and a country life. He proposed himself Epaminondas for a model, and he was not unsuccessful in imitating the prudence and the simplicity, the disinterestedness and activity, of this famous Theban. When Megalopolis was attacked by the Spartans, Philopœmen, then in the 30th year of his age, gave the most decisive proofs of his valour and intrepidity. He afterwards assisted Antigonus, and was present in the famous battle in which the Ætolians were defeated. Raised to the rank of chief commander, he showed his ability to discharge that important trust, by killing with his own hand Mechanidas the ♦tyrant of Sparta; and if he was defeated in a naval battle by Nabis, he soon after repaired his losses by taking the capital of Laconia, B.C. 188, and by abolishing the laws of ♠Lycurgus, which had flourished there for such a length of time. Sparta, after its conquest, became tributary to the Achæans, and Philopœmen enjoyed the triumph of having reduced to ruins one of the greatest and the most powerful of the cities of Greece. Some time after the Messenians revolted from the Achæan league, and Philopœmen, who headed the Achæans, unfortunately fell from his horse, and was dragged to the enemy’s camp. ♣Dinocrates the general of the Messenians treated him with great severity; he was thrown into a dungeon, and obliged to drink a dose of poison. When he received the cup from the hand of the executioner, Philopœmen asked him how his countrymen had behaved in the field of battle; and when he heard that they had obtained the victory, he drank the whole with pleasure, exclaiming that this was comfortable news. The death of Philopœmen, which happened about 183 years before the christian era, in his 70th year, was universally lamented, and the Achæans, to revenge his fate, immediately marched to Messenia, where Dinocrates, to avoid their resentment, killed himself. The rest of his murderers were dragged to his tomb, where they were sacrificed; and the people of Megalopolis, to show further their great sense of his merit, ordered a bull to be yearly offered on his tomb, and hymns to be sung in his praise, and his actions to be celebrated in a panegyrical oration. He had also statues raised to his memory, which some of the Romans attempted to violate, and to destroy, to no purpose, when Mummius took Corinth. Philopœmen has been justly called by his countrymen the last of the Greeks. Plutarch, Lives.――Justin, bk. 32, ch. 4.――Polybius.――――A native of Pergamus, who died B.C. 138.
♦ ‘tyant’ replaced with ‘tyrant’
♠ ‘Lyturgus’ replaced with ‘Lycurgus’
♣ ‘Dioncrates’ replaced with ‘Dinocrates’
=Phĭlostrătus=, a famous sophist born at Lemnos, or, according to some, at Athens. He came to Rome, where he lived under the patronage of Julia the wife of the emperor Severus, and he was entrusted by the empress with all the papers which contained some account or anecdotes of Apollonius Thyanæus, and he was ordered to review them, and with them to compile a history. The life of Apollonius is written with elegance, but the improbable accounts, the fabulous stories, and the exaggerated details which it gives, render it disgusting. There is, besides, another treatise remaining of his writings, &c. He died A.D. 244. The best edition of his writings is that of Olearius, folio, Lipscomb, 1709.――――His nephew, who lived in the reign of Heliogabalus, wrote an account of sophists.――――A philosopher in the reign of Nero. ――――Another in the age of Augustus.
=Philōtas=, a son of Parmenio, distinguished in the battles of Alexander, and at last accused of conspiring against his life. He was tortured and stoned to death, or, according to some, struck through with darts by the soldiers, B.C. 330. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 11. ――Plutarch.――Arrian.――――An officer in the army of Alexander. ――――Another, who was made master of Cilicia, after Alexander’s death. ――――A physician in the age of Antony. He ridiculed the expenses and the extravagance of this celebrated Roman. Plutarch.
=Philotĕra=, the mother of Mylo, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.
=Philotĭmus=, a freedman of Cicero. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Philōtis=, a servant-maid at Rome, who saved her countrymen from destruction. After the siege of Rome by the Gauls, the Fidenates assembled an army, under the command of Lucius Posthumius, and marched against the capital, demanding all the wives and daughters in the city, as the conditions of peace. This extraordinary demand astonished the senators, and when they refused to comply, Philotis advised them to send all their female slaves disguised in matron’s clothes, and she offered to march herself at the head. Her advice was followed, and when the Fidenates had feasted late in the evening, and were quite intoxicated, and fallen asleep, Philotis lighted a torch as a signal for her countrymen to attack the enemy. The whole was successful, the Fidenates were conquered, and the senate, to reward the fidelity of the female slaves, permitted them to appear in the dress of the Roman matrons. Plutarch, Romulus.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5.――Ovid, de Ars Amatoria, bk. 2.
=Philoxĕnus=, an officer of Alexander, who received Cilicia, at the general division of the provinces.――――A son of Ptolemy, who was given to Pelopidas as a hostage.――――A dithyrambic poet of Cythera, who enjoyed the favour of Dionysius tyrant of Sicily for some time, till he offended him by seducing one of his female singers. During his confinement, Philoxenus composed an allegorical poem, called Cyclops, in which he had delineated the character of the tyrant under the name of Polyphemus, and represented his mistress under the name of Galatæa, and himself under that of Ulysses. The tyrant, who was fond of writing poetry, and of being applauded, removed Philoxenus from his dungeon, but the poet refused to purchase his liberty, by saying things unworthy of himself, and applauding the wretched verses of Dionysius, and therefore he was sent to the quarries. When he was asked his opinion at a feast about some verses which Dionysius had just repeated, and which the courtiers had received with the greatest applause, Philoxenus gave no answer, but he ordered the guards that surrounded the tyrant’s table to take him back to the quarries. Dionysius was pleased with his pleasantry and with his firmness, and immediately forgave him. Philoxenus died at Ephesus, about 380 years before Christ. Plutarch.――――A celebrated musician of Ionia. ――――A painter of Eretria, who made for Cassander an excellent representation of the battle of Alexander with Darius. He was pupil to Nicomachus. Pliny, bk. 31, ch. 10.――――A philosopher, who wished to have the neck of a crane, that he might enjoy the taste of his aliments longer, and with more pleasure. Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics, bk. 3.
=Philyllius=, a comic poet. Athenæus.
=Phily̆ra=, one of the Oceanides, who was met by Saturn in Thrace. The god, to escape from the vigilance of Rhea, changed himself into a horse, to enjoy the company of Philyra by whom he had a son, half a man and half a horse, called Chiron. Philyra was so ashamed of giving birth to such a monster, that she entreated the gods to change her nature. She was metamorphosed into the linden tree, called by her name among the Greeks. Hyginus, fable 138.――――The wife of Nauplius.
=Philyres=, a people near Pontus.
=Phily̆rĭdes=, a patronymic of Chiron the son of Philyra. Ovid, Ars Amatoria.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 550.
=Phineus=, a son of Agenor king of Phœnicia, or, according to some, of Neptune, who became king of Thrace, or, as the greater part of the mythologists support, of Bithynia. He married Cleopatra the daughter of Boreas, whom some call Cleobula, by whom he had Plexippus and Pandion. After the death of Cleopatra, he married Idæa the daughter of Dardanus. Idæa, jealous of Cleopatra’s children, accused them of attempts upon their father’s life and crown, or, according to some, of attempts upon her virtue, and they were immediately condemned by Phineus to be deprived of their eyes. This cruelty was soon after punished by the gods. Phineus suddenly became blind, and the Harpies were sent by Jupiter to keep him under continual alarm, and to spoil the meats which were placed on his table. He was some time after delivered from these dangerous monsters by his brothers-in-law Zetes and Calais, who pursued them as far as the Strophades. He also recovered his sight by means of the Argonauts, whom he had received with great hospitality, and instructed in the easiest and speediest way by which they could arrive in Colchis. The causes of the blindness of Phineus are a matter of dispute among the ancients, some supposing that this was inflicted by Boreas, for his cruelty to his grandson, whilst others attribute it to the anger of Neptune, because he had directed the sons of Phryxus how to escape from Colchis to Greece. Many, however, think that it proceeded from his having rashly attempted to develop futurity, while others assert that Zetes and Calais put out his eyes on account of his cruelty to their nephews. The second wife of Phineus is called by some Dia, Eurytia, Danae, and Idothea. Phineus was killed by Hercules. Argonautica, bk. 2.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 15.――Diodorus, bk. 4.――Hyginus, fable 19.――Orpheus.――Flaccus.――――The brother of Cepheus king of Æthiopia. He was going to marry his niece Andromeda, when her father Cepheus was obliged to give her up to be devoured by a sea monster, to appease the resentment of Neptune. She was, however, delivered by Perseus, who married her by the consent of her parents, for having destroyed the sea monster. This marriage displeased Phineus; he interrupted the ceremony, and, with a number of attendants, attacked Perseus and his friends. Perseus defended himself, and turned into stone Phineus and his companions, by showing them the Gorgon’s head. Apollodorus, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 4.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fables 1 & 2.――Hyginus, fable 64.――――A son of Melas.――――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia.――――A son of Belus and Anchinoe.
=Phinta=, a king of Messenia, &c. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 4.
=Phinthias=, a fountain where it is said nothing could sink. Pliny, bk. 31, ch. 2.
=Phintia=, a town of Sicily, at the mouth of the Himera. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 83.
=Phintias=, called also Pithias, Pinthias, and Phytias, a man famous for his unparalleled friendship for Damon. See: Damon. Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 3, bk. 10; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 22.――Diodorus, bk. 6.――――A tyrant of Agrigentum, B.C. 282.
=Phinto=, a small island between Sardinia and Corsica, now Figo.
=Phla=, a small island in the lake Tritonis. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 178.
=Phlegelas=, an Indian king beyond the Hydaspes, who surrendered to Alexander. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 1.
=Phlegĕthon=, a river of hell, whose waters were burning, as the word φλεγεθω, from which the name is derived, seems to indicate. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 550.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 532. ――Seneca, Thyestes Hippolytus.――Silius Italicus, bk. 13, li. 564.
=Phlegias=, a man of Cyzicus when the Argonauts visited it, &c. Flaccus.
=Phlegon=, a native of Tralles in Lydia, one of the emperor Adrian’s freedmen. He wrote different treatises on the long-lived, on wonderful things, besides an historical account of Sicily, 16 books on the olympiads, an account of the principal places in Rome, three books of fasti, &c. Of these some fragments remain. His style was not elegant, and he wrote without judgment or precision. His works have been edited by Meursius, 4to, Leiden, 1620.――――One of the horses of the sun. The word signifies burning. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2.
=Phlegra=, or =Phlegræus Campus=, a place of Macedonia, afterwards called Pallene, where the giants attacked the gods and were defeated by Hercules. The combat was afterwards renewed in Italy, in a place of the same name near Cumæ. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 538; bk. 9, li. 305.――Strabo, bk. 5.――Diodorus, bks. 4 & 5.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 151; bk. 12, li. 378; bk. 15, li. 532. ――Statius, bk. 5, Sylvæ, poem 3, li. 196.
=Phlegyæ=, a people of Thessaly. Some authors place them in Bœotia. They received their name from Phlegyas the son of Mars, with whom they plundered and burned the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Few of them escaped to Phocis, where they settled. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 36. ――Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, li. 301.――Strabo, bk. 9.
=Phlegyas=, a son of Mars by Chryse daughter of Halmus, was king of the Lapithæ in Thessaly. He was father of Ixion and Coronis, to whom Apollo offered violence. When the father heard that his daughter had been so wantonly abused, he marched an army against Delphi, and reduced the temple of the god to ashes. This was highly resented. Apollo killed Phlegyas and placed him in hell, where a huge stone hangs over his head, and keeps him in continual alarms, by its appearance of falling every moment. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 36. ――Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.――Pindar, Pythian, bk. 3.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 87.――Servius, Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil, bk. 6, li. 618.
=Phlias=, one of the Argonauts, son of Bacchus and Ariadne. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 12.
=Phliasia=, a country of Peloponnesus, near Sicyon, of which Phlius was the capital.
=Phlius=, (genitive, untis), a town in Peloponnesus, now Staphlica, in the territory of Sicyon.――――Another, in Elis.――――Another, in Argolis, now Drepano.
=Phlœus=, a surname of Bacchus, expressive of his youth and vigour. Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales, bk. 5, qu. 8.
=Phobētor=, one of the sons of Somnus, and his principal minister. His office was to assume the shape of serpents and wild beasts, to inspire terror into the minds of men, as his name intimates (φοβεω). The other two ministers of Somnus were Phantasia and Morpheus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 640.
=Phobos=, son of Mars, and god of terror among the ancients, was represented with a lion’s head, and sacrifices were offered to him to deprecate his appearance in armies. Plutarch, Amatorius.
=Phocæa=, now Fochia, a maritime town of Ionia, in Asia Minor, with two harbours, between Cumæ and Smyrna, founded by an Athenian colony. It received its name from Phocus the leader of the colony, or from phocæ, sea calves, which are found in great abundance in the neighbourhood. The inhabitants, called Phocæi and Phocæenses, were expert mariners, and founded many cities in different parts of Europe. They left Ionia, when Cyrus attempted to reduce them under his power, and they came after many adventures into Gaul, where they founded Massilia, now Marseilles. The town of Marseilles is often distinguished by the epithet of Phocaica, and its inhabitants called Phocæenses. Phocæa was declared independent by Pompey, and under the first emperors of Rome it became one of the most flourishing cities of Asia Minor. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 34; bk. 37, ch. 31; bk. 38, ch. 39.――Mela, bk. 1, ch. 17.――Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.――Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 165.――Strabo, bk. 14.――Horace, epode 16.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 9.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Phocenses= and =Phocĭci=, the inhabitants of Phocis in Greece.
=Phocilides=, a Greek poet and philosopher of Miletus, about 540 years before the christian era. The poetical piece now extant called νουθετικον, and attributed to him, is not of his composition, but of another poet who lived in the reign of Adrian.
=Phocion=, an Athenian, celebrated for his virtues, private as well as public. He was educated in the school of Plato and Xenocrates, and as soon as he appeared among the statesmen of Athens, he distinguished himself by his prudence and moderation, his zeal for the public good, and his military abilities. He often checked the violent and inconsiderate measures of Demosthenes, and when the Athenians seemed eager to make war against Philip king of Macedonia, Phocion observed that war should never be undertaken without the strongest and most certain expectations of success and victory. When Philip endeavoured to make himself master of Eubœa, Phocion stopped his progress, and soon obliged him to relinquish his enterprise. During the time of his administration he was always inclined to peace, though he never suffered his countrymen to become indolent, and to forget the jealousy and rivalship of their neighbours. He was 45 times appointed governor of Athens, and no greater encomium can be passed upon his talents as a minister and statesman, than that he never solicited that high, though dangerous, office. In his rural retreat, or at the head of the Athenian armies, he always appeared barefooted, and without a cloak, whence one of his soldiers had occasion to observe, when he saw him dressed more warmly than usual during a severe winter, that since Phocion wore his cloak it was a sign of the most inclement weather. If he was the friend of temperance and discipline, he was not a less brilliant example of true heroism. Philip, as well as his son Alexander, attempted to bribe him, but to no purpose; and Phocion boasted in being one of the poorest of the Athenians, and in deserving the appellation of the Good. It was through him that Greece was saved from an impending war, and he advised Alexander rather to turn his arms against Persia, than to shed the blood of the Greeks, who were either his allies or his subjects. Alexander was so sensible of his merit and of his integrity, that he sent him 100 talents from the spoils which he had obtained from the Persians, but Phocion was too great to suffer himself to be bribed; and when the conqueror had attempted a second time to oblige him, and to conciliate his favour, by offering him the government and possession of five cities, the Athenian rejected the presents with the same indifference, and with the same independent mind. But not totally to despise the favours of the monarch, he begged Alexander to restore to their liberty four slaves that were confined in the citadel of Sardis. Antipater, who succeeded in the government of Macedonia after the death of Alexander, also attempted to corrupt the virtuous Athenian, but with the same success as his royal predecessor; and when a friend had observed to Phocion, that if he could so refuse the generous offers of his patrons, yet he should consider the good of his children, and accept them for their sake, Phocion calmly replied, that if his children were like him they could maintain themselves as well as their father had done, but if they behaved otherwise he declared that he was unwilling to leave them anything which might either supply their extravagancies, or encourage their debaucheries. But virtues like these could not long stand against the insolence and fickleness of an Athenian assembly. When the Piræus was taken, Phocion was accused of treason, and therefore, to avoid the public indignation, he fled for safety to Polyperchon. Polyperchon sent him back to Athens, where he was immediately condemned to drink the fatal poison. He received the indignities of the people with uncommon composure; and when one of his friends lamented his fate, Phocion exclaimed, “This is no more than what I expected; this treatment the most illustrious citizens of Athens have received before me.” He took the cup with the greatest serenity of mind, and as he drank the fatal draught, he prayed for the prosperity of Athens, and bade his friends to tell his son Phocus not to remember the indignities which his father had received from the Athenians. He died about 318 years before the christian era. His body was deprived of a funeral by order of the ungrateful Athenians, and if it was at last interred, it was by stealth, under a hearth, by the hand of a woman who placed this inscription over his bones: Keep inviolate, O sacred hearth, the precious remains of a good man, till a better day restores them to the monument of their forefathers, when Athens shall be delivered of her frenzy, and shall be more wise. It has been observed of Phocion, that he never appeared elated in prosperity, or dejected in adversity, he never betrayed pusillanimity by a tear, nor joy by a smile. His countenance was stern and unpleasant, but he never behaved with severity; his expressions were mild, and his rebukes gentle. At the age of 80 he appeared at the head of the Athenian armies like the most active officer, and to his prudence and cool valour in every period of life his citizens acknowledged themselves much indebted. His merits were not buried in oblivion; the Athenians repented of their ingratitude, and honoured his memory by raising him statues, and putting to a cruel death his guilty accusers. Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Lives.――Diodorus, bk. 16.
=Phocis=, a country of Greece, bounded on the east by Bœotia, and by Locris on the west. It originally extended from the bay of Corinth to the sea of Eubœa, and reached on the north as far as Thermopylæ, but its boundaries were afterwards more contracted. Phocis received its name from Phocus, a son of Ornytion, who settled there. The inhabitants were called Phocenses, and from thence the epithet of Phocicus was formed. Parnassus was the most celebrated of the mountains of Phocis, and Delphi was the greatest of its towns. Phocis is rendered famous for a war which it maintained against some of the Grecian republics, and which has received the name of the Phocian war. This celebrated war originated in the following circumstances: ――When Philip king of Macedonia had, by his intrigues and well-concerted policy, fomented divisions in Greece, and disturbed the peace of every republic, the Greeks universally became discontented in their situation, fickle in their resolutions, and jealous of the prosperity of the neighbouring states. The Amphictyons, who were the supreme rulers of Greece, and who at that time were subservient to the views of the Thebans, the inveterate enemies of the Phocians, showed the same spirit of fickleness, and, like the rest of their countrymen, were actuated by the same fears, the same jealousy and ambition. As the supporters of religion, they accused the Phocians of impiety for ploughing a small portion of land which belonged to the god of Delphi. They immediately commanded that the sacred field should be laid waste, and that the Phocians, to expiate their crime, should pay a heavy fine to the community. The inability of the Phocians to pay the fine, and that of the Amphictyons to enforce their commands by violence, gave rise to new events. The people of Phocis were roused by the eloquence and the popularity of Philomelus, one of their countrymen, and when this ambitious ringleader had liberally contributed the great riches he possessed for the good of his countrymen, they resolved to oppose the Amphictyonic council by force of arms. He seized the rich temple of Delphi, and employed the treasures which it contained to raise a mercenary army. During two years hostilities were carried on between the Phocians and their enemies, the Thebans and the people of Locris, but no decisive battles were fought; and it can only be observed, that the Phocian prisoners were always put to an ignominious death, as guilty of the most abominable sacrilege and impiety, a treatment which was liberally retaliated on such of the army of the Amphictyons as became the captives of the enemy. The defeat, however, and death of Philomelus for a while checked their successes; but the deceased general was soon succeeded in the command by his brother, called Onomarchus, his equal in boldness and ambition, and his superior in activity and enterprise. Onomarchus rendered his cause popular, the Thessalians joined his army, and the neighbouring states observed at least a strict neutrality, if they neither opposed nor favoured his arms. Philip of Macedonia, who had assisted the Thebans, was obliged to retire from the field with dishonour, but a more successful battle was fought near Magnesia, and the monarch, by crowning the head of his soldiers with laurel, and telling them that they fought in the cause of Delphi and heaven, obtained a complete victory. Onomarchus was slain, and his body exposed on a gibbet; 6000 shared his fate, and their bodies were thrown into the sea, as unworthy of funeral honours, and 3000 were taken alive. This fatal defeat, however, did not ruin the Phocians; Phayllus, the only surviving brother of Philomelus, took the command of their armies, and doubling the pay of his soldiers, he increased his forces by the addition of 9000 men from Athens, Lacedæmon, and Achaia. But all this numerous force at last proved ineffectual; the treasures of the temple of Delphi, which had long defrayed the expenses of the war, began to fail; dissensions arose among the ringleaders of Phocis; and when Philip had crossed the straits of Thermopylæ, the Phocians, relying on his generosity, claimed his protection, and implored him to plead their cause before the Amphictyonic council. His feeble intercession was not attended with success, and the Thebans, the Locrians, and the Thessalians, who then composed the Amphictyonic council, unanimously decreed that the Phocians should be deprived of the privilege of sending members among the Amphictyons. Their arms and their horses were to be sold, for the benefit of Apollo; they were to pay the annual sum of 60,000 talents till the temple of Delphi had been restored to its ancient splendour and opulence; their cities were to be dismantled, and reduced to distinct villages, which were to contain no more than 60 houses each, at the distance of a furlong from one another, and all the privileges and the immunities of which they were stripped, were to be conferred on Philip king of Macedonia, for his eminent services in the ♦prosecution of the Phocian war. The Macedonians were ordered to put these cruel commands into execution. The Phocians were unable to make resistance, and 10 years after they had undertaken the sacred war, they saw their country laid desolate, their walls demolished, and their cities in ruins, by the wanton jealousy of their enemies, and the inflexible cruelty of the Macedonian soldiers, B.C. 348. They were not, however, long under this disgraceful sentence; their well-known valour and courage recommended them to favour, and they gradually regained their influence and consequence by the protection of the Athenians, and the favours of Philip. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 18. ――Ovid, bk. 2, Amores, poem 6, li. 15; Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 276.――Demosthenes.――Justin, bk. 8, &c.――Diodorus, bk. 16, &c.――Plutarch, Demosthenes, Lysander, Pericles, &c.――Strabo, bk. 5.――Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 5.
♦ ‘prosetion’ replaced with ‘prosecution’
=Phocus=, son of Phocion, was dissolute in his manners and unworthy of the virtues of his great father. He was sent to Lacedæmon to imbibe there the principles of sobriety, of temperance, and frugality. He cruelly revenged the death of his father, whom the Athenians had put to death. Plutarch, Phocion & Apophthegmata Laconica.――――A son of Æacus by Psamathe, killed by Telamon. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12. ――――A son of Ornytion, who led a colony of Corinthians into Phocis. He cured Antiope, a daughter of Nycteus, of insanity, and married her, and by her became father of Panopeus and Crisus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Phocylides=, an ancient poet. See: Phocilides.
=Phœbas=, a name applied to the priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 128, &c.
=Phœbe=, a name given to Diana, or the moon, on account of the brightness of that luminary. She became, according to Apollodorus, mother of Asteria and Latona. See: Diana.――――A daughter of Leucippus and Philodice, carried away, with her sister Hilaira, by Castor and Pollux, as she was going to marry one of the sons of Aphareus. See: Leucippides. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 10. ――Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Phœbeum=, a place near Sparta.
=Phœbĭdas=, a Lacedæmonian general sent by the Ephori to the assistance of the Macedonians against the Thracians. He seized the citadel of Thebes; but though he was disgraced and banished from the Lacedæmonian army for this perfidious measure, yet his countrymen kept possession of the town. He died B.C. 377. Cornelius Nepos, Pelopidas.――Diodorus, bk. 14, &c.
=Phœbigĕna=, a surname of Æsculapius, &c., as being descended from Phœbus. Virgil, Æneid, ♦bk. 7, li. 773.
♦ book reference omitted in text
=Phœbus=, a name given to Apollo, or the sun. This word expresses the brightness and splendour of that luminary (φοιβος). See: Apollo.
=Phœmos=, a lake of Arcadia.
=Phœnīce=, or =Phœnīcia=, a country of Asia, at the east of the Mediterranean, whose boundaries have been different in different ages. Some suppose that the names of Phœnicia, Syria, and Palestine are indiscriminately used for one and the same country. Phœnicia, according to Ptolemy, extended on the north as far as the Eleutherus, a small river which falls into the Mediterranean sea, a little below the island of Aradus, and it had Pelusium or the territories of Egypt as its more southern boundary, and Syria on the east. Sidon and Tyre were the most capital towns of the country. The inhabitants were naturally industrious; the invention of letters is attributed to them, and commerce and navigation were among them in the most flourishing state. They planted colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean, particularly Carthage, Hippo, Marseilles, and Utica; and their manufactures acquired such a superiority over those of other nations, that among the ancients, whatever was elegant, great, or pleasing, either in apparel, or domestic utensils, received the epithet of Sidonian. The Phœnicians were originally governed by kings. They were subdued by the Persians, and afterwards by Alexander, and remained tributary to his successors and to the Romans. They were called Phœnicians, from Phœnix son of Agenor, who was one of their kings, or, according to others, from the great number of palm trees (θοινικες) which grow in the neighbourhood. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 42; bk. 5, ch. 58.――Homer, Odyssey, bk. 15.――Mela, bk. 1, ch. 11; bk. 2, ch. 7.――Strabo, bk. 16.――Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1. ――Lucretius, bk. 2, li. 829.――Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 47; bk. 5, ch. 12. ――Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 2.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, &c.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 104; bk. 14, li. 345; bk. 15, li. 288.
=Phœnīce=, a town of Epirus. Livy, bk. 22, ch. 12.
=Phœnīcia.= See:, Phœnice.
=Phœnīcus=, a mountain of Bœotia.――――Another in Lycia, called also Olympus, with a town of the same name.――――A port of Erythræ. Livy, bk. 56, ch. 45.
=Phœnicŭsa=, now Felicudi, one of the Æolian islands.
=Phœnissa=, a patronymic given to Dido, as a native of Phœnicia. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 529.
=Phœnix=, son of Amyntor king of Argos by Cleobule, or Hippodamia, was preceptor to young Achilles. When his father proved faithless to his wife, on account of his fondness for a concubine called Clytia, Cleobule, jealous of her husband, persuaded her son Phœnix to ingratiate himself into the favours of his father’s mistress. Phœnix easily succeeded, but when Amyntor discovered his intrigues, he drew a curse upon him, and the son was soon after deprived of his sight by divine vengeance. According to some, Amyntor himself put out the eyes of his son, which so cruelly provoked him, that he meditated the death of his father. Reason and piety, however, prevailed over passion, and Phœnix, not to become a parricide, fled from Argos to the court of Peleus king of Phthia. Here he was treated with tenderness. Peleus carried him to Chiron, who restored to him his eyesight, and soon after he was made preceptor to Achilles, his benefactor’s son. He was also presented with the government of many cities, and made king of the Dolopes. He accompanied his pupil to the Trojan war, and Achilles was ever grateful for the instructions and precepts which he had received from Phœnix. After the death of Achilles, Phœnix, with others, was commissioned by the Greeks to return to Greece, to bring to the war young Pyrrhus. This commission he performed with success, and after the fall of Troy, he returned with Pyrrhus, and died in Thrace. He was buried at Æon, or, according to Strabo, near Trachinia, where a small river in the neighbourhood received the name of Phœnix. Strabo, bk. 9.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 9, &c.――Ovid, Ibis, li. 259.――Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7. ――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 762.――――A son of Agenor, by a nymph who was called Telephassa, according to Apollodorus and Moschus, or, according to others, Epimedusa, Perimeda, or Agriope. He was, like his brothers Cadmus and Cilix, sent by his father in pursuit of his sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried away under the form of a bull, and when his inquiries proved unsuccessful, he settled in a country which, according to some, was from him called Phœnicia. From him, as some suppose, the Carthaginians were called Pœni. Apollodorus, bk. 3.――Hyginus, fable 178.――――The father of Adonis, according to Hesiod.――――A Theban, delivered to Alexander, &c.――――A native of Tenedos, who was an officer in the service of Eumenes.
=Pholoe=, one of the horses of Admetus.――――A mountain of Arcadia, near Pisa. It received its name from Pholus the friend of Hercules, who was buried there. It is often confounded with another of the same name in Thessaly, near mount Othrys. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 6.――Lucan, bk. 3, li. 198; bk. 6, li. 388; bk. 7, li. 449.――Ovid, bk. 2, Fasti, li. 273.――――A female servant, of Cretan origin, given with her two sons to Sergestus by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 285. ――――A courtesan in the age of Horace. Horace, bk. 1, ode 33, li. 7.
=Pholus=, one of the Centaurs, son of Silenus and Melia, or, according to others, of Ixion and the cloud. He kindly entertained Hercules when he was going against the boar of Erymanthus, but he refused to give him wine, as that which he had belonged to the rest of the Centaurs. Hercules, upon this, without ceremony, broke the cask and drank the wine. The smell of the liquor drew the Centaurs from the neighbourhood to the house of Pholus, but Hercules stopped them when they forcibly entered the habitation of his friend, and killed the greatest part of them. Pholus gave the dead a decent funeral, but he mortally wounded himself with one of the arrows which were poisoned with the venom of the hydra, and which he attempted to extract from the body of one of the Centaurs. Hercules, unable to cure him, buried him when dead, and called the mountain where his remains were deposited by the name of Pholoe. Apollodorus, bk. 1.――Pausanias, bk. 3.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 456; Æneid, bk. 8, li. 294. ――Diodorus, bk. 4.――Silius Italicus, bk. 1.――Lucan, bks. 3, 6 & 7.――Statius Thebaid, bk. 2.――――One of the friends of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 341.
=Phorbas=, a son of Priam and Epithesia, killed during the Trojan war by Menelaus. The god Somnus borrowed his features when he deceived Palinurus, and threw him into the sea near the coast of Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 842.――――A son of Lapithus, who married Hyrmine the daughter of Epeus, by whom he had Actor. Pelops, according to Diodorus, shared his kingdom with Phorbas, who also, says the same historian, established himself at Rhodes, at the head of a colony from Elis and Thessaly, by order of the oracle, which promised, by his means only, deliverance from the numerous serpents which infested the island. Diodorus, bk. 2.――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1.――――A shepherd of Polybus king of Corinth.――――A man who profaned Apollo’s temple, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 414.――――A king of Argos.――――A native of Cyrene, son of Methion, killed by Perseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 3.
=Phorcus=, or =Phorcys=, a sea deity, son of Pontus and Terra, who married his sister Ceto, by whom he had the Gorgons, the dragon that kept the apples of the Hesperides, and other monsters. Hesiod, Theogony.――Apollodorus.――――One of the auxiliaries of Priam, killed by Ajax during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 17.――――A man whose seven sons assisted Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 328.
=Phormio=, an Athenian general, whose father’s name was Asopicus. He impoverished himself to maintain and support the dignity of his army. His debts were some time after paid by the Athenians, who wished to make him their general, an office which he refused, while he had so many debts, observing that it was unbecoming an officer to be at the head of an army, when he knew that he was poorer than the meanest of his soldiers.――――A general of Crotona.――――A peripatetic philosopher of Ephesus, who once gave a lecture upon the duties of an officer, and a military profession. The philosopher was himself ignorant of the subject which he treated, upon which Hannibal the Great, who was one of his auditors, exclaimed that he had seen many doting old men, but never one worse than Phormio. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2.――――An Athenian archon.――――A disciple of Plato, chosen by the people of Elis to make a reformation in their government and their jurisprudence.
=Phormis=, an Arcadian who acquired great riches at the court of Gelon and Hiero in Sicily. He dedicated the brazen statue of a mare to Jupiter Olympius in Peloponnesus, which so much resembled nature, that horses came near it, as if it had been alive. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Phŏrōneus=, the god of a river of Peloponnesus of the same name. He was son of the river Inachus by Melissa, and he was the second king of Argos. He married a nymph called Cerdo, or Laodice, by whom he had Apis, from whom Argolis was called Apia, and Niobe, the first woman of whom Jupiter became enamoured. Phoroneus taught his subjects the utility of laws, and the advantages of a social life and of friendly intercourse, whence the inhabitants of Argolis are often called Phoronæi. Pausanias relates that Phoroneus, with the Cephisus, Asterion, and Inachus, were appointed as umpires in a quarrel between Neptune and Juno, concerning their right of patronizing Argolis. Juno gained the preference, upon which Neptune, in a fit of resentment, dried up all the four rivers, whose decision he deemed partial. He afterwards restored them to their dignity and consequence. Phoroneus was the first who raised a temple to Juno. He received divine honours after death. His temple still existed at Argos, under Antoninus the Roman emperor. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 15, &c.――Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.――Hyginus, fable 143.
=Phorōnis=, a patronymic of Io the sister of Phoroneus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 625.
=Phorōnium=, a town of Argolis, built by Phoroneus.
=Photīnus=, a eunuch who was prime minister to Ptolemy king of Egypt. When Pompey fled to the court of Ptolemy, after the battle of Pharsalia, Photinus advised his master not to receive him, but to put him to death. His advice was strictly followed. Julius Cæsar some time after visited Egypt, and Photinus raised seditions against him, for which he was put to death. When Cæsar triumphed over Egypt and Alexandria, the pictures of Photinus, and of some of the Egyptians, were carried in the procession at Rome. Plutarch.
=Photius=, a son of Antonina, who betrayed to Belisarius his wife’s debaucheries.――――A patrician in Justinian’s reign.
=Phoxus=, a general of the Phocæans, who burnt Lampsacus, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.――――A tyrant of Chalcis, banished by his subjects, &c. Aristotle, Politics, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Phraates I.=, a king of Parthia, who succeeded Arsaces III., called also Phriapatius. He made war against Antiochus king of Syria, and was defeated in three successive battles. He left many children behind him, but as they were all too young, and unable to succeed to the throne, he appointed his brother Mithridates king, of whose abilities and military prudence he had often been a spectator. Justin, bk. 41, ch. 5.
=Phraates II.=, succeeded his father Mithridates as king of Parthia; and made war against the Scythians, whom he called to his assistance against Antiochus king of Syria, and whom he refused to pay, on the pretence that they came too late. He was murdered by some Greek mercenaries, who had been once his captives, and who had enlisted in his army, B.C. 129. Justin, bk. 42, ch. 1.――Plutarch, Pompey.
=Phraates III.=, succeeded his father Pacorus on the throne of Parthia, and gave one of his daughters in marriage to Tigranes the son of Tigranes king of Armenia. Soon after he invaded the kingdom of Armenia, to make his son-in-law sit on the throne of his father. His expedition was attended with ill success. He renewed a treaty of alliance which his father had made with the Romans. At his return in Parthia, he was assassinated by his sons Orodes and Mithridates. Justin.
=Phraates IV.=, was nominated king of Parthia by his father Orodes, whom he soon after murdered, as also his own brothers. He made war against Marcus Antony with great success, and obliged him to retire with much loss. Some time after he was dethroned by the Parthian nobility, but he soon regained his power, and drove away the usurper, called Tiridates. The usurper claimed the protection of Augustus the Roman emperor, and Phraates sent ambassadors to Rome to plead his cause, and gain the favour of his powerful judge. He was successful in his embassy: he made a treaty of peace and alliance with the Roman emperor, restored the ensigns and standards which the Parthians had taken from Crassus and Antony, and gave up his four sons with their wives as hostages, till his engagements were performed. Some suppose that Phraates delivered his children into the hands of Augustus to be confined at Rome, that he might reign with greater security, as he knew his subjects would revolt as soon as they found any one of his family inclined to countenance their rebellion, though at the same time they scorned to support the interest of any usurper who was not of the royal house of the Arsacidæ. He was, however, at last murdered by one of his concubines, who placed her son called Phraatices on the throne. Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 6.――Justin, bk. 42, ch. 5. ――Dio Cassius, bk. 51, &c.――Plutarch, Antonius, &c.――Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 32.
=Phraates=, a prince of Parthia in the reign of Tiberius.――――A satrap of Parthia. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 42.
=Phraatices=, a son of Phraates IV. He, with his mother, murdered his father, and took possession of the vacant throne. His reign was short; he was deposed by his subjects, whom he had offended by cruelty, avarice, and oppression.
=Phradates=, an officer in the army of Darius at the battle of Arbela.
=Phragrandæ=, a people of Thrace. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 25.
=Phrahates=, the same as Phraates. See: Phraates.
=Phranicates=, a general of the Parthian armies, &c. Strabo, bk. 16.
=Phraortes=, succeeded his father Deioces on the throne of Media. He made war against the neighbouring nations, and conquered the greatest part of Asia. He was defeated and killed in a battle by the Assyrians, after a reign of 22 years, B.C. 625. His son Cyaxares succeeded him. It is supposed that the Arphaxad mentioned in Judith is Phraortes. Pausanias.――Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 102.――――A king of India, remarkable for his frugality. Philostratus.
=Phrasĭcles=, a nephew of Themistocles, whose daughter Nicomacha he married. Plutarch, Themistocles.
=Phrasimus=, the father of Praxithea. Apollodorus.
=Phrasius=, a Cyprian soothsayer, sacrificed on an altar by Busiris king of Egypt.
=Phrataphernes=, a general of the Massagetæ, who surrendered to Alexander. Curtius, bk. 8.――――A satrap who, after the death of Darius, fled to Hyrcania, &c. Curtius.
=Phriapatius=, a king of Parthia, who flourished B.C. 195.
=Phricium=, a town near Thermopylæ. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 13.
=Phrixus=, a river of Argolis. There is also a small town of that name in Elis, built by the Minyæ. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 148.
=Phronĭma=, a daughter of Etearchus king of Crete. She was delivered to a servant to be thrown into the sea, by order of her father, at the instigation of his second wife. The servant was unwilling to murder the child, but as he was bound by an oath to throw her into the sea, he accordingly let her down into the water by a rope, and took her out again unhurt. Phronima was afterwards in the number of the concubines of Polymnestus, by whom she became mother of Battus the founder of Cyrene. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 154.
=Phrontis=, son of Onetor, pilot of the ship of Menelaus, after the Trojan war, was killed by Apollo just as the ship reached Sunium. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 3, li. 282.――Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 25. ――――One of the Argonauts. Apollodorus, bk. 1.
=Phruri=, a Scythian nation.
=Phryges=, a river of Asia Minor, dividing Phrygia from Caria, and falling into the Hermus. Pausanias.
=Phrygia=, a country of Asia Minor, generally divided into Phrygia Major and Minor. Its boundaries are not properly or accurately defined by ancient authors, though it appears that it was situate between Bithynia, Lydia, Cappadocia and Caria. It received its name from the Bryges, a nation of Thrace, or Macedonia, who came to settle there, and from their name, by corruption, arose the word Phrygia. Cybele was the chief deity of the country, and her festivals were observed with the greatest solemnity. The most remarkable towns, besides Troy, were Laodice, Hierapolis, and Synnada. The invention of the pipe of reeds, and of all sorts of needlework, is attributed to the inhabitants, who are represented by some authors as stubborn, but yielding to correction (hence Phryx verberatus melior), as imprudent, effeminate, servile, and voluptuous; and to this Virgil seems to allude. Æneid, bk. 9, li. 617. The Phrygians, like all other nations, were called barbarians by the Greeks; their music (Phrygii cantus) was of a grave and solemn nature, when opposed to the brisker and more cheerful Lydian airs. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.――Strabo, bk. 2, &c.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 429, &c.――Cicero, bk. 7, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 18. ――Flaccus, bk. 27.――Dio Cassius, bk. 1, ch. 50.――Pliny, bk. 1, ch. 4.――Horace, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 16.――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 25. ――Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 73.――――A city of Thrace.
=Phryne=, a celebrated prostitute who flourished at Athens about 328 years before the christian era. She was mistress to Praxiteles, who drew her picture. See: Praxiteles. This was one of his best pieces, and it was placed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. It is said that Apelles painted his Venus Anadyomene after he had seen Phryne on the sea-shore naked, and with dishevelled hair. Phryne became so rich by the liberality of her lovers, that she offered to rebuild, at her own expense, Thebes, which Alexander had destroyed, provided this inscription was placed on the walls: Alexander diruit, sed meretrix Phryne refecit. This was refused. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.――――There was also another of the same name who was accused of impiety. When she saw that she was going to be condemned, she unveiled her bosom, which so influenced her judges, that she was immediately acquitted. Quintilian, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Phrynĭcus=, a general of Samos, who endeavoured to betray his country to the Athenians, &c.――――A flatterer at Athens.――――A tragic poet of Athens, disciple to Thespis. He was the first who introduced a female character on the stage. Strabo, bk. 14.――――A comic poet.
=Phrynis=, a musician of Mitylene, the first who obtained a musical prize at the Panathenæa at Athens. He added two strings to the lyre, which had always been used with seven by all his predecessors, B.C. 438. It is said that he was originally a cook at the house of Hiero king of Sicily.――――A writer in the reign of Commodus, who made a collection, in 36 books, of phrases and sentences from the best Greek authors, &c.
=Phryno=, a celebrated general of Athens, who died B.C. 590.
=Phryxus=, a son of ♦Athamas king of Thebes by Nephele. After the repudiation of his mother, he was persecuted with the most inveterate fury by his stepmother Ino, because he was to sit on the throne of Athamas, in preference to the children of a second wife. He was apprised of Ino’s intentions upon his life by his mother Nephele, or, according to others, by his preceptor; and the better to make his escape, he secured part of his father’s treasures, and privately left Bœotia, with his sister Helle, to go to their friend and relation Æetes king of Colchis. They embarked on board a ship, or, according to the fabulous account of the poets and mythologists, they mounted on the back of a ram whose fleece was of gold, and proceeded on their journey through the air. The height to which they were carried made Helle giddy, and she fell into the sea. Phryxus gave her a decent burial on the sea-shore, and after he had called the place Hellespont from her name, he continued his flight, and arrived safe in the kingdom of Æetes, where he offered the ram on the altars of Mars. The king received him with great tenderness, and gave him his daughter Chalciope in marriage. She had by him Phrontis, Melias, Argos, Cylindrus, whom some call Cytorus, Catis, Lorus, and Hellen. Some time after he was murdered by his father-in-law, who envied him the possession of the golden fleece; and Chalciope, to prevent her children from sharing their father’s fate, sent them privately from Colchis to Bœotia, as nothing was to be dreaded there from the jealousy or resentment of Ino, who was then dead. The fable of the flight of Phryxus to Colchis on a ram has been explained by some, who observe that the ship on which he embarked was either called by that name, or carried on her prow the figure of that animal. The fleece of gold is explained by recollecting that Phryxus carried away immense treasures from Thebes. Phryxus was placed among the constellations of heaven after death. The ram which carried him to Asia is said to have been the fruit of Neptune’s amour with Theophane the daughter of Altis. This ram had been given to Athamas by the gods, to reward his piety and religious life, and Nephele procured it for her children, just as they were going to be sacrificed to the jealousy of Ino. The murder of Phryxus was some time after amply revenged by the Greeks. It gave rise to a celebrated expedition which was achieved under Jason and many of the princes of Greece, and which had for its object the recovery of the golden fleece, and the punishment of the king of Colchis for his cruelty to the son of Athamas. Diodorus, bk. 4.――Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 197.――Apollodorus, Argonautica. ――Orpheus.――Flaccus.――Strabo.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9. ――Pindar, Pythian, poem 4.――Hyginus, fables 14, 188, &c. ――Ovid, Heroides, poem 18; Metamorphoses, bk. 4.――――A small river of Argolis.
♦ ‘Athmas’ replaced with ‘Athamas’
=Phthia=, a town of Phthiotis, at the east of mount Othrys in Thessaly, where Achilles was born, and from which he is often called Phthius heros. Horace, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 4.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 156.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.――Propertius, bk. 2, poem 14, li. 38.――Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――A nymph of Achaia, beloved by Jupiter, who, to seduce her, disguised himself under the shape of a pigeon. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1, ch. 15. ――――A daughter of Amphion and Niobe, killed by Diana. Apollodorus.
=Phthiōtis=, a small province of Thessaly, between the Pelasgicus sinus, and the Maliacus sinus, Magnesia, and mount Œta. It was also called Achaia. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 8.
=Phya=, a tall and beautiful woman of Attica, whom Pisistratus, when he wished to re-establish himself a third time in his tyranny, dressed like the goddess Minerva, and led to the city on a chariot, making the populace believe that the goddess herself came to restore him to power. The artifice succeeded. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 59. ――Polyænus, bk. 1, ch. 40.
=Phycus= (untis), a promontory near Cyrene, now called Ras-al-sem. Lucan, bk. 9.
=Phylăce=, a town of Thessaly, built by Phylacus. Protesilaus reigned there, from whence he is often called Phylacides. Lucan, bk. 6, li. 252.――――A town of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 34.――――A town of Epirus. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Phylăcus=, a son of Deion king of Phocis. He married Clymene the daughter of Mynias, and founded Phylace. Apollodorus.
=Phylarchus=, a Greek biographer, who flourished B.C. 221. He was accused of partiality by Plutarch, Aratus.
=Phylas=, a king of Ephyre, son of Antiochus and grandson of Hercules.
=Phyle=, a well-fortified village of Attica, at a little distance from Athens. Cornelius Nepos, Thrasybulus.
=Phyleis=, a daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.
=Phylēus=, one of the Greek captains during the Trojan war.――――A son of Augeas. He blamed his father for refusing to pay Hercules what he had promised him for cleaning his stables. He was placed on his father’s throne by Hercules.
=Phylĭra.= See: Philyra.
=Phylla=, the wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and mother of Stratonice the wife of Seleucus.
=Phyllalia=, a part of Arcadia.――――A place in Thessaly.
=Phylleius=, a mountain, country, and town of Macedonia. Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 1.
=Phyllis=, a daughter of Sithon, or, according to others, of Lycurgus king of Thrace, who hospitably received Demophoon the son of Theseus, who, at his return from the Trojan war, had stopped on her coasts. She became enamoured of him, and did not find him insensible to her passion. After some months of mutual tenderness and affection, Demophoon set sail for Athens, where his domestic affairs recalled him. He promised faithfully to return as soon as a month was expired; but either his dislike for Phyllis, or the irreparable situation of his affairs, obliged him to violate his engagement, and the queen, grown desperate on account of his absence, hanged herself, or, according to others, threw herself down a precipice into the sea, and perished. Her friends raised a tomb over her body, where there grew up certain trees, whose leaves at a particular season of the year, suddenly became wet, as if shedding tears for the death of Phyllis. According to an old tradition mentioned by Servius, Virgil’s commentator, Phyllis was changed by the gods into an almond tree, which is called Phylla by the Greeks. Some days after this metamorphosis, Demophoon revisited Thrace, and when he heard of the fate of Phyllis, he ran and clasped the tree, which, though at that time stripped of its leaves, suddenly shot forth and blossomed, as if still sensible of tenderness and love. The absence of Demophoon from the house of Phyllis has given rise to a beautiful epistle of Ovid, supposed to have been written by the Thracian queen, about the fourth month after her lover’s departure. Ovid, Heroides, poem 2; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 2, li. 353; Tristia, bk. 2, li. 437.――Hyginus, fable 59.――――A country woman introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.――――The nurse of the emperor Domitian. Suetonius, Domitian, ch. 17.――――A country of Thrace, near mount Pangæus. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 13.
=Phyllius=, a young Bœotian, uncommonly fond of Cygnus the son of Hyria, a woman of Bœotia. Cygnus slighted his passion, and told him that, to obtain a return of affection, he must previously destroy an enormous lion, take alive two large vultures, and sacrifice on Jupiter’s altars a wild bull that infested the country. This he easily effected by means of artifice, and by the advice of Hercules he forgot his partiality for the son of Hyria. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 372.――Nicander, Heteroeumena, bk. 3.――――A Spartan remarkable for the courage with which he fought against Pyrrhus king of Epirus.
=Phyllŏdŏce=, one of Cyrene’s attendant nymphs. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 336.
=Phyllos=, a country of Arcadia.――――A town of Thessaly near Larissa, where Apollo had a temple.
=Phyllus=, a general of Phocis during the Phocian or sacred war against the Thebans. He had assumed the command after the death of his brothers Philomelus and Onomarchus. He is called by some Phayllus. See: Phocis.
=Physcella=, a town of Macedonia. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Physcion=, a famous rock of Bœotia, which was the residence of the Sphinx, and against which the monster destroyed himself, when his enigmas were explained by Œdipus. Plutarch.
=Physcoa=, a woman of Elis, mother of Narcæus by Bacchus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Physcon=, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt, from the great prominency of his belly (φνοκη, venter). Athenæus, bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Physcos=, a town of Caria, opposite Rhodes. Strabo, bk. 14.
=Physcus=, a river of Asia falling into the Tigris. The 10,000 Greeks crossed it on their return from Cunaxa.
=Phytălĭdes=, the descendants of Phytalus, a man who hospitably received and entertained Ceres, when she visited Attica. Plutarch, Theseus.
=Phyton=, a general of the people of Rhegium, against Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily. He was taken by the enemy and tortured, B.C. 387, and his son was thrown into the sea. Diodorus, bk. 14.
=Phyxium=, a town of Elis.
=Pia=, or =Pialia=, festivals instituted in honour of Adrian, by the Emperor Antoninus. They were celebrated at Puteoli, on the second year of the Olympiads.
=Piăsus=, a general of the Pelasgi. Strabo, bk. 13.
=Picēni=, the inhabitants of Picenum, called also Picentes. They received their name from picus, a bird by whose auspices they had settled in that part of Italy. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 425. ――Strabo, bk. 5.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Picentia=, the capital of the Picentini.
=Picentīni=, a people of Italy between Lucania and Campania on the Tuscan sea. They are different from the Piceni or Picentes, who inhabited Picenum. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 450.――Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 62.
=Picēnum=, or =Picēnus ager=, a country of Italy near the Umbrians and Sabines, on the borders of the Adriatic. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 6; bk. 22, ch. 9; bk. 27, ch. 43.――Silius Italicus, bk. 10, li. 313. ――Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 272.――Martial, bk. 1, ltr. 44.
=Picra=, a lake of Africa, which Alexander crossed when he went to consult the oracle of Ammon. Diodorus.
=Pictæ=, or =Picti=, a people of Scythia, called also Agathyrsæ. They received this name from their painting their bodies with different colours, to appear more terrible in the eyes of their enemies. A colony of these, according to Servius, Virgil’s commentator, emigrated to the northern parts of Britain, where they still preserved their name and their savage manners, but they are mentioned only by later writers. Marcellinus, bk. 27, ch. 18.――Claudian, de Consulatu Honorii, li. 54.――Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Pictāvi=, or =Pictŏnes=, a people of Gaul in the modern country of Poictou. Cæsar, bk. 7, Gallic War, ch. 4.
=Pictăvium=, a town of Gaul.
=Fabius Pictor=, a consul under whom silver was first coined at Rome, A.U.C. 485.
=Picumnus= and =Pilumnus=, two deities at Rome, who presided over the auspices that were required before the celebration of nuptials. Pilumnus was supposed to patronize children, as his name seems, in some manner, to indicate, quod pellat mala infantiæ. The manuring of lands was first invented by Picumnus, from which reason he is called Sterquilinius. Pilumnus is also invoked as the god of bakers and millers, as he is said to have first invented how to grind corn. Turnus boasted of being one of his lineal descendants. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 4.――Varro.
=Picus=, a king of Latium, son of Saturn, who married Venilia, who is also called Canens, by whom he had Faunus. He was tenderly loved by the goddess Pomona, and he returned a mutual affection. As he was one day hunting in the woods, he was met by Circe, who became deeply enamoured of him, and who changed him into a woodpecker, called by the name of picus among the Latins. His wife Venilia was so disconsolate when she was informed of his death, that she pined away. Some suppose that Picus was the son of Pilumnus, and that he gave out prophecies to his subjects, by means of a favourite woodpecker, from which circumstance originated the fable of his being metamorphosed into a bird. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, lis. 48, 171, &c.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 320, &c.
=Pidorus=, a town near mount Athos. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 122.
=Pidytes=, a man killed by Ulysses during the Trojan war.
=Piĕlus=, a son of Neoptolemus king of Epirus, after his father. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Pĭĕra=, a fountain of Peloponnesus, between Elis and Olympia. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Piĕria=, a small tract of country in Thessaly or Macedonia, from which the epithet of Pierian was applied to the Muses, and to poetical compositions. Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 88, li. 3.――Horace, bk. 4, ode 8, li. 20.――――A place between Cilicia and Syria.――――One of the wives of Danaus, mother of six daughters, called Actea, Podarce, Dioxippe, Adyte, Ocypete, and Pilarge. Apollodorus, bk. 2.――――The wife of Oxylus the son of Hæmon, and mother of Ætolus and Laias. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.――――The daughter of Pythas, a Milesian, &c.
=Piĕrĭdes=, a name given to the Muses, either because they were born in Pieria, in Thessaly, or because they were supposed by some to be the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia, who settled in Bœotia. ――――Also the daughters of Pierus, who challenged the Muses to a trial in music, in which they were conquered, and changed into magpies. It may perhaps be supposed that the victorious Muses assumed the name of the conquered daughters of Pierus, and ordered themselves to be called Pierides, in the same manner as Minerva was called Pallas because she had killed the giant Pallas. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 300.
=Piĕris=, a mountain of Macedonia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.
=Piĕrus=, a mountain of Thessaly, sacred to the Muses, who were from thence, as some imagine, called Pierides.――――A rich man of Thessaly, whose nine daughters, called Pierides, challenged the Muses, and were changed into magpies when conquered. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.――――A river of Achaia, in Peloponnesus.――――A town of Thessaly. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 21.――――A mountain with a lake of the same name in Macedonia.
=Piĕtas=, a virtue which denotes veneration for the deity, and love and tenderness to our friends. It received divine honours among the Romans, and was made one of their gods. Acilius Glabrio first erected a temple to this new divinity, on the spot where a woman had fed with her own milk her aged father, who had been imprisoned by the order of the senate, and deprived of all aliments. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.――Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 36.
=Pigres= and =Mattyas=, two brothers, &c. Herodotus.――――The name of three rivers.
=Pigrum mare=, a name applied to the Northern sea, from its being frozen. The word Pigra is applied to the Palus Mœotis. Ovid, bk. 4, ex Ponto, ltr. 10, li. 61.――Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 13.――Tacitus, Germania, ch. 45.
=Pilumnus=, the god of bakers at Rome. See: Picumnus.
=Pimpla=, a mountain of Macedonia, with a fountain of the same name, on the confines of Thessaly, near Olympus, sacred to the Muses, who on that account are often called Pimpleæ and Pimpleades. Horace, bk. 1, ode 26, li. 9.――Strabo, bk. 10.――Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 11, li. 3.――Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 4, li. 26; Sylvæ, poem 2, li. 36.
=Pimprana=, a town on the Indus. Arrian.
=Pinăre=, an island of the Ægean sea.――――A town of Syria, at the south of mount Amanus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 25.――――Of Lycia. Strabo, bk. 14.
=Pinārius= and =Potitius=, two old men of Arcadia, who came with Evander to Italy. They were instructed by Hercules, who visited the court of Evander, how they were to offer sacrifices to his divinity, in the morning, and in the evening, immediately at sunset. The morning sacrifice they punctually performed, but on the evening Potitius was obliged to offer the sacrifice alone, as Pinarius neglected to come till after the appointed time. This negligence offended Hercules, and he ordered that for the future Pinarius and his descendants should preside over the sacrifices, but that Potitius, with his posterity, should wait upon the priests as servants, when the sacrifices were annually offered to him on mount Aventine. This was religiously observed till the age of Appius Claudius, who persuaded the Potitii, by a large bribe, to discontinue their sacred office, and to have the ceremony performed by slaves. For this negligence, as the Latin authors observe, the Potitii were deprived of sight, and the family became a little time after totally extinct. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 7.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 269, &c. ――Victor, de Origo Gentis Romanæ, ch. 8.
=Marcus Pinārius Rusca=, a pretor, who conquered Sardinia, and defeated the Corsicans. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2.
=Pinarus=, or =Pindus=, now Delifou, a river falling into the sea near Issus, after flowing between Cilicia and Syria. _Dionysius Periegeta._
=Pincum=, a town of Mœsia Superior, now Gradisca.
=Pindărus=, a celebrated lyric poet of Thebes. He was carefully trained from his earliest years to the study of music and poetry, and he was taught how to compose verses with elegance and simplicity, by Myrtis and Corinna. When he was young, it is said that a swarm of bees settled on his lips, and there left some honeycombs as he reposed on the grass. This was universally explained as a prognostic of his future greatness and celebrity, and indeed he seemed entitled to notice when he had conquered Myrtis in a musical conquest. He was not, however, so successful against Corinna, who obtained five times, while he was competitor, a poetical prize, which, according to some, was adjudged rather to the charms of her person, than to the brilliancy of her genius, or the superiority of her composition. In the public assemblies of Greece, where females were not permitted to contend, Pindar was rewarded with the prize, in preference to every other competitor; and as the conquerors at Olympia were the subject of his compositions, the poet was courted by statesmen and princes. His hymns and pæans were repeated before the most crowded assemblies in the temples of Greece; and the priestess of Delphi declared that it was the will of Apollo that Pindar should receive the half of all the first fruit offerings that were annually heaped on his altars. This was not the only public honour which he received; after his death, he was honoured with every mark of respect, even to adoration. His statue was erected at Thebes in the public place where the games were exhibited, and six centuries after it was viewed with pleasure and admiration by the geographer Pausanias. The honours which had been paid to him while alive, were also shared by his posterity; and at the celebration of one of the festivals of the Greeks, a portion of the victim which had been offered in sacrifice, was reserved for the descendants of the poet. Even the most inveterate enemies of the Thebans showed regard for his memory, and the Spartans spared the house which the prince of Lyrics had inhabited, when they destroyed the houses and the walls of Thebes. The same respect was also paid him by Alexander the Great when Thebes was reduced to ashes. It is said that Pindar died at the advanced age of 86, B.C. 435. The greatest part of his works have perished. He had written some hymns to the gods, poems in honour of Apollo, dithyrambics to Bacchus, and odes on several victories obtained at the four greatest festivals of the Greeks, the Olympic, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemean games. Of all these, the odes are the only compositions extant, admired for sublimity of sentiments, grandeur of expression, energy and magnificence of style, boldness of metaphors, harmony of numbers, and elegance of diction. In these odes, which were repeated with the aid of musical instruments, and accompanied by the various inflections of the voice, with suitable attitudes and proper motions of the body, the poet has not merely celebrated the place where the victory was won, but has introduced beautiful episodes, and by unfolding the greatness of his heroes, the dignity of their characters, and the glory of the several republics where they flourished, he has rendered the whole truly beautiful and in the highest degree interesting. Horace has not hesitated to call Pindar inimitable, and this panegyric will not perhaps appear too offensive when we recollect that succeeding critics have agreed in extolling his beauties, his excellence, the fire, animation, and enthusiasm of his genius. He has been censured for his affectation in composing an ode from which the letter S was excluded. The best editions of Pindar are those of Heyne, 4to, Gottingen, 1773; of Glasgow, 12mo, 1774; and of Schmidius, 4to, Witteberg, 1616. Athenæus.――Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.――Horace, bk. 4, ode 2.――Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 3.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 23.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 12.――Plutarch, Alexander.――Curtius, bk. 1, ch. 13.――――A tyrant of Ephesus, who killed his master at his own request, after the battle of Philippi. Plutarch.――――A Theban, who wrote a Latin poem on the Trojan war.
=Pindăsus=, a mountain of Troas.
=Pindenissus=, a town of Cilicia, on the borders of Syria. Cicero, when proconsul in Asia, besieged it for 25 days and took it. Cicero, For Marcus Cælius; Letters to his Friends, bk. 2, ltr. 10.
=Pindus=, a mountain, or rather a chain of mountains, between Thessaly, Macedonia, and Epirus. It was greatly celebrated as being sacred to the Muses and to Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 570. ――Strabo, bk. 18.――Virgil, Eclogues, poem 10.――Lucan, bk. 1, li. 674; bk. 6, li. 339.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A town of Doris in Greece, called also Cyphas. It was watered by a small river of the same name which falls into the Cephisus, near Lilæa. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 56.
=Pingus=, a river of Mœsia, falling into the Danube. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Pinna=, a town of Italy at the mouth of the Matrinus, south of Picenum. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 518.
=Pinthias.= See: Phinthias.
=Pintia=, a town of Spain, now supposed to be Valladolid.
=Pion=, one of the descendants of Hercules, who built Pionia, near the Caycus in Mysia. It is said that smoke issued from his tomb as often as sacrifices were offered to him. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 18.
=Pione=, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus.
=Piŏnia=, a town of Mysia, near the Caycus.
=Piræus=, or =Pyræeus=, a celebrated harbour at Athens, at the mouth of the Cephisus, about three miles distant from the city. It was joined to the town by two walls, in circumference seven miles and a half, and 60 feet high, which Themistocles wished to raise in a double proportion. One of these was built by Pericles, and the other by Themistocles. The towers which were raised on the walls to serve as a defence, were turned into dwelling-houses, as the population of Athens gradually increased. It was the most capacious of all the harbours of the Athenians, and was naturally divided into three large basins called Cantharos, Aphrodisium, and Zea, improved by the labours of Themistocles, and made sufficiently commodious for the reception of a fleet of 400 ships, in the greatest security. The walls which joined it to Athens, with all the fortifications, were totally demolished when Lysander put an end to the Peloponnesian war by the reduction of Attica. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 1.――Strabo, bk. 9.――Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles.――Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5. ――Justin, bk. 5, ch. 8.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 446.
=Piranthus=, a son of Argus and Evadne, brother to Jasus, Epidaurus, and Perasus. Pausanias, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 17.――Apollodorus, bk. 2.
=Pirēne=, a daughter of Danaus.――――A daughter of Œbalus, or, according to others, of the Achelous. She had by Neptune two sons, called Leches and Cenchrius, who gave their names to two of the harbours of Corinth. Pirene was so disconsolate at the death of her son Cenchrius, who had been killed by Diana, that she pined away, and was dissolved, by her continual weeping, into a fountain of the same name, which was still seen at Corinth in the age of Pausanias. The fountain Pirene was sacred to the Muses, and, according to some, the horse Pegasus was then drinking some of its waters, when Bellerophon took it to go and conquer the Chimæra. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 240.
=Pirĭthous=, a son of Ixion and the cloud, or, according to others, of Dia the daughter of Deioneus. Some make him son of Dia by Jupiter, who assumed the shape of a horse whenever he paid his addresses to his mistress. He was king of the Lapithæ, and, as an ambitious prince, he wished to become acquainted with Theseus, king of Athens, of whose fame and exploits he had heard so many reports. To see him, and at the same time to be a witness of his valour, he resolved to invade his territories with an army. Theseus immediately met him on the borders of Attica, but at the sight of one another the two enemies did not begin the engagement, but, struck with the appearance of each other, they stepped between the hostile armies. Their meeting was like that of the most cordial friends, and Pirithous, by giving Theseus his hand as a pledge of his sincerity, promised to repair all the damages which his hostilities in Attica might have occasioned. From that time, therefore, the two monarchs became the most intimate and the most attached of friends, so much, that their friendship, like that of Orestes and Pylades, is become proverbial. Pirithous some time after married Hippodamia, and invited not only the heroes of his age, but also the gods themselves, and his neighbours the Centaurs, to celebrate his nuptials. Mars was the only one of the gods who was not invited, and to punish this neglect, the god of war was determined to raise a quarrel among the guests, and to disturb the festivity of the entertainment. Eurythion, captivated with the beauty of Hippodamia, and intoxicated with wine, attempted to offer violence to the bride, but he was prevented by Theseus, and immediately killed. This irritated the rest of the Centaurs; the contest became general, but the valour of Theseus, Pirithous, Hercules, and the rest of the Lapithæ, triumphed over their enemies. Many of the Centaurs were slain, and the rest saved their lives by flight. See: Lapithus. The death of Hippodamia left Pirithous very disconsolate, and he resolved with his friend Theseus, who had likewise lost his wife, never to marry again, except to a goddess, or one of the daughters of the gods. This determination occasioned the rape of Helen by the two friends; the lot was drawn, and it fell to the share of Theseus to have the beautiful prize. Pirithous upon this undertook with his friend to carry away Proserpine and to marry her. They descended into the infernal regions, but Pluto, who was apprised of their machinations to disturb his conjugal peace, stopped the two friends and confined them there. Pirithous was tied to his father’s wheel, or, according to Hyginus, he was delivered to the furies to be continually tormented. His punishment, however, was short, and when Hercules visited the kingdom of Pluto, he obtained from Proserpine the pardon of Pirithous, and brought him back to his kingdom safe and unhurt. Some suppose that he was torn to pieces by the dog Cerberus. See: Theseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, fable 4 & 5.――Hesiod, Shield of Heracles.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 2. ――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 10.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 2, ch. 5.――Hyginus, fables 14, 79, 155.――Diodorus, bk. 4.――Plutarch, Theseus.――Horace, bk. 4, ode 7.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 304.――Martial, bk. 7, ltr. 23.
=Pirus=, a captain of the Thracians during the Trojan war, killed by Thoas king of Ætolia. Homer, Iliad, bk. 4.
=Pirustæ=, a people of Illyricum. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Pisa=, a town of Elis, on the Alpheus at the west of the Peloponnesus, founded by Pisus the son of Perieres, and grandson of Æolus. Its inhabitants accompanied Nestor to the Trojan war, and they enjoyed long the privilege of presiding at the Olympic games, which were celebrated near their city. This honourable appointment was envied by the people of Elis, who made war against the Piseans, and after many bloody battles took their city and totally demolished it. It was at Pisa that Œnomaus murdered the suitors of his daughter, and that he himself was conquered by Pelops. The inhabitants were called Pisæi. Some have doubted the existence of such a place as Pisa; but this doubt originates from Pisa’s having been destroyed in so remote an age. The horses of Pisa were famous. The year on which the Olympic games were celebrated, was often called Pisæus annus, and the victory which was obtained there was called Pisææ ramus olivæ. See: Olympia. Strabo, bk. 8.――Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 386; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 95.――Mela, bk. 2.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 180.――Statius, Thebaid, bk. 7, li. 417.――Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 22.
=Pisæ=, a town of Etruria, built by a colony from Pisa in the Peloponnesus. The inhabitants were called Pisani. Dionysius of Halicarnassus affirms that it existed before the Trojan war, but others support that it was built by a colony of Pisæans, who were shipwrecked on the coast of Etruria at their return from the Trojan war. Pisæ was once a very powerful and flourishing city, which conquered the Baleares, together with Sardinia and Corsica. The sea on the neighbouring coast was called the bay of Pisæ. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 179.――Strabo, bk. 5.――Lucan, bk. 2, li. 401. ――Livy, bk. 39, ch. 2; bk. 45, ch. 13.――Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Pisæus=, a surname of Jupiter at Pisa.
=Pisander=, a son of Bellerophon, killed by the Solymi.――――A Trojan chief, killed by Menelaus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, li. 601.――――One of Penelope’s suitors, son of Polyctor. Ovid, Heroides, poem 1. ――――A son of Antimachus, killed by Agamemnon during the Trojan war. He had had recourse to entreaties and promises, but in vain, as the Grecian wished to resent the advice of Antimachus, who opposed the restoration of Helen. Homer, Iliad, bk. 11, li. 123.――――An admiral of the Spartan fleet during the Peloponnesian war. He abolished the democracy at Athens, and established the aristocratical government of the 400 tyrants. He was killed in a naval battle by Conon the Athenian general near Cnidus, in which the Spartans lost 50 galleys, B.C. 394. Diodorus.――――A poet of Rhodes, who composed a poem called Heraclea, in which he gave an account of all the labours and all the exploits of Hercules. He was the first who ever represented his hero armed with a club. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 22.
=Pisātes=, or =Pisæi=, the inhabitants of Pisa in the Peloponnesus.
=Pisaurus=, now Poglia, a river of Picenum, with a town called Pisaurum, now Pesaro, which became a Roman colony in the consulship of Claudius Pulcher. The town was destroyed by an earthquake in the beginning of the reign of Augustus. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.――Catullus, poem 82.――Pliny, bk. 3.――Livy, bk. 39, ch. 44; bk. 41, ch. 27.
=Pisēnor=, a son of Ixion and the cloud.――――One of the ♦ancestors of the nurse of Ulysses. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 1.
♦ ‘ancestor’ replaced with ‘ancestors’
=Piseus=, a king of ♦Etruria, about 260 years before the foundation of Rome. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 26.
♦ ‘Etrura’ replaced with ‘Etruria’
=Pisias=, a general of the Argives in the age of Epaminondas.――――A statuary at Athens, celebrated for his pieces. Pausanias.
=Pĭsĭdia=, an inland country of Asia Minor, between Phrygia, Pamphylia, Galatia, and Isauria. It was rich and fertile. The inhabitants were called Pisidæ. Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 1.――Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2.――Strabo, bk. 12.――Livy, bk. 37, chs. 54 & 56.
=Pisidĭce=, a daughter of Æolus, who married Myrmidon.――――A daughter of Nestor.――――A daughter of Pelias.――――The daughter of a king of Methymna in Lesbos. She became enamoured of Achilles when he invaded her father’s kingdom, and she promised to deliver the city into his hands if he would marry her. Achilles agreed to the proposal, but when he became master of Methymna, he ordered Pisidice to be stoned to death for her perfidy. Parthenius, Narrationes Amatoriæ, ch. 21.
=Pisis=, a native of Thespia, who gained uncommon influence among the Thebans, and behaved with great courage in the defence of their liberties. He was taken prisoner by Demetrius, who made him governor of Thespia.
=Pisistrătĭdæ=, the descendants of Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. See: Pisistratus.
=Pisistrătĭdes=, a man sent as ambassador to the satraps of the king of Persia, by the Spartans.
=Pisistrătus=, an Athenian, son of Hippocrates, who early distinguished himself by his valour in the field, and by his address and eloquence at home. After he had rendered himself the favourite of the populace by his liberality, and by the intrepidity with which he had fought their battles, particularly near Salamis, he resolved to make himself master of his country. Everything seemed favourable to his views; but Solon alone, who was then at the head of affairs, and who had lately instituted his celebrated laws, opposed him, and discovered his duplicity and artful behaviour before the public assembly. Pisistratus was not disheartened by the measures of his relation Solon, but he had recourse to artifice. In returning from his country house, he cut himself in various places, and after he had exposed his mangled body to the eyes of the populace, deplored his misfortunes, and accused his enemies of attempts upon his life, because he was the friend of the people, the guardian of the poor, and the reliever of the oppressed; he claimed a chosen body of 50 men from the populace to defend his person in future from the malevolence and the cruelty of his enemies. The unsuspecting people unanimously granted his request, though Solon opposed it with all his influence; and Pisistratus had no sooner received an armed band, on whose fidelity and attachment he could rely, than he seized the citadel of Athens, and made himself absolute. The people too late perceived their credulity; yet, though the tyrant was popular, two of the citizens, Megacles and Lycurgus, conspired together against him, and by their means he was forcibly ejected from the city. His house and all his effects were exposed to sale, but there was found in Athens only one man who would buy them. The private dissensions of the friends of liberty proved favourable to the expelled tyrant, and Megacles, who was jealous of Lycurgus, secretly promised to restore Pisistratus to all his rights and privileges in Athens, if he would marry his daughter. Pisistratus consented, and, by the assistance of his father-in-law, he was soon enabled to expel Lycurgus, and to re-establish himself. By means of a woman called Phya, whose shape was tall, and whose features were noble and commanding, he imposed upon the people, and created himself adherents even among his enemies. Phya was conducted through the streets of the city, and, showing herself subservient to the artifice of Pisistratus, she was announced as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of Athens, who was come down from heaven to re-establish her favourite Pisistratus, in a power which was sanctioned by the will of the gods, and favoured by the affection of the people. In the midst of his triumph, however, Pisistratus felt himself unsupported, and some time after, when he repudiated the daughter of Megacles, he found that not only the citizens, but even his very troops, were alienated from him by the influence, the intrigues, and the bribery of his father-in-law. He fled from Athens, where he could no longer maintain his power, and retired to Eubœa. Eleven years after, he was drawn from his obscure retreat, by means of his son Hippias, and he was a third time received by the people of Athens as their master and sovereign. Upon this he sacrificed to his resentment the friends of Megacles, but he did not lose sight of the public good; and while he sought the aggrandizement of his family, he did not neglect the dignity and the honour of the Athenian name. He died about 527 years before the christian era, after he had enjoyed the sovereign power at Athens for 33 years, including the years of his banishment, and he was succeeded by his son Hipparchus. Pisistratus claims our admiration for his justice, his liberality, and his moderation. If he was dreaded and detested as a tyrant, the Athenians loved and respected his private virtues and his patriotism as a fellow-citizen; and the opprobrium which generally falls on his head may be attributed not to the severity of his administration, but to the republican principles of the Athenians, who hated and exclaimed against the moderation and equity of the mildest sovereign, while they flattered the pride and gratified the guilty desires of the most tyrannical of their fellow-subjects. Pisistratus often refused to punish the insolence of his enemies; and when he had one day been violently accused of murder, rather than inflict immediate punishment upon the man who had criminated him, he went to the Areopagus, and there convinced the Athenians that the accusations of his enemies were groundless, and that his life was irreproachable. It is to his labours that we are indebted for the preservation of the poems of Homer, and he was the first, according to Cicero, who introduced them at Athens, in the order in which they now stand. He also established a public library at Athens; and the valuable books which he had diligently collected, were carried into Persia when Xerxes made himself master of the capital of Attica. Hipparchus and Hippias, the sons of Pisistratus, who have received the name of Pisistratidæ, rendered themselves as illustrious as their father; but the flames of liberty were too powerful to be extinguished. The Pisistratidæ governed with great moderation, yet the name of tyrant or sovereign was insupportable to the Athenians. Two of the most respectable of the citizens, called Harmodius and Aristogiton, conspired against them, and Hipparchus was dispatched in a public assembly. This murder was not, however, attended with any advantage, and though the two leaders of the conspiracy, who have been celebrated through every age for their patriotism, were supported by the people, yet Hippias quelled the tumult by his uncommon firmness and prudence, and for a while preserved that peace in Athens which his father had often been unable to command. This was not long to continue, Hippias was at last expelled by the united efforts of the Athenians and of their allies of Peloponnesus; and he left Attica, when he found himself unable to maintain his power and independence. The rest of the family of Pisistratus followed him in his banishment, and after they had refused to accept the liberal offers of the princes of Thessaly, and the king of Macedonia, who wished them to settle in their respective territories, the Pisistratidæ retired to Sigæum, which their father had, in the summit of his power, conquered and bequeathed to his posterity. After the banishment of the Pisistratidæ, the Athenians became more than commonly jealous of their liberty, and often sacrificed the most powerful of their citizens, apprehensive of the influence which popularity and a well-directed liberality might gain among the fickle and unsettled populace. The Pisistratidæ were banished from Athens about 18 years after the death of Pisistratus, B.C. 510. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 13, ch. 14.――Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 26.――Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 59; bk. 6, ch. 103.――Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 3.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――A son of Nestor. Apollodorus.――――A king of Orchomenos, who rendered himself odious by his cruelty towards his nobles. He was put to death by them; and they carried away his body from the public assembly, by hiding each a piece of his flesh under their garments, to prevent a discovery from the people, of whom he was a great favourite. Plutarch, Parallela minora.――――A Theban attached to the Roman interest while the consul Flaminius was in Greece. He assassinated the pretor of Bœotia, for which he was put to death, &c.
=Piso=, a celebrated family at Rome, which was a branch of the Calpurnians, descended from Calpus the son of Numa. Before the death of Augustus, 11 of this family had obtained the consulship, and many had been honoured with triumphs, on account of their victories in the different provinces of the Roman empire. Of this family the most famous were――――Lucius Calpurnius, who was tribune of the people about 149 years before Christ, and afterwards consul. His frugality procured him the surname of Frugi, and he gained the greatest honours as an orator, a lawyer, a statesman, and an historian. He made a successful campaign in Sicily, and rewarded his son, who had behaved with great valour during the war, with a crown of gold, which weighed 20 pounds. He composed some annals and harangues, which were lost in the age of Cicero. His style was obscure and inelegant. ――――Caius, a Roman consul, A.U.C. 687 who supported the consular dignity against the tumults of the tribunes, and the clamours of the people. He made a law to restrain the cabals which generally prevailed at the election of the chief magistrates.――――Cneus, another consul under Augustus. He was one of the favourites of Tiberius, by whom he was appointed governor of Syria, where he rendered himself odious by his cruelty. He was accused of having poisoned Germanicus; and when he saw that he was shunned and despised by his friends, he destroyed himself, A.D. 20.――――Lucius, a governor of Spain, who was assassinated by a peasant, as he was travelling through the country; the murderer was seized and tortured, but he refused to confess the causes of the murder.――――Lucius, a private man accused of having uttered seditious words against the emperor Tiberius. He was condemned, but a natural death saved him from the hands of the executioner.――――Lucius, a governor of Rome for 20 years, an office which he discharged with the greatest justice and credit. He was greatly honoured by the friendship of Augustus, as well as of his successor, a distinction he deserved, both as a faithful citizen and a man of learning. Some, however, say that Tiberius made him governor of Rome, because he had continued drinking with him a night and two days, or two days and two nights, according to Pliny. Horace dedicated his poem, De Arte Poeticâ, to his two sons, whose partiality for literature had distinguished them among the rest of the Romans, and who were fond of cultivating ♦poetry in their leisure hours. Plutarch, Cæsar.――Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 3.――――Cneus, a factious and turbulent youth, who conspired against his country with Catiline. He was among the friends of Julius Cæsar.――――Caius, a Roman who was at the head of a celebrated conspiracy against the emperor Nero. He had rendered himself a favourite of the people by his private as well as public virtues, by the generosity of his behaviour, his fondness of pleasure with the voluptuous, and his austerity with the grave and the reserved. He had been marked by some as a proper person to succeed the emperor; but the discovery of the plot by a freed man who was among the conspirators, soon cut him off, with all his partisans. He refused to court the affections of the people and of the army, when the whole had been made public; and instead of taking proper measures for his preservation, either by proclaiming himself emperor, as his friends advised, or by seeking a retreat in the distant provinces of the empire, he retired to his own house, where he opened the veins of both his arms, and bled to death. ――――Lucius, a senator who followed the emperor Valerian into Persia. He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of Valerian, but he was defeated and put to death a few weeks after, A.D. 261, by Valens, &c.――――Licimanus, a senator adopted by the emperor Galba. He was put to death by Otho’s orders.――――A son-in-law of Cicero.――――A patrician, whose daughter married Julius Cæsar. Horace.――Tacitus, Annals & Histories.――Valerius Maximus.――Livy.――Suetonius.――Cicero, de Officiis, &c.――Plutarch, Cæsar, &c.――――One of the 30 tyrants appointed over Athens by Lysander.
♦ ‘poety’ replaced with ‘poetry’
=Pĭsōnis villa=, a place near Baiæ in Campania, which the emperor Nero often frequented. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1.
=Pissirus=, a town of Thrace, near the river Nestus. Herodius, bk. 7, ch. 109.
=Pistor=, a surname given to Jupiter by the Romans, signifying baker, because when their city was taken by the Gauls, the god persuaded them to throw down loaves from the Tarpeian hill where they were besieged, that the enemy might from thence suppose that they were not in want of provisions, though in reality they were near surrendering through famine. This deceived the Gauls, and they soon after raised the siege. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, lis. 350, 394, &c.
=Pistoria=, now Pistoja, a town of Etruria, at the foot of the Apennines, near Florence, where ♦Catiline was defeated. Sallust, Catilinæ Coniuratio, ch. 47.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.
♦ ‘Cataline’ replaced with ‘Catiline’
=Pisus=, a son of Aphareus, or, according to others, of Perieres. Apollodorus, bk. 3.――Pausanias, bk. 5.
=Pisuthnes=, a Persian satrap of Lydia, who revolted from Darius Nothus. His father’s name was Hystaspes. Plutarch, Artaxerxes.
=Pităne=, a town of Æolia in Asia Minor. The inhabitants made bricks which swam on the surface of the water. Lucan, bk. 3, li. 305. ――Strabo, bk. 13.――Vitruvius, bk. 2, ch. 3.――Mela, bk. 1, ch. 18.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 357.――――A town of Laconia. Pindar, ode 6, li. 46.
=Pitarātus=, an Athenian archon, during whose magistracy Epicurus died. Cicero, De Fato, ch. 9.
=Pithecūsa=, a small island on the coast of Etruria, anciently called Ænaria and Enarina, with a town of the same name, on the top of a mountain. The frequent earthquakes to which it was subject obliged the inhabitants to leave it. There was a volcano in the middle of the island, which has given occasion to the ancients to say that the giant Typhon was buried there. Some suppose that it received its name from πιθηκοι, monkeys, into which the inhabitants were changed by Jupiter. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 90.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 6.――Pindar, Pythian, poem 1.――Strabo, bk. 1.
=Pitheus.= See: Pittheus.
=Pitho=, called also Suada, the goddess of persuasion among the Greeks and Romans supposed to be the daughter of Mercury and Venus. She was represented with a diadem on her head, to intimate her influence over the hearts of men. One of her arms appears raised, as in the attitude of an orator haranguing in a public assembly, and with the other she holds a thunderbolt, and fetters made with flowers, to signify the powers of reasoning and the attractions of eloquence. A caduceus, as a symbol of persuasion, appears at her feet, with the writings of Demosthenes and Cicero, the two most celebrated among the ancients, who understood how to command the attention of their audience, and to rouse and animate their various passions.――――A Roman courtesan. She received this name on account of the allurements which her charms possessed, and of her winning expressions.
=Pitholāus= and =Lycophron=, seized upon the sovereign power of Pheræ, by killing Alexander. They were ejected by Philip of Macedonia. Diodorus, bk. 16.
=Pīthŏleon=, an insignificant poet of Rhodes, who mingled Greek and Latin in his compositions. He wrote some epigrams against Julius Cæsar, and drew upon himself the ridicule of Horace, on account of the inelegance of his style. Suetonius, Lives of the Rhetoricians. ――Horace, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 21.――Macrobius, bk. 2, Saturnalia, ch. 2.
=Pithon=, one of the body-guards of Alexander, put to death by Antiochus.
=Pithys=, a nymph beloved by Pan. Boreas was also fond of her, but she slighted his addresses, upon which he dashed her against a rock, and she was changed into a pine tree.
=Pittăcus=, a native of Mitylene in Lesbos, was one of the seven wise men of Greece. His father’s name was Cyrrhadius. With the assistance of the sons of Alcæus, he delivered his country from the oppression of the tyrant Melanchrus, and in the war which the Athenians waged against Lesbos he appeared at the head of his countrymen, and challenged to single combat Phrynon, the enemy’s general. As the event of the war seemed to depend upon this combat, Pittacus had recourse to artifice, and when he engaged, he entangled his adversary in a net, which he had concealed under his shield, and easily despatched him. He was amply rewarded for his victory, and his countrymen, sensible of his merit, unanimously appointed him governor of their city with unlimited authority. In this capacity Pittacus behaved with great moderation and prudence, and after he had governed his fellow-citizens with the strictest justice, and after he had established and enforced the most salutary laws, he voluntarily resigned the sovereign power after he had enjoyed it for 10 years, observing that the virtues and innocence of private life were incompatible with the power and influence of a sovereign. His disinterestedness gained him many admirers, and when the Mityleneans wished to reward his public services by presenting him with an immense tract of territory, he refused to accept more land than what should be contained within the distance to which he could throw a javelin. He died in the 82nd year of his age, about 570 years before Christ, after he had spent the last 10 years of his life in literary ease, and peaceful retirement. One of his favourite maxims was, that man ought to provide against misfortunes to avoid them; but that if they ever happened he ought to support them with patience and resignation. In prosperity friends were to be acquired, and in the hour of adversity their faithfulness was to be tried. He also observed, that in our actions it was imprudent to make others acquainted with our designs, for if we failed we had exposed ourselves to censure and to ridicule. Many of his maxims were inscribed on the walls of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, to show the world how great an opinion the Mityleneans entertained of his abilities as a philosopher, a moralist, and a man. By one of his laws, every fault committed by a man when intoxicated, deserved double punishment. The titles of some of his writings are preserved by Laërtius, among which are mentioned elegiac verses, some laws in prose, addressed to his countrymen, epistles, and moral precepts called adomena. Diogenes Laërtius.――Aristotle, Politics. ――Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium.――Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 24.――Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, &c.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 2, sect. 5.――――A grandson of Porus king of India.
=Pitthea=, a town near Trœzene. Hence the epithet of Pittheus in Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 296.
=Pitthēus=, a king of Trœzene in Argolis, son of Pelops and Hippodamia. He was universally admired for his learning, wisdom, and application; he publicly taught in a school at Trœzene, and even composed a book, which was seen by Pausanias the geographer. He gave his daughter Æthra in marriage to Ægeus king of Athens, and he himself took particular care of the youth and education of his grandson Theseus. He was buried at Trœzene, which he had founded, and on his tomb were seen, for many ages, three seats of white marble, on which he sat, with two other judges, whenever he gave laws to his subjects or settled their disputes. Pausanias, bks. 1 & 2.――Plutarch, Theseus.――Strabo, bk. 8.
=Pituanius=, a mathematician in the age of Tiberius, thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2.
=Pitulāni=, a people of Umbria. Their chief town was called Pitulum.
=Pityæa=, a town of Asia Minor. Apollonius.
=Pityassus=, a town of Pisidia. Strabo.
=Pityonēsus=, a small island on the coast of Peloponnesus, near Epidaurus. Pliny.
=Pityus= (untis), now Pitchinda, a town of Colchis. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Pityūsa=, a small island on the coast of Argolis. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――A name of Chios.――――Two small islands in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Spain, of which the larger was called Ebusus, and the smaller Ophiusa. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.――Strabo.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Pius=, a surname given to the emperor Antoninus, on account of his piety and virtue.――――A surname given to a son of Metellus, because he interested himself so warmly to have his father recalled from banishment.
=Placentia=, now called Placenza, an ancient town and colony of Italy, at the confluence of the Trebia and Po. Livy, bk. 21, chs. 25 & 56; bk. 37, ch. 10.――――Another, near Lusitania, in Spain.
=Placideianus=, a gladiator in Horace’s age, bk. 2, satire 7.
=Placidia=, a daughter of Theodosius the Great, sister to Honorius and Arcadius. She married Adolphus king of the Goths, and afterwards Constantine, by whom she had Valentinian III. She died A.D. 449.
=Placidius Julius=, a tribune of a cohort, who imprisoned the emperor Vitellius, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 85.
=Planasia=, a small island of the ♦Tyrrhene sea.――――Another, on the coast of Gaul, where Tiberius ordered Agrippa the grandson of Augustus to be put to death. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 3.――――A town on the Rhone.
♦ ‘Tyrhene’ replaced with ‘Tyrrhene’
=Plancīna=, a woman celebrated for her intrigues and her crimes, who married Piso, and was accused with him of having murdered Germanicus, in the reign of Tiberius. She was acquitted either by means of the empress Livia, or on account of the partiality of the emperor for her person. She had long supported the spirits of her husband, during his confinement, but when she saw herself freed from the accusation, she totally abandoned him to his fate. Subservient in everything to the will of Livia, she, at her instigation, became guilty of the greatest crimes, to injure the character of Agrippina. After the death of Agrippina, Plancina was accused of the most atrocious villanies, and, as she knew she could not elude justice, she put herself to death, A.D. 33. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 26, &c.
=Lucius Plancus Munatius=, a Roman, who rendered himself ridiculous by his follies and his extravagance. He had been consul, and had presided over a province in the capacity of governor; but he forgot all his dignity, and became one of the most servile flatterers of Cleopatra and Antony. At the court of the Egyptian queen in Alexandria, he appeared in the character of the meanest stage dancer, and in a comedy he personated Glaucus, and painted his body of a green colour, dancing on a public stage quite naked, only with a crown of green reeds on his head, while he had tied behind his back the tail of a large sea fish. This exposed him to the public derision, and when Antony had joined the rest of his friends in censuring him for his unbecoming behaviour, he deserted to Octavius, who received him with great marks of friendship and attention. It was he who proposed, in the Roman senate, that the title of Augustus should be conferred on his friend Octavius, as expressive of the dignity and the reverence which the greatness of his exploits seemed to claim. Horace has dedicated bk. 1, ode 7, to him; and he certainly deserved the honour, from the elegance of his letters, which are still extant, written to Cicero. He founded a town in Gaul, which he called Lugdunum. Plutarch, Antonius.――――A patrician, proscribed by the second triumvirate. His servants wished to save him from death, but he refused it, rather than to expose their persons to danger.
=Phangon=, a courtesan of Miletus, in Ionia.
=Platæa=, a daughter of Asopus king of Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 1, &c.――――An island on the coast of Africa in the Mediterranean. It belonged to the Cyreneans. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 157.
=Platæa=, and æ (arum), a town of Bœotia, near mount Cithæron, on the confines of Megaris and Attica, celebrated for a battle fought there between Mardonius the commander of Xerxes king of Persia, and Pausanias the Lacedæmonian, and the Athenians. The Persian army consisted of 300,000 men, 3000 of which scarce escaped with their lives by flight. The Grecian army, which was greatly inferior, lost but few men, and among these 91 Spartans, 52 Athenians, and 16 Tegeans, were the only soldiers found in the number of the slain. The plunder which the Greeks obtained in the Persian camp was immense. Pausanias received the tenth of all the spoils, on account of his uncommon valour during the engagement, and the rest were rewarded each according to their respective merit. This battle was fought on the 22nd September, the same day as the battle of Mycale, 479 B.C., and by it Greece was totally delivered for ever from the continual alarms to which she was exposed on account of the Persian invasions, and from that time none of the princes of Persia dared to appear with a hostile force beyond the Hellespont. The Platæans were naturally attached to the interest of the Athenians, and they furnished them with 1000 soldiers when Greece was attacked by Datis the general of Darius. Platæa was taken by the Thebans, after a famous siege, in the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, and destroyed by the Spartans, B.C. 427. Alexander rebuilt it, and paid great encomiums to the inhabitants, on account of their ancestors, who had so bravely fought against the Persians at the battle of Marathon, and under Pausanias. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 50.――Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 1.――Plutarch, Alexander, &c.――Cornelius Nepos, &c.――Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 1, ch. 18.――Strabo.――Justin.
=Platanius=, a river of Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 24.
=Plato=, a celebrated philosopher at Athens, son of Ariston and Parectonia. His original name was Aristocles, and he received that of Plato from the largeness of his shoulders. As one of the descendants of Codrus, and as the offspring of a noble, illustrious, and opulent family, Plato was educated with care, his body was formed and invigorated with gymnastic exercises, and his mind was cultivated and enlightened by the study of poetry and of geometry, from which he derived that acuteness of judgment and warmth of imagination which have stamped his character as the most subtle and flowery writer of antiquity. He first began his literary career by writing poems and tragedies; but he was soon disgusted with his own productions, when, at the age of 20, he was introduced into the presence of Socrates, and when he was enabled to compare and examine, with critical accuracy, the merit of his compositions with those of his poetical predecessors. He therefore committed to the flames these productions of his early years, which could not command the attention or gain the applause of a maturer age. During eight years he continued to be one of the pupils of Socrates; and if he was prevented by a momentary indisposition from attending the philosopher’s last moments, yet he collected from the conversation of those that were present, and from his own accurate observations, the minutest and most circumstantial accounts, which can exhibit, in its truest colours, the concern and sensibility of the pupil, and the firmness, virtues, and moral sentiments of the dying philosopher. After the death of Socrates, Plato retired from Athens, and to acquire that information which the accurate observer can derive in foreign countries, he began to travel over Greece. He visited Megara, Thebes, and Elis, where he met with the kindest reception from his fellow-disciples, whom the violent death of their master had likewise removed from Attica. He afterwards visited Magna Græcia, attracted by the fame of the Pythagorean philosophy, and by the learning, abilities, and reputation of its professors, Philolaus, Archytas, and Eurytus. He afterwards passed into Sicily, and examined the eruptions and fires of the volcano of that island. He also visited Egypt, where then the mathematician Theodorus flourished, and where he knew that the tenets of the Pythagorean philosophy and metempsychosis had been fostered and cherished. When he had finished his travels, Plato retired to the groves of Academus, in the neighbourhood of Athens, where his lectures were soon attended by a crowd of learned, noble, and illustrious pupils; and the philosopher, by refusing to have a share in the administration of affairs, rendered his name more famous, and his school more frequented. During forty years he presided at the head of the academy, and there he devoted his time to the instruction of his pupils, and composed those dialogues which have been the admiration of every age and country. His studies, however, were interrupted for a while, whilst he obeyed the pressing calls and invitations of Dionysius, and whilst he persuaded the tyrant to become a man, the father of his people, and the friend of liberty. See: Dionysius II. In his dress the philosopher was not ostentatious; his manners were elegant but modest, simple without affectation; and the great honours which his learning deserved were not paid to his appearance. When he came to the Olympian games, Plato resided, during the celebration, in a family who were totally strangers to him. He ate and drank with them, he partook of their innocent pleasures and amusements; but though he told them his name was Plato, yet he never spoke of the employment which he pursued at Athens, and never introduced the name of that philosopher whose doctrines he followed, and whose death and virtues were favourite topics of conversation in every part of Greece. When he returned home, he was attended by the family which had so kindly entertained him; and, as being a native of Athens, he was desired to show them the great philosopher whose name he bore: their surprise was great when he told them that he himself was the Plato whom they wished to behold. In his diet he was moderate, and, indeed, to sobriety and temperance in the use of food, and to the want of those pleasures which enfeeble the body and enervate the mind, some have attributed his preservation during the tremendous pestilence which raged at Athens with so much fury at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Plato was never subject to any long or lingering indisposition, and though change of climate had enfeebled a constitution naturally strong and healthy, the philosopher lived to an advanced age, and was often heard to say, when his physicians advised him to leave his residence at Athens, where the air was impregnated by the pestilence, that he would not advance one single step to gain the top of mount Athos, were he assured to attain the great longevity which the inhabitants of that mountain were said to enjoy above the rest of mankind. Plato died on his birthday, in the 81st year of his age, about 348 years before the christian era. His last moments were easy and without pain, and, according to some, he expired in the midst of an entertainment, or, according to Cicero, as he was writing. The works of Plato are numerous; they are all written in the form of a dialogue, except 12 letters. He speaks always by the mouth of others, and the philosopher has nowhere made mention of himself except once in his dialogue intituled Phædon, and another time in his apology for Socrates. His writings were so celebrated, and, his opinion so respected, that he was called divine; and for the elegance, melody, and sweetness of his expressions, he was distinguished by the appellation of the Athenian bee. Cicero had such an esteem for him, that in the warmth of panegyric, he exclaimed, Errare meherculè malo cum Platone quàm cum istis vera sentire; and Quintilian said that, when he read Plato, he seemed to hear not a man, but a divinity speaking. His style, however, though admired and commended by the best and most refined of critics among the ancients, has not escaped the censure of some of the moderns; and the philosopher has been blamed, who supports that fire is a pyramid tied to the earth by numbers, that the world is a figure consisting of 12 pentagons, and who, to prove the metempsychosis and the immortality of the soul, asserts that the dead are born from the living, and the living from the dead. The speculative mind of Plato was employed in examining things divine and human, and he attempted to fix and ascertain, not only the practical doctrine of morals and politics, but the more subtle and abstruse theory of mystical theogony. His philosophy was universally received and adopted, and it has not only governed the opinions of the speculative part of mankind, but it continues still to influence the reasoning, and to divide the sentiments, of the moderns. In his system of philosophy he followed the physics of Heraclitus, the metaphysical opinions of Pythagoras, and the morals of Socrates. He maintained the existence of two beings, one self-existent, and the other formed by the hand of a pre-existent creature, god and man. The world was created by that self-existent cause, from the rude undigested mass of matter which had existed from all eternity, and which had even been animated by an irregular principle of motion. The origin of evil could not be traced under the government of a deity, without admitting a stubborn intractability and wildness congenial to matter, and from these, consequently, could be demonstrated the deviations from the laws of nature, and from thence the extravagant passions and appetites of men. From materials like these were formed the four elements, and the beautiful structure of the heavens and the earth; and into the active but irrational principle of matter, the divinity infused a rational soul. The souls of men were formed from the remainder of the rational soul of the world, which had previously given existence to the invisible gods and demons. The philosopher, therefore, supported the doctrine of ideal forms, and the pre-existence of the human mind, which he considered as emanations of the Deity, which can never remain satisfied with objects or things unworthy of their divine original. Men could perceive, with their corporeal senses, the types of immutable things and the fluctuating objects of the material world; but the sudden changes to which these are continually obnoxious, create innumerable disorders, and hence arise deception, and, in short, all the errors and miseries of human life. Yet, in whatever situation man may be, he is still an object of divine concern; and, to recommend himself to the favour of the pre-existent cause, he must comply with the purposes of his creation, and, by proper care and diligence, he can recover those immaculate powers with which he was naturally endowed. All science the philosopher made to consist in reminiscence, and in recalling the nature, forms, and proportions of those perfect and immutable essences with which the human mind had been conversant. From observations like these, the summit of felicity might be attained by removing from the material, and approaching nearer to the intellectual world, by curbing and governing the passions which were ever agitated and inflamed by real and imaginary objects. The passions were divided into two classes: the first consisted of the irascible passions, which originated in pride or resentment, and were seated in the breast; the other, founded on the love of pleasure, was the concupiscible part of the soul seated in the belly, and inferior parts of the body. These different orders induced the philosopher to compare the soul to a small republic, of which the reasoning and judging powers were stationed in the head, as in a firm citadel, and of which the senses were its guards and servants. By the irascible part of the soul men asserted their dignity, repelled injuries, and scorned danger; and the concupiscible part provided for the support and the necessities of the body, and when governed with propriety, it gave rise to temperance. Justice was produced by the regular dominion of reason, and by the submission of the passions; and prudence arose from the strength, acuteness, and perfection of the soul, without which all other virtues could not exist. But, amidst all this, wisdom was not easily attained; at their creation all minds were not endowed with the same excellence, the bodies which they animated on earth were not always in harmony with the divine emanation; some might be too weak, others too strong, and on the first years of a man’s life depended his future consequence; as an effeminate and licentious education seemed calculated to destroy the purposes of the divinity, while the contrary produced different effects, and tended to cultivate and improve the reasoning and judging faculty, and to produce wisdom and virtue. Plato was the first who supported the immortality of the soul upon arguments solid and permanent, deduced from truth and experience. He did not imagine that the diseases, and the death of the body, could injure the principle of life and destroy the soul, which, of itself, was of divine origin, and of an uncorrupted and immutable essence, which, though inherent for a while in matter, could not lose that power which was the emanation of God. From doctrines like these, the great founder of Platonism concluded that there might exist in the world a community of men, whose passions could be governed with moderation, and who, from knowing the evils and miseries which arise from ill conduct, might aspire to excellence, and attain that perfection which can be derived from the proper exercise of the rational and moral powers. To illustrate this more fully, the philosopher wrote a book, well known by the name of the republic of Plato, in which he explains with acuteness, judgment, and elegance the rise and revolution of civil society; and so respected was his opinion as a legislator, that his scholars were employed in regulating the republics of Arcadia, Elis, and Cnidus, at the desire of those states, and Xenocrates gave political rules for good and impartial government to the conqueror of the east. The best editions of Plato are those of Frankfurt, folio, 1602; and Bipontium, 12 vols. 8vo, 1718. Plato, Dialogues, &c.――Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 1; de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 36; de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 12; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 17.――Plutarch, Solon, &c.――Seneca, Epistulæ.――Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1, &c. ――Ælian, Varia Historia, bks. 2 & 4.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 30. ――Diogenes Laërtius.――――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia.――――A Greek poet, called the prince of the middle comedy, who flourished B.C. 445. Some fragments remain of his pieces.
=Plator=, a man of Dyrrhachium, put to death by Piso. Cicero, Against Piso, ch. 34.
=Plavis=, a river of Venetia, in Italy.
=Plautia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Plautius the tribune, A.U.C. 664. It required every tribe annually to choose 15 persons of their body, to serve as judges, making the honour common to all the three orders, according to the majority of votes in every tribe.――――Another, called also Plotia, A.U.C. 675. It punished with the interdictio ignis & aquæ, all persons who were found guilty of attempts upon the state, or the senators or magistrates, or such as appeared in public, armed with an evil design, or such as forcibly expelled any person from his legal ♦possessions.
♦ ‘possesions’ replaced with ‘possessions’
=Plautiānus Fulvius=, an African of mean birth, who was banished for his seditious behaviour in the years of his obscurity. In his banishment, Plautianus formed an acquaintance with Severus, who, some years after, ascended the imperial throne. This was the beginning of his prosperity; Severus paid the greatest attention to him, and, if we believe some authors, their familiarity and intercourse were carried beyond the bounds of modesty and propriety. Plautianus shared the favours of Severus on the throne as well as in obscurity. He was invested with as much power as his patron at Rome, and in the provinces; and, indeed, he wanted but the name of emperor to be his equal. His table was served with more delicate meats than that of the emperor; when he walked in the public streets he received the most distinguishing honours, and a number of criers ordered the most noble citizens, as well as the meanest beggars, to make way for the favourite of the emperor, and not to fix their eyes upon him. He was concerned in all the rapine and destruction which were committed through the empire, and he enriched himself with the possessions of those who had been sacrificed to the emperor’s cruelty or avarice. To complete his triumph, and to make himself still greater, Plautianus married his favourite daughter Plautilla to Caracalla the son of the emperor, and so eager was the emperor to indulge his inclinations in this and in every other respect, that he declared he loved Plautianus so much that he would even wish to die before him. The marriage of Caracalla with Plautilla was attended with serious consequences. The son of Severus had complied with great reluctance, and, though Plautilla was amiable in her manners, commanding in aspect, and of a beautiful countenance, yet the young prince often threatened to punish her haughty and imperious behaviour as soon as he succeeded to the throne. Plautilla reported the whole to her father, and to save his daughter from the vengeance of Caracalla, Plautianus conspired against the emperor and his son. The conspiracy was discovered, and Severus forgot his attachment to Plautianus, and the favours he had heaped upon him, when he heard of his perfidy. The wicked minister was immediately put to death, and Plautilla banished to the island of Lipari, with her brother Plautius, where, seven years after, she was put to death by order of Caracalla, A.D. 211. Plautilla had two children, a son who died in his childhood, and a daughter, whom Caracalla murdered in the arms of her mother. Dio Cassius.
=Plautilla=, a daughter of Plautianus the favourite minister of Severus. See: Plautianus.――――The mother of the emperor Nerva, descended of a noble family.
=Plautius=, a Roman, who became so disconsolate at the death of his wife, that he threw himself upon her burning pile. Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 6.――――Caius, a consul sent against the Privernates, &c. ――――Aulus, a governor of Britain who obtained an ovation for the conquests he had gained there over the barbarians.――――One of Otho’s friends. He dissuaded him from killing himself.――――Lateranus, an adulterer of Messalina, who conspired against Nero, and was capitally condemned.――――Aulus, a general who defeated the Umbrians and the Etrurians.――――Caius, another general, defeated in Lusitania.――――A man put to death by order of Caracalla.――――Marcus Sylvanus, a tribune, who made a law to prevent seditions in the public assemblies. ――――Rubellius, a man accused before Nero, and sent to Asia, where he was assassinated.
=Marcus Accius Plautus=, a comic poet, born at Sarsina, in Umbria. Fortune proved unkind to him, and, from competence, he was reduced to the meanest poverty, by engaging in a commercial line. To maintain himself, he entered into the family of a baker as a common servant, and while he was employed in grinding corn, he sometimes dedicated a few moments to the comic muse. Some, however, confute this account as false, and support that Plautus was never obliged to the laborious employments of a bakehouse for his maintenance. He wrote 25 comedies, of which only 20 are extant. He died about 184 years before the christian era; and Varro, his learned countryman, wrote this stanza, which deserved to be engraved on his tomb:
_Postquam morte captus est Plautus, Comœdia luget, scena est deserta; Deinde risus, ludus, jocusque, & numeri Innumeri simul omnes collacrymârunt._
The plays of Plautus were ♦universally esteemed at Rome, and the purity, the energy, and the elegance of his language were, by other writers, considered as objects of imitation; and Varro, whose judgment is great, and generally decisive, declares, that if the Muses were willing to speak Latin, they would speak in the language of Plautus. In the Augustan age, however, when the Roman language became more pure and refined, the comedies of Plautus did not appear free from inaccuracy. The poet, when compared to the more elegant expressions of a Terence, was censured for his negligence in versification, his low wit, execrable puns, and disgusting obscenities. Yet, however censured as to language or sentiments, Plautus continued to be a favourite on the stage. If his expressions were not choice or delicate, it was ♦universally admitted that he was more happy than other comic writers in his pictures; the incidents of his plays were more varied, the acts more interesting, the characters more truly displayed, and the catastrophe more natural. In the reign of the emperor Diocletian, his comedies were still acted on the public theatres; and no greater compliment can be paid to his abilities as a comic writer, and no greater censure can be passed upon his successors in dramatic composition, than to observe, that for 500 years, with all the disadvantages of obsolete language and diction, in spite of the change of manners, and the revolutions of government, he commanded and received that applause which no other writer dared to dispute with him. The best editions of Plautus are that of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1664; that of Barbou, 12mo, in 3 vols., Paris, 1759; that of Ernesti, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1760; and that of Glasgow, 3 vols., 12mo, 1763. Varro on Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.――Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 1, &c.; On Oratory, bk. 3, &c.――Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, lis. 58, 170; Art of Poetry, lis. 54 & 270.――――Ælianus, a high priest, who consecrated the capitol in the reign of Vespasian. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 53.
♦ ‘univerally’ replaced with ‘universally’
=Plēiădes=, or =Vergĭliæ=, a name given to seven of the daughters of Atlas by Pleione or Æthra, one of the Oceanides. They were placed in the heavens after death, where they formed a constellation called Pleiades, near the back of the bull in the Zodiac. Their names were Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Sterope, and Celeno. They all, except Merope, who married Sisyphus king of Corinth, had some of the immortal gods for their suitors. On that account, therefore, Merope’s star is dim and obscure among the rest of her sisters, because she married a mortal. The name of the Pleiades is derived from the Greek word πλεειν, to sail, because that constellation shows the time most favourable to navigators, which is in the spring. The name of Vergiliæ they derive from ver, the spring. They are sometimes called Atlantides, from their father, or Hesperides, from the gardens of that name, which belonged to Atlas. Hyginus, fable 192; Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 21.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 293; Fasti, bk. 5, lis. 106 & 170; Hesiod, Works and Days.――Homer, Odyssey, bk. 5.――Horace, bk. 4, ode 14.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 138; bk. 4, li. 233. ――――Seven poets, who, from their number, have received the name of Pleiades, near the age of Philadelphus Ptolemy king of Egypt. Their names were Lycophron, Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius, Philicus, and Homerus the younger.
=Pleiōne=, one of the Oceanides, who married Atlas king of Mauritania, by whom she had 12 daughters, and a son called Hyas. Seven of the daughters were changed into a constellation called Pleiades, and the rest into another called Hyades. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 5, li. 84.
=Plemmy̆rium=, now Massa Oliveri, a promontory with a small castle of that name, in the bay of Syracuse. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 693.
=Plemneus=, a king of Sicyon, son of Peratus. His children always died as soon as born, till Ceres, pitying his misfortune, offered herself as a nurse to his wife as she was going to be brought to bed. The child lived by the care and protection of the goddess, and Plemneus was no sooner acquainted with the dignity of his nurse, than he raised her a temple. Pausanias, bk. 2, chs. 5 & 11.
=Pleumosii=, a people of Belgium, the inhabitants of modern Tournay. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 38.
=Pleurātus=, a king of Illyricum. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 24.
=Pleuron=, a son of Ætolus, who married Xantippe the daughter of Dorus, by whom he had Agenor. He founded a city in Ætolia on the Evenus, which bore his name. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.――Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 2.――Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 310.――Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 13. ――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 382.
=Plexaure=, one of the Oceanides. Hesiod.
=Plexippus=, a son of Thestius, brother to Althæa the wife of Œneus. He was killed by his nephew Meleager, in hunting the Calydonian boar. His brother Toxeus shared his fate. See: Althæa and Meleager.――――A son of Phineus and Cleopatra, brother to Pandion king of Athens. Apollodorus.
=Caius Plinius Secundus=, surnamed the Elder, was born at Verona, of a noble family. He distinguished himself in the field, and, after he had been made one of the augurs at Rome, he was appointed governor of Spain. In his public character he did not neglect the pleasures of literature; the day was employed in the administration of the affairs of his province, and the night was dedicated to study. Every moment of time was precious to him; at his meals one of his servants read to him books valuable for their information, and from them he immediately made copious extracts, in a memorandum book. Even while he dressed himself after bathing, his attention was called away from surrounding objects, and he was either employed in listening to another, or in dictating himself. To a mind so earnestly dedicated to learning, nothing appeared too laborious, no undertaking too troublesome. He deemed every moment lost which was not devoted to study, and from these reasons he never appeared at Rome but in a chariot, and wherever he went, he was always accompanied by his amanuensis. He even censured his nephew, Pliny the younger, because he had indulged himself with a walk, and sternly observed, that he might have employed those moments to better advantage. But if his literary pursuits made him forget the public affairs, his prudence, his abilities, and the purity and innocence of his character, made him known and respected. He was courted and admired by the emperors Titus and Vespasian, and he received from them all the favours which a virtuous prince could offer, and an honest subject receive. As he was at Misenum, where he commanded the fleet, which was then stationed there, Pliny was surprised at the sudden appearance of a cloud of dust and ashes. He was then ignorant of the cause which produced it, and he immediately set sail in a small vessel for mount Vesuvius, which he at last discovered to have made a dreadful eruption. The sight of a number of boats that fled from the coast to avoid the danger, might have deterred another, but the curiosity of Pliny excited him to advance with more boldness, and though his vessel was often covered with stones and ashes, that were continually thrown up by the mountain, yet he landed on the coast. The place was deserted by the inhabitants, but Pliny remained there during the night, the better to observe the mountain, which, during the obscurity, appeared to be one continual blaze. He was soon disturbed by a dreadful earthquake, and the contrary wind on the morrow prevented him from returning to Misenum. The eruption of the volcano increased, and at last the fire approached the place where the philosopher made his observations. Pliny endeavoured to fly before it, but though he was supported by two of his servants, he was unable to escape. He soon fell down, suffocated by the thick vapours that surrounded him, and the insupportable stench of sulphureous matter. His body was found three days after, and decently buried by his nephew, who was then at Misenum with the fleet. This memorable event happened in the 79th year of the christian era, and the philosopher who perished by the eruptions of the volcano, has been called by some the martyr of nature. He was then in the 56th year of his age. Of the works which he composed, none are extant but his natural history in 37 books. It is a work, as Pliny the younger says, full of erudition, and as varied as nature itself. It treats of the stars, the heavens, wind, rain, hail, minerals, trees, flowers, and plants, besides an account of all living animals, birds, fishes, and beasts; a geographical description of every place on the globe, and a history of every art and science, of commerce and navigation, with their rise, progress, and several improvements. He is happy in his descriptions as a naturalist; he writes with force and energy, and though many of his ideas and conjectures are sometimes ill-founded, yet he possesses that fecundity of imagination, and vivacity of expression, which are requisite to treat a subject with propriety, and to render a history of nature pleasing, interesting, and, above all, instructive. His style possesses not the graces of the Augustan age; he has neither its purity and elegance, nor its simplicity, but it is rather cramped, obscure, and sometimes unintelligible. Yet for all this it has ever been admired and esteemed, and it may be called a compilation of everything which had been written before his age on the various subjects which he treats, and a judicious collection from the most excellent treatises which had been composed on the various productions of nature. Pliny was not ashamed to mention the authors which he quoted; he speaks of them with admiration, and while he pays the greatest compliment to their abilities, his encomiums show, in the strongest light, the goodness, the sensibility, and the ingenuousness of his own mind. He had written 160 volumes of remarks and annotations on the various authors which he had read, and so great was the opinion in his contemporaries of his erudition and abilities, that a man called Lartius Lutinius offered to buy his notes and observations for the enormous sum of about 3242_l._ English money. The philosopher, who was himself rich and independent, rejected the offer, and his compilations, after his death, came into the hands of his nephew Pliny. The best editions of Pliny are that of Harduin, 3 vols., folio, Paris, 1723; that of Frantzius, 10 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1728; that of Brotier, 6 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1779; and the Variorum 8vo, in 8 vols., Lipscomb, 1778 to 1789. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 69; bk. 13, ch. 20; bk. 15, ch. 53.――Pliny, Epistulæ, &c.――――Caius Cæcilius Secundus, surnamed the Younger, was son of Lucius Cæcilius by the sister of Pliny the elder. He was adopted by his uncle, whose name he assumed, and whose estates and effects he inherited. He received the greatest part of his education under Quintilian, and at the age of 19 he appeared at the bar, where he distinguished himself so much by his eloquence, that he and Tacitus were reckoned the two greatest orators of their age. He did not make his profession an object of gain like the rest of the Roman orators, but he refused fees from the rich as well as from the poorest of his clients, and declared that he cheerfully employed himself for the protection of innocence, the relief of the indigent, and the detection of vice. He published many of his harangues and orations, which have been lost. When Trajan was invested with the imperial purple, Pliny was created consul by the emperor. This honour the consul acknowledged in a celebrated panegyric, which, at the request of the Roman senate, and in the name of the whole empire, he pronounced on Trajan. Some time after he presided over Pontus and Bithynia, in the office and with the power of proconsul, and by his humanity and philanthropy the subject was freed from the burden of partial taxes, and the persecution which had been begun against the christians of his province was stopped, when Pliny solemnly declared to the emperor that the followers of Christ were a meek and inoffensive sect of men, that their morals were pure and innocent, that they were free from all crimes, and that they voluntarily bound themselves by the most solemn oaths to abstain from vice, and to relinquish every sinful pursuit. If he rendered himself popular in his province, he was not less respected at Rome. He was there the friend of the poor, the patron of learning, great without arrogance, affable in his behaviour, and an example of good breeding, sobriety, temperance, and modesty. As a father and a husband his character was amiable; as a subject he was faithful to his prince; and as a magistrate he was candid, open, and compassionate. His native country shared, among the rest, his unbounded benevolence; and Comum, a small town of Insubria, which gave him birth, boasted of his liberality in the valuable and choice library of books which he collected there. He also contributed towards the expenses which attended the education of his countrymen, and liberally spent part of his estate for the advancement of literature, and for the instruction of those whom poverty otherwise deprived of the advantages of a public education. He made his preceptor Quintilian and the poet Martial objects of his benevolence, and when the daughter of the former was married, Pliny wrote to the father with the greatest civility; and while he observed that he was rich in the possession of learning, though poor in the goods of fortune, he begged of him to accept, as a dowry for his beloved daughter, 50,000 sesterces, about 300_l._ “I would not,” continued he, “be so moderate, were I not assured, from your modesty and disinterestedness, that the smallness of the present will render it acceptable.” He died in the 52nd year of his age, A.D. 113. He had written a history of his own times, which is lost. It is said that Tacitus did not begin his history till he had found it impossible to persuade Pliny to undertake that laborious task; and, indeed, what could not have been expected from the panegyrist of Trajan, if Tacitus acknowledged himself inferior to him in delineating the character of the times? Some suppose, but falsely, that Pliny wrote the lives of illustrious men, universally ascribed to Cornelius Nepos. He also wrote poetry, but his verses have all perished, and nothing of his learned work remains, but his panegyric on the emperor Trajan, and 10 books of letters, which he himself collected and prepared for the public, from a numerous and respectable correspondence. These letters contain many curious and interesting facts; they abound with many anecdotes of the generosity and the humane sentiments of the writer. They are written with elegance and great purity, and the reader everywhere discovers that affability, that condescension and philanthropy, which so egregiously marked the advocate of the christians. These letters are esteemed by some equal to the voluminous epistles of Cicero. In his panegyric, Pliny’s style is florid and brilliant; he has used, to the greatest advantage, the liberties of the panegyrist, and the eloquence of the courtier. His ideas are new and refined, but his diction is distinguished by that affectation and pomposity which marked the reign of Trajan. The best editions of Pliny are those of Gesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1770, and of Lallemand, 12mo, Paris apud Barbou; and of the panegyric separate, that of Schwartz, 4to, 1746, and of the epistles, the Variorum, Leiden, 1669, 8vo. Pliny, Epistulæ.――Vossius.――Sidonius.
=Plinthīne=, a town of Egypt on the Mediterranean.
=Plistarchus=, son of Leonidas, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ, succeeded on the Spartan throne at the death of Cleombrotus. Herodotus, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――A brother of Cassander.
=Plisthanus=, a philosopher of Elis, who succeeded in the school of Phædon. Diogenes Laërtius.
=Plisthĕnes=, a son of Atreus king of Argos, father of Menelaus and Agamemnon, according to Hesiod and others. Homer, however, calls Menelaus and Agamemnon sons of Atreus, though they were in reality the children of Plisthenes. The father died very young, and the two children were left in the house of their grandfather, who took care of them and instructed them. From his attention to them, therefore, it seems probable that Atreus was universally acknowledged their protector and father, and thence their surname of Atridæ. Ovid, Remedia Amoris, li. 778.――Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1.――Homer, Iliad.
=Plistīnus=, a brother of Faustulus the shepherd, who saved the life of Romulus and Remus. He was killed in a scuffle which happened between the two brothers.
=Plistoănax= and =Plistōnax=, son of Pausanias, was general of the Lacedæmonian armies in the Peloponnesian war. He was banished from his kingdom of Sparta for 19 years, and was afterwards recalled by order of the oracle of Delphi. He reigned 58 years. He had succeeded Plistarchus. Thucydides.
=Plistus=, a river of Phocis falling into the bay of Corinth. Strabo, bk. 9.
=Plotæ=, small islands on the coast of Ætolia, called also Strophades.
=Plotīna Pompeia=, a Roman lady who married Trajan while he was yet a private man. She entered Rome in the procession with her husband when he was saluted emperor, and distinguished herself by the affability of her behaviour, her humanity, and liberal offices to the poor and friendless. She accompanied Trajan in the east, and at his death she brought back his ashes to Rome, and still enjoyed all the honours and titles of a Roman empress under Adrian, who by her means had succeeded to the vacant throne. At her death, A.D. 122, she was ranked among the gods, and received divine honours, which, according to the superstition of the times, she seemed to deserve, from her regard for the good and prosperity of the Roman empire, and for her private virtues. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
=Plotinopŏlis=, a town of Thrace, built by the emperor Trajan, and called after Plotina, the founder’s wife.――――Another in Dacia.
=Plotīnus=, a Platonic philosopher of Lycopolis in Egypt. He was for eleven years a pupil of Ammonius the philosopher, and after he had profited by all the instructions of his learned preceptor, he determined to improve his knowledge, and to visit the territories of India and Persia to receive information. He accompanied Gordian in his expedition into the east, but the day which proved fatal to the emperor, nearly terminated the life of the philosopher. He saved himself by flight, and the following year he retired to Rome, where he publicly taught philosophy. His school was frequented by people of every sex, age, and quality; by senators as well as plebeians, and so great was the opinion of the public of his honesty and candour, that many, on their death-bed, left all their possessions to his care, and entrusted their children to him, as a superior being. He was the favourite of all the Romans; and while he charmed the populace by the force of his eloquence, and the senate by his doctrines, the emperor Gallienus courted him, and admired the extent of his learning. It is even said that the emperor and the empress Salonina intended to rebuild a decayed city of Campania, and to appoint the philosopher over it, that there he might experimentally know, while he presided over a colony of philosophers, the validity and the use of the ideal laws of the republic of Plato. This plan was not executed, through the envy and malice of the enemies of Plotinus. The philosopher, at last become helpless and infirm, returned to Campania, where the liberality of his friends for a while maintained him. He died A.D. 270, in the 66th year of his age, and as he expired, he declared that he made his last and most violent efforts to give up what there was most divine in him and in the rest of the universe. Amidst the great qualities of the philosopher, we discover some ridiculous singularities. Plotinus never permitted his picture to be taken, and he observed, that to see a painting of himself in the following age, was beneath the notice of an enlightened mind. These reasons also induced him to conceal the day, the hour, and the place of his birth. He never made use of medicines, and though his body was often debilitated by abstinence or too much study, he despised to have recourse to a physician, and thought that it would degrade the gravity of a philosopher. His writings have been collected by his pupil Porphyry. They consist of 54 different treatises divided into six equal parts, written with great spirit and vivacity; but the reasonings are abstruse, and the subjects metaphysical. The best edition is that of Picinus, folio, Basil, 1580.
=Plotius Crispīnus=, a stoic philosopher and poet, whose verses were very inelegant, and whose disposition was morose, for which he has been ridiculed by Horace, and called Aretalogus. Horace, bk. 1, satire 1, li. 4.――――Gallus, a native of Lugdunum, who taught grammar at Rome, and had Cicero among his pupils. Cicero, On Oratory. ――――Griphus, a man made senator by Vespasian. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3.――――A centurion in Cæsar’s army. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3, ch. 19.――――Tucca, a friend of Horace and of Virgil, who made him his heir. He was selected by Augustus, with Varius, to review the Æneid of Virgil. Horace, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40.――――Lucius, a poet in the age of the great Marius, whose exploits he celebrated in his verses.
=Plusios=, a surname of Jupiter at Sparta, expressive of his power to grant riches. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Plutarchus=, a native of Chæronea, descended of a respectable family. His father, whose name is unknown, was distinguished for his learning and virtue, and his grandfather, called Lamprias, was also as conspicuous for his eloquence and the fecundity of his genius. Under Ammonius, a reputable teacher at Delphi, Plutarch was made acquainted with philosophy and mathematics, and so well established was his character, that he was appointed by his countrymen, while yet very young, to go to the Roman proconsul, in their name, upon an affair of the most important nature. This commission he executed with honour to himself, and with success for his country. He afterwards travelled in quest of knowledge, and after he had visited, like a philosopher and an historian, the territories of Egypt and Greece, he retired to Rome, where he opened a school. His reputation made his school frequented. The emperor Trajan admired his abilities, and honoured him with the office of consul, and appointed him governor of Illyricum. After the death of his imperial benefactor, Plutarch removed from Rome to Chæronea, where he lived in the greatest tranquillity, respected by his fellow-citizens, and raised to all the honours which his native town could bestow. In this peaceful and solitary retreat, Plutarch closely applied himself to study, and wrote the greatest part of his works, and particularly his Lives. He died in an advanced age at Chæronea, about the 140th year of the christian era. Plutarch had five children by his wife, called Timoxena, four sons and one daughter. Two of the sons and the daughter died when young, and those that survived were called Plutarch and Lamprias, and the latter did honour to his father’s memory, by giving to the world an ♦accurate catalogue of his writings. In his private and public character, the historian of Chæronea was the friend of discipline. He boldly asserted the natural right of mankind, liberty; but he recommended obedience and submissive deference to magistrates, as necessary to preserve the peace of society. He supported that the most violent and dangerous public factions arose too often from private disputes and from misunderstanding. To render himself more intelligent, he always carried a commonplace book with him, and he preserved with the greatest care whatever judicious observations fell in the course of conversation. The most esteemed of his works are his lives of illustrious men, of whom he examines and delineates the different characters with wonderful skill and impartiality. He neither misrepresents the virtues, nor hides the foibles of his heroes. He writes with precision and with fidelity, and though his diction is neither pure nor elegant, yet there is energy and animation, and in many descriptions he is inferior to no historian. In some of his narrations, however, he is often too circumstantial, his remarks are often injudicious; and when he compares the heroes of Greece with those of Rome, the candid reader can easily remember which side of the Adriatic gave the historian birth. Some have accused him of not knowing the genealogy of his heroes, and have censured him for his superstition; yet for all this, he is the most entertaining, the most instructive, and interesting of all the writers of ancient history; and were a man of true taste and judgment asked what book he wished to save from destruction, of all the profane compositions of antiquity, he would perhaps without hesitation reply, the Lives of Plutarch. In his moral treatises, Plutarch appears in a different character, and his misguided philosophy and erroneous doctrines render some of these inferior compositions puerile and disgusting. They, however, contain many useful lessons and curious facts, and though they are composed without connection, compiled without judgment, and often abound with improbable stories and false reasonings, yet they contain much information and many useful reflections. The best editions of Plutarch are that of Francfort, 2 vols., folio, 1599; that of Stephens, 6 vols., 8vo, 1572; the Lives by Reiske, 12 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb. 1775; and the Moralia, &c., by Wyttenbach. Plutarch.――――A native of Eretria, during the Peloponnesian war. He was defeated by the Macedonians. Plutarch, Phocion.
♦ ‘acurate’ replaced with ‘accurate’
=Plutia=, a town of Sicily. Cicero, Against Verres.
=Pluto=, a son of Saturn and Ops, inherited his father’s kingdom with his brothers Jupiter and Neptune. He received as his lot the kingdom of hell, and whatever lies under the earth, and as such he became the god of the infernal regions, of death and funerals. From his functions, and the place he inhabited, he received different names. He was called Dis, Hades, or Ades, Clytopolon, Agelastus, Orcus, &c. As the place of his residence was obscure and gloomy, all the goddesses refused to marry him; but he determined to obtain by force what was denied to his solicitations. As he once visited the island of Sicily, after a violent earthquake, he saw Proserpine the daughter of Ceres gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, with a crowd of female attendants. He became enamoured of her, and immediately carried her away upon his chariot drawn by four horses. To make his retreat more unknown, he opened himself a passage through the earth, by striking it with his trident in the lake of Cyane in Sicily, or, according, to others, on the borders of the Cephisus in Attica. Proserpine called upon her attendants for help, but in vain, and she became the wife of her ravisher, and the queen of hell. Pluto is generally represented as holding a sceptre with two teeth; he has also keys in his hand, to intimate that whoever enters his kingdom can never return. He is looked upon as a hard-hearted and inexorable god, with a grim and dismal countenance, and for that reason no temples were raised to his honour, as to the rest of the superior gods. Black victims, and particularly a bull, were the only sacrifices which were offered to him, and their blood was not sprinkled on the altars, or received in vessels, as at other sacrifices, but it was permitted to run down into the earth, as if it were to penetrate as far as the realms of the god. The Syracusans yearly sacrificed to him black bulls, near the fountain of Cyane, where, according to the received traditions, he had disappeared with Proserpine. Among plants, the cypress, the narcissus, and the maiden-hair were sacred to him, as also everything which was deemed inauspicious, particularly the number two. According to some of the ancients, Pluto sat on a throne of sulphur, from which issued the rivers Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Acheron. The dog Cerberus watched at his feet, the Harpies hovered round him, Proserpine sat on his left hand, and near to the goddess stood the Eumenides, with their heads covered with snakes. The Parcæ occupied the right, and they each held in their hands the symbols of their office, the distaff, the spindle, and the scissors. Pluto is called by some the father of the Eumenides. During the war of the gods and the Titans, the Cyclops made a helmet which rendered the bearer invisible, and gave it to Pluto. Perseus was armed with it when he conquered the Gorgons. Hesiod, Theogony.――Homer, Iliad.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, &c.――Hyginus, fable 155; Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2. ――Statius, Thebaid, bk. 8.――Diodorus, bk. 5.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 6.――Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 36. ――Orpheus, hymn 17, &c.――Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 26.――Plato, The Republic.――Euripides, Medea; Hippolytus. ――Aeschylus, Persians; Prometheus Bound.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.――Catullus, poem 3.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 502; Æneid, bk. 6, li. 273; bk. 8, li. 296.――Lucan, bk. 6, li. 715.――Horace, bk. 2, odes 3 & 18.――Seneca, Hercules Furens.
=Plutonium=, a temple of Pluto in Lydia. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Plutus=, a son of Jasion, or Jasius, by Ceres the goddess of corn, has been confounded by many of the mythologists with Pluto, though plainly distinguished from him as being the god of riches. He was brought up by the goddess of peace, and on that account, Pax was represented at Athens as holding the god of wealth in her lap. The Greeks spoke of him as of a fickle divinity. They represented him as blind, because he distributed riches indiscriminately; he was lame, because he came slow and gradually; but had wings, to intimate that he flew away with more velocity than he approached mankind. Lucian, Timon.――Pausanias, bk. 9, chs. 16 & 26.――Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica.――Aristophanes, Plutus.――Diodorus, bk. 5. ――Hesoid, Theogony, li. 970.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, ch. 53.
=Pluvius=, a surname of Jupiter as god of rain. He was invoked by that name among the Romans, whenever the earth was parched up with continual heat, and was in want of refreshing showers. He had an altar in the temple on the capitol. Tibullus, bk. 1, poem 7, li. 26.
=Plynteria=, a festival among the Greeks, in honour of Aglauros, or rather of Minerva, who received from the daughter Cecrops the name of Aglauros. The word seems to be derived from πλυνειν, lavare, because, during the solemnity, they undressed the statue of the goddess and washed it. The day on which it was observed was universally looked upon as unfortunate and inauspicious, and on that account no person was permitted to appear in the temples, as they were purposely surrounded with ropes. The arrival of Alcibiades in Athens that day, was deemed very unfortunate; but, however, the success that ever after attended him, proved it to be otherwise. It was customary at this festival to bear in procession a cluster of figs, which intimated the progress of civilization among the first inhabitants of the earth, as figs served them for food after they had found a dislike for acorns. Pollux.
=Pnigeus=, a village of Egypt, near Phœnicia. Strabo, bk. 16.
=Pnyx=, a place of Athens, set apart by Solon for holding assemblies. Cornelius Nepos, Atticus, ch. 3.――Plutarch, Theseus & Themistocles.
=Poblicius=, a lieutenant of Pompey in Spain.
=Podalirius=, a son of Æsculapius and Epione. He was one of the pupils of the Centaur Chiron, and he made himself under him such a master of medicine, that, during the Trojan war, the Greeks invited him to their camp, to stop a pestilence which had baffled the skill of all their physicians. Some, however, suppose that he went to the Trojan war not in the capacity of a physician in the Grecian army, but as a warrior, attended by his brother Machaon, in 30 ships, with soldiers from Œchalia, Ithome, and Trica. At his return from the Trojan war, Podalirius was shipwrecked on the coast of Caria, where he ♦was cured of the falling sickness and married a daughter of Damœtas the king of the place. He fixed his habitation there, and built two towns, one of which he called Syrna, by the name of his wife. The Carians, after his death, built him a temple, and paid him divine honours. Dictys Cretensis.――Quintus Smyrnæus, bks. 6 & 9.――Ovid de Ars Amatoria, bk. 2; Tristia, poem 6.――Pausanias, bk. 3.――――A Rutulian engaged in the wars of Æneas and Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 304.
♦ omitted word ‘was’ inserted
=Podarce=, a daughter of Danaus. Apollodorus.
=Podarces=, a son of Iphiclus of Thessaly, who went to the Trojan war. ――――The first name of Priam. When Troy was taken by Hercules, he was redeemed from slavery by his sister Hesione, and from thence received the name of Priam. See: Priamus.
=Podares=, a general of Mantinea, in the age of Epaminondas. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 9.
=Podarge=, one of the Harpies, mother of two of the horses of Achilles by the Zephyrs. The word intimates the swiftness of her feet.
=Podargus=, a charioteer of Hector. Homer.
=Pœas=, son of Thaumacus, was among the Argonauts.――――The father of Philoctetes. The son is often called Pœantia proles, on account of his father. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 45.
=Pœcĭle=, a celebrated portico at Athens, which received its name from the variety (ποικιλος) of paintings which it contained. It was there that Zeno kept his school, and the stoics also received their lessons there, whence their name (à στοα, a porch). The Pœcile was adorned with pictures of gods and benefactors, and among many others were those of the siege and sacking of Troy, the battle of Theseus against the Amazons, the fight between the Lacedæmonians and Athenians at Œnoe in Argolis, and of Atticus the great friend of Athens. The only reward which Miltiades obtained after the battle of Marathon, was to have his picture drawn more conspicuous than that of the rest of the officers that fought with him, in the representation which was made of the engagement, which was hung up in the Pœcile, in commemoration of that celebrated victory. Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades & Atticus, ch. 3.――Pausanias, bk. 1.――Pliny, bk. 35.
=Pœni=, a name given to the Carthaginians. It seems to be a corruption of the word Phœni or Phœnices, as the Carthaginians were of Phœnician origin. Servius, on Virgil, bk. 1, li. 302.
=Pœon.= See: Pæon.
=Pœonia=, a part of Macedonia. See: Pæonia.
=Pœus=, a part of mount Pindus.
=Pogon=, a harbour of the Trœzenians on the coast of the Peloponnesus. It received this name on account of its appearing to come forward before the town of Trœzene, as the beard (πωγων) does from the chin. Strabo, bk. 1.――Mela, bk. 2.
=Pola=, a city of Istria, founded by the Colchians, and afterwards made a Roman colony, and called Pietas Julia. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 9. ――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.――Strabo, bks. 1 & 5.
=Polemarchus.= See: Archon.――――The assassin of Polydorus king of Sparta. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Polemocratia=, a queen of Thrace, who fled to Brutus after the murder of Cæsar. She retired from her kingdom because her subjects had lately murdered her husband.
=Pŏlĕmon=, a youth of Athens, son of Philostratus. He was much given to debauchery and extravagance, and spent the greatest part of his life in riot and drunkenness. He once, when intoxicated, entered the school of Xenocrates, while the philosopher was giving his pupils a lecture upon the effects of intemperance, and he was so struck with the eloquence of the academician, and the force of his arguments, that from that moment he renounced the dissipated life he had led, and applied himself totally to the study of philosophy. He was then in the 30th year of his age, and from that time he never drank any other liquor but water; and after the death of Xenocrates he succeeded in the school where his reformation had been affected. He died about 270 years before Christ, in an extreme old age. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives.――Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 254.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 9.――――A son of Zeno the rhetorician, made king of Pontus by Antony. He attended his patron in his expedition against Parthia. After the battle of Actium, he was received into favour by Augustus, though he had fought in the cause of Antony. He was killed some time after by the barbarians near the Palus Mæotis, against whom he had made war. Strabo.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus.――――His son, of the same name, was confirmed on his father’s throne by Roman emperors, and the province of Cilicia was also added to his kingdom by Claudius.――――An officer in the army of Alexander, intimate with Philotas, &c. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 1, &c.――――A rhetorician at Rome, who wrote a poem on weights and measures still extant. He was master to Perseus the celebrated satirist, and died in the age of Nero.――――A sophist of Laodice in Asia Minor, in the reign of Adrian. He was often sent to the emperor with an embassy by his countrymen, which he executed with great success. He was greatly favoured by Adrian, from whom he extracted much money. In the 56th year of his age he buried himself alive, as he laboured with the gout. He wrote declamations in Greek.
=Polemonium=, now Vatija, a town of Pontus, at the east of the mouth of the ♦Thermodon.
♦ ‘Theomodon’ replaced with ‘Thermodon’
=Polias=, a surname of Minerva, as protectress of cities.
=Polichna=, a town of Troas on Ida. Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 28. ――――Another of Crete. Thucydides, bk. 2, ch. 85.
=Polieia=, a festival at Thebes in honour of Apollo, who was represented there with grey hair (πολιος), contrary to the practice of all other places. The victim was a bull, but when it happened once that no bull could be found, an ox was taken from the cart and sacrificed. From that time the sacrifice of labouring oxen was deemed lawful, though before it was looked upon as a capital crime.
=Poliorcētes= (destroyer of cities), a surname given to Demetrius son of Antigonus. Plutarch, Demetrius.
=Polisma=, a town of Troas, on the Simois. Strabo, bk. 13.
=Polistrătus=, an Epicurean philosopher born the same day as Hippoclides, with whom he always lived in the greatest intimacy. They both died at the same hour. Diogenes Laërtius.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 1.
=Polītes=, a son of Priam and Hecuba, killed by Pyrrhus in his father’s presence. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 526, &c. His son, who bore the same name, followed Æneas into Italy, and was one of the friends of young Ascanius. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 564.
=Politorium=, a city of the Latins destroyed by the Romans, before Christ 639. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Pollinea=, a prostitute, &c. Juvenal, satire 2, li. 68.
=Polla Argentaria=, the wife of the poet Lucan. She assisted her husband in correcting the three first books of his Pharsalia. Statius, Sylvæ, bks. 1 & 2.
=Pollentia=, now Polenza, a town of Liguria in Italy, famous for wool. There was a celebrated battle fought there between the Romans and Alaric king of the Huns, about the 403rd year of the christian era, in which the former, according to some, obtained the victory. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.――Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 48.――Suetonius, Tiberius, ch. 37.――Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 598.――Cicero, bk. 11, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 13.――――A town of Majorca. Pliny & Mela. ――――Of Picenum. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 44; bk. 41, ch. 27.
=Polles=, a Greek poet whose writings were so obscure and unintelligible that his name became proverbial. Suidas.
=Pollio Caius Asinius=, a Roman consul under the reign of Augustus, who distinguished himself as much by his eloquence and writings as by his exploits in the field. He defeated the Dalmatians, and favoured the cause of Antony against Augustus. He patronized, with great liberality, the poets Virgil and Horace, who have immortalized him in their writings. He was the first who raised a public library at Rome, and indeed his example was afterwards followed by many of the emperors. In his library were placed the statues of all the learned men of every age, and Varro was the only person who was honoured there during his lifetime. He was with Julius Cæsar when he crossed the Rubicon. He was greatly esteemed by Augustus, when he had become one of his adherents, after the ruin of Antony. Pollio wrote some tragedies, orations, and a history, which was divided into 17 books. All those compositions are lost, and nothing remains of his writings except a few letters to Cicero. He died in the 80th year of his age, A.D. 4. He is the person in whose honour Virgil has inscribed his fourth eclogue, Pollio, as a reconciliation was effected between Augustus and Antony during his consulship. The poet, it is supposed by some, makes mention of a son of the consul born about this time, and is lavish in his excursions into futurity, and his predictions of approaching prosperity. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 86.――Horace, bk. 2, ode 1; satire 10, bk. 1.――Virgil, Eclogues, poems 3 & 4. ――Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 13.――Quintilian, bk. 10.――――Annius, a man accused of sedition before Tiberius, and acquitted. He afterwards conspired against Nero, &c. Tacitus, ♦Annals, bk. 6, ch. 9; bk. 15, ch. 56.――――Vedius, one of the friends of Augustus, who used to feed his fishes with human flesh. This cruelty was discovered when one of his servants broke a glass in the presence of Augustus, who had been invited to a feast. The master ordered the servant to be seized; but he threw himself at the feet of the emperor, and begged him to interfere, and not to suffer him to be devoured by fishes. Upon this the causes of his apprehension were examined, and Augustus, astonished at the barbarity of his favourite, caused his servant to be dismissed, all the fish-ponds to be filled up, and the crystal glasses of Pollio to be broken to pieces.――――A man who poisoned Britannicus, at the instigation of Nero.――――An historian in the age of Constantine the Great.――――A sophist in the age of Pompey the Great. ――――A friend of the emperor Vespasian.
♦ Book title omitted in text
=Pollis=, a commander of the Lacedæmonian fleet defeated at Naxos, B.C. 377. Diodorus.
=Pollius Felix=, a friend of the poet Statius, to whom he dedicated his second Sylva.
=Pollupex=, now Final, a town of Genoa.
=Pollutia=, a daughter of Lucius Vetus, put to death after her husband Rubellius Plautus, by order of Nero, &c. Tacitus, bk. 16, Annals, chs. 10 & 11.
=Pollux=, a son of Jupiter by Leda the wife of Tyndarus. He was brother to Castor. See: Castor.――――A Greek writer, who flourished A.D. 186, in the reign of Commodus, and died in the 58th year of his age. He was born at Naucratis, and taught rhetoric at Athens, and wrote a useful work called Onomasticon, of which the best edition is that of Hemsterhusius, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1706.
=Poltis=, a king of Thrace, in the time of the Trojan war.
=Polus=, a celebrated Grecian actor.――――A sophist of Agrigentum.
=Polusca=, a town of Latium, formerly the capital of the Volsci. The inhabitants were called Pollustini. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 39.
=Polyænus=, a native of Macedonia, who wrote eight books in Greek of stratagems, which he dedicated to the emperors Antoninus and Verus, while they were making war against the Parthians. He wrote also other books which have been lost, among which was a history, with a description of the city of Thebes. The best editions of his stratagems are those of Masvicius, 8vo, Leiden, 1690, and of Mursinna, 12mo, Berlin, 1756.――――A friend of Philopœmen.――――An orator in the age of Julius Cæsar. He wrote in three books an account of Antony’s expedition in Parthia, and likewise published orations.――――A mathematician, who afterwards followed the tenets of Epicurus, and disregarded geometry as a false and useless study. Cicero, Academicæ Quæstiones, bk. 4.
=Polyānus=, a mountain of Macedonia, near Pindus. Strabo.
=Polyarchus=, the brother of a queen of Cyrene, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.
=Polybidas=, a general after the death of Agesipolis the Lacedæmonian. He reduced Olynthus.
=Polybius=, or =Poly̆bus=, a king of Corinth, who married Peribœa, whom some have called Merope. He was son of Mercury by Chthonophyle, the daughter of Sicyon king of Sicyon. He permitted his wife, who had no children, to adopt and educate as her own son, Œdipus, who had been found by his shepherds exposed in the woods. He had a daughter called Lysianassa, whom he gave in marriage to Talaus son of Bias king of Argos. As he had no male child, he left his kingdom to Adrastus, who had been banished from his throne, and who had fled to Corinth for protection. Hyginus, fable 66.――Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 6. ――Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.――Seneca, Œdipus, li. 812.
=Polybius=, a native of Megalopolis in Peloponnesus, son of Lycortas. He was early initiated in the duties, and made acquainted with the qualifications, of a statesman, by his father, who was a strong supporter of the Achæan league, and under him Philopœmen was taught the art of war. In Macedonia he distinguished himself by his valour against the Romans, and when Perseus had been conquered, he was carried to the capital of Italy as a prisoner of war. But he was not long buried in the obscurity of a dungeon. Scipio and Fabius were acquainted with his uncommon abilities as a warrior and as a man of learning, and they made him their friend by kindness and attention. Polybius was not insensible to their merit; he accompanied Scipio in his expeditions, and was present at the taking of Carthage and Numantia. In the midst of his prosperity, however, he felt the distresses of his country, which had been reduced into a Roman province, and, like a true patriot, he relieved its wants, and eased its servitude by making use of the influence which he had acquired by his acquaintance with the most powerful Romans. After the death of his friend and benefactor Scipio, he retired from Rome, and passed the rest of his days at Megalopolis, where he enjoyed the comforts and honours which every good man can receive from the gratitude of his citizens, and from the self-satisfaction which attends a humane and benevolent heart. He died in the 82nd year of his age, about 124 years before Christ, of a wound which he had received by a fall from his horse. He wrote a universal history in Greek, divided into 40 books, which began with the wars of Rome with the Carthaginians, and finished with the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus. The greatest part of this valuable history is lost; the five first books are extant, and of the 12 following the fragments are numerous. The history of Polybius is admired for its authenticity, and he is, perhaps, the only historian among the Greeks who was experimentally and professedly acquainted with the military operations and the political measures of which he makes mention. He has been recommended in every age and country as the best master in the art of war, and nothing can more effectually prove the esteem in which he was held among the Romans, than to mention that Brutus the murderer of Cæsar perused his history with the greatest attention, epitomized it, and often retired from the field where he had drawn his sword against Octavius and Antony, to read the instructive pages which describe the great actions of his ancestors. Polybius, however great and entertaining, is sometimes censured for his unnecessary digressions, for his uncouth and ill-digested narrations, for his negligence, and the inaccurate arrangement of his words. But everywhere there is instruction to be found, information to be collected, and curious facts to be obtained, and it reflects not much honour upon Livy for calling the historian, from whom he has copied whole books almost word for word, without gratitude or acknowledgment, haudquaquam spernendus auctor. Dionysius also, of Halicarnassus, is one of his most violent accusers; but the historian has rather exposed his ignorance of true criticism, than discovered inaccuracy or inelegance. The best editions of Polybius are those of Gronovius, 3 vols., 8vo, Amsterdam, 1670; of Ernesti, 3 vols., 8vo, 1764; and of Schweighæuser, 7 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1785. Plutarch, Philopœmen, preface. ――Livy, bk. 30, ch. 45.――Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 30.――――A freedman of Augustus. Suetonius.――――A physician, disciple, and successor of Hippocrates.――――A soothsayer of Corinth, who foretold to his sons the fate that attended them in the Trojan war.
=Polybœa=, a daughter of Amyclas and Diomede, sister to Hyacinthus. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Polybœtes.= See: Polypœtes.
=Polybōtes=, one of the giants who made war against Jupiter. He was killed by Neptune, who crushed him under a part of the island of Cos, as he was walking across the Ægean. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 2. ――Hyginus, preface to fables.
=Polybus=, a king of Thebes in Egypt in the time of the Trojan war. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 22, li. 284.――――One of Penelope’s suitors. Ovid, Heroides, poem 1.――――A king of Sicyon.――――A king of Corinth. See: Polybius.
=Polycāon=, a son of Lelex, who succeeded his brother Myles. He received divine honours after death, with his wife Messene, at Lacedæmon, where he had reigned. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.――――A son of Butes, who married a daughter of Hyllus.
=Polycarpus=, a famous Greek writer, born at Smyrna, and educated at the expense of a rich but pious lady. Some suppose that he was St. John’s disciple. He became bishop of Smyrna, and went to Rome to settle the festival of Easter, but to no purpose. He was condemned to be burnt at Smyrna, A.D. 167. His epistle to the Philippians is simple and modest, yet replete with useful precepts and rules for the conduct of life. The best edition of Polycarp’s epistle is that of Oxford, 8vo, 1708, being annexed to the works of Ignatius.
=Polycaste=, the youngest of the daughters of Nestor. According to some authors she married Telemachus, when he visited her father’s court in quest of Ulysses.
=Polychăres=, a rich Messenian, said to have been the cause of the war which was kindled between the Spartans and his countrymen, which was called the first Messenian war.
=Polyclēa=, the mother of Thessalus, &c.
=Poly̆cles=, an Athenian in the time of Demetrius, &c. Polyænus, bk. 5. ――――A famous athlete, often crowned at the four solemn games of the Greeks. He had a statue in Jupiter’s grove at Olympia. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 1.
=Polyclētus=, a celebrated statuary of Sicyon, about 232 years before Christ. He was universally reckoned the most skilful artist of his profession among the ancients, and the second rank was given to Phidias. One of his pieces, in which he had represented a body-guard of the king of Persia, was so happily executed, and so nice and exact in all its proportions, that it was looked upon as a most perfect model, and accordingly called the Rule. He was acquainted with architecture. Pausanias, bks. 2 & 6.――Quintilian, bk. 12, ch. 10. ――――Another, who lived about 30 years after.――――A favourite of the emperor Nero, put to death by Galba.
=Polyclītus=, an historian of Larissa. Athenæus, bk. 12.――Ælian, bk. 16, ch. 41.
=Polycrătes=, a tyrant of Samos, well known for the continual flow of good fortune which attended him. He became very powerful, and made himself master, not only of the neighbouring islands, but also of some cities on the coast of Asia. He had a fleet of 100 ships of war, and was so universally respected, that Amasis the king of Egypt made a treaty of alliance with him. The Egyptian monarch, however, terrified by his continued prosperity, advised him to chequer his enjoyments, by relinquishing some of his most favourite objects. Polycrates complied, and threw into the sea a beautiful seal, the most valuable of his jewels. The voluntary loss of so precious a seal afflicted him for some time, but in a few days after, he received as a present a large fish, in whose belly the jewel was found. Amasis no sooner heard this, than he rejected all alliance with the tyrant of Samos, and observed, that sooner or later his good fortune would vanish. Some time after Polycrates visited Magnesia on the Mæander, where he had been invited by Orœtes the governor. He was shamefully put to death, 522 years before Christ, merely because the governor wished to terminate the prosperity of Polycrates. The daughter of Polycrates had dissuaded her father from going to the house of Orœtes, on account of the bad dreams which she had had, but her advice was disregarded. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 14.――Strabo, bk. 14.――Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 22, &c.――――A sophist of Athens, who, to engage the public attention, wrote a panegyric on Busiris and Clytemnestra. Quintilian, bk. 2, ch. 17.――――An ancient statuary.
=Polycrēta=, or =Polycrīta=, a young woman of Naxos, who became the wife of Diognetus the general of the Erythreans, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.――――Another woman of Naxos, who died through the excess of joy. Plutarch, de Mulierum virtutes.
=Polycrĭtus=, a man who wrote the life of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily.――Diogenes Laërtius.
=Polyctor=, the husband of Stygna, one of the Danaides. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――The father of Pisander, one of Penelope’s suitors. ――――An athlete of Elis. It is said that he obtained a victory at Olympia by bribing his adversary Sosander, who was superior to him in strength and courage. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Polydæmon=, an Assyrian prince killed by Perseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 3.
=Polydămas=, a Trojan, son of Antenor by Theano the sister of Hecuba. He married Lycaste, a natural daughter of Priam. He is accused by some of having betrayed his country to the Greeks. Dares Phrygius. ――――A son of Panthous, born the same night as Hector. He was inferior in valour to none of the Trojans, except Hector, and his prudence, the wisdom of his counsels, and the firmness of his mind, claimed equal admiration, and proved most salutary to his unfortunate and misguided countrymen. He was at last killed by Ajax, after he had slaughtered a great number of the enemy. Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, &c.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 12, &c.――――A celebrated athlete, son of Nicias, who imitated Hercules in whatever he did. He killed a lion with his fist, and it is said that he could stop with his hand a chariot in its most rapid course. He was one day with some of his friends in a cave, when on a sudden a large piece of rock came tumbling down; and while all fled away, he attempted to receive the fallen fragment in his arms. His prodigious strength, however, was insufficient, and he was instantly crushed to pieces under the rock. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 5.――――One of Alexander’s officers, intimate with Parmenio. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Polydamna=, a wife of Thonis king of Egypt. It is said that she gave Helen a certain powder, which had the wonderful power of driving away care and melancholy. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4, li. 228.
=Polydectes=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ. He was son of Eunomus. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 7.――――A son of Magnes, king of the island of Seriphos. He received with great kindness Danae and her son Perseus, who had been exposed on the sea by Acrisius. See: Perseus. He took particular care of the education of Perseus; but when he became enamoured of Danae, he removed him from his kingdom, apprehensive of his resentment. Some time after he paid his addresses to Danae, and when she rejected him, he prepared to offer her violence. Danae fled to the altar of Minerva for protection, and Dictys the brother of Polydectes, who had himself saved her from the sea-waters, opposed her ravisher and armed himself in her defence. At this critical moment, Perseus arrived, and with Medusa’s head he turned into stones Polydectes, with the associates of his guilt. The crown of Seriphos was given to Dictys, who had shown himself so active in the cause of innocence. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 242.――Hyginus, fable 63, &c.――――A sculptor of Greece. Pliny.
=Polydeucēa=, a fountain of Laconia, near Therapne. Strabo, bk. 9.
=Polydōra=, a daughter of Peleus king of Thessaly, by Antigone the daughter of Eurytion. She married the river Sperchius, by whom she had Mnestheus. Apollodorus.――――One of the Oceanides. Hesiod.――――A daughter of Meleager king of Calydon, who married Protesilaus. She killed herself when she heard that her husband was dead. The wife of Protesilaus is more commonly called Laodamia. See: Protesilaus. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 2.――――A daughter of Perieres.――――An island of the Propontis near Cyzicus.
=Polydōrus=, a son of Alcamenes king of Sparta. He put an end to the war which had been carried on during 20 years, between Messenia and his subjects; and during his reign, the Lacedæmonians planted two colonies, one at Crotona, and the other at Locri. He was universally respected. He was assassinated by a nobleman, called Polemarchus. His son Eurycrates succeeded him 724 years before Christ. Pausanias, bk. 3.――Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 204.――――A celebrated carver of Rhodes, who with one stone made the famous statue of Laocoon and his children. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.――――A son of Hippomedon, who went with the Epigoni to the second Theban war. Pausanias, bk. 2.――――A son of Cadmus and Hermione, who married Nycteis, by whom he had Labdacus the father of Laius. He had succeeded to the throne of Thebes, when his father had gone to Illyricum. Apollodorus, bk. 3.――――A brother of Jason of Pheræ, who killed his brother and seized upon his possessions. Diodorus, bk. 15.――――A son of Priam killed by Achilles. ――――Another son of Priam by Hecuba, or, according to others, by Laothoe the daughter of Altes king of Pedasus. As he was young and inexperienced when Troy was besieged by the Greeks, his father removed him to the court of Polymnestor king of Thrace, and also entrusted to the care of the monarch a large sum of money, and the greatest part of his treasures, till his country was freed from foreign invasion. No sooner was the death of Priam known in Thrace, than Polymnestor made himself master of the riches which were in his possession; and to ensure them the better, he assassinated young Polydorus, and threw his body into the sea, where it was found by Hecuba. See: Hecuba. According to Virgil, the body of Polydorus was buried near the shore by his assassin, and there grew on his grave a myrtle, whose boughs dropped blood, when Æneas, going to Italy, attempted to tear them from the tree. See: Polymnestor. Virgil, Æneid, bks. 3, 21, &c.――Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 432.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 20.――Dictys Cretensis, bk. 2, ch. 18.
=Polygius=, a surname of Mercury. Pausanias.
=Polygnōtus=, a celebrated painter of Thasos, about 422 years before the christian era. His father’s name was Aglaophon. He adorned one of the public porticoes of Athens with his paintings, in which he had represented the most striking events of the Trojan war. He particularly excelled in giving grace, liveliness, and expression to his pieces. The Athenians were so pleased with him, that they offered to reward his labours with whatever he pleased to accept. He declined this generous offer, and the Amphictyonic council, which was composed of the representatives of the principal cities of Greece, ordered that Polygnotus should be maintained at the public expense ♦wherever he went.――Quintilian, bk. 12, ch. 10.――Pliny, bks. 33 & 34. ――Plutarch, Cimon.――Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 25, &c.――――A statuary. Pliny, bk. 34.
♦ ‘whereever’ replaced with ‘wherever’
=Polygŏnus= and =Telegonus=, sons of Proteus and Coronis, were killed by Hercules. Apollodorus.
=Polyhymnia= and =Polymnia=, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. She presided over singing and rhetoric, and was deemed the inventress of harmony. She was represented veiled in white, holding a sceptre in her left hand, and with her right raised up, as if ready to harangue. She had a crown of jewels on her head. Hesiod, Theogony, lis. 75 & 915.――Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium. ――Horace, bk. 1, ode 1.――Ovid Fasti, bk. 5, lis. 9 & 53.
=Polyidus=, a physician who brought back to life Glaucus the son of Minos, by applying to his body a certain herb, with which he had seen a serpent restore life to another which was dead. See: Glaucus. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 3.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43.――――A son of Hercules by one of the daughters of Thestius. Apollodorus.――――A Corinthian soothsayer, called also Polybius.――――A dithyrambic poet, painter, and musician.
=Polylāus=, a son of Hercules and Crathe, daughter of Thespius.
=Polymĕnes=, an officer appointed to take care of Egypt after it had been conquered by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Polymēde=, a daughter of Autolycus, who married Æson, by whom she had Jason. She survived her husband only a few days. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 13.
=Polymedon=, one of Priam’s illegitimate children.
=Polymēla=, one of Diana’s companions. She was daughter of Phylas, and had a son by Mercury. Homer, Iliad, bk. 16.――――A daughter of Æolus, seduced by Ulysses.――――A daughter of Actor. She was the first wife of Peleus the father of Achilles.
=Polymnestes=, a Greek poet of Colophon. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 14. ――――A native of Thera, father of Battus, or Aristotle, by Phronima the daughter of Etearchus king of Oaxus. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 150.
=Polymnestor=, a king of the Thracian Chersonesus, who married Ilione, the eldest of Priam’s daughters. When the Greeks besieged Troy, Priam sent the greatest part of his treasures, together with Polydorus, the youngest of his sons, to Thrace, where they were entrusted to the care of Polymnestor. The Thracian monarch paid every attention to his brother-in-law; but when he was informed that Priam was dead, he murdered him to become master of the riches which were in his possession. At that time, the Greeks were returning victorious from Troy, followed by all the captives, among whom was Hecuba the mother of Polydorus. The fleet stopped on the coast of Thrace, where one of the female captives discovered on the shore the body of Polydorus, whom Polymnestor had thrown into the sea. The dreadful intelligence was immediately communicated to the mother, and Hecuba, who recollected the frightful dreams which she had had on the preceding night, did not doubt but Polymnestor was the cruel assassin. She resolved to revenge her son’s death, and immediately she called out Polymnestor, as if wishing to impart to him a matter of the most important nature. The tyrant was drawn into the snare, and was no sooner introduced into the apartments of the Trojan princess, than the female captives rushed upon him and put out his eyes with their pins, while Hecuba murdered his two children who had accompanied him. According to Euripides, the Greeks condemned Polymnestor to be banished into a distant island for his perfidy. Hyginus, however, relates the whole differently, and observes, that when Polydorus was sent to Thrace, Ilione his sister took him instead of her son Deiphilus, who was of the same age, apprehensive of her husband’s cruelty. The monarch was unacquainted with the imposition; he looked upon Polydorus as his own son, and treated Deiphilus as the brother of Ilione. After the destruction of Troy, the conquerors, who wished the house and family of Priam to be totally extirpated, offered Electra the daughter of Agamemnon to Polymnestor, if he would destroy Ilione and Polydorus. The monarch accepted the offer, and immediately despatched his own son Deiphilus, whom he had been taught to regard as Polydorus. Polydorus, who passed as the son of Polymnestor, consulted the oracle after the murder of Deiphilus, and when he was informed that his father was dead, his mother a captive in the hands of the Greeks, and his country in ruins, he communicated the answer of the god to Ilione, whom he had always regarded as his mother. Ilione told him the measures she had pursued to save his life, and upon this he avenged the perfidy of Polymnestor by putting out his eyes. Euripides, Hecuba.――Hyginus, fable 102.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 45, &c.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 430, &c.――――A king of Arcadia, succeeded on the throne by Ecmis. Pausanias, bk. 8.――――A young Milesian who took a hare in running, and afterwards obtained a prize at the Olympic games.
=Poly̆nīces=, a son of Œdipus king of Thebes by Jocasta. He inherited his father’s throne with his brother Eteocles, and it was mutually agreed between the two brothers, that they should reign each a year alternately. Eteocles first ascended the throne by right of seniority; but when the year was expired, he refused to resign the crown to his brother. Polynices, upon this, fled to Argos, where he married Argia, the daughter of Adrastus the king of the country, and levied a large army, at the head of which he marched to Thebes. The command of this army was divided among seven celebrated chiefs, who were to attack the seven gates of the city of Thebes. The battle was decided by a single combat between the two brothers, who both killed one another. See: Eteocles. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes.――Euripides, Phoenician Women.――Seneca, Œdipus.――Diodorus, bk. 4. ――Hyginus, fable 68, &c.――Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 20; bk. 9, ch. 5. ――Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Polynoe=, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Polypēmon=, a famous thief, called also Procrustes, who plundered all the travellers about the Cephisus, and near Eleusis in Attica. He was killed by Theseus. Ovid calls him father of Procrustes, and Apollodorus of Sinus. See: Procrustes. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 38. ――Ovid, Ibis, li. 409.――Diodorus, bk. 4.――Plutarch, Theseus.
=Polyperchon=, or =Polysperchon=, one of the officers of Alexander. Antipater, at his death, appointed him governor of the kingdom of Macedonia, in preference to his own son Cassander. Polyperchon, though old, and a man of experience, showed great ignorance in the administration of the government. He became cruel, not only to the Greeks, or such as opposed his ambitious views, but even to the helpless and innocent children and friends of Alexander, to whom he was indebted for his rise and military reputation. He was killed in a battle 309 B.C. Curtius.――Diodorus, bk. 17, &c.――Justin, bk. 13.
=Polyphēmus=, a celebrated Cyclops, king of all the Cyclops in Sicily, and son of Neptune and Thoosa the daughter of Phorcys. He is represented as a monster of strength, of tall stature, and one eye in the middle of the forehead. He fed upon human flesh, and kept his flocks on the coasts of Sicily, when Ulysses, at his return from the Trojan war, was driven there. The Grecian prince, with 12 of his companions, visited the coast, and were seized by the Cyclops, who confined them in his cave, and daily devoured two of them. Ulysses would have shared the fate of his companions, had he not intoxicated the Cyclops, and put out his eye with a firebrand while he was asleep. Polyphemus was awaked by the sudden pain; he stopped the entrance of his cave, but Ulysses made his escape by creeping between the legs of the rams of the Cyclops, as they were led out to feed on the mountains. Polyphemus became enamoured of Galatæa, but his addresses were disregarded, and the nymph shunned his presence. The Cyclops was more earnest, and when he saw Galatæa surrender herself to the pleasures of Acis, he crushed his rival with a piece of a broken rock. Theocritus, poem 1.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 772. ――Homer, Odyssey, bk. 19.――Euripides, Cyclops.――Hyginus, fable 125.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 619, &c.――――One of the Argonauts, son of Elatus and Hippea. Hyginus, fable 14.
=Polyphonta=, one of Diana’s nymphs, daughter of Hipponus and Thraosa.
=Polyphontes=, one of the Heraclidæ, who killed Cresphontes king of Messenia, and usurped his crown. Hyginus, fable 137.――――One of the Theban generals, under Eteocles. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes.
=Polypœtes=, a son of Pirithous and Hippodamia, at the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.――Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 26.――――A son of Apollo by Pythia.――――One of the Trojans whom Æneas saw when he visited the infernal regions. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 484.
=Polysperchon.= See: Polyperchon.
=Polystrātus=, a Macedonian soldier, who found Darius after he had been stabbed by Bessus, and gave him water to drink, and carried the last injunctions of the dying monarch to Alexander. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 13.――――An epicurean philosopher who flourished B.C. 238.
=Polytecnus=, an artist of Colophon, who married Ædon the daughter of Pandarus.
=Polytion=, a friend of Alcibiades, with whom he profaned the mysteries of Ceres. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Polytimētus=, a river of Sogdiana. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Polyphron=, a prince killed by his nephew Alexander the tyrant of Pheræ.
=Polytrŏpus=, a man sent by the Lacedæmonians with an army against the Arcadians. He was killed at Orchomenus. Diodorus, bk. 15.
=Polyxĕna=, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments. Achilles became enamoured of her, and solicited her hand, and their marriage would have been consummated, had not Hector her brother opposed it. Polyxena, according to some authors, accompanied her father when he went to the tent of Achilles to redeem the body of his son Hector. Some time after, the Grecian hero came into the temple of Apollo to obtain a sight of the Trojan princess, but he was murdered there by Paris; and Polyxena, who had returned his affection, was so afflicted at his death, that she went and sacrificed herself on his tomb. Some, however, suppose that that sacrifice was not voluntary, but that the manes of Achilles appeared to the Greeks as they were going to embark, and demanded of them the sacrifice of Polyxena. The princess, who was in the number of the captives, was upon this dragged to her lover’s tomb, and there immolated by Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, fable 5, &c.――Dictys Cretensis, bks. 3 & 5.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 321.――Catullus, poem 65.――Hyginus, fable 90.
=Polyxenĭdas=, a Syrian general, who flourished B.C. 192.
=Polyxĕnus=, one of the Greek princes during the Trojan war. His father’s name was Agasthenes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.――――A son of Medea by Jason.――――A young Athenian who became blind, &c. Plutarch, Parallela minora.――――A general of Dionysius, from whom he revolted.
=Polyxo=, a priestess of Apollo’s temple in Lemnos. She was also nurse to queen Hypsipyle. It was by her advice that the Lemnian women murdered all their husbands. Apollonius, bk. 1.――Flaccus, bk. 2. ――Hyginus, fable 15.――――One of the Atlantides.――――A native of Argos, who married Tlepolemus son of Hercules. She followed him to Rhodes, after the murder of his uncle Licymnius, and when he departed for the Trojan war with the rest of the Greek princes, she became the sole mistress of the kingdom. After the Trojan war, Helen fled from Peloponnesus to Rhodes, where Polyxo reigned. Polyxo detained her, and to punish her as being the cause of a war, in which Tlepolemus had perished, she ordered her to be hanged on a tree by her female servants, disguised in the habit of Furies. See: Helena. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 19.――――The wife of Nycteus.――――One of the wives of Danaus.
=Polyzēlus=, a Greek poet of Rhodes. He had written a poem on the origin and birth of Bacchus, Venus, the Muses, &c. Some of his verses are quoted by Athenæus. Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 14.――――An Athenian archon.
=Pomaxæthres=, a Parthian soldier, who killed Crassus, according to some. Plutarch.
=Pometia=, =Pometii=, =Pometia Suessa=, a town of the Volsci in Latium, totally destroyed by the Romans, because it had revolted. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 775.――Livy, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Pometīna=, one of the tribes of the people at Rome.
=Pomōna=, a nymph at Rome, who was supposed to preside over gardens and to be the goddess of all sorts of fruit trees. She had a temple at Rome, and a regular priest called Flamen Pomonalis, who offered sacrifices to her divinity, for the preservation of fruit. She was generally represented as sitting on a basket full of flowers and fruit, and holding a bough in one hand and apples in the other. Pomona was particularly delighted with the cultivation of the earth; she disdained the toils of the field, and the fatigues of hunting. Many of the gods of the country endeavoured to gain her affection, but she received their addresses with coldness. Vertumnus was the only one who, by assuming different shapes, and introducing himself into her company, under the form of an old woman, prevailed upon her to break her vow of celibacy and to marry him. This deity was unknown among the Greeks. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 628, &c.――Festus, Lexicon of Festus.
=Pompeia=, a daughter of Sextus Pompey by Scribonia. She was promised to Marcellus, as a means of procuring a reconciliation between her father and the triumvirs, but she married Scribonius Libo.――――A daughter of Pompey the Great, Julius Cæsar’s third wife. She was accused of incontinence, because Clodius had introduced himself in women’s clothes into the room where she was celebrating the mysteries of Cybele. Cæsar repudiated her upon this accusation. Plutarch. ――――The wife of Annæus Seneca, was the daughter of Pompeius Paulinus. ――――There was a portico at Rome, called Pompeia, much frequented by all orders of people. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, li. 67.――Martial, bk. 11, ltr. 48.
=Pompeia lex=, by Pompey the Great, de ambitu, A.U.C. 701. It ordained that whatever person had been convicted of the crime of ambitus, should be pardoned, provided he could impeach two others of the same crime, and occasion the condemnation of one of them.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 701, which forbade the use of laudatores in trials, or persons who gave a good character of the prisoner then impeached.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 683. It restored to the tribunes their original power and authority, of which they had been deprived by the Cornelian law.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 701. It shortened the forms of trials, and enacted that the three first days of a trial should be employed in examining witnesses, and it allowed only one day to the parties to make their accusation and defence. The plaintiff was confined to two hours, and the defendant to three. This law had for its object the riots, which happened from the quarrels of Clodius and Milo.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 698. It required that the judges should be the richest of every century, contrary to the usual form. It was, however, requisite that they should be such as the Aurelian law prescribed. ――――Another of the same, A.U.C. 701. Pompey was by this empowered to continue in the government of Spain five years longer.
=Pompeiānus Jupiter=, a large statue of Jupiter, near Pompey’s theatre, whence it received its name. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 7.
=Pompeiānus=, a Roman knight of Antioch, raised to offices of the greatest trust, under the emperor Aurelius, whose daughter Lucilla he married. He lived in great popularity at Rome, and retired from the court when Commodus succeeded to the imperial crown. He ought, according to Julian’s opinion, to have been chosen and adopted as successor by Marcus Aurelius.――――A general of Maxentius, killed by Constantine.――――A Roman put to death by Caracalla.
=Pompeii=, or =Pompeium=, a town of Campania, built, as some suppose, by Hercules, and so called because the hero there exhibited the long procession (pompa) of the herds of Geryon, which he had obtained by conquest. It was partly demolished by an earthquake, A.D. 63, and afterwards rebuilt. Sixteen years after it was swallowed up by another earthquake, which accompanied one of the eruptions of mount Vesuvius. Herculaneum, in its neighbourhood, shared the same fate. The people of the town were then assembled in a theatre, where public spectacles were exhibited. See: Herculaneum. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 38.――Strabo, bk. 6.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.――Seneca, Quæstiones Naturales, bk. 4. ――Solinus, bk. 8.
=Pompeiopŏlis=, a town of Cilicia, formerly called Soli. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 13.――――Another in Paphlagonia, originally called Eupatoria, which name was exchanged when Pompey conquered Mithridates.
=Quintus Pompeius=, a consul who carried on war against the Numantines, and made a shameful treaty. He is the first of that noble family, of whom mention is made. Florus, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――Cneus, a Roman general, who made war against the Marsi, and triumphed over the Piceni. He declared himself against Cinna and Marius, and supported the interest of the republic. He was surnamed Strabo, because he squinted. While he was marching against Marius, a plague broke out in his army, and raged with such violence, that it carried away 11,000 men in a few days. He was killed by a flash of lightning, and as he had behaved with cruelty while in power, the people dragged his body through the streets of Rome with an iron hook, and threw it into the Tiber. Paterculus, bk. 2.――Plutarch, Pompey.―――― Rufus, a Roman consul with Sylla. He was sent to finish the Marsian war, but the army mutinied at the instigation of Pompeius Strabo, whom he was to succeed in command, and he was assassinated by some of the soldiers. Appian, Civil Wars, bk. 1.――――A general who succeeded Metellus in Spain, and was the occasion of a war with Numantia.――――Another general, taken prisoner by Mithridates.――――Sextus, a governor of Spain, who cured himself of the gout by placing himself in corn above the knee. Pliny, bk. 22, ch. 25.――――Rufus, a grandson of Sylla. ――――A tribune of the soldiers in Nero’s reign, deprived of his office when Piso’s conspiracy was discovered. Tacitus.――――A consul praised for his learning and abilities. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, poem 1. ――――A son of Theophanes of Mitylene, famous for his intimacy with Pompey the Great, and for his writings. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6. ――――A tribune of a pretorian cohort under Galba.――――A Roman knight, put to death by the emperor Claudius for his adultery with Messalina. Tacitus, bk. 11, Annals.――――Cneus, surnamed Magnus, from the greatness of his exploits, was son of Pompeius Strabo and Lucilia. He early distinguished himself in the field of battle, and fought with success and bravery under his father, whose courage and military prudence he imitated. He began his career with great popularity; the beauty and elegance of his person gained him admirers, and by pleading at the bar he displayed his eloquence, and received the most unbounded applause. In the disturbances which agitated Rome, by the ambition and avarice of Marius and Sylla, Pompey followed the interest of the latter, and by levying three legions for his service he gained his friendship and his protection. In the 26th year of his age, he conquered Sicily, which was in the power of Marius and his adherents, and in 40 days he regained all the territories of Africa, which had forsaken the interest of Sylla. This rapid success astonished the Romans, and Sylla, who admired and dreaded the rising power of Pompey, recalled him to Rome. Pompey immediately obeyed, and the dictator, by saluting him with the appellation of the Great, showed to the world what expectations he formed from the maturer age of his victorious lieutenant. This sounding title was not sufficient to gratify the ambition of Pompey; he demanded a triumph, and when Sylla refused to grant it, he emphatically exclaimed, that the sun shone with more ardour at his rising than at his setting. His assurance gained what petitions and entreaties could not obtain, and he was the first Roman knight who, without an office under the appointment of the senate, marched in triumphal procession through the streets of Rome. He now appeared, not as a ♦dependent, but as a rival, of the dictator, and his opposition to his measures totally excluded him from his will. After the death of Sylla, Pompey supported himself against the remains of the Marian faction, which was headed by Lepidus. He defeated them, put an end to the war which the revolt of Sertorius in Spain had occasioned, and obtained a second triumph, though still a private citizen, about 73 years before the christian era. He was soon after made consul, and in that office he restored the tribunitial power to its original dignity, and in 40 days removed the pirates from the Mediterranean, where they had reigned for many years, and by their continual plunder and audacity, almost destroyed the whole naval power of Rome. While he prosecuted the piratical war, and extirpated these maritime robbers in their obscure retreat in Cilicia, Pompey was called to greater undertakings, and by the influence of his friends at Rome, and of the tribune Manilius, he was empowered to finish the war against two of the most powerful monarchs of Asia――Mithridates king of Pontus, and Tigranes king of Armenia. In this expedition Pompey showed himself no ways inferior to Lucullus, who was then at the head of the Roman armies, and who resigned with reluctance an office which would have made him the conqueror of Mithridates and the master of all Asia. His operations against the king of Pontus were bold and vigorous, and in a general engagement the Romans so totally defeated the enemy, that the Asiatic monarch escaped with difficulty from the field of battle. See: Mithridaticum bellum. Pompey did not lose sight of the advantages which despatch would ensure; he entered Armenia, received the submission of king Tigranes, and after he had conquered the Albanians and Iberians, visited countries which were scarce known to the Romans, and, like a master of the world, disposed of kingdoms and provinces, and received homage from 12 crowned heads at once; he entered Syria, and pushed his conquests as far as the Red sea. Part of Arabia was subdued, Judea became a Roman province, and when he had now nothing to fear from Mithridates, who had voluntarily destroyed himself, Pompey returned to Italy with all the pomp and majesty of an eastern conqueror. The Romans dreaded his approach; they knew his power and his influence among his troops, and they feared the return of another tyrannical Sylla. Pompey, however, banished their fears; he disbanded his army, and the conqueror of Asia entered Rome like a private citizen. This modest and prudent behaviour gained him more friends and adherents than the most unbounded power, aided with profusion and liberality. He was honoured with a triumph, and the Romans, for three successive days, gazed with astonishment on the riches and the spoils which their conquests had acquired in the east, and expressed their raptures at the sight of the different nations, habits, and treasures which preceded the conqueror’s chariot. But it was not this alone which gratified the ambition, and flattered the pride of the Romans; the advantages of their conquests were more lasting than an empty show, and when 20,000 talents were brought into the public treasury, and when the revenues of the republic were raised from 50 to 85 millions of drachmæ, Pompey became more powerful, more flattered, and more envied. To strengthen himself, and to triumph over his enemies, Pompey soon after united his interest with that of Cæsar and Crassus, and formed the first triumvirate, by solemnly swearing that their attachment should be mutual, their cause common, and their union permanent. The agreement was completed by the marriage of Pompey with Julia the daughter of Cæsar, and the provinces of the republic were arbitrarily divided among the triumvirs. Pompey was allotted Africa and the two Spains, while Crassus repaired to Syria, to add Parthia to the empire of Rome, and Cæsar remained satisfied with the rest, and the continuation of his power as governor of Gaul for five additional years. But this powerful confederacy was soon broken; the sudden death of Julia, and the total defeat of Crassus in Syria, shattered the political bands which held the jarring interest of Cæsar and Pompey united. Pompey dreaded his father-in-law, and yet he affected to despise him; and by suffering anarchy to prevail in Rome, he convinced his fellow-citizens of the necessity of investing him with dictatorial power. But while the conqueror of Mithridates was as a sovereign at Rome, the adherents of Cæsar were not silent. They demanded that either the consulship should be given to him, or that he should be continued in the government of Gaul. This just demand would perhaps have been granted, but Cato opposed it, and when Pompey sent for the two legions which he had lent to Cæsar, the breach became more wide, and a civil war inevitable. Cæsar was privately preparing to meet his enemies, while Pompey remained indolent, and gratified his pride in seeing all Italy celebrate his recovery from an indisposition by universal rejoicings. But he was soon roused from his inactivity, and it was now time to find his friends, if anything could be obtained from the caprice and the fickleness of a people which he had once delighted and amused, by the exhibition of games and spectacles in a theatre which could contain 20,000 spectators. Cæsar was now near Rome, he had crossed the Rubicon, which was a declaration of hostilities, and Pompey, who had once boasted that he could raise legions to his assistance by stamping on the ground with his foot, fled from the city with precipitation, and retired to Brundusium with the consuls and part of the senators. His cause, indeed, was popular; he had been invested with discretionary power, the senate had entreated him to protect the republic against the usurpation and tyranny of Cæsar, and Cato, by embracing his cause, and appearing in his camp, seemed to indicate that he was the friend of the republic, and the assertor of Roman liberty and independence. But Cæsar was now master of Rome, and in 60 days all Italy acknowledged his power, and the conqueror hastened to Spain, there to defeat the interest of Pompey, and to alienate the hearts of his soldiers. He was too successful, and when he had gained to his cause the western parts of the Roman empire, Cæsar crossed Italy and arrived in Greece, where Pompey had retired, supported by all the power of the east, the wishes of the republican Romans, and a numerous and well-disciplined army. Though superior in numbers, he refused to give the enemy battle, while Cæsar continually harassed him, and even attacked his camp. Pompey repelled him with great success, and he might have decided the war, if he had continued to pursue the enemy, while their confusion was great, and their escape almost impossible. Want of provisions obliged Cæsar to advance towards Thessaly; Pompey pursued him, and in the plains of Pharsalia the two armies engaged. The whole was conducted against the advice and approbation of Pompey; and by suffering his troops to wait for the approach of the enemy, he deprived his soldiers of that advantage which the army of Cæsar obtained by running to the charge with spirit, vigour, and animation. The cavalry of Pompey soon gave way, and the general retired to his camp, overwhelmed with grief and shame. But here there was no safety; the conqueror pushed on every side, and Pompey disguised himself, and fled to the sea-coast, whence he passed to Egypt, where he hoped to find a safe asylum, till better and more favourable moments returned, in the court of Ptolemy, a prince whom he had once protected and ensured on his throne. When Ptolemy was told that Pompey claimed his protection, he consulted his ministers, and had the baseness to betray and to deceive him. A boat was sent to fetch him on shore, and the Roman general left his galley, after an affectionate and tender parting with his wife Cornelia. The Egyptian sailors sat in sullen silence in the boat, and when Pompey disembarked, Achillas and Septimius assassinated him. His wife, who had followed him with her eyes to the shore, was a spectator of the bloody scene, and she hastened away from the bay of Alexandria, not to share his miserable fate. He died B.C. 48, in the 58th or 59th year of his age, the day after his birthday. His head was cut off and sent to Cæsar, who turned away from it with horror, and shed a flood of tears. The body was left for some time naked on the sea-shore, till the humanity of Philip, one of his freedmen, and an old soldier who had often followed his standard to victory, raised a burning pile, and deposited his ashes under a mound of earth. Cæsar erected a monument on his remains, and the emperor Adrian, two centuries after, when he visited Egypt, ordered it to be repaired at his own expense, and paid particular honour to the memory of a great and good man. The character of Pompey is that of an intriguing and artful general, and the oris probi and animo inverecundo of Sallust, short and laconic as it may appear, is the best and most descriptive picture of his character. He wished it to appear that he obtained all his honours and dignity from merit alone, and as the free and unprejudiced favour of the Romans, while he secretly claimed them by faction and intrigue; and he who wished to appear the patron and an example of true discipline and ancient simplicity, was not ashamed publicly to bribe the populace to gain an election, or support his favourites. Yet amidst all this dissimulation, which was perhaps but congenial with the age, we perceive many other striking features; Pompey was kind and clement to the conquered, and generous to his captives, and he buried at his own expense Mithridates, with all the pomp and solemnity which the greatness of his power and the extent of his dominions seemed to claim. He was an enemy to flattery, and when his character was impeached by the malevolence of party, he condescended, though consul, to appear before the censorial tribunal, and to show that his actions and measures were not subversive of the peace and the independence of the people. In his private character he was as remarkable; he lived with great temperance and moderation, and his house was small, and not ostentatiously furnished. He destroyed with great prudence the papers which were found in the camp of Sertorius, lest mischievous curiosity should find causes to accuse the innocent, and to meditate their destruction. With great disinterestedness he refused the presents which princes and monarchs offered to him, and he ordered them to be added to the public revenue. He might have seen a better fate, and terminated his days with more glory, if he had not acted with such imprudence when the flames of civil war were first kindled; and he reflected with remorse, after the battle of Pharsalia, upon his want of usual sagacity and military prudence, in fighting at such a distance from the sea, and in leaving the fortified places of Dyrrachium, to meet in the open plain an enemy, without provisions, without friends, and without resources. The misfortunes which attended him after the conquest of Mithridates, are attributed by christian writers to his impiety in profaning the temple of the Jews, and in entering with the insolence of a conqueror the Holy of Holies, where even the sacred person of the high priest of the nation was not admitted but upon the most solemn occasions. His duplicity of behaviour in regard to Cicero is deservedly censured, and he should not have violently sacrificed to party and sedition a Roman whom he had ever found his firmest friend and adherent. In his meeting with Lucullus he cannot but be taxed with pride, and he might have paid more deference and more honour to a general who was as able and more entitled than himself to finish the Mithridatic war. Pompey married four different times. His first matrimonial connection was with Antistia the daughter of the pretor Antistius, whom he divorced, with great reluctance, to marry Æmylia the daughter-in-law of Sylla. Æmylia died in child-bed; and Pompey’s marriage with Julia the daughter of Cæsar was a step more of policy than affection. Yet Julia loved Pompey with great tenderness, and her death in child-bed was the signal of war between her husband and her father. He afterwards married Cornelia the daughter of Metellus Scipio, a woman commended for her virtues, beauty, and accomplishments. Plutarch, Lives. ――Florus, bk. 4.――Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 29.――Dio Cassius. ――Lucan.――Appian.――Cæsar, Civil War.――Cicero, Orator, ch. 68, Letters to Atticus, bk. 7, ltr. 25; Letters to his Friends, bk. 13, ltr. 19.――Eutropius.――――The two sons of Pompey the Great, called Cneus and Sextus, were masters of a powerful army, when the death of their father was known. They prepared to oppose the conqueror, but Cæsar pursued them with his usual vigour and success, and at the battle of Munda they were defeated, and Cneus was left among the slain. Sextus fled to Sicily, where he for some time supported himself; but the murder of Cæsar gave rise to new events, and if Pompey had been as prudent and as sagacious as his father, he might have become, perhaps, as great and as formidable. He treated with the triumvirs as an equal, and when Augustus and Antony had the imprudence to trust themselves without arms and without attendants in his ship, Pompey, by following the advice of his friend Menas, who wished him to cut off the illustrious persons who were masters of the world, and now in his power, might have made himself as absolute as Cæsar; but he refused, and observed it was unbecoming the son of Pompey to act with such duplicity. This friendly meeting of Pompey with two of the triumvirs was not productive of advantages to him; he wished to have no superior, and hostilities began. Pompey was at the head of 350 ships, and appeared so formidable to his enemies, and so confident of success in himself, that he called himself the son of Neptune, and the lord of the sea. He was, however, soon defeated in a naval engagement by Octavius and Lepidus, and of all his numerous fleet, only 17 sail accompanied his flight into Asia. Here for a moment he raised seditions, but Antony ordered him to be seized and put to death about 35 years before the christian era. Plutarch, Antonius, &c.――Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 55, &c.――Florus, bk. 4, ch. 2, &c.――――Trogus. See: Trogus.――――Sextus Festus, a Latin grammarian, of whose treatise de verborum significatione, the best edition is in 4to, Amsterdam, 1699.
♦ ‘dependant’ replaced with ‘dependent’
=Pompelon=, a town of Spain, now Pompeluna, the capital of Navarre. Pliny, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Pompĭlius Numa=, the second king of Rome. See: Numa. The descendants of the monarch were called Pompilius Sanguis, an expression applied by Horace to the Pisos. Art of Poetry, li. 292.――――Andronicus, a grammarian of Syria, who opened a school at Rome, and had Cicero and Cæsar among his pupils. Suetonius.
=Pompĭlia=, a daughter of Numa Pompilius. She married Numa Martius, by whom she had Ancus Martius the fourth king of Rome.
=Pompīlus=, a fisherman of Ionia. He carried into Miletus Ocyroe the daughter of Chesias, of whom Apollo was enamoured; but before he had reached the shore, the god changed the boat into a rock, Pompilus into a fish of the same name, and carried away Ocyroe. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 29; bk. 9, ch. 15; bk. 32, ch. 11.
=Pompiscus=, an Arcadian. Polyænus, bk. 5.
=Pompōnia=, the wife of Quintus Cicero, sister to Pomponius Atticus. She punished with the greatest cruelty Philologus, the slave who had betrayed her husband to Antony, and she ordered him to cut his flesh by piecemeal, and afterwards to boil it and eat it in her presence. ――――A daughter of Pomponius Græcinus, in the age of Augustus, &c. ――――Another matron, banished from Rome by Domitian, and recalled by Nerva.
=Pompōnius=, the father of Numa, advised his son to accept the regal dignity which the Roman ambassadors offered to him.――――A celebrated Roman intimate with Cicero. He was surnamed Atticus from his long residence at Athens. See: Atticus.――――Flaccus, a man appointed governor of Mœsia and Syria by Tiberius, because he had continued drinking and eating with him for two days without intermission. Suetonius, Tiberius, ch. 42.――――A tribune of the people in the time of Servilius Ahala the consul.――――Labeo, a governor of Mœsia, accused of ill management in his province. He destroyed himself by opening his veins. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, li. 29.――――Mela, a Spaniard, who wrote a book on geography. See: Mela.――――A proconsul of Africa, accused by the inhabitants of his province, and acquitted, &c.――――A Roman who accused Manlius the dictator of cruelty. He triumphed over Sardinia, of which he was made governor. He escaped from Rome, and the tyranny of the triumvirs, by assuming the habit of a pretor, and by travelling with his servants disguised in the dress of lictors with their fasces.――――Secundus, an officer in Germany in the age of Nero. He was honoured with a triumph for a victory over the barbarians of Germany. He wrote some poems greatly celebrated by the ancients for their beauty and elegance. They are lost.――――A friend of Caius Gracchus. He was killed in attempting to defend him. Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus.――――An officer taken prisoner by Mithridates.――――A dissolute youth, &c. Horace, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 52.――――Sextus, a lawyer, disciple to Papinian, &c.
=Pomposiānus=, a Roman put to death by Domitian. He had before been made consul by Vespasian.
=Pomptina.= See: Pontina.
=Caius Pomptinus=, a Roman officer, who conquered the Allobroges after the defeat of Catiline. Cicero bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 16; bk. 6, ltr. 3.
=Pompus=, a king of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Pons Ælius=, was built by the emperor Adrian at Rome. It was the second bridge of Rome in following the current of the Tiber. It is still to be seen, the largest and most beautiful in Rome.――――Æmylius, an ancient bridge at Rome, originally called Sublicius, because built with wood (sublicæ). It was raised by Ancus Martius, and dedicated with great pomp and solemnity by the Roman priests. It was rebuilt with stones by Æmylius Lepidus, whose name it assumed. It was much injured by the overflowing of the river, and the emperor Antoninus, who repaired it, made it all with white marble. It was the last of all the bridges of Rome, in following the course of the river, and some vestiges of it may still be seen.――――Aniensis was built across the river Anio, about three miles from Rome. It was rebuilt by the eunuch Narses, and called after him when destroyed by the Goths.――――Cestus was built in the reign of Tiberius, by a Roman called Cestius Gallus, from whom it received its name, and carried back from an island of the Tiber, to which the Fabricius conducted. ――――Aurelianus was built with marble by the emperor ♦Antoninus. ――――Armoniensis was built by Augustus, to join the Flaminian to the Æmylian road.――――Bajanus was built at Baiæ in the sea by Caligula. It was supported by boats, and measured about six miles in length. ――――Janicularis received its name from its vicinity to mount Janiculum. It is still standing.――――Milvius was about one mile from Rome. It was built by the censor Ælius Scaurus. It was near it that Constantine defeated Maxentius.――――Fabricius was built by Fabricius, and carried to an island of the Tiber.――――Gardius was built by Agrippa.――――Palatinus, near mount Palatine, was also called Senatorius, because the senators walked over it in procession when they went to consult the Sibylline books. It was begun by Marcus Fulvius, and finished in the censorship of Lucius Mummius, and some remains of it are still visible.――――Trajani was built by Trajan across the Danube, celebrated for its bigness and magnificence. The emperor built it to assist more expeditiously the provinces against the barbarians, but his successor destroyed it, as he supposed that it would be rather an inducement for the barbarians to invade the empire. It was raised on 20 piers of hewn stones, 150 feet from the foundation, 60 feet broad, and 170 feet distant one from the other, extending in length above a mile. Some of the pillars are still standing.――――Another was built by Trajan over the Tagus, part of which still remains. Of temporary bridges, that of Cæsar over the Rhine was the most famous.――――The largest single-arched bridge known is over the river Elaver in France, called Pons Veteris Brivatis. The pillars stand on two rocks, at the distance of 195 feet. The arch is 84 feet high above the water.――――Suffragiorum was built in the Campus Martius, and received its name, because the populace were obliged to pass over it whenever they delivered their suffrages at the elections of magistrates and officers of the state.――――Tirensis, a bridge of Latium between Arpinum and Minturnæ.――――Triumphalis was on the way to the capitol, and passed over by those who triumphed. ――――Narniensis joined two mountains near Narnia, built by Augustus, of stupendous height, 60 miles from Rome; one arch of it remains, about 100 feet high.
♦ ‘Antonnius’ replaced with ‘Antoninus’
=Pontia=, a Roman matron who committed adultery with Sagitta, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12.――――A mother infamous for her cruelty. Martial, bk. 1, ltr. 34.――――A surname of Venus at Hermione. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.――――A woman condemned by Nero as guilty of a conspiracy. She killed herself by opening her veins. She was daughter of Petronius and wife of Bolanus. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 637.――――An island in the Tyrrhene sea, where Pilate, surnamed Pontius, is supposed to have lived. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 6.――Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 1. See: Œnotrides.
=Pontĭcum mare=, the sea of Pontus, generally called the Euxine.
=Pontīcus=, a poet of Rome, contemporary with Propertius, by whom he is compared to Homer. He wrote an account of the Theban war in heroic verse. Propertius, bk. 1, poem 7.――――A man in Juvenal’s age, fond of boasting of the antiquity and great actions of his family, yet without possessing himself one single virtue.
=Pontīna=, or =Pomptina lacus=, a lake in the country of the Volsci, through which the great Appian road passed. Travellers were sometimes conveyed in a boat, drawn by a mule, in the canal that ran along the road from Forum Appii to Tarracina. This lake is now become so dangerous, from the exhalations of its stagnant water, that travellers avoid passing near it. Horace, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 9. ――Lucan, bk. 3, li. 85.
=Pontīnus=, a friend of Cicero.――――A tribune of the people, who refused to rise up when Cæsar passed in triumphal procession. He was one of Cæsar’s murderers, and was killed at the battle of Mutina. Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 78.――Cicero, bk. 10, Letters to his Friends.――――A mountain of Argolis, with a river of the same name. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 73.
=Pontius Aufidianus=, a Roman citizen, who, upon hearing that violence had been offered to his daughter, punished her and her ravisher with death. Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 1.――――Herennius, a general of the Samnites, who surrounded the Roman army under the consuls Titus Veturius and Publius Posthumius. As there was no possibility of escaping for the Romans, Pontius consulted his father what he could do with an army that were prisoners in his hands. The old man advised him either to let them go untouched, or put them all to the sword. Pontius rejected his father’s advice, and spared the lives of the enemy, after he had obliged them to pass under the yoke with the greatest ignominy. He was afterwards conquered, and obliged, in his turn, to pass under the yoke. Fabius Maximus defeated him, when he appeared again at the head of another army, and he was afterwards shamefully put to death by the Romans, after he had adorned the triumph of the conqueror. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 1, &c.――――Cominius, a Roman who gave information to his countrymen who were besieged in the capitol, that Camillus had obtained a victory over the Gauls. Plutarch.――――A Roman slave who told Sylla, in a prophetic strain, that he brought him success from Bellona.――――One of the favourites of Albucilla. He was degraded from the rank of a senator. Tacitus. ――――Titus, a Roman centurion, whom Cicero de Senectute mentions as possessed of uncommon strength.
=Pontus=, a kingdom of Asia Minor, bounded on the east by Colchis, west by the Halys, north by the Euxine sea, and south by part of Armenia. It was divided into three parts, according to Ptolemy; Pontus Galaticus, of which Amasia was the capital, Pontus Polemoniacus, from its chief town Polemonium, and Pontus Cappadocius, of which Trapezus was the capital. It was governed by kings, the first of whom was Artabazes, either one of the seven Persian noblemen who murdered the usurper Smerdis, or one of their descendants. The kingdom of Pontus was in its most flourishing state under Mithridates the Great. When Julius Cæsar had conquered it, it became a Roman province, though it was often governed by monarchs who were tributary to the power of Rome. Under the emperors a regular governor was always appointed over it. Pontus produced castors, whose testicles were highly valued among the ancients for their salutary qualities in medicinal processes. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 58.――Mela, bk. 1, chs. 1 & 19.――Strabo, bk. 12.――Cicero, De Legibus. ――Manitius.――Appian.――Ptolemy, bk. 5, ch. 6.――――A part of Mysia in Europe, on the borders of the Euxine sea, where Ovid was banished, and from whence he wrote his four books of epistles ex Ponto, and his six books de Tristibus. Ovid, ex Ponto.――――An ancient deity, father of Phorcys, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto by Terra. He is the same as Oceanus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Pontus Euxīnus=, a celebrated sea, situate at the west of Colchis between Asia and Europe, at the north of Asia Minor. It is called the Black sea by the moderns. See: Euxinus.
=Marcus Popilius=, a consul who was informed, as he was offering a sacrifice, that a sedition was raised in the city against the senate. Upon this he immediately went to the populace in his sacerdotal robes, and quieted the multitude with a speech. He lived about the year of Rome 404. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 21.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 8. ――――Caius, a consul, who, when besieged by the Gauls, abandoned his baggage to save his army. Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium, bk. 1, ch. 15.――――Lænas, a Roman ambassador to Antiochus king of Syria. He was commissioned to order the monarch to abstain from hostilities against Ptolemy king of Egypt, who was an ally of Rome. Antiochus wished to evade him by his answers, but Popilius, with a stick which he had in his hand, made a circle round him on the sand, and bade him, in the name of the Roman senate and people, not to go beyond it before he spoke decisively. This boldness intimidated Antiochus; he withdrew his garrisons from Egypt, and no longer meditated a war against Ptolemy. Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 4.――Livy, bk. 45, ch. 12.――Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――A tribune of the people who murdered Cicero, to whose eloquence he was indebted for his life when he was accused of parricide. Plutarch.――――A pretor who banished the friends of Tiberius Gracchus from Italy.――――A Roman consul who made war against the people of Numantia, on pretence that the peace had not been firmly established. He was defeated by them.――――A senator who alarmed the conspirators against Cæsar, by telling them that the whole plot was discovered.――――A Roman emperor. See: Nepotianus.
=Poplicŏla=, one of the first consuls. See: Publicola.
=Poppæa Sabīna=, a celebrated Roman matron, daughter of Titus Ollius. She married a Roman knight called Rufus Crispinus, by whom she had a son. Her personal charms, and the elegance of her figure, captivated Otho, who was then one of Nero’s favourites. He carried her away and married her; but Nero, who had seen her, and had often heard her accomplishments extolled, soon deprived him of her company, and sent him out of Italy, on pretence of presiding over one of the Roman provinces. After he had taken this step, Nero repudiated his wife Octavia, on pretence of barrenness, and married Poppæa. The cruelty and avarice of the emperor did not long permit Poppæa to share the imperial dignity, and though she had already made him father of a son, he began to despise her, and even to use her with barbarity. She died of a blow which she received from his foot when many months advanced in her pregnancy, about the 65th year of the christian era. Her funeral was performed with great pomp and solemnity, and statues were raised to her memory. It is said that she was so anxious to preserve her beauty and the elegance of her person, that 500 asses were kept on purpose to afford her milk in which she used daily to bathe. Even in her banishment she was attended by 50 of these animals for the same purpose, and from their milk she invented a kind of ointment or pomatum, to preserve beauty, called poppæanum from her. Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 41.――Dio Cassisus, bk. 65.――Juvenal, satire 6. ――Suetonius, Nero & Otho.――Tacitus, ♦Annals, bks. 13 & 14. ――――A beautiful woman at the court of Nero. She was mother to the preceding. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 1, &c.
♦ Book title omitted in text
=Poppæus Sabīnus=, a Roman of obscure origin, who was made governor of some of the Roman provinces. He destroyed himself, &c. Tacitus, bk. 6, Annals, ch. 39.――――Sylvanus, a man of consular dignity, who brought to Vespasian a body of 600 Dalmatians.――――A friend of Otho.
=Populonia=, or =Populanium=, a town of Etruria, near Pisæ, destroyed in the civil wars of Sylla. Strabo, bk. 5.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 172.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 5.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Porata=, a river of Dacia, now Pruth, falling into the Danube a little below Axiopoli.
=Porcia=, a sister of Cato of Utica, greatly commended by Cicero.――――A daughter of Cato of Utica, who married Bibulus, and after his death, Brutus. She was remarkable for her prudence, philosophy, courage, and conjugal tenderness. She gave herself a heavy wound in the thigh, to see with what fortitude she could bear pain; and when her husband asked her the reason of it, she said that she wished to try whether she had courage enough to share not only his bed, but to partake of his most hidden secrets. Brutus was astonished at her constancy, and no longer detained from her knowledge the conspiracy which he and many other illustrious Romans had formed against Julius Cæsar. Porcia wished them success, and though she betrayed fear, and fell into a swoon the day that her husband was gone to assassinate the dictator, yet she was faithful to her promise, and dropped nothing which might affect the situation of the conspirators. When Brutus was dead, she refused to survive him, and attempted to end her life as a daughter of Cato. Her friends attempted to terrify her; but when she saw that every weapon was removed from her reach, she swallowed burning coals and died, about 42 years before the christian era. Valerius Maximus says that she was acquainted with her husband’s conspiracy against Cæsar when she gave herself the wound. Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 4, ch. 6.――Plutarch, Brutus, &c.
=Porcia lex=, de civitate, by Marcus Porcius the tribune, A.U.C. 453. It ordained that no magistrate should punish with death, or scourge with rods, a Roman citizen when condemned, but only permit him to go into exile. Sallust, Catilinae Coniuratio.――Livy, bk. 10. ――Cicero, For Rabirius Postumus.
=Porcina=, a surname of the orator Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who lived a little before Cicero’s age, and was distinguished for his abilities. Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Marcus Porcius Latro=, a celebrated orator who killed himself when labouring under a quartan ague, A.U.C. 750.――――Licinius, a Latin poet during the time of the third Punic war, commended for the elegance, the graceful ease, and happy wit of his epigrams.――――A Roman senator who joined the conspiracy of Catiline.――――A son of Cato of Utica, given much to drinking.
=Poredorax=, one of the 40 Gauls whom Mithridates ordered to be put to death, and to remain unburied for conspiring against him. His mistress at Pergamus buried him against the orders of the monarch. Plutarch, Mulierum Virtutes.
=Porīna=, a river of Peloponnesus. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 85.
=Poroselēne=, an island near Lesbos. Strabo, bk. 13.――Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Porphyrion=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, one of the giants who made war against Jupiter. He was so formidable, that Jupiter, to conquer him, inspired him with love for Juno, and while the giant endeavoured to obtain his wishes, he, with the assistance of Hercules, overpowered him. Horace, bk. 3, ode 4.――Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 78. ――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Porphy̆ris=, a name of the island Cythera.
=Porphyrius=, a Platonic philosopher of Tyre. He studied eloquence at Athens under Longinus, and afterwards retired to Rome, where he perfected himself under Plotinus. Porphyry was a man of universal information, and, according to the testimony of the ancients, he excelled his contemporaries in the knowledge of history, mathematics, music, and philosophy. He expressed his sentiments with elegance and with dignity, and while other philosophers studied obscurity in their language, his style was remarkable for its simplicity and grace. He applied himself to the study of magic, which he called a theourgic or divine operation. The books that he wrote were numerous, and some of his smaller treatises are still extant. His most celebrated work, which is now lost, was against the religion of Christ, and in this theological contest he appeared so formidable, that most of the fathers of the church have been employed in confuting his arguments, and developing the falsehood of his assertions. He has been universally called the greatest enemy which the christian religion had, and, indeed, his doctrines were so pernicious, that a copy of his book was publicly burnt by order of Theodosius, A.D. 388. Porphyry resided for some time in Sicily, and died at the advanced age of 71, A.D. 304. The best edition of his life of Pythagoras is that of Kuster, 4to, Amsterdam, 1707, that of his treatise, De Abstinentiâ, is De Rhoer, Utrecht, 8vo, 1767, and that De Antro Nympharum, in 8vo, Utrecht, 1765.――――A Latin poet in the reign of Constantine the Great.
=Porrima=, one of the attendants of Carmente when she came from Arcadia. Ovid, bk. 1, Fasti, li. 633.
=Porsenna=, or =Porsĕna=, a king of Etruria, who declared war against the Romans because they refused to restore Tarquin to his throne and to his royal privileges. He was at first successful; the Romans were defeated, and Porsenna would have entered the gates of Rome, had not Cocles stood at the head of a bridge, and supported the fury of the whole Etrurian army, while his companions behind were cutting off the communication with the opposite shore. This act of bravery astonished Porsenna; but when he had seen Mutius Scævola enter his camp with an intention to murder him, and when he had seen him burn his hand without emotion to convince him of his fortitude and intrepidity, he no longer dared to make head against a people so brave and so generous. He made a peace with the Romans, and never after supported the claims of Tarquin. The generosity of Porsenna’s behaviour to the captives was admired by the Romans, and to reward his humanity they raised a brazen statue to his honour. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 9, &c. ――Plutarch, Publicola.――Florus, bk. 1, ch. 10.――Horace, epode 16.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 646.
=Porta Capēna=, a gate at Rome, which leads to the Appian road. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 192.――――Aurelia, a gate at Rome, which received its name from Aurelius, a consul who made a road which led to Pisæ, all along the coast of Etruria.――――Asinaria led to mount Cœlius. It received its name from the family of the Asinii.――――Carmentalis was at the foot of the capitol, built by Romulus. It was afterwards called Scelerata, because the 300 Fabii marched through when they went to fight an enemy, and were killed near the river Cremera. ――――Janualis was near the temple of Janus.――――Esquilina was also called Metia, Taurica, or Libitinensis, and all criminals who were going to be executed generally passed through, as also dead bodies which were carried to be burnt on mount Esquilinus. ――――Flaminia, called also Flumentana, was situate between the capitol and mount Quirinalis, and through it the Flaminian road passed.――――Fontinalis led to the Campus Martius. It received its name from the great number of fountains that were near it.――――Navalis was situate near the place where the ships came from Ostia.――――Viminalis was near mount Viminalis.――――Trigemina, called also Ostiensis, led to the town of Ostia.――――Catularia was near the Carmentalis Porta, at the foot of mount Viminalis.――――Collatina received its name from its leading to Collatia.――――Collina, called also Quirinalis, Agonensis, and Salaria, was near Quirinalis Mons. Annibal rode up to this gate and threw a spear into the city. It is to be observed, that at the death of Romulus there were only three or four gates at Rome, but the number was increased, and in the time of Pliny there were 37, when the circumference of the walls was 13 miles and 200 paces.
=Portia= and =Portius=. See: Porcia and Porcius.
=Portmos=, a town of Eubœa. Demosthenes.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Portumnalia=, festivals of Portumnus at Rome, celebrated on the 17th of August, in a very solemn and lugubrious manner, on the borders of the Tiber. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 547.――Varro, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Portumnus=, a sea deity. See: Melicerta.
=Porus=, the god of plenty at Rome. He was son of Metis or Prudence. Plato.――――A king of India, when Alexander invaded Asia. The conqueror of Darius ordered him to come and pay homage to him, as a dependent prince. Porus scorned his commands, and declared he would go and meet him on the frontiers of his kingdom sword in hand, and immediately he marched a large army to the banks of the Hydaspes. The stream of the river was rapid; but Alexander crossed it in the obscurity of the night, and defeated one of the sons of the Indian monarch. Porus himself renewed the battle, but the valour of the Macedonians prevailed, and the Indian prince retired covered with wounds, on the back of one of his elephants. Alexander sent one of the kings of India to demand him to surrender, but Porus killed the messenger, exclaiming, “Is not this the voice of the wretch who has abandoned his country?” and when he at last was prevailed upon to come before the conqueror, he approached him as an equal. Alexander demanded of him how he wished to be treated. “Like a king,” replied the Indian monarch. This magnanimous answer so pleased the Macedonian conqueror, that he not only restored him his dominions, but he increased his kingdom by the conquest of new provinces; and Porus, in acknowledgment of such generosity and benevolence, became one of the most faithful and attached friends of Alexander, and never violated the assurances of peace which he had given him. Porus is represented as a man of uncommon stature, great strength, and proportionable dignity. Plutarch, Alexander.――Philostratus, bk. 2, ch. 10. ――Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 8, &c.――Claudianus, De Consulatu Honorii, ch. 4.――――Another king of India in the reign of Alexander.――――A king of Babylon.
=Pŏsīdes=, a eunuch and freedman of the emperor Claudius, who rose to honours by the favour of his master. Juvenal, satire 14, li. 94.
=Posidēum=, a promontory and town of Ionia, where Neptune had a temple. Strabo, bk. 14.――――A town of Syria below Libanus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 20.――――A town near the Strymon, on the borders of Macedonia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Posīdon=, the name of Neptune among the Greeks.
=Posidonia=, a town of Lucania, better known by the name of Pæstum. See: Pæstum.
=Posidonium=, a town or temple of Neptune, near Cænis in Italy, where the straits of Sicily are narrowest, and scarce a mile distant from the opposite shore.
=Posidonius=, a philosopher of Apamea. He lived at Rhodes for some time, and afterwards came to Rome, where, after cultivating the friendship of Pompey and Cicero, he died in his 84th year. He wrote a treatise on the nature of the gods, and also attempted to measure the circumference of the earth; he accounted for the tides from the motion of the moon, and calculated the height of the atmosphere to be 400 stadia, nearly agreeing with the ideas of the moderns. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 37.――Strabo, bk. 14. ――――Another philosopher, born at Alexandria in Egypt.
=Posio=, a native of Magnesia, who wrote a history of the Amazons.
=Posthumia=, a vestal virgin, accused of adultery and acquitted.――――The wife of Servius Sulpicius. Cicero, Epistles.――――A daughter of Sylla.
=Posthumius Albīnus=, a man who suffered himself to be bribed by Jugurtha, against whom he had been sent with an army.――――A writer at Rome whom Cato ridiculed for composing a history in Greek, and afterwards offering apologies for the inaccuracy and inelegance of his expressions.――――Tubero, a master of horse to the dictator Æmilius Mamercus. He was himself made dictator in the war which the Romans waged against the Volsci, and he punished his son with death for fighting against his orders, A.U.C. 312. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 23. ――――Spurius, a consul sent against the Samnites. He was taken in an ambush by Pontius, the enemy’s general, and obliged to pass under the yoke with all his army. He saved his life by a shameful treaty, and when he returned to Rome he persuaded the Romans not to reckon as valid the engagements he had made with the enemy, as it was without their advice. He was given up to the enemy because he could not perform his engagements; but he was released by Pontius for his generous and patriotic behaviour.――――Aulus, a dictator who defeated the Latins and the Volsci.――――Tubertus, another dictator, who defeated the Æqui and Volsci.――――Lucius, a consul sent against the Samnites.――――A general who defeated the Sabines, and who was the first who obtained an ovation.――――A man poisoned by his wife.――――A general who conquered the Æqui, and who was stoned by the army, because he refused to divide the promised spoils. Florus, bk. 22. ――――Lucius, a Roman consul who was defeated by the Boii. He was left among the slain, and his head was cut off from his body, and carried in triumph by the barbarians into their temples, where they made with the skull a sacred vessel to offer libations to their gods.――――Marcus Crassus Latianus, an officer proclaimed emperor in Gaul, A.D. 260. He reigned with great popularity, and gained the affection of his subjects by his humanity and moderation. He took his son of the same name as a colleague on the throne. They were both assassinated by their soldiers, after a reign of six years.――――Megilthus, a consul against the Samnites and Tarentines.――――Quintus, a man put to death by Antony.――――A soothsayer in the age of Sylla.――――Spurius, an enemy of Tiberius Gracchus.――――Albus, a Roman decemvir, sent to Athens to collect the most salutary laws of Solon, &c. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 31. ――――Sylvius, a son of Æneas and Sylvia.
=Postverta=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the painful travails of women. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 633.
=Postumia via=, a Roman road about the town of Hostilia.
=Postumius.= See: Posthumius.
=Potamĭdes=, nymphs who presided over rivers and fountains, as their name (ποταμος, fluvius) implies.
=Potamon=, a philosopher of Alexandria, in the age of Augustus. He wrote several treatises, and confined himself to the doctrines of no particular sect of philosophers.
=Potamos=, a town of Attica, near Sunium. Strabo, bk. 9.
=Potentia=, a town of Picenum. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 44.
=Pothīnus=, a eunuch, tutor to Ptolemy king of Egypt. He advised the monarch to murder Pompey, when he claimed his protection after the battle of Pharsalia. He stirred up commotions in Alexandria, when Cæsar came there, upon which the conqueror ordered him to be put to death. Lucan, bk. 8, li. 483; bk. 10, li. 95.
=Pothos=, one of the deities of the Samothracians. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Potidæa=, a town of Macedonia, situate in the peninsula of Pallene. It was founded by a Corinthian colony, and became tributary to the Athenians, from whom Philip of Macedonia took it. The conqueror gave it to the Olynthians, to render them more attached to his interest. Cassander repaired and enlarged it, and called it Cassandria, a name which it still preserves, and which has given occasion to Livy to say, that Cassander was the original founder of that city. Livy, bk. 44, ch. 11.――Demosthenes, Olynthiac.――Strabo, bk. 7. ――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 23.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Potidania=, a town of Ætolia. Livy, bk. 28, ch. 8.
=Potīna=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over children’s potions. Varro.
=Potitius.= See: Pinarius.
=Potniæ=, a town of Bœotia, where Bacchus had a temple. The Potnians, having once murdered the priest of the god, were ordered by the oracle, to appease his resentment, yearly to offer on his altars a young man. This unnatural sacrifice was continued for some years, till Bacchus himself substituted a goat, from which circumstance he received the appellation of Ægobolus and Ægophagus. There was here a fountain whose waters made horses run mad as soon as they were touched. There were also here certain goddesses called Potniades, on whose altars, in a grove sacred to Ceres and Proserpine, victims were sacrificed. It was also usual, at a certain season of the year, to conduct into the grove young pigs, which were found the following year in the groves of Dodona. The mares of Potniæ destroyed their master Glaucus son of Sisyphus. See: Glaucus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 8.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 267.――Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 15, ch. 25.――――A town of Magnesia, whose pastures gave madness to asses, according to Pliny.
=Practium=, a town and a small river of Asia Minor, on the Hellespont.
=Præcia=, a courtesan at Rome, who influenced Cethegus, and procured Asia as a consular province for Lucullus. Plutarch, Lucullus.
=Præneste=, a town of Latium, about 21 miles from Rome, built by Telegonus son of Ulysses and Circe, or, according to others, by Cæculus the son of Vulcan. There was a celebrated temple of Fortune there, with two famous images, as also an oracle, which was long in great repute. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 2, ch. 41.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 680.――Horace, bk. 3, ode 4.――Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 3, li. 80.
=Præsos=, a small town of Crete, destroyed in a civil war by one of the neighbouring cities.
=Præsti=, a nation of India. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 8.
=Prætōria=, a town of Dacia, now Cronstadt.――――Another, now Aoust, in Piedmont.
=Prætorius=, a name ironically applied to As. Sempronius Rufus, because he was disappointed in his solicitations for the pretorship, as being too dissolute and luxurious in his manners. He was the first who had a stork brought to his table. Horace, bk. 2, satire 2, li. 50.
=Prætutium=, a town of Picenum. Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 568. ――Livy, bk. 22, ch. 9; bk. 27, ch. 43.
=Prasiane=, now Verdant, a large island at the mouth of the Indus. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Prasias=, a lake between Macedonia and Thrace, where were silver mines. Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 17.
=Prasii=, a nation of India in Alexander’s age. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 2.
=Pratellia lex=, was enacted by Pratellius the tribune, A.U.C. 398, to curb and check the ambitious views of men who were lately advanced in the state. Livy, bk. 7, ch. 15.
=Pratinas=, a Greek poet of Phlius, contemporary with Æschylus. He was the first among the Greeks who composed satires, which were represented as farces. Of these 32 were acted, as also 18 of his tragedies, one of which only obtained the poetical prize. Some of his verses are extant, quoted by Athenæus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 13.
=Praxagŏras=, an Athenian writer, who published a history of the kings of his own country. He was then only 19 years old, and, three years after, he wrote the life of Constantine the Great. He had also written the life of Alexander, all now lost.
=Praxias=, a celebrated statuary of Athens. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 18.
=Praxidămas=, a famous athlete of Ægina. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 18.
=Praxidĭce=, a goddess among the Greeks, who presided over the execution of enterprises, and who punished all evil actions. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 33.
=Praxĭla=, a lyric poetess of Sicyon, who flourished about 492 years before Christ. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Praxiphănes=, a Rhodian, who wrote a learned commentary on the obscure passages of Sophocles.――――An historian. Diogenes Laërtius.
=Praxis=, a surname of Venus at Megara. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Praxitĕles=, a famous sculptor of Magna Græcia, who flourished about 324 years before the christian era. He chiefly worked on Parian marble, on account of its beautiful whiteness. He carried his art to the greatest perfection, and was so happy in copying nature, that his statues seemed to be animated. The most famous of his pieces was a Cupid which he gave to Phryne. This celebrated courtesan, who wished to have the best of all the statues of Praxiteles, and who could not depend upon her own judgment in the choice, alarmed the sculptor, by telling him his house was on fire. Praxiteles upon this showed his eagerness to save his Cupid from the flames, above all his other pieces; but Phryne restrained his fears, and, by discovering her artifice, obtained the favourite statue. The sculptor employed his chisel in making a statue of this beautiful courtesan, which was dedicated in the temple of Delphi, and placed between the statues of Archidamus king of Sparta, and Philip king of Macedon. He also made a statue of Venus, at the request of the people of Cos, and gave them their choice of the goddess, either naked or veiled. The former was superior to the other in beauty and perfection, but the inhabitants of Cos preferred the latter. The ♦Cnidians, who did not wish to patronize modesty and decorum with the same eagerness as the people of Cos, bought the naked Venus, and it was so universally esteemed, that Nicomedes king of Bithynia offered the Cnidians to pay an enormous debt under which they laboured, if they would give him their favourite statue. This offer was not accepted. The famous Cupid was bought of the Thespians by Caius Cæsar and carried to Rome, but Claudius restored it to them, and Nero afterwards obtained possession of it. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 40; bk. 8, ch. 9.――Pliny, bk. 7, chs. 34 & 36.
♦ ‘Cnidans’ replaced with ‘Cnidians’
=Praxithea=, a daughter of Phrasimus and Diogenea. She married Erechtheus king of Athens, by whom she had Cecrops, Pandarus, and Metion, and four daughters, Procris, Creusa, Chthonia, and Orithyia. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A daughter of Thestius, mother of some children by Hercules. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A daughter of Erechtheus, sacrificed by order of the oracle.
=Prelius=, a lake of Tuscany, now Castiglione. Cicero, For Milo, ch. 27.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Presbon=, a son of Phryxus, father of Clymenus.――――A son of Clytodora and Minyas also bore the same name. Pausanias, bk. 9, chs. 34 & 37.
=Pretor=, one of the chief magistrates at Rome. The office of pretor was first instituted A.U.C. 388, by the senators, who wished by some new honour to compensate for the loss of the consulship, of which the plebeians had claimed a share. The pretor received his name a præeundo. Only one was originally elected, and another A.U.C. 501. One of them was totally employed in administering justice among the citizens, whence he was called pretor urbanus; and the other appointed judges in all causes which related to foreigners. In the year of Rome 520, two more pretors were created to assist the consul in the government of the provinces of Sicily and Sardinia, which had been lately conquered, and two more when Spain was reduced into the form of a Roman province, A.U.C. 521. Sylla the dictator added two more, and Julius Cæsar increased the number to 10, and afterwards to 16, and the second triumvirate to 64. After this their numbers fluctuated, being sometimes 18, 16, or 12, till, in the decline of the empire, their dignity decreased, and their numbers were reduced to three. In his public capacity the pretor administered justice, protected the rights of widows and orphans, presided at the celebration of public festivals, and in the absence of the consul assembled or prorogued the senate as he pleased. He also exhibited shows to the people, and in the festivals of the Bona Dea, where no males were permitted to appear, his wife presided over the rest of the Roman matrons. Feasts were announced and proclaimed by him, and he had the power to make and repeal laws, if it met with the approbation of the senate and people. The questors were subject to him, and in the absence of the consuls, he appeared at the head of the armies, and in the city he kept a register of all the freedmen of Rome, with the reasons for which they had received their freedom. In the provinces the pretors appeared with great pomp; six lictors with the fasces walked before them, and when the empire was increased by conquests, they divided, like the consuls, their government, and provinces were given them by lot. When the year of their pretorship was elapsed, they were called proprætors, if they still continued at the head of their province. At Rome the pretors appeared also with much pomp; two lictors preceded them, they wore the prætexta, or the white robe with purple borders, they sat in curule chairs, and their tribunal was distinguished by a sword and a spear, while they administered justice. The tribunal was called prætorium. When they rode they appeared on white horses at Rome, as a mark of distinction. The pretor who appointed judges to try foreign causes, was called prætor peregrinus. The pretors Cereales, appointed by Julius Cæsar, were employed in providing corn and provision for the city. They were on that account often called frumentarii.
=Preugĕnes=, a son of Agenor. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 7, chs. 18 & 20.
=Prexaspes=, a Persian who put Smerdis to death, by order of king Cambyses. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 30.
=Priamĭdes=, a patronymic applied to Paris, as being son of Priam. It is also given to Hector, Deiphobus, and all the other children of the Trojan monarch. Ovid, Heroides.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 235.
=Priămus=, the last king of Troy, was son of Laomedon by Strymo, called Placia by some. When Hercules took the city of Troy [See: Laomedon], Priam was in the number of his prisoners, but his sister Hesione redeemed him from captivity, and he exchanged his original name of Podarces for that of Priam, which signifies bought or ransomed. See: Podarces. He was also placed on his father’s throne by Hercules, and he employed himself with well-directed diligence in repairing, fortifying, and embellishing the city of Troy. He had married, by his father’s orders, Arisba, whom now he divorced for Hecuba the daughter of Dimas, or Cisseus, a neighbouring prince. He had by Hecuba 17 children, according to Cicero, or, according to Homer, 19; the most celebrated of whom are Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Troilus, Creusa, Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. Besides these he had many others by concubines. Their names, according to Apollodorus, are Melampus, Gorgythion, Philæmon, Glaucus, Agathon, Evagoras, Hippothous, Chersidamas, Hippodamas, Mestor, Atas, Dorcylus, Dryops, Lycaon, Astygonus, Bias, Evander, Chromius, Telestas, Melius, Cebrion, Laodocus, Idomeneus, Archemachus, Echephron, Hyperion, Ascanius, Arrhetus, Democoon, Dejoptes, Echemon, Clovius, Ægioneus, Hypirychus, Lysithous, Polymedon, Medusa, Lysimache, Medesicaste, and Aristodeme. After he had reigned for some time in the greatest prosperity, Priam expressed a desire to recover his sister Hesione, whom Hercules had carried into Greece, and married to Telamon his friend. To carry this plan into execution, Priam manned a fleet, of which he gave the command to his son Paris, with orders to bring back Hesione. Paris, to whom the goddess of beauty had promised the fairest woman in the world [See: Paris], neglected in some measure his father’s injunctions, and as if to make reprisals upon the Greeks, he carried away Helen the wife of Menelaus king of Sparta, during the absence of her husband. Priam beheld this with satisfaction, and he countenanced his son by receiving in his palace the wife of the king of Sparta. This rape kindled the flames of war; all the suitors of Helen, at the request of Menelaus [See: Menelaus], assembled to revenge the violence offered to his bed, and a fleet, according to some, of 140 ships under the command of the 69 chiefs that furnished them, set sail for Troy. Priam might have averted the impending blow by the restoration of Helen; but this he refused to do, when the ambassadors of the Greeks came to him, and he immediately raised an army to defend himself. Troy was soon besieged; frequent skirmishes took place, in which the success was various, and the advantages on both sides inconsiderable. The siege was continued for 10 successive years, and Priam had the misfortune to see the greatest part of his children massacred by the enemy. Hector, the eldest of these, was the only one upon whom now the Trojans looked for protection and support; but he soon fell a sacrifice to his own courage, and was killed by Achilles. Priam severely felt his loss, and as he loved him with the greatest tenderness, he wished to ransom his body, which was in the enemy’s camp. The gods, according to Homer, interested themselves in favour of old Priam. Achilles was prevailed upon by his mother, the goddess Thetis, to restore Hector to Priam, and the king of Troy passed through the Grecian camp conducted by Mercury the messenger of the gods, who with his rod had made him invisible. The meeting of Priam and Achilles was solemn and affecting; the conqueror paid to the Trojan monarch that attention and reverence which was due to his dignity, his years, and his misfortunes, and Priam in a suppliant manner addressed the prince whose favours he claimed, and kissed the hands that had robbed him of the greatest and the best of his children. Achilles was moved by his tears and entreaties; he restored Hector, and permitted Priam a truce of 12 days for the funeral of his son. Some time after Troy was betrayed into the hands of the Greeks by Antenor and Æneas, and Priam upon this resolved to die in defence of his country. He put on his armour and advanced to meet the Greeks, but Hecuba by her tears and entreaties detained him near an altar of Jupiter, whither she had fled for protection. While Priam yielded to the prayers of his wife, Polites, one of his sons, fled also to the altar before Neoptolemus, who pursued him with fury. Polites, wounded and overcome, fell dead at the feet of his parents, and the aged father, fired with indignation, ventured the most bitter invectives against the Greek, who paid no regard to the sanctity of altars and temples, and raising his spear darted it upon him. The spear hurled by the feeble hand of Priam touched the buckler of Neoptolemus, and fell to the ground. This irritated the son of Achilles; he seized Priam by his grey hairs, and without compassion or reverence for the sanctity of the place, he plunged his dagger into his breast. His head was cut off, ♦and the mutilated body was left among the heaps of slain. Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, &c.――Dares Phrygius.――Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 120.――Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 25.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 22, &c.――Euripides, Troades.――Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 35.――Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 1.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 507, &c.――Horace, ode 10, li. 14.――Hyginus, fable 110. ――Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bk. 15, li. 226.
♦ ‘und’ replaced with ‘and’
=Priāpus=, a deity among the ancients, who presided over gardens, and the parts of generation in the sexes. He was son of Venus by Mercury or Adonis, or, according to the more received opinion, by Bacchus. The goddess of beauty, who was enamoured of Bacchus, went to meet him as he returned victorious from his Indian expedition, and by him she had Priapus, who was born at Lampsacus. Priapus was so deformed in all his limbs, particularly the genitals, by means of Juno, who had assisted at the delivery of Venus, that the mother, ashamed to have given birth to such a monster, ordered him to be exposed on the mountains. His life, however, was preserved by the shepherds, and he received the name of Priapus propter deformitatem & membri virilis magnitudinem. He soon became a favourite of the people of Lampsacus, but he was expelled by the inhabitants on account of the freedom which he took with their wives. This violence was punished by the son of Venus, and when the Lampsacenians had been afflicted with a disease in the genitals, Priapus was recalled, and temples erected to his honour. Festivals were also celebrated, and the people, naturally idle and indolent, gave themselves up to every lasciviousness and impurity during the celebration. His worship was also introduced in Rome; but the Romans revered him more as a god of orchards and gardens, than as the patron of licentiousness. A crown painted with different colours was offered to him in the spring, and in the summer a garland of ears of corn. An ass was generally sacrificed to him, because that animal, by its braying, awoke the nymph Lotis, to whom Priapus was going to offer violence. He is generally represented with a human face and the ears of a goat; he holds a stick in his hand, with which he terrifies birds, as also a club to drive away thieves, and a scythe to prune the trees and cut down corn. He was crowned with the leaves of the vine, and sometimes with laurel or rocket. The last of these plants was sacred to him, as it is said to raise the passions and excite love. Priapus is often distinguished by the epithet of phallus, fascinus, Ictyphallus, or ruber, or rubicundus, which are all expressive of his deformity. Catullus, poems 19 & 20.――Columella, bk. 2, de Res Rustica.――Horace, bk. 1, satire 1.――Tibullus, bk. 1, poem 1, li. 18.――Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 415; bk. 6, li. 319.――Virgil, Eclogues, poem 7, li. 33; Georgics, bk. 4, li. 111.――Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 31.――Hyginus, fable 190.――Diodorus, bk. 1.――――A town of Asia Minor near Lampsacus, now Caraboa. Priapus was the chief deity of the place, and from him the town received its name, because he had taken refuge there when banished from Lampsacus. Strabo, bk. 12.――Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 32. ――Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――An island near Ephesus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Priēne=, a maritime town of Asia Minor, at the foot of mount Mycale, one of the 12 independent cities of Ionia. It gave birth to Bias, one of the seven wise men of Greece. It had been built by an Athenian colony. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 2; bk. 8, ch. 14.――Strabo, bk. 12.
=Prima=, a daughter of Romulus and Hersilia.
=Prion=, a place at Carthage.
=Prisciānus=, a celebrated grammarian at Athens, in the age of the emperor Justinian.
=Priscilla=, a woman praised for her conjugal affection by Statius, bk. 5, Sylvæ, poem 1.
=Priscus Servilius=, a dictator at Rome who defeated the Veientes and the Fidenates.――――A surname of the elder Tarquin king of Rome. See: Tarquinius.――――A governor of Syria, brother to the emperor Philip. He proclaimed himself emperor in Macedonia when he was informed of his brother’s death, but he was soon after conquered and put to death by Decius, Philip’s murderer.――――A friend of the emperor Severus. ――――A friend of the emperor Julian, almost murdered by the populace. ――――Helvidius, a questor in Achaia during the reign of Nero, remarkable for his independent spirit. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 6.――Juvenal.――――An officer under Vitellius.――――One of the emperor Adrian’s friends.――――A friend of Domitian.――――An orator, whose dissipated and luxurious manners Horace ridicules, bk. 1, satire 7, li. 9.
=Pristis=, the name of one of the ships that engaged in the naval combat which was exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of his father’s death. She was commanded by Mnestheus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 116.
=Privernus=, a Rutulian killed by Capys in the wars between Æneas and Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 576.
=Privernum=, now Piperno Vecchio, a town of the Volsci in Italy, whose inhabitants were called Privernates. It became a Roman colony. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 10.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 540.――Cicero, bk. 1, De Divinatione, ch. 43.
=Proba=, the wife of the emperor Probus.――――A woman who opened the gates of Rome to the Goths.
=Probus Marcus Aurelius Severus=, a native of Sirmium in Pannonia. His father was originally a gardener, who, by entering the army, rose to the rank of a military tribune. His son obtained the same office in the 22nd year of his age, and he distinguished himself so much by his probity, his valour, his intrepidity, moderation, and clemency, that, at the death of the emperor Tacitus, he was invested with the imperial purple by the voluntary and uninfluenced choice of his soldiers. His election was universally approved by the Roman senate and the people; and Probus, strengthened on his throne by the affection and attachment of his subjects, marched against the enemies of Rome, in Gaul and Germany. Several battles were fought, and after he had left 400,000 barbarians dead in the field, Probus turned his arms against the Sarmatians. The same success attended him, and after he had quelled and terrified to peace the numerous barbarians of the north, he marched through Syria against the Blemmyes in the neighbourhood of Egypt. The Blemmyes were defeated with great slaughter, and the military character of the emperor was so well established, that the king of Persia sued for peace by his ambassadors, and attempted to buy the conqueror’s favour with the most splendid presents. Probus was then feasting upon the most common food when the ambassadors were introduced; but without even casting his eyes upon them, he said, that if their master did not give proper satisfaction to the Romans, he would lay his territories desolate, and as naked as the crown of his head. As he spoke, the emperor took off his cap, and showed the baldness of his head to the ambassadors. The conditions were gladly accepted by the Persian monarch, and Probus retired to Rome to convince his subjects of the greatness of his conquests, and to claim from them the applause which their ancestors had given to the conqueror of Macedonia or the destroyer of Carthage, as he passed along the streets of Rome. His triumph lasted several days, and the Roman populace were long entertained with shows and combats. But the Roman empire, delivered from its foreign enemies, was torn by civil discord; and peace was not re-established till three usurpers had been severally defeated. While his subjects enjoyed tranquillity, Probus encouraged the liberal arts; he permitted the inhabitants of Gaul and Illyricum to plant vines in their territories, and he himself repaired 70 cities in different parts of the empire which had been reduced to ruins. He also attempted to drain the waters which were stagnated in the neighbourhood of Sirmium, by conveying them to the sea by artificial canals. His armies were employed in this laborious undertaking; but as they were unaccustomed to such toils, they soon mutinied, and fell upon the emperor as he was passing into one of the towns of Illyricum. He fled into an iron tower which he himself had built to observe the marshes, but as he was alone, and without arms, he was soon overpowered and murdered, in the 50th year of his age, after a reign of six years and four months, on the second of November, after Christ 282. The news of his death was received with the greatest consternation; not only his friends, but his very enemies, deplored his fate, and even the army, which had been concerned in his fall, erected a monument over his body, and placed upon it this inscription: Hic Probus imperator, verè probus, situs est, victor omnium gentium barbararum, victor etiam tyrannorum. He was then preparing in a few days to march against the Persians that had revolted, and his victories there might have been as great as those he obtained in the two other quarters of the globe. He was succeeded by Carus, and his family, who had shared his greatness, immediately retired from Rome, not to become objects either of private or public malice. Zosimus. ――Probus.――Saturninus.――――Æmilius, a grammarian in the age of Theodosius. The lives of excellent commanders, written by Cornelius Nepos, have been falsely attributed to him by some authors.――――An oppressive prefect of the pretorian guards, in the reign of Valentinian.
=Procas=, a king of Alba after his father Aventinus. He was father of Amulius and Numitor. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 3.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 622.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 767.
=Prochy̆ta=, an island of Campania in the bay of Puteoli, now Procida. It was situated near Inarima, from which it was said that it had been separated by an earthquake. It received its name, according to Dionysius, from the nurse of Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 715. ――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 2.
=Procilius=, a Latin historian in the age of Pompey the Great. Varro.
=Procilla Julia=, a woman of uncommon virtue, killed by the soldiers of Otho. Tacitus, Agricola, ch. 4.
=Caius Valerius Procillus=, a prince of Gaul, intimate with Cæsar.
=Proclēa=, a daughter of Clitius, who married Cycnus, a son of Neptune. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 14.
=Procles=, a son of Aristodemus and Argia, born at the same birth as Eurysthenes. There were continual dissensions between the two brothers, who both sat on the Spartan throne, See: Eurysthenes and Lacedæmon.――――A native of Andros in the Ægean sea, who was crowned at the Olympic games. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 14.――――A man who headed the Ionians when they took Samos. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 4.――――A Carthaginian writer, son of Eucrates. He wrote some historical treatises, of which Pausanias has preserved some fragments. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 35.――――A tyrant of Epidaurus, put to death and thrown into the sea. Plutarch, de Defectu Oraculorum.――――A general of the Naxians in Sicily, who betrayed his country to Dionysius the tyrant for a sum of money.
=Proclidæ=, the descendants of Procles, who sat on the throne of Sparta, together with the Eurysthenidæ. See: Lacedæmon and Eurysthenes.
=Procne.= See: Progne.
=Proconnēsus=, now Marmora, an island of the Propontis, at the north-east of Cyzicus; also called Elaphonnesus and Neuris. It was famous for its fine marble. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 32.――Strabo, bk. 13.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Procopius=, a celebrated officer of a noble family in Cilicia, related to the emperor Julian, with whom he lived in great intimacy. He was universally admired for his integrity, but he was not destitute of ambition or pride. After he had signalized himself under Julian and his successor, he retired from the Roman provinces among the barbarians in the Thracian Chersonesus, and some time after he suddenly made his appearance at Constantinople, when the emperor Valens had marched into the east, and he proclaimed himself master of the eastern empire. His usurpation was universally acknowledged, and his victories were so rapid, that Valens would have resigned the imperial purple, had not his friends intervened. But now fortune changed; Procopius was defeated in Phrygia, and abandoned by his army. His head was cut off, and carried to Valentinian in Gaul, A.D. 366. Procopius was slain in the 42nd year of his age, and he had usurped the title of emperor for above eight months. Ammianus Marcellinus, bks. 25 & 26.――――A Greek historian of Cæsarea in Palestine, secretary to the celebrated Belisarius, A.D. 534. He wrote the history of the reign of Justinian, and greatly celebrated the hero, whose favours and patronage he enjoyed. This history is divided into eight books, two of which give an account of the Persian war, two of the Vandals, and four of the Goths, to the year 553, which was afterwards continued in five books by Agathias till 559. Of this performance the character is great, though perhaps the historian is often too severe on the emperor. The works of Procopius were edited in 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1662.
=Procris=, a daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. She married Cephalus. See: Cephalus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 445.――――A daughter of Thestius.
=Procrustes=, a famous robber of Attica, killed by Theseus near the Cephisus. He tied travellers on a bed, and if their length exceeded that of the bed, he used to cut it off, but if they were shorter, he had them stretched to make their length equal to it. He is called by some Damastes and Polypemon. Ovid, Heroides, poem 2, li. 69; Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 43.――Plutarch, Theseus.
=Procŭla=, a prostitute in Juvenal’s age, satire 2, li. 68.
=Procūleius=, a Roman knight, very intimate with Augustus. He is celebrated for his humanity and paternal kindness to his brothers Muræna and Scipio, with whom he divided his possessions, after they had forfeited their estates, and incurred the displeasure of Augustus for siding with young Pompey. He was sent by Augustus to Cleopatra, to endeavour to bring her alive into his presence, but to no purpose. He destroyed himself when labouring under a heavy disease. Horace, bk. 2, ode 2.――Plutarch, Antonius.――Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 24.――――A debauchee in Nero’s reign. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 40.
=Procŭlus Julius=, a Roman who, after the death of Romulus, declared that he had seen him in his appearance more than human, and that he had ordered him to bid the Romans to offer him sacrifices under the name of Quirinus, and to rest assured that Rome was destined by the gods to become the capital of the world. Plutarch, Romulus. ――Livy, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――Geganius, a Roman consul.――――Placitius, a Roman who conquered the Hernici.――――A friend of Vitellius.――――A consul under Nerva.――――A man accused of extortion.――――An African in the age of Aurelius. He published a book entitled de regionibus, or religionibus, on foreign countries, &c.――――An officer who proclaimed himself emperor in Gaul, in the reign of Probus. He was soon after defeated, and exposed on a gibbet. He was very debauched and licentious in his manners, and had acquired riches by piratical excursions.
=Procyon=, a star near Sirius, or the dog-star, before which it generally rises in July. Cicero calls it Anticanis, which is of the same signification (προ κυων). Horace, bk. 3, ode 29.――Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 44.
=Prodĭcus=, a sophist and rhetorician of Cos, about 396 years before Christ. He was sent as ambassador by his countrymen to Athens, where he publicly taught, and had among his pupils Euripides, Socrates, Theramenes, and Isocrates. He travelled from town to town in Greece, to procure admirers and get money. He made his auditors pay to hear him harangue, which has given occasion to some of the ancients to speak of the orations of Prodicus for 50 drachmas. In his writings, which were numerous, he composed a beautiful episode, in which virtue and pleasure were introduced, as attempting to make Hercules one of their votaries. The hero at last yielded to the charms of virtue and rejected pleasure. This has been imitated by Lucian. Prodicus was at last put to death by the Athenians on pretence that he corrupted the morals of their youth. Xenophon, Memorabilia.
=Proerna=, a town of Phthiotis. Livy, bk. 63, ch. 14.
=Prœrosia=, a surname of Ceres. Her festivals, celebrated at Athens and Eleusis before the sowing of corn, bore the same name. Meursius, Eleusinia.
=Prœtĭdes=, the daughters of Prœtus king of Argolis, were three in number, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa. They became insane for neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to others, for preferring themselves to Juno, and they ran about the fields, believing themselves to be cows, and flying away not to be harnessed to the plough or to the chariot. Prœtus applied to Melampus to cure his daughters of their insanity, but he refused to employ him when he demanded the third part of his kingdom as a reward. This neglect of Prœtus was punished, the insanity became contagious, and the monarch at last promised Melampus two parts of his kingdom and one of his daughters, if he would restore them and the Argian women to their senses. Melampus consented, and after he had wrought the cure, he married the most beautiful of the Prœtides. Some have called them Lysippe, Ipponoe, and Cyrianassa. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 2. ――Virgil, Eclogues, poem 6, li. 48.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15.――Lactantius [Placidus] on Statius, Thebaid, bks. 1 & 3.
=Prœtus=, a king of Argos, son of Abas and Ocalea. He was twin brother to Acrisius, with whom he quarrelled even before their birth. This dissension between the two brothers increased with their years. After their father’s death, they both tried to obtain the kingdom of Argos; but the claims of Acrisius prevailed, and Prœtus left Peloponnesus and retired to the court of Jobates king of Lycia, where he married Stenobœa, called by some Antea or Antiope. He afterwards returned to Argolis, and by means of his father-in-law he made himself master of Tirynthus. Stenobœa had accompanied her husband to Greece, and she became by him mother of the Prœtides, and of a son called Megapenthes, who after his father’s death succeeded on the throne of Tirynthus. See: Stenobœa. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 160.――Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Progne=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens by Zeuxippe. She married Tereus king of Thrace, by whom she had a son called Itylus or Itys. See: Philomela.
=Prolăus=, a native of Elis, father to Philanthus and Lampus by Lysippe. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 2.
=Promăchus=, one of the Epigoni, son of Parthenopæus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 20.――――A son of Psophis daughter of Eryx king of Sicily. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 34.――――An athlete of Pallene.――――A son of Æson, killed by Pelias. Apollodorus.
=Promathĭdas=, an historian of Heraclea.
=Promathion=, a man who wrote a history of Italy. Plutarch, Romulus.
=Promĕdon=, a native of the island of Naxos, &c.
=Promenæa=, one of the priestesses of the temple of Dodona. It was from her that Herodotus received the tradition that two doves had flown from Thebes in Egypt, one to Dodona, and the other to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, where they gave oracles.――Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 55.
=Promethei jugum= and =antrum=, a place on the top of mount Caucasus, in Albania.
=Promētheus=, a son of Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was brother to Atlas, Menœtius, and Epimetheus, and surpassed all mankind in cunning and fraud. He ridiculed the gods, and deceived Jupiter himself. He sacrificed two bulls, and filled their skins, one with the flesh and the other with the bones, and asked the father of the gods which of the two he preferred as an offering. Jupiter became the dupe of his artifice, and chose the bones, and from that time the priests of the temples were ever after ordered to burn the whole victims on the altars, the flesh and the bones altogether. To punish Prometheus and the rest of mankind, Jupiter took fire away from the earth, but the son of Iapetus outwitted the father of the gods. He climbed the heavens by the assistance of Minerva, and stole fire from the chariot of the sun, which he brought down upon the earth at the end of a ferula. This provoked Jupiter the more; he ordered Vulcan to make a woman of clay, and after he had given her life, he sent her to Prometheus, with a box of the richest and most valuable presents which she had received from the gods. See: Pandora. Prometheus, who suspected Jupiter, took no notice of Pandora or her box, but he made his brother Epimetheus marry her, and the god, now more irritated, ordered Mercury, or Vulcan, according to Æschylus, to carry this artful mortal to mount Caucasus, and there tie him to a rock, where for 30,000 years a vulture was to feed upon his liver, which was never diminished, though continually devoured. He was delivered from this painful confinement about 30 years afterwards by Hercules, who killed the bird of prey. The vulture, or, according to others, the eagle which devoured the liver of Prometheus, was born from Typhon and Echidna. According to Apollodorus, Prometheus made the first man and woman that ever were upon the earth with clay, which he animated by means of the fire which he had stolen from heaven. On this account, therefore, the Athenians raised him an altar in the grove of Academus, where they yearly celebrated games to his honour. During these games there was a race, and he who carried a burning torch in his hand without extinguishing it obtained the prize. Prometheus, as it is universally credited, had received the gift of prophecy; and all the gods, and even Jupiter himself, consulted him as a most infallible oracle. To him mankind are indebted for the invention of many of the useful arts; he taught them the use of plants, with their physical power, and from him they received the knowledge of taming horses and different animals, either to cultivate the ground, or for the purposes of luxury. Hesiod, Theogony, lis. 510 & 550. ――Apollodorus, bks. 1 & 2.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 30; bk. 5, ch. 11.――Hyginus, fable 144.――Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound. ――Virgil, Eclogues, poem 6.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 82.――Horace, bk. 1, ode 3.――Seneca, Medea, li. 823.
=Promēthis= and =Promethīdes=, a patronymic applied to the children of Prometheus, as to Deucalion, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 390.
=Promethus= and =Damasichthon=, two sons of Codrus, who conducted colonies into Asia Minor. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Promŭlus=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 574.
=Pronapĭdes=, an ancient Greek poet of Athens, who was, according to some, preceptor to Homer. It is said that he first taught the Greeks how to write from the left to the right, contrary to the custom of writing from the right to the left, which is still observed by some of the eastern nations. Diodorus, bk. 3.
=Pronax=, a brother of Adrastus king of Argos, son of Talaus and Lysimache. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Pronoe=, a daughter of Phorbas, mother of Pleuron and Calydon by Æolus.
=Pronŏmus=, a Theban who played so skilfully on the lute, that the invention of that musical instrument is attributed to him. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 12.――Athenæus, bk. 14, ch. 7.
=Pronous=, a son of Phlegeas, killed by the sons of Alcmæon.
=Pronŭba=, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriages. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 166.
=Propertius Sextus Aurelius=, a Latin poet born at Mevania, in Umbria. His father was a Roman knight, whom Augustus proscribed, because he had followed the interest of Antony. He came to Rome, where his genius and poetical talents soon recommended him to the notice of the great and powerful. Mecænas, Gallus, and Virgil became his friends, and Augustus his patron. Mecænas wished him to attempt an epic poem, of which he proposed the emperor for hero; but Propertius refused, observing that his abilities were unequal to the task. He died about 19 years before Christ, in the 40th year of his age. His works consist of four books of elegies, which are written with so much spirit, vivacity, and energy, that many authors call him the prince of the elegiac poets among the Latins. His poetry, though elegant, is not free from faults, and the many lascivious expressions which he uses deservedly expose him to censure. Cynthia, who is the heroine of all his elegies, was a Roman lady, whose real name was Hostia, or Hostilia, of whom the poet was deeply enamoured. Though Mevania is more generally supposed to be the place of his birth, yet four other cities of Umbria have disputed the honour of it; Hespillus, Ameria, Perusia, and Assisium. The best edition is that of Santenius, 4to, Utrecht, 1780; and when published together with Catullus and Tibullus, those of Grævius, 8vo, Utrecht, 1680, and of Vulpius, 4 vols., Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755, and the edition of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1754. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 465; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 55; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 3, li. 333.――Martial, bk. 8, ltr. 73; bk. 14, ltr. 189.――Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.――Pliny, bk. 6, Letters; bk. 9, ltr. 22.
=Propœtĭdes=, some women of Cyprus, severely punished by Venus, whose divinity they had despised. They sent their daughters to the sea-shore, where they prostituted themselves to strangers. The poets have feigned that they were changed into stones, on account of their insensibility to every virtuous sentiment. Justin, bk. 18, ch. 5. ――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 238.
=Propontis=, a sea which has a communication with the Euxine, by the Thracian Bosphorus, and with the Ægean by the Hellespont, now called the sea of Marmora. It is about 175 miles long and 62 broad, and it received its name from its vicinity to Pontus. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.――Strabo, bk. 2.――Ovid, bk. 1; Tristia, bk. 9, li. 29. ――Propertius, bk. 3, poem 22.
=Propylea=, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Eleusis in Attica.
=Proselystius=, a surname of Neptune among the Greeks. Pausanias, bk. 2.
=Proserpĭna=, a daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, called by the Greeks Persephone. She was so beautiful, that the father of the gods himself became enamoured of her, and deceived her by changing himself into a serpent, and folding her in his wreaths. Proserpine made Sicily the place of her residence, and delighted herself with the beautiful views, the flowery meadows, and limpid streams, which surrounded the plains of Enna. In this solitary retreat, as she amused herself with her female attendants in gathering flowers, Pluto carried her away into the infernal regions, of which she became the queen. See: Pluto. Ceres was so disconsolate at the loss of her daughter, that she travelled all over the world, but her inquiries were in vain, and she never could have discovered whither she had been carried, had not she found the girdle of Proserpine on the surface of the waters of the fountain Cyane, near which the ravisher had opened himself a passage to his kingdom by striking the earth with his trident. Ceres soon learned from the nymph Arethusa that her daughter had been carried away by Pluto, and immediately she repaired to Jupiter, and demanded of him to punish the ravisher. Jupiter in vain attempted to persuade the mother that Pluto was not unworthy of her daughter, and when he saw that she was inflexible for the restitution of Proserpine, he said that she might return on earth, if she had not taken any aliments in the infernal regions. Her return, however, was impossible. Proserpine, as she walked in the Elysian fields, had gathered a pomegranate from a tree and eaten it, and Ascalaphus was the only one who saw it, and for his discovery the goddess instantly turned him into an owl. Jupiter, to appease the resentment of Ceres, and soothe her grief, permitted that Proserpine should remain six months with Pluto in the infernal regions, and that she should spend the rest of the year with her mother on earth. As queen of hell, and wife of Pluto, Proserpine presided over the death of mankind, and, according to the opinion of the ancients, no one could die, if the goddess herself, or Atropos her minister, did not cut off one of the hairs from the head. From this superstitious belief, it was usual to cut off some of the hair of the deceased, and to strew it at the door of the house, as an offering for Proserpine. The Sicilians were very particular in their worship to Proserpine, and as they believed that the fountain Cyane had risen from the earth at the very place where Pluto had opened himself a passage, they annually sacrificed there a bull, of which they suffered the blood to run into the water. Proserpine was universally worshipped by the ancients, and she was known by the different names of Core, Theogamia, Libitina, Hecate, Juno inferna, Anthesphoria, Cotyto, Deois, Libera, &c. Plutarch, Lucullus.――Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 37; bk. 9, ch. 31.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 6; Fasti, bk. 4, li. 417.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 698; bk. 6, li. 138.――Strabo, bk. 7.――Diodorus, bk. 5.――Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4.――Hyginus, fable 146.――Hesiod, Theogony. ――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3.――Orpheus, Hymn 28.――Claudian, de Raptu Proserpinæ.
=Prosopītis=, an island in one of the mouths of the Nile. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Prosper=, one of the fathers who died A.D. 466. His works have been edited by Mangeant, folio, Paris, 1711.
=Prosymna=, a part of Argolis, where Juno was worshipped. It received its name from a nymph of the same name, daughter of Asterion, who nursed Juno. Pausanias, bk. 2.
=Protagŏras=, a Greek philosopher of Abdera in Thrace, who was originally a porter. He became one of the disciples of Democritus, when that philosopher had seen him carrying faggots on his head, poised in a proper equilibrium. He soon rendered himself ridiculous by his doctrines, and in a book which he published, he denied the existence of a Supreme Being. This doctrine he supported by observing, that his doubts arose from the uncertainty of the existence of a Supreme Power, and from the shortness of human life. This book was publicly burnt at Athens, and the philosopher banished from the city, as a worthless and contemptible being. Protagoras visited from Athens different islands in the Mediterranean, and died in Sicily in a very advanced age, about 400 years before the christian era. He generally reasoned by dilemmas, and always left the mind in suspense about all the questions which he proposed. Some suppose that he was drowned. Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 9.――♦Plato, Protagoras.――――A king of Cyprus, tributary to the court of Persia.――――Another.
♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Protagorĭdes=, an historian of Cyzicus, who wrote a treatise on the games of Daphne, celebrated at Antioch.
=Protei columnæ=, a place in the remotest parts of Egypt. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 262.
=Protesilai turris=, the monument of Protesilaus, on the Hellespont. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Prōtĕsĭlāus=, a king of part of Thessaly, son of Iphiclus, originally called Iolaus, grandson of Phylacus, and brother to Alcimede the mother of Jason. He married Laodamia the daughter of Acastus, and some time after he departed with the rest of the Greeks for the Trojan war with 40 sail. He was the first of the Greeks who set foot on the Trojan shore, and as such he was doomed by the oracle to perish, therefore he was killed as soon as he had leaped from his ship, by Æneas or Hector. Homer has not mentioned the person who killed him. His wife Laodamia destroyed herself when she heard of his death. See: Laodamia. Protesilaus has received the patronymic of Phylacides either because he was descended from Phylace, or because he was a native of Phylace. He was buried on the Trojan shore, and, according to Pliny, there were near his tomb certain trees which grew to an extraordinary height, which, as soon as they could be discovered and seen from Troy, immediately withered and decayed, and afterwards grew up again to their former height, and suffered the same vicissitude. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 205. ――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, fable 1; Heroides, poem 13, li. 17.――Propertius, bk. 1, poem 19.――Hyginus, fable 103, &c.
=Proteus=, a sea deity, son of Oceanus and Tethys, or, according to some, of Neptune and Phœnice. He had received the gift of prophecy from Neptune because he had tended the monsters of the sea, and from his knowledge of futurity mankind received the greatest services. He usually resided in the Carpathian sea, and, like the rest of the gods, he reposed himself on the sea-shore, where such as wished to consult him generally resorted. He was difficult of access, and when consulted he refused to give answers, by immediately assuming different shapes, and if not properly secured in fetters, eluding the grasp in the form of a tiger, or a lion, or disappearing in a flame of fire, a whirlwind, or a rushing stream. Aristæus and Menelaus were in the number of those who consulted him, as also Hercules. Some suppose that he was originally king of Egypt, known among his subjects by the name of Cetes, and they assert that he had two sons, Telegonus and Polygonus, who were both killed by Hercules. He had also some daughters, among whom were Cabira, Eidothea, and Rhetia. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4, li. 360.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 10; Amores, poem 12, li. 36.――Hesiod, Theogony, li. 243. ――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 387.――Hyginus, fable 118. ――Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 112.――Diodorus, bk. 1.
=Prothēnor=, a Bœotian who went to the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.
=Protheus=, a Greek at the Trojan war.――――A Spartan who endeavoured to prevent a war with the Thebans.
=Prothous=, a son of Lycaon of Arcadia. Apollodorus.――――A son of Agrius.
=Proto=, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus.
=Protogenēa=, a daughter of Calydon, by Æolia the daughter of Amythaon. She had a son called Oxylus by Mars. Apollodorus, bk. 1.
=Protogĕnes=, a painter of Rhodes, who flourished about 328 years before Christ. He was originally so poor that he painted ships to maintain himself. His countrymen were ignorant of his ingenuity before Apelles came to Rhodes, and offered to buy all his pieces. This opened the eyes of the Rhodians; they became sensible of the merit of their countrymen, and liberally rewarded him. Protogenes was employed for seven years in finishing a picture of Jalysus, a celebrated huntsman, supposed to have been the son of Apollo, and the founder of Rhodes. During all this time the painter lived upon lupines and water, thinking that such aliments would leave him greater flights of fancy; but all this did not seem to make him more successful in the perfection of his picture. He was to represent in the piece a dog panting, and with froth at his mouth, but this he never could do with satisfaction to himself; and when all his labours seemed to be without success, he threw his sponge upon the piece in a fit of anger. Chance alone brought to perfection what the utmost labours of art could not do; the fall of the sponge upon the picture represented the froth of the mouth of the dog in the most perfect and natural manner, and the piece was universally admired. Protogenes was very exact in his representations, and copied nature with the greatest nicety, but this was blamed as a fault by his friend Apelles. When Demetrius besieged Rhodes he refused to set fire to a part of the city which might have made him master of the whole, because he knew that Protogenes was then working in that quarter. When the town was taken, the painter was found closely employed in a garden in finishing a picture; and when the conqueror asked him why he showed not more concern at the general calamity, he replied, that Demetrius made war against the Rhodians, and not against the fine arts. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 3.――Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 10.――Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12.――Juvenal, satire 3, li. 120.――Plutarch, Demetrius.――――One of Caligula’s favourites, famous for his cruelty and extravagance.
=Protogenīa=, a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha. She was beloved by Jupiter, by whom she had Æthlius the father of Endymion. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1.――Hyginus, fable 155.――――Another. See: Protogenea.
=Protomedūsa=, one of the Nereides, called Protomelia by Hesiod. Theogony, li. 245.
=Proxĕnus=, a Bœotian of great authority at Thebes, in the age of Xenophon. Polyænus.――――A writer who published historical accounts of Sparta. Athenæus.
=Prudentius Aurelius Clemens=, a Latin poet who flourished A.D. 392, and was successively a soldier, an advocate, and a judge. His poems are numerous, and all theological, devoid of the elegance and purity of the Augustan age, and yet greatly valued. The best editions are the Delphin, 4to, Paris, 1687; that of Cellarius, 12mo, Halæ, 1703; and that of Parma, 2 vols., 4to, 1788.
=Prumnides=, a king of Corinth.
=Prusa=, a town of Bithynia, built by king Prusias, from whom it received its name. Strabo, bk. 12.――Pliny, bk. 10, ltr. 16.
=Prusæus Dion=, flourished A.D. 105.
=Prusias=, a king of Bithynia, who flourished 221 B.C.――――Another, surnamed Venator, who made an alliance with the Romans when they waged war with Antiochus king of Syria. He gave a kind reception to Annibal, and by his advice he made war against Eumenes king of Pergamus, and defeated him. Eumenes, who was an ally of Rome as well as Prusias, complained before the Romans of the hostilities of the king of Bithynia. Quinctius Flaminius was sent from Rome to settle the disputes of the two monarchs, and he was no sooner arrived in Bithynia, than Prusias, to gain his favour, prepared to deliver to him, at his request, the celebrated Carthaginian, to whom he was indebted for all the advantages which he had obtained over Eumenes; but Annibal prevented it by a voluntary death. Prusias was obliged by the Roman ambassador to make a restitution of the provinces he had conquered, and by his meanness he continued to enjoy the favours of the Romans. When some time after he visited the capital of Italy, he appeared in the habit of a manumitted slave, calling himself the freedman of the Romans; and when he was introduced into the senate-house, he saluted the senators by the name of visible deities, of saviours and deliverers. Such abject behaviour rendered him contemptible not only in the eyes of the Romans, but of his subjects, and when he returned home the Bithynians revolted, and placed his son Nicomedes on the throne. The banished monarch fled to Nicomedia, where he was assassinated near the altar of Jupiter, about 149 years before Christ. Some say that his son became his murderer. Prusias, according to Polybius, was the meanest of monarchs, without honesty, without morals, virtue, or principle; he was cruel and cowardly, intemperate and voluptuous, and an enemy to all learning. He was naturally deformed, and he often appeared in public in the habit of a woman, to render his deformities more visible. Polybius.――Livy. ――Justin, bk. 31, &c.――Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal.――Plutarch, Titus Flamininus, &c.
=Prymno=, one of the Oceanides.
=Prytănes=, certain magistrates at Athens who presided over the senate, and had the privilege of assembling it when they pleased, festivals excepted. They generally met in a large hall, called prytaneum, where they gave audiences, offered sacrifices, and feasted together with all those who had rendered signal service to their country. The Prytanes were elected from the senators which were in number 500, 50 of which were chosen from each tribe. When they were elected, the names of the 10 tribes of Athens were thrown into one vessel, and in another were placed nine black beans and a white one. The tribe whose name was drawn with the white bean, presided the first, and the rest in the order in which they were drawn. They presided each for 35 days, as the year was divided into 10 parts; but it is unknown what tribe presided the rest of those days which were supernumerary. When the number of tribes was increased to 12, each of the Prytanes presided one full month.――――Some of the principal magistrates of Corinth were also called Prytanes.
=Prytănis=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 36.――――One of the friends of Æneas killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 767.
=Psamăthe=, one of the Nereides, mother of Phocus by Æacus king of Ægina. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 398.――Flaccus, ♦bk. 1, li. 364.――――A daughter of Crotopus king of Argos. She became mother of Linus by Apollo, and to conceal her shame from her father, she exposed her child, which was found by dogs and torn to pieces. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43.――――A fountain and town of Thebes. Flaccus, bk. 1, li. 364.
♦ Book reference omitted in text.
=Psamathos=, a town and port of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 25.
=Psammenītus=, succeeded his father Amasis on the throne of Egypt. Cambyses made war against him, and as he knew that the Egyptians paid the greatest veneration to cats, the Persian monarch placed some of these animals at the head of his army, and the enemy, unable to defend themselves, and unwilling to kill those objects of adoration, were easily conquered. Psammenitus was twice beaten at Pelusium and in Memphis, and became one of the prisoners of Cambyses, who treated him with great humanity. Psammenitus, however, raised seditions against the Persian monarch; and attempted to make the Egyptians rebel, for which he was put to death by drinking bull’s blood. He had reigned about six months. He flourished about 525 years before the christian era. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.
=Psammetĭchus=, a king of Egypt. He was one of the 12 princes who shared the kingdom among themselves; but as he was more popular than the rest, he was banished from his dominions, and retired into the marshes near the sea-shore. A descent of some of the Greeks upon Egypt proved favourable to his cause: he joined the enemy, and defeated the 11 princes who had expelled him from the country. He rewarded the Greeks, by whose valour he had recovered Egypt, he allotted them some territory on the sea-coast, patronized the liberal arts, and encouraged commerce among his subjects. He made useless inquiries to find the sources of the Nile, and he stopped, by bribes and money, a large army of Scythians that were marching against him. He died 617 years before the christian era, and was buried in Minerva’s temple at Sais. During his reign there was a contention among some of the neighbouring nations about the antiquity of their language. Psammetichus took a part in the contest. He confined two young children and fed them with milk; the shepherd to whose care they were entrusted was ordered never to speak to them, but to watch diligently their articulations. After some time the shepherd observed, that whenever he entered the place of their confinement they repeatedly exclaimed Beccos, and he gave information of this to the monarch. Psammetichus made inquiries, and found that the word Beccos signified bread in the Phœnician language, and from that circumstance, therefore, it was universally concluded that the language of Phœnicia was of the greatest antiquity. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 28, &c.――Polyænus, bk. 8.――Strabo, bk. 16.――――A son of Gordius, brother to Periander, who held the tyranny at Corinth for three years, B.C. 584. Aristotle, Politics, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Psammis=, or =Psammuthis=, a king of Egypt, B.C. 376.
=Psaphis=, a town on the confines of Attica and Bœotia. There was there an oracle of Amphiaraus.
=Psapho=, a Libyan who taught a number of birds which he kept to say, “Psapho is a god,” and afterwards gave them their liberty. The birds did not forget the words which they had been taught, and the Africans paid divine honours to Psapho. Ælian.
=Psecas=, one of Diana’s attendant nymphs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.
=Psophis=, a town of Arcadia near the river Erymanthus, whose name it originally bore, and afterwards that of Phegia. Statius, Thebaid, bk. 4, li. 296.――Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 24.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 607.――――A river and town of Elis.――――A daughter of Eryx. ――――A town of Acarnania.――――Another of Libya.
=Psyche=, a nymph whom Cupid married and carried into a place of bliss, where he long enjoyed her company. Venus put her to death because she had robbed the world of her son; but Jupiter, at the request of Cupid, granted immortality to Psyche. The word signifies the soul, and this personification of Psyche first mentioned by Apuleius is posterior to the Augustan age, though still it is connected with ancient mythology. Psyche is generally represented with the wings of a butterfly, to intimate the lightness of the soul, of which the butterfly is the symbol, and on that account, among the ancients, when a man had just expired, a butterfly appeared fluttering above, as if rising from the mouth of the deceased.
=Psychrus=, a river of Thrace. When sheep drank of its waters they were said always to bring forth black lambs. Aristotle.
=Psylli=, a people of Libya near the Syrtes, very expert in curing the venomous bite of serpents, which had no fatal effect upon them. Strabo, bk. 17.――Dio Cassius, bk. 51, ch. 14.――Lucan, bk. 9, lis. 894, 937.――Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 173.――Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 28.
=Pteleum=, a town of Thessaly on the borders of Bœotia. Lucan, bk. 6, li. 852.――Livy, bk. 35, ch. 43.
=Pterelaus=, a son of Taphius, presented with immortality from Neptune, provided he kept on his head a yellow lock. His daughter cut it off and he died. He reigned at Taphos in Argos, &c. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Pteria=, a well-fortified town of Cappadocia. It was in the neighbourhood, according to some, that Crœsus was defeated by Cyrus. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 76.
=Ptolederma=, a town of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Ptolemæum=, a certain place at Athens dedicated to exercise and study. Cicero, bk. 5, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum.
=Ptolemæus I.=, surnamed Lagus, a king of Egypt, son of Arsinoe, who, when pregnant by Philip of Macedonia, married Lagus, a man of mean extraction. See: Lagus. Ptolemy was educated in the court of the king of Macedonia; he became one of the friends and associates of Alexander, and when that monarch invaded Asia, the son of Arsinoe attended him as one of his generals. During the expedition, he behaved with uncommon valour; he killed one of the Indian monarchs in single combat, and it was to his prudence and courage that Alexander was indebted for the reduction of the rock Aornus. After the conqueror’s death, in the general division of the Macedonian empire, Ptolemy obtained as his share the government of Egypt, with Libya, and part of the neighbouring territories of Arabia. In this appointment the governor soon gained the esteem of the people by acts of kindness, by benevolence, and clemency; and though he did not assume the title of independent monarch till 19 years after, yet he was so firmly established, that the attempts of Perdiccas to drive him away from his possessions proved abortive; and Ptolemy, after the murder of his rival by Grecian soldiers, might have added the kingdom of Macedonia to his Egyptian territories. He made himself master of Cœlosyria, Phœnicia, and the neighbouring coast of Syria, and when he had reduced Jerusalem, he carried about 100,000 prisoners to Egypt, to people the extensive city of Alexandria, which became the capital of his dominions. After he had rendered these prisoners the most attached and faithful of his subjects by his liberality and the grant of privileges, Ptolemy assumed the title of king of Egypt, and soon after reduced Cyprus under his power. He made war with success against Demetrius and Antigonus, who disputed his right to the provinces of Syria, and from the assistance he gave to the people of Rhodes against their common enemies, he received the name of Soter. While he extended his dominions, Ptolemy was not negligent of the advantages of his people. The bay of Alexandria being dangerous of access, he built a tower to conduct the sailors in the obscurity of the night [See: Pharos], and that his subjects might be acquainted with literature, he laid the foundation of a library, which, under the succeeding reigns, became the most celebrated in the world. He also established in the capital of his dominions a society called museum, of which the members, maintained at the public expense, were employed in philosophical researches, and in the advancement of science and the liberal arts. Ptolemy died in the 84th year of his age, after a reign of 39 years, about 284 years before Christ. He was succeeded by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, who had been his partner on the throne the last 10 years of his reign. Ptolemy Lagus has been commended for his abilities, not only as a sovereign, but as a writer, and among the many valuable compositions which have been lost, we are to lament a history of Alexander the Great, by the king of Egypt, greatly admired and valued for elegance and authenticity. All his successors were called Ptolemies from him. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 7.――Justin, bk. 13, &c.――Polybius, bk. 2.――Arrian.――Curtius. ――Plutarch, Alexander.
=Ptolemæus II.=, son of Ptolemy I., succeeded his father on the Egyptian throne, and was called Philadelphus by antiphrasis, because he killed two of his brothers. He showed himself worthy in every respect to succeed his great father, and, conscious of the advantages which arise from an alliance with powerful nations, he sent ambassadors to Italy to solicit the friendship of the Romans, whose name and military reputation had become universally known for the victories which they had just obtained over Pyrrhus and the Tarentines. His ambassadors were received with marks of the greatest attention, and immediately after four Roman senators came to Alexandria, where they gained the admiration of the monarch and of his subjects, and, by refusing the crowns of gold and the rich presents which were offered to them, convinced the world of the virtue and of the disinterestedness of their nation. But while Ptolemy strengthened himself by alliance with foreign powers, the internal peace of his kingdom was disturbed by the revolt of Magas his brother, king of Cyrene. The sedition, however, was stopped, though kindled by Antiochus king of Syria, and the death of the rebellious prince re-established peace for some time in the family of Philadelphus. Antiochus the Syrian king married Berenice the daughter of Ptolemy, and the father, though old and infirm, conducted his daughter to her husband’s kingdom, and assisted at the nuptials. Philadelphus died in the 64th year of his age, 246 years before the christian era. He left two sons and a daughter by Arsinoe the daughter of Lysimachus. He had afterwards married his sister Arsinoe, whom he loved with uncommon tenderness, and to whose memory he began to erect a celebrated monument. See: Dinocrates. During the whole of his reign, Philadelphus was employed in exciting industry, and in encouraging the liberal arts and useful knowledge among his subjects. The inhabitants of the adjacent countries were allured by promises and presents to increase the number of the Egyptian subjects, and Ptolemy could boast of reigning over 33,339 well-peopled cities. He gave every possible encouragement to commerce, and by keeping two powerful fleets, one in the Mediterranean, and the other in the Red sea, he made Egypt the mart of the world. His army consisted of 200,000 foot, 40,000 horse, besides 300 elephants and 2000 armed chariots. With justice, therefore, he has been called the richest of all the princes and monarchs of his age, and, indeed, the remark is not false when it is observed, that at his death he left in his treasury 750,000 Egyptian talents, a sum equivalent to two hundred millions sterling. His palace was the asylum of learned men, whom he admired and patronized. He paid particular attention to Euclid, Theocritus, Callimachus, and Lycophron, and by increasing the library which his father had founded, he showed his taste for learning, and his wish to encourage genius. This celebrated library at his death contained 200,000 volumes of the best and choicest books, and it was afterwards increased to 700,000 volumes. Part of it was burnt by the flames of Cæsar’s fleet when he set it on fire to save himself, a circumstance, however, not mentioned by the general, and the whole was again magnificently repaired by Cleopatra, who added to the Egyptian library that of the kings of Pergamus. It is said that the Old Testament was translated into Greek during his reign, a translation which has been called Septuagint, because translated by the labours of 70 different persons. Eutropius.――Justin, bk. 17, ch. 2, &c.――Livy.――Plutarch.――Theocritus.――Athenæus, bk. 12. ――Pliny, bk. 13, ch. 12.――Dio Cassius, bk. 42.――Aulus Gellius, bk. 6, ch. 17.
=Ptolemæus III.=, succeeded his father Philadelphus on the Egyptian throne. He early engaged in a war against Antiochus Theus, for his unkindness to Berenice, the Egyptian king’s sister, whom he had married with the consent of Philadelphus. With the most rapid success he conquered Syria and Cilicia, and advanced as far as the Tigris, but a sedition at home stopped his progress, and he returned to Egypt loaded with the spoils of conquered nations. Among the immense riches which he brought, he had above 2500 statues of the Egyptian gods, which Cambyses had carried away into Persia when he conquered Egypt. These were restored to the temples, and the Egyptians called their sovereign Evergetes, in acknowledgment of his attention, beneficence, and religious zeal for the gods of his country. The last years of Ptolemy’s reign were passed in peace, if we except the refusal of the Jews to pay the tribute of 20 silver talents which their ancestors had always paid to the Egyptian monarchs. He also interested himself in the affairs of Greece, and assisted Cleomenes the Spartan king against the leaders of the Achæan league; but he had the mortification to see his ally defeated, and even a fugitive in Egypt. Evergetes died 221 years before Christ, after a reign of 25 years, and, like his two illustrious predecessors, he was the patron of learning, and, indeed, he is the last of the Lagides who gained popularity among his subjects by clemency, moderation and humanity, and who commanded respect even from his enemies, by valour, prudence, and reputation. It is said that he deposited 15 talents in the hands of the Athenians to be permitted to translate the original manuscripts of Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. Plutarch, Cleomenes, &c.――Polybius, bk. 2.――Justin, bk. 29, &c.
=Ptolemæus IV.=, succeeded his father Evergetes on the throne of Egypt, and received the surname of Philopater by antiphrasis, because, according to some historians, he destroyed his father by poison. He began his reign with acts of the greatest cruelty, and he successively sacrificed to his avarice his own mother, his wife, his sister, and his brother. He received the name of Tiphon from his extravagance and debauchery, and that of Gallus, because he appeared in the streets of Alexandria like one of the bacchanals, and with all the gestures of the priests of Cybele. In the midst of his pleasures, Philopater was called to war against Antiochus king of Syria, and at the head of a powerful army he soon invaded his enemies’ territories, and might have added the kingdom of Syria to Egypt, if he had made a prudent use of the victories which attended his arms. In his return he visited Jerusalem, but the Jews prevented him forcibly from entering their temple, for which insolence to his majesty the monarch determined to extirpate the whole nation. He ordered an immense number of Jews to be exposed in a plain, and trodden under the feet of elephants, but, by a supernatural instinct, the generous animals turned their fury not on those that had been devoted to death, but upon the Egyptian spectators. This circumstance terrified Philopater, and he behaved with more than common kindness to a nation which he had so lately devoted to destruction. In the latter part of his reign, the Romans, whom a dangerous war with Carthage had weakened, but at the same time roused to superior activity, renewed, for political reasons, the treaty of alliance which had been made with the Egyptian monarchs. Philopater at last, weakened and enervated by intemperance and continual debauchery, died in the 37th year of his age, after a reign of 17 years, 204 years before the christian era. His death was immediately followed by the murder of the companions of his voluptuousness and extravagance, and their carcases were dragged with the greatest ignominy through the streets of Alexandria. Polybius.――Justin, bk. 30, &c.――Plutarch, Cleomenes.
=Ptolemæus V.=, succeeded his father Philopater as king of Egypt, though only in the fourth year of his age. During the years of his minority he was under the protection of Sosibius and of Aristomenes, by whose prudent administration Antiochus was dispossessed of the provinces of Cœlosyria and Palestine, which he had conquered by war. The Romans also renewed their alliance with him after their victories over Annibal, and the conclusion of the second Punic war. This flattering embassy induced Aristomenes to offer the care of the patronage of the young monarch to the Romans, but the regent was confirmed in his honourable office, and by making a treaty of alliance with the people of Achaia, he convinced the Egyptians that he was qualified to wield the sceptre and to govern the nation. But now that Ptolemy had reached his 14th year, according to the laws and customs of Egypt, the years of his minority had expired. He received the surname of Epiphanes, or Illustrious, and was crowned at Alexandria with the greatest solemnity, and the faithful Aristomenes resigned into his hands an empire which he had governed with honour to himself and with credit to his sovereign. Young Ptolemy was no sooner delivered from the shackles of a superior, than he betrayed the same vices which had characterized his father; the counsels of Aristomenes were despised, and the minister who for 10 years had governed the kingdom with equity and moderation, was sacrificed to the caprice of the sovereign, who abhorred him for the salutary advice which his own vicious inclinations did not permit him to follow. His cruelties raised seditions among his subjects, but these were twice quelled by the prudence and the moderation of one Polycrates, the most faithful of his corrupt ministers. In the midst of his extravagance, Epiphanes did not forget his alliance with the Romans; above all others he showed himself eager to cultivate friendship with a nation from whom he could derive so many advantages, and during their war against Antiochus he offered to assist them with money against a monarch whose daughter Cleopatra he had married, but whom he hated on account of the seditions he raised in the very heart of Egypt. After a reign of 24 years, 180 years before Christ, Ptolemy was poisoned by his ministers, whom he had threatened to rob of their possessions, to carry on a war against Seleucus king of Syria. Livy, bk. 35, ch. 13, &c.――Justin, &c.
=Ptolemæus VI.=, succeeded his father Epiphanes on the Egyptian throne, and received the surname of Philometor, on account of his hatred against his mother Cleopatra. He was in the sixth year of his age when he ascended the throne, and during his minority the kingdom was governed by his mother, and at her death by a eunuch, who was one of his favourites. He made war against Antiochus Epiphanes king of Syria, to recover the provinces of Palestine and Cœlosyria, which were part of the Egyptian dominions, and after several successes he fell into the hands of his enemy, who detained him in confinement. During the captivity of Philometor, the Egyptians raised to the throne his younger brother Ptolemy Evergetes, or Physcon, also son of Epiphanes, but he was no sooner established in his power than Antiochus turned his arms against Egypt, drove the usurper ♦out, and restored Philometor to all his rights and privileges as king of Egypt. This artful behaviour of Antiochus was soon comprehended by Philometor, and when he saw that Pelusium, the key of Egypt, had remained in the hands of his Syrian ally, he recalled his brother Physcon, and made him partner on the throne, and concerted with him how to repel their common enemy. This union of interest in the two royal brothers incensed Antiochus; he entered Egypt with a large army, but the Romans checked his progress and obliged him to retire. No sooner were they delivered from the impending war, than Philometor and Physcon, whom the fear of danger had united, began with mutual jealousy to oppose each other’s views. Physcon was at last banished by the superior power of his brother, and as he could find no support in Egypt, he immediately repaired to Rome. To excite more effectually the compassion of the Romans, and to gain their assistance, he appeared in the meanest dress, and took his residence in the most obscure corner of the city. He received an audience from the senate, and the Romans settled the dispute between the two royal brothers, by making them independent of one another, and giving the government of Libya and Cyrene to Physcon, and confirming Philometor in the possession of Egypt, and the island of Cyprus. These terms of accommodation were gladly accepted, but Physcon soon claimed the dominion of Cyprus, and in this he was supported by the Romans, who wished to aggrandize themselves by the diminution of the Egyptian power. Philometor refused to deliver up the island of Cyprus, and to call away his brother’s attention, he fomented the seeds of rebellion in Cyrene. But the death of Philometor, 145 years before the christian era, left Physcon master of Egypt and all the dependent provinces. Philometor has been commended by some historians for his clemency and moderation. Diodorus.――Livy.――Polybius.
♦ omitted word ‘out’ inserted
=Ptolemæus VII.=, surnamed Physcon, on account of the prominence of his belly, ascended the throne of Egypt after the death of his brother Philometer, and as he had reigned for some time conjointly with him [See: Ptolemæus VI.], his succession was approved, though the wife and the son of the deceased monarch laid claim to the crown. Cleopatra was supported in her claims by the Jews, and it was at last agreed that Physcon should marry the queen, and that her son should succeed on the throne at his death. The nuptials were accordingly celebrated, but on that very day the tyrant murdered Cleopatra’s son in her arms. He ordered himself to be called Evergetes, but the Alexandrians refused to do it, and stigmatized him with the appellation of Kakergetes, or evil-doer, a surname which he deserved by his tyranny and oppression. A series of barbarity rendered him odious, but as no one attempted to rid Egypt of her tyranny, the Alexandrians abandoned their habitations, and fled from a place which continually streamed with the blood of their massacred fellow-citizens. If their migration proved fatal to the commerce and prosperity of Alexandria, it was of the most essential service to the countries where they retired; and the numbers of Egyptians that sought a safer asylum in Greece and Asia, introduced among the inhabitants of those countries the different professions that were practised with success in the capital of Egypt. Physcon endeavoured to repeople the city which his cruelty had laid desolate; but the fear of sharing the fate of the former inhabitants, prevailed more than the promise of riches, rights, and immunities. The king at last, disgusted with Cleopatra, repudiated her, and married her daughter by Philometor, called also Cleopatra. He still continued to exercise the greatest cruelty upon his subjects, but the prudence and vigilance of his ministers kept the people in tranquillity, till all Egypt revolted when the king had basely murdered all the young men of Alexandria. Without friends or support in Egypt he fled to Cyprus, and Cleopatra the divorced queen ascended the throne. In his banishment Physcon dreaded lest the Alexandrians should also place the crown on the head of his son, by his sister Cleopatra, who was then governor of Cyrene, and under these apprehensions he sent for the young prince, called Memphitis, to Cyprus, and murdered him as soon as he reached the shore. To make the barbarity more complete he sent the limbs of Memphitis to Cleopatra, and they were received as the queen was going to celebrate her birthday. Soon after this he invaded Egypt with an army, and obtained a victory over the forces of Cleopatra, who, being left without friends or assistance, fled to her eldest daughter Cleopatra, who had married Demetrius king of Syria. This decisive blow restored Physcon to his throne, where he continued to reign for some time, hated by his subjects, and feared by his enemies. He died at Alexandria in the 67th year of his age, after a reign of 29 years, about 116 years before Christ. Some authors have extolled Physcon for his fondness for literature; they have observed, that from his extensive knowledge he was called the philologist, and that he wrote a comment upon Homer, besides a history in 24 books, admired for its elegance, and often quoted by succeeding authors whose pen was employed on the same subject. Diodorus.――Justin, bk. 38, &c.――Athenæus, bk. 2.――Porphyry.
=Ptolemæus VIII.=, surnamed Lathyrus, from an excrescence like a pea on the nose, succeeded his father Physcon as king of Egypt. He had no sooner ascended the throne, than his mother Cleopatra, who reigned conjointly with him, expelled him to Cyprus, and placed the crown on the head of his brother Ptolemy Alexander, her favourite son. Lathyrus, banished from Egypt, became king of Cyprus; and soon after he appeared at the head of a large army, to make war against Alexander Jannæus king of Judæa, through whose assistance and intrigue he had been expelled by Cleopatra. The Jewish monarch was conquered, and 50,000 of his men were left on the field of battle. Lathyrus, after he had exercised the greatest cruelty upon the Jews, and made vain attempts to recover the kingdom of Egypt, retired to Cyprus till the death of his brother Alexander restored him to his native dominions. Some of the cities of Egypt refused to acknowledge him as their sovereign; and Thebes, for its obstinacy, was closely besieged for three successive years, and from a powerful and populous city, it was reduced to ruins. In the latter part of his reign Lathyrus was called upon to assist the Romans with a navy for the conquest of Athens; but Lucullus, who had been sent to obtain the wanted supply, though received with kingly honours, was dismissed with evasive and unsatisfactory answers, and the monarch refused to part with troops which he deemed necessary to preserve the peace of his kingdom. Lathyrus died 81 years before the christian era, after a reign of 36 years since the death of his father Physcon, 11 of which he had passed with his mother Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne, 18 in Cyprus, and seven after his mother’s death. He was succeeded by his only daughter Cleopatra, whom Alexander the son of Ptolemy Alexander, by means of the dictator Sylla, soon after married and murdered. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities.――Justin, bk. 39.――Plutarch, Lucullus.――Appian, Mithridatic Wars.
=Ptolemæus IX.= See: Alexander Ptolemy I.
=Ptolemæus X.= See: Alexander Ptolemy II.
=Ptolemæus XI.= See: Alexander Ptolemy III.
=Ptolemæus XII.=, the illegitimate son of Lathyrus, ascended the throne of Egypt at the death of Alexander III. He received the surname of Auletes, because he played skilfully on the flute. His rise showed great marks of prudence and circumspection; and as his predecessor by his will had left the kingdom of Egypt to the Romans, Auletes knew that he could not be firmly established on his throne without the approbation of the Roman senate. He was successful in his applications, and Cæsar, who was then consul, and in want of money, established his succession, and granted him the alliance of the Romans, after he had received the enormous sum of about 1,162,500_l._ sterling. But these measures rendered him unpopular at home, and when he had suffered the Romans quietly to take possession of Cyprus, the Egyptians revolted, and Auletes was obliged to fly from his kingdom, and seek protection among the most powerful of his allies. His complaints were heard at Rome, at first with indifference, and the murder of 100 noblemen of Alexandria, whom the Egyptians had sent to justify their proceedings before the Roman senate, rendered him unpopular and suspected. Pompey, however, supported his cause, and the senators decreed to re-establish Auletes on his throne; but as they proceeded slowly in the execution of their plans, the monarch retired from Rome to Ephesus, where he lay concealed for some time in the temple of Diana. During his absence from Alexandria, his daughter Berenice had made herself absolute, and established herself on the throne by a marriage with Archelaus, a priest of Bellona’s temple at Comana; but she was soon driven from Egypt, when Gabinius, at the head of a Roman army, approached to replace Auletes on his throne. Auletes was no sooner restored to power, than he ♦sacrificed to his ambition his daughter Berenice, and behaved with the greatest ingratitude and perfidy to Rabirius, a Roman who had supplied him with money when expelled from his kingdom. Auletes died four years after his restoration, about 51 years before the christian era. He left two sons and two daughters; and by his will ordered the eldest of his sons to marry the eldest of his sisters, and to ascend with her the vacant throne. As these children were young, the dying monarch recommended them to the protection and paternal care of the Romans, and accordingly Pompey the Great was appointed by the senate to be their patron and their guardian. Their reign was as turbulent as that of their predecessors, and it is remarkable for no uncommon events, only we may observe that the young queen was the Cleopatra who soon after became so celebrated as being the mistress of Julius Cæsar, the wife of Marcus Antony, and the last of the Egyptian monarchs of the family of Lagus. Cicero, For Rabirius.――Strabo, bk. 17.――Dio Cassius, bk. 39.――Appian, Civil Wars.
♦ ‘sacrified’ replaced with ‘sacrificed’
=Ptolemæus XIII.=, surnamed Dionysius or Bacchus, ascended the throne of Egypt conjointly with his sister Cleopatra, whom he had married, according to the directions of his father Auletes. He was under the care and protection of Pompey the Great [See: Ptolemæus XII.], but the wickedness and avarice of his ministers soon obliged him to reign independent. He was then in the 13th year of his age, when his guardian, after the fatal battle of Pharsalia, came to the shores of Egypt, and claimed his protection. He refused to grant the required assistance, and by the advice of his ministers he basely murdered Pompey, after he had brought him to shore under the mask of friendship and cordiality. To curry the favour of the conqueror of Pharsalia, Ptolemy cut off the head of Pompey; but Cæsar turned with indignation from such perfidy, and when he arrived at Alexandria, he found the king of Egypt as faithless to his cause as to that of his fallen enemy. Cæsar sat as judge to hear the various claims of the brother and sister to the throne; and to satisfy the people, he ordered the will of Auletes to be read, and confirmed Ptolemy and Cleopatra in the possession of Egypt, and appointed the two younger children masters of the island of Cyprus. This fair and candid decision might have left no room for dissatisfaction, but Ptolemy was governed by cruel and avaricious ministers, and therefore he refused to acknowledge Cæsar as a judge or a mediator. The Roman enforced his authority by arms, and three victories were obtained over the Egyptian forces. Ptolemy, who had been for some time a prisoner in the hands of Cæsar, now headed his armies; but a defeat was fatal, and as he attempted to save his life by flight, he was drowned in the Nile, about 46 years before Christ, and three years and eight months after the death of Auletes. Cleopatra, at the death of her brother, became sole mistress of Egypt; but as the Egyptians were no friends to female government, Cæsar obliged her to marry her younger brother Ptolemy, who was then in the 11th year of his age. Appian, Civil Wars.――Cæsar, Alexandrine War.――Strabo, bk. 17.――Josephus, Antiquities.――Dio Cassius.――Plutarch, Antonius, &c. ――Suetonius Cæsar.
=Ptolemæus Apion=, king of Cyrene, was the illegitimate son of Ptolemy Physcon. After a reign of 20 years he died; and as he had no children, he made the Romans heirs of his dominions. The Romans presented his subjects with their independence. Livy, bk. 70.――――Ceraunus, a son of Ptolemy Soter by Eurydice the daughter of Antipater. Unable to succeed to the throne of Egypt, Ceraunus fled to the court of Seleucus, where he was received with friendly marks of attention. Seleucus was then king of Macedonia, an empire which he had lately acquired by the death of Lysimachus in a battle in Phrygia; but his reign was short, and Ceraunus perfidiously murdered him and ascended his throne, 280 B.C. The murderer, however, could not be firmly established in Macedonia, as long as Arsinoe the widow and the children of Lysimachus were alive, and entitled to claim his kingdom as the lawful possession of their father. To remove these obstacles, Ceraunus made offers of marriage to Arsinoe, who was his own sister. The queen at first refused, but the protestations and solemn promises of the usurper at last prevailed upon her to consent. The nuptials, however, were no sooner celebrated, than Ceraunus murdered the two young princes, and confirmed his usurpation by rapine and cruelty. But now three powerful princes claimed the kingdom of Macedonia as their own: Antiochus the son of Seleucus; Antigonus the son of Demetrius; and Pyrrhus the king of Epirus. These enemies, however, were soon removed; Ceraunus conquered Antigonus in the field of battle, and stopped the hostilities of his two other rivals by promises and money. He did not long remain inactive; a barbarian army of Gauls claimed a tribute from him, and the monarch immediately marched to meet them in the field. The battle was long and bloody. The Macedonians might have obtained the victory, if Ceraunus had shown more prudence. He was thrown down from his elephant, and taken prisoner by the enemy, who immediately tore his body to pieces. Ptolemy had been king of Macedonia only 18 months. Justin, bk. 24, &c.――Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 10.――――An illegitimate son of Ptolemy Lathyrus king of Cyprus, of which he was tyrannically dispossessed by the Romans. Cato was at the head of the forces which were sent against Ptolemy by the senate, and the Roman general proposed to the monarch to retire from the throne, and to pass the rest of his days in the obscure office of high priest in the temple of Venus at Paphos. This offer was rejected with the indignation which it merited, and the monarch poisoned himself at the approach of the enemy. The treasures found in the island amounted to the enormous sum of 1,356,250_l._ sterling, which were carried to Rome by the conquerors. Plutarch, Cato.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 9.――Florus, bk. 3. ――――A man who attempted to make himself king of Macedonia, in opposition to Perdiccas. He was expelled by Pelopidas.――――A son of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, by Antigone the daughter of Berenice. He was left governor of Epirus, when Pyrrhus went to Italy to assist the Tarentines against the Romans, where he presided with great prudence and moderation. He was killed, bravely fighting in the expedition which Pyrrhus undertook against Sparta and Argos.――――A eunuch, by whose friendly assistance Mithridates the Great saved his life after a battle with Lucullus.――――A king of Epirus, who died very young as he was marching an army against the Ætolians, who had seized part of his dominions. Justin, bk. 28.――――A king of Chalcidica in Syria, about 30 years before Christ. He opposed Pompey when he invaded Syria, but he was defeated in the attempt, and the conqueror spared his life only upon receiving 1000 talents. Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 13. ――――A nephew of Antigonus, who commanded an army in the Peloponnesus. He revolted from his uncle to Cassander, and some time after he attempted to bribe the soldiers of Ptolemy Lagus king of Egypt, who had invited him to his camp. He was seized and imprisoned for his treachery, and the Egyptian monarch at last ordered him to drink hemlock.――――A son of Seleucus, killed in the celebrated battle which was fought at Issus, between Darius and Alexander the Great.――――A son of Juba, made king of Mauritania. He was son of Cleopatra Selene the daughter of Marcus Antony, and the celebrated Cleopatra. He was put to death by Caius Caligula. Dio Cassius.――Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11.――――A friend of Otho.――――A favourite of Antiochus king of Syria. He was surnamed Macron.――――A Jew, famous for his cruelty and avarice. He was for some time governor of Jericho, about 135 years before Christ.――――A powerful Jew during the troubles which disturbed the peace of Judæa, in the reign of Augustus.――――A son of Antony by Cleopatra, surnamed Philadelphus by his father, and made master of Phœnicia, Syria, and all the territories of Asia Minor, which were situated between the Ægean and the Euphrates. Plutarch, Antonius. ――――A general of Herod king of Judæa.――――A son of Chrysermus, who visited Cleomenes king of Sparta, when imprisoned in Egypt.――――A governor of Alexandria, put to death by Cleomenes.――――Claudius, a celebrated geographer and astrologer in the reign of Adrian and Antoninus. He was a native of Alexandria, or, according to others, of Pelusium, and on account of his great learning, he received the name of most wise, and most divine, among the Greeks. In his system of the world, he places the earth in the centre of the universe, a doctrine universally believed and adopted till the 16th century, when it was confuted and rejected by Copernicus. His geography is valued for its learning, and the very useful information which he gives. Besides his system and his geography Ptolemy wrote other books, in one of which he gives an account of the fixed stars, of 1022 of which he mentions the certain and definite longitude and latitude. The best edition of Ptolemy’s geography is that of Bertius, folio, Amsterdam, 1618, and that of his treatise de Judiciis Astrologicis by Camerarii, 4to, 1555; and of the Harmonica, 4to, Wallis, Oxford, 1683.
=Ptolemāis=, a town of Thebais in Egypt, called after the Ptolemies, who beautified it. There was also another city of the same name in the territories of Cyrene. It was situate on the sea-coast, and, according to some, it was the same as Barce. See: Barce.――――A city of Palestine, called also Acon. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 8. ――Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 73.――Strabo, bk. 14, &c.
=Ptoly̆cus=, a statuary of Corcyra, pupil to Critias the Athenian. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Ptous=, a son of Athamas and Themisto, who gave his name to a mountain of Bœotia, upon which he built a temple to Apollo, surnamed Ptous. The god had also a celebrated oracle on mount Ptous. Plutarch, de Defectu Oraculorum.――Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 23.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Publicia lex=, forbade any person to play with bad or ♦fraudulent designs.
♦ ‘fradulent’ replaced with ‘fraudulent’
=Publicius=, a Roman freedman, so much like Pompey the Great, that they were often confounded together. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 14.
=Publicŏla=, a name given to Publius Valerius, on account of his great popularity. See: Valerius. Plutarch, Publicola.――Livy, bk. 2, ch. 8.――Pliny, bk. 30, ch. 15.
=Publilia lex=, was made by Publilius Philo the dictator, A.U.C. 445. It permitted one of the censors to be elected from the plebeians, since one of the consuls was chosen from that body. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 12.――――Another, by which it was ordained, that all laws should be previously approved by the senators, before they were proposed by the people.
=Publius Syrus=, a Syrian mimic poet, who flourished about 44 years before Christ. He was originally a slave sold to a Roman patrician, called Domitius, who brought him up with great attention, and gave him his freedom when of age. He gained the esteem of the most powerful at Rome, and reckoned Julius Cæsar among his patrons. He soon eclipsed the poet Laberius, whose burlesque compositions were in general esteem. There remains of Publius a collection of moral sentences, written in iambics, and placed in alphabetical order; the newest edition of which is that of Patavium. Josephus Cominus, 1740.
=Publius=, a prænomen common among the Romans.――――Caius, a man who conspired with Brutus against Julius Cæsar.――――A pretor who conquered Palæpolis. He was only a plebeian, and though neither consul nor dictator, he obtained a triumph in spite of the opposition of the senators. He was the first who was honoured with a triumph during a pretorship.――――A Roman consul who defeated the Latins, and was made dictator.――――A Roman flatterer in the court of Tiberius.――――A tribune who accused Manlius, &c.
=Pudīcĭtia=, a goddess who, as her name implies, presided over chastity. She had two temples at Rome. Festus, Lexicon of Festus.――Livy, bk. 10, ch. 7.
=Pulchĕria=, a daughter of the emperor Theodosius the Great, famous for her piety, moderation, and virtues.――――A daughter of Arcadius, who held the government of the Roman empire for many years. She was mother of Valentinian. Her piety, and her private as well as public virtues, have been universally admired. She died A.D. 452, and was interred at Ravenna, where her tomb is still to be seen.――――A sister of Theodosius, who reigned absolute for some time in the Roman empire.
=Pulchrum=, a promontory near Carthage, now Rasafran. Livy, bk. 29, ch. 27.
=Pullus=, a surname of Numitorius.
=Punĭcum bellum.= The first Punic war was undertaken by the Romans against Carthage, B.C. 264. The ambition of Rome was the origin of this war. For upwards of 240 years, the two nations had beheld with secret jealousy each other’s power, but they had totally eradicated every cause of contention, by settling, in three different treaties, the boundaries of their respective territories, the number of their allies, and how far one nation might sail in the Mediterranean without giving offence to the other. Sicily, an island of the highest consequence to the Carthaginians as a commercial nation, was the seat of the first dissensions. The Mamertini, a body of Italian mercenaries, were appointed by the king of Syracuse to guard the town of Messana, but this tumultuous tribe, instead of protecting the citizens, basely massacred them, and seized their possessions. This act of cruelty raised the indignation of all the Sicilians, and Hiero king of Syracuse, who had employed them, prepared to punish their perfidy; and the Mamertini, besieged in Messana, and without friends or resources, resolved to throw themselves for protection into the hands of the first power that could relieve them. They were, however, divided in their sentiments, and while some implored the assistance of Carthage, others called upon the Romans for protection. Without hesitation or delay, the Carthaginians entered Messana, and the Romans also hastened to give to the Mamertini that aid which had been claimed from them with as much eagerness as from the Carthaginians. At the approach of the Roman troops, the Mamertini, who had implored their assistance, took up arms, and forced the Carthaginians to evacuate Messana. Fresh forces were poured in on every side, and though Carthage seemed superior in arms and in resources, yet the valour and intrepidity of the Romans daily appeared more formidable, and Hiero, the Syracusan king, who hitherto had embraced the interest of the Carthaginians, became the most faithful ally of the republic. From a private quarrel the war became general. The Romans obtained a victory in Sicily, but as their enemies were masters at sea, the advantages which they gained were small and inconsiderable. To make themselves equal to their adversaries, they aspired to the dominion of the sea, and in 60 days timber was cut down, and a fleet of 120 galleys completely manned and provisioned. The successes they met with at sea were trivial, and little advantages could be gained over an enemy that were sailors by actual practice and long experience. ♦Duillius at last obtained a victory, and he was the first Roman who ever received a triumph after a naval battle. The losses which they had already sustained induced the Carthaginians to sue for peace, and the Romans, whom an unsuccessful descent upon Africa, under Regulus [See: Regulus], had rendered diffident, listened to the proposal, and the first Punic war was concluded B.C. 241, on the following terms:――The Carthaginians pledged themselves to pay to the Romans, within 20 years, the sum of 3000 Euboic talents; they promised to release all the Roman captives without ransom, to evacuate Sicily, and the other islands in the Mediterranean, and not to molest Hiero king of Syracuse, or his allies. After this treaty, the Carthaginians, who had lost the dominion of Sardinia and Sicily, made new conquests in Spain, and soon began to repair their losses by industry and labour. They planted colonies, and secretly prepared to revenge themselves upon their powerful rivals. The Romans were not insensible of their successes in Spain, and to stop their progress towards Italy, they made stipulations with the Carthaginians, by which they were not permitted to cross the Iberus, or to molest the cities of their allies the Saguntines. This was for some time observed, but when Annibal succeeded to the command of the Carthaginian armies in Spain, he spurned the boundaries which the jealousy of Rome had set to his arms, and he immediately formed the siege of Saguntum. The Romans were apprised of the hostilities which had been begun against their allies, but Saguntum was in the hands of the active enemy before they had taken any steps to oppose him. Complaints were carried to Carthage, and war was determined on by the influence of Annibal in the Carthaginian senate. Without delay or diffidence, B.C. 218, Annibal marched a numerous army of 90,000 foot and 12,000 horse towards Italy, resolved to carry on the war to the gates of Rome. He crossed the Rhone, the Alps, and the Apennines, with uncommon celerity, and the Roman consuls who were stationed to stop his progress were severally defeated. The battles of Trebia, of Ticinus, and of the lake of Thrasymenus, threw Rome into the greatest apprehensions, but the prudence and the dilatory measures of the dictator Fabius soon taught them to hope for better times. Yet the conduct of Fabius was universally censured as cowardice, and the two consuls who succeeded him in the command, by pursuing a different plan of operations, soon brought on a decisive action at Cannæ, in which 45,000 Romans were left in the field of battle. This bloody victory caused so much consternation at Rome, that some authors have declared that if Annibal had immediately marched from the plains of Cannæ to the city, he would have met with no resistance, but would have terminated a long and dangerous war with glory to himself, and the most inestimable advantages to his country. This celebrated victory at Cannæ left the conqueror master of two camps, and of an immense booty; and the cities which had hitherto observed a neutrality, no sooner saw the defeat of the Romans, than they eagerly embraced the interest of Carthage. The news of this victory was carried to Carthage by Mago, and the Carthaginians refused to believe it till three bushels of golden rings were spread before them, which had been taken from the Roman knights in the field of battle. After this Annibal called his brother Asdrubal from Spain with a large reinforcement; but the march of Asdrubal was intercepted by the Romans, his army was defeated, and himself slain. Affairs now had taken a different turn, and Marcellus, who had the command of the Roman legions in Italy, soon taught his countrymen that Annibal was not invincible in the field. In different parts of the world the Romans were making very rapid conquests, and if the sudden arrival of a Carthaginian army in Italy at first raised fears and apprehensions, they were soon enabled to dispute with their enemies for the sovereignty of Spain and the dominion of the sea. Annibal no longer appeared formidable in Italy; if he conquered towns in Campania or Magna Græcia, he remained master of them only while his army hovered in the neighbourhood, and if he marched towards Rome the alarm he occasioned was but momentary; the Romans were prepared to oppose him, and his retreat was therefore the more dishonourable. The conquests of young Scipio in Spain had now raised the expectations of the Romans, and he had no sooner returned to Rome than he proposed to remove Annibal from the capital of Italy by carrying the war to the gates of Carthage. This was a bold and hazardous enterprise, but though Fabius opposed it, it was universally approved by the Roman senate, and young Scipio was empowered to sail to Africa. The conquests of the young Roman were as rapid in Africa as in Spain, and the Carthaginians, apprehensive for the fate of their capital, recalled Annibal from Italy, and preferred their safety at home to the maintaining of a long and expensive war in another quarter of the globe. Annibal received their orders with indignation, and with tears in his eyes he left Italy, where for 16 years he had known no superior in the field of battle. At his arrival in Africa, the Carthaginian general soon collected a large army, and met his exulting adversary in the plains of Zama. The battle was long and bloody, and though one nation fought for glory, and the other for the dearer sake of liberty, the Romans obtained the victory, and Annibal, who had sworn eternal enmity to the gods of Rome, fled from Carthage after he had advised his countrymen to accept the terms of the conqueror. This battle of Zama was decisive, the Carthaginians sued for peace, which the haughty conquerors granted with difficulty. The conditions were these: Carthage was permitted to hold all the possessions which she had in Africa before the war, and to be governed by her own laws and institutions. She was ordered to make restitution of all the ships and other effects which had been taken in violation of a truce that had been agreed upon by both nations. She was to surrender the whole of her fleet, except 10 galleys; she was to release and deliver up all the captives, deserters, or fugitives, taken or received during the war; to indemnify Masinissa for all the losses which he had sustained; to deliver up all her elephants, and for the future never more to tame or break any more of these animals. She was not to make war upon any nation whatever without the consent of the Romans, and she was to reimburse the Romans, to pay the sum of 10,000 talents, at the rate of 200 talents a year for 50 years, and she was to give up hostages from the noblest families for the performance of these several articles; and till the ratification of the treaty, to supply the Roman forces with money and provisions. These humiliating conditions were accepted 201 B.C., and immediately 4000 Roman captives were released, 500 galleys were delivered and burnt on the spot, but the immediate exaction of 200 talents was more severely felt, and many of the Carthaginian senators burst into tears. During the 50 years which followed the conclusion of the second Punic war, the Carthaginians were employed in repairing their losses by unwearied application and industry; but they found still in the Romans a jealous rival and a haughty conqueror, and in Masinissa the ally of Rome an intriguing and ambitious monarch. The king of Numidia made himself master of one of their provinces; but as they were unable to make war without the consent of Rome, the Carthaginians sought relief by embassies, and made continual complaints in the Roman senate of the tyranny and oppression of Masinissa. Commissioners were appointed to examine the cause of their complaints; but as Masinissa was the ally of Rome, the interest of the Carthaginians was neglected, and whatever seemed to depress their republic was agreeable to the Romans. Cato, who was in the number of the commissioners, examined the capital of Africa with a jealous eye; he saw it with concern, rising as it were from its ruins; and when he returned to Rome he declared, in full senate, that the peace of Italy would never be established while Carthage was in being. The senators, however, were not guided by his opinion, and the delenda est Carthago of Cato did not prevent the Romans from acting with moderation. But while the senate were debating about the existence of Carthage, and while they considered it as a dependent power, and not as an ally, the wrongs of Africa were without redress, and Masinissa continued his depredations. Upon this the Carthaginians resolved to do their cause that justice which the Romans had denied them; they entered the field against the Numidians, but they were defeated in a bloody battle by Masinissa, who was then 90 years old. In this bold measure they had broken the peace; and as their late defeat had rendered them desperate, they hastened with all possible speed to the capital of Italy to justify their proceedings, and to implore the forgiveness of the Roman senate. The news of Masinissa’s victory had already reached Italy, and immediately some forces were sent to Sicily, and from thence ordered to pass into Africa. The ambassadors of Carthage received evasive and unsatisfactory answers from the senate; and when they saw the Romans landed at Utica, they resolved to purchase peace by the most submissive terms which even the most abject slaves could offer. The Romans acted with the deepest policy; no declaration of war had been made, though hostilities appeared inevitable; and in answer to the submissive offers of Carthage, the consuls replied, that to prevent every cause of quarrel, the Carthaginians must deliver into their hands 300 hostages, all children of senators, and of the most noble and respectable families. The demand was great and alarming, but it was no sooner granted, than the Romans made another demand, and the Carthaginians were told that peace could not continue, if they refused to deliver up all their ships, their arms, engines of war, with all their naval and military stores. The Carthaginians complied, and immediately 40,000 suits of armour, 20,000 large engines of war, with a plentiful store of ammunition and missile weapons, were surrendered. After this duplicity had succeeded, the Romans laid open the final resolutions of the senate, and the Carthaginians were then told that, to avoid hostilities, they must leave their ancient habitations and retire into the inland parts of Africa, and found another city, at the distance of not less than 10 miles from the sea. This was heard with horror and indignation; the Romans were fixed and inexorable, and Carthage was filled with tears and lamentations. But the spirit of liberty and independence was not yet extinguished in the capital of Africa, and the Carthaginians determined to sacrifice their lives for the protection of their gods, the tombs of their forefathers, and the place which had given them birth. Before the Roman army approached the city, preparations to support a siege were made, and the ramparts of Carthage were covered with stones, to compensate for the weapons and instruments of war which they had ignorantly betrayed to the duplicity of their enemies. Asdrubal, whom the despair of his countrymen had banished on account of the unsuccessful expedition against Masinissa, was immediately recalled; and, in the moment of danger, Carthage seemed to have possessed more spirit and more vigour than when Annibal was victorious at the gates of Rome. The town was blocked up by the Romans, and a regular siege begun. Two years were spent in useless operations, and Carthage seemed still able to rise from its ruins, to dispute for the empire of the world; when Scipio, the descendant of the great Scipio, who finished the second Punic war, was sent to conduct the siege. The vigour of his operations soon baffled the efforts and the bold resistance of the besieged; the communications which they had with the land were cut off, and the city, which was 20 miles in circumference, was completely surrounded on all sides by the enemy. Despair and famine now raged in the city, and Scipio gained access to the city walls, where the battlements were low and unguarded. His entrance into the streets was disputed with uncommon fury, the houses as he advanced were set on fire to stop his progress; but when a body of 50,000 persons of either sex had claimed quarter, the rest of the inhabitants were disheartened, and such as disdained to be prisoners of war perished in the flames, which gradually destroyed their habitations, 147 B.C., after a continuation of hostilities for three years. During 17 days Carthage was in flames; and the soldiers were permitted to redeem from the fire whatever possession they could. But while others profited from the destruction of Carthage, the philosophic general, struck by the melancholy aspect of the scene, repeated two lines from Homer, which contained a prophecy concerning the fall of Troy. He was asked by the historian Polybius to what he then applied his prediction. “To my country,” replied Scipio; “for her too I dread the vicissitude of human affairs, and in her turn she may exhibit another flaming Carthage.” This remarkable event happened about the year of Rome 606. The news of this victory caused the greatest rejoicings at Rome; and immediately commissioners were appointed by the Roman senate, not only to raze the walls of Carthage, but even to demolish and burn the very materials with which they were made: and in a few days, that city which had been once the seat of commerce, the model of magnificence, the common store of the wealth of nations, and one of the most powerful states of the world, left behind no traces of its splendour, of its power, or even of its existence. Polybius. ――Orosius.――Appian, Punic Wars, &c.――Florus.――Plutarch, Cato, &c.――Strabo.――Livy, Epitaph.――Diodorus.
♦ ‘Duilius’ replaced with ‘Duillius’
=Pupia lex=, de senatu, required that the senate should not be assembled from the 18th of the calends of February to the calends of the same month, and that before the embassies were either accepted or rejected, the senate should be held on no account.
=Pupiēnus Marcus Claudius Maximus=, a man of an obscure family, who raised himself by his merit to the highest offices in the Roman armies, and gradually became a pretor, consul, prefect of Rome, and a governor of the provinces. His father was a blacksmith. After the death of the Gordians, Pupienus was elected with Balbinus to the imperial throne, and to rid the world of the usurpation and tyranny of the Maximini, he immediately marched against these tyrants; but he was soon informed that they had been sacrificed to the fury and resentment of their own soldiers; and therefore he retired to Rome to enjoy the tranquillity which his merit claimed. He soon after prepared to make war against the Persians, who insulted the majesty of Rome, but in this he was prevented, and massacred A.D. 236, by the pretorian guards. Balbinus shared his fate. Pupienus is sometimes called Maximus. In his private character he appeared always grave and serious; he was the constant friend of justice, moderation, and clemency, and no greater encomium can be passed upon his virtues than to say that he was invested with the purple without soliciting for it, and that the Roman senate said that they had selected him from thousands because they knew no person more worthy or better qualified to support the dignity of an emperor.
=Pupius=, a centurion of Pompey’s army, seized by Cæsar’s soldiers, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 13.
=Puppius=, a tragic poet in the age of Julius Cæsar. His tragedies were so pathetic, that when they were represented on the Roman stage, the audience melted into tears, from which circumstance Horace calls them lacrymosa, bk. 1, ltr. 1, li. 67.
=Purpurăriæ=, two islands of the Atlantic on the African coast, now Lancarota and Fortaventura. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 31; bk. 35, ch. 6.
=Puteŏli=, a maritime town of Campania, between Baiæ and Naples, founded by a colony from Cumæ. It was originally called Dicæarchia, and afterwards Puteoli, from the great number of wells that were in the neighbourhood. It was much frequented by the Romans, on account of its mineral waters and hot baths, and near it Cicero had a villa called Puteolanum. It is now called Puzzoli, and contains, instead of its ancient magnificence, not more than 10,000 inhabitants. Silius Italicus, bk. 13, li. 385.――Strabo, bk. 5.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 5.――Cicero, Philippics, bk. 8, ch. 3; Letters to his Friends, bk. 15, ltr. 5.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4. ――Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 7.
=Puticŭlæ=, a place near the Esquiline gate, where the meanest of the Roman populace were buried. Part of it was converted into a garden by Mecænas, who received it as a present from Augustus. Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 8.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Pyanepsia=, an Athenian festival celebrated in honour of Theseus and his companions; who, after their return from Crete, were entertained with all manner of fruits, and particularly pulse. From this circumstance, the Pyanepsia was ever after commemorated by the boiling of pulse, ἀπο του ἑψειν πυανα. Some, however, suppose that it was observed in commemoration of the Heraclidæ, who were entertained with pulse by the Athenians.
=Pydna=, a town of Macedonia, originally called Citron, situate between the mouth of the rivers Aliacmon and Lydius. It was in this city that Cassander massacred Olympias the mother of Alexander the Great, his wife Roxane, and his son Alexander. Pydna is famous for a battle which was fought there, on the 22nd of June, B.C. 168, between the Romans under Paulus, and king Perseus, in which the latter was conquered, and Macedonia soon after reduced to the form of a Roman province. Justin, bk. 14, ch. 6.――Florus.――Plutarch, Æmilius Paulus.――Livy, bk. 44, ch. 10.
=Pygela=, a seaport town of Ionia. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 11.
=Pygmæi=, a nation of dwarfs, in the extremest parts of India, or, according to others, in Æthiopia. Some authors affirm that they were no more than one foot high, and that they built their houses with egg-shells. Aristotle says that they lived in holes under the earth, and that they came out in the harvest time with hatchets to cut down the corn as if to fell a forest. They went on goats and lambs of proportionable stature to themselves, to make war against certain birds, whom some call cranes, which came there yearly from Scythia to plunder them. They were originally governed by Gerana, a princess who was changed into a crane, for boasting herself fairer than Juno. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 90.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 3. ――Strabo, bk. 7.――Aristotle, History of Animals, bk. 8, ch. 12. ――Juvenal, satire 13, li. 186.――Pliny, bk. 4, &c.――Mela, bk. 3, ch. 8.――Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 83.――Philostratus, Imagines, bk. 2, ch. 22, mentions that Hercules once fell asleep in the deserts of Africa, after he had conquered Antæus, and that he was suddenly awakened by an attack which had been made upon his body by an army of these Liliputians, who discharged their arrows with great fury upon his arms and legs. The hero, pleased with their courage, wrapped the greatest number of them in the skin of the Nemæan lion, and carried them to Eurystheus.
=Pygmæon=, a surname of Adonis in Cyprus. Hesychius.
=Pygmălion=, a king of Tyre, son of Belus, and brother to the celebrated Dido, who founded Carthage. At the death of his father, he ascended the vacant throne, and soon became odious by his cruelty and avarice. He sacrificed everything to the gratification of his predominant passions, and he did not even spare the life of Sichæus, Dido’s husband, because he was the most powerful and opulent of all the Phœnicians. This murder he committed in a temple, of which Sichæus was the priest; but instead of obtaining the riches which he desired, Pygmalion was shunned by his subjects, and Dido, to avoid further acts of cruelty, fled away with her husband’s treasures, and a large colony, to the coast of Africa, where she founded a city. Pygmalion died in the 56th year of his age, and in the 47th of his reign. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 347, &c.――Justin, bk. 18, ch. 5.――Apollodorus, bk. 3.――Silius Italicus, bk. 1.――――A celebrated statuary of the island of Cyprus. The debauchery of the females of Amathus, to which he was a witness, created in him such an aversion for the fair sex, that he resolved never to marry. The affection which he had denied to the other sex, he liberally bestowed upon the works of his own hands. He became enamoured of a beautiful statue of marble which he had made, and at his earnest request and prayers, according to the mythologists, the goddess of beauty changed the favourite statue into a woman, whom the artist married, and by whom he had a son called Paphus, who founded the city of that name in Cyprus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, fable 9.
=Pylădes=, a son of Strophius king of Phocis, by one of the sisters of Agamemnon. He was educated, together with his cousin Orestes, with whom he formed the most inviolable friendship, and whom he assisted to revenge the murder of Agamemnon, by assassinating Clytemnestra and Ægysthus. He also accompanied him to Taurica Chersonesus, and for his services Orestes rewarded him by giving him his sister Electra in marriage. Pylades had by her two sons, Medon and Strophius. The friendship of Orestes and Pylades became proverbial. See: Orestes. Euripides, Iphigeneia.――Æschylus, Agamemnon, &c.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.――――A celebrated Greek musician, in the age of Philopœmen. Plutarch, Philopœmen.――――A mimic in the reign of Augustus, banished, and afterwards recalled.
=Pylæ=, a town of Asia, between Cappadocia and Cilicia. Cicero, bk. 5, Letters to Atticus. The word Pylæ, which signifies gates, was often applied by the Greeks to any straits or passages which opened a communication between one country and another, such as the straits of Thermopylæ, of Persia, Hyrcania, &c.
=Pylæmĕnes=, a Paphlagonian, son of Melius, who came to the Trojan war, and was killed by Menelaus. His son, called Harpalion, was killed by Meriones. Dictys Cretensis, bk. 2, ch. 34.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 358.――――A king of Mæonia, who sent his sons, Mestes and Antiphus, to the Trojan war.――――Another, son of Nicomedes, banished from Paphlagonia by Mithridates, and restored by Pompey. Eutropius, bks. 5 & 6.
=Pylagŏræ=, a name given to the Amphictyonic council, because they always assembled at Pylæ, near the temple of Delphi.
=Pylāon=, a son of Neleus and Chloris, killed by Hercules with his brothers. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Pylarge=, a daughter of Danaus. Apollodorus.
=Pylartes=, a Trojan killed by Patroclus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 16, li. 695.
=Pylas=, a king of Megara. He had the misfortune accidentally to kill his uncle Bias, for which he fled away, leaving his kingdom to Pandion his son-in-law, who had been driven from Athens. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 15.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 39.
=Pylēne=, a town of Ætolia. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.
=Pyleus=, a Trojan chief, killed by Achilles.――――A son of Clymenus king of Orchomenos.
=Pylleon=, a town of Thessaly. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 42.
=Pylo=, a daughter of Thespius, mother of Hippotas. Apollodorus.
=Pylos=, now Navarin, a town of Messenia, situate on the western coast of the Peloponnesus, opposite the island Sphacteria in the Ionian sea. It was also called Coryphasion, from the promontory on which it was erected. It was built by Pylus, at the head of a colony from Megara. The founder was dispossessed of it by Neleus, and fled into Elis, where he dwelt in a small town, which he also called Pylos.――――A town of Elis, at the mouth of the river Alpheus, between the Peneus and the Selleis.――――Another town of Elis, called Triphyliacha, from Triphylia, a province of Elis, where it was situate. These three cities, which bore the name of Pylos, disputed their respective right to the honour of having given birth to the celebrated Nestor son of Neleus. The Pylos which is situated near the Alpheus seems to win the palm, as it had in its neighbourhood a small village called Geranus, and a river called Geron, of which Homer makes mention. Pindar, however, calls Nestor king of Messenia, and therefore gives the preference to the first-mentioned of these three cities. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 19; bk. 3, ch. 15.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 39.――Strabo, bk. 9.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, Odyssey, bk. 3.
=Pylus=, a town. See: Pylos.――――A son of Mars by Demonice the daughter of Agenor. He was present at the chase of the Calydonian boar. Apollodorus, bk. 1.
=Pyra=, part of mount Œta, on which the body of Hercules was burnt. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 30.
=Pyracmon=, one of Vulcan’s workmen in the forges of mount Ætna. The name is derived from two Greek words which signify fire and an anvil. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 425.
=Pyracmos=, a man killed by Cæneus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 460.
=Pyræchmes=, a king of Eubœa.――――A king of Pæonia during the Trojan war.
=Pyrămus=, a youth of Babylon, who became enamoured of Thisbe, a beautiful virgin who dwelt in the neighbourhood. The flame was mutual, and the two lovers, whom their parents forbade to marry, regularly received each other’s addresses through the chink of a wall, which separated their houses. After the most solemn vows of sincerity they both agreed to elude the vigilance of their friends, and to meet one another at the tomb of Ninus, under a white mulberry tree, without the walls of Babylon. Thisbe came first to the appointed place, but the sudden arrival of a lioness frightened her away; and as she fled into a neighbouring cave she dropped her veil, which the lioness found and besmeared with blood. Pyramus soon arrived; he found Thisbe’s veil all bloody, and concluding that she had been torn to pieces by the wild beasts of the place, he stabbed himself with his sword. Thisbe, when her fears were vanished, returned from the cave, and at the sight of the dying Pyramus, she fell upon the sword which still reeked with his blood. This tragical scene happened under a white mulberry tree, which, as the poets mention, was stained with the blood of the lovers, and ever after bore fruit of the colour of blood. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 55, &c.――Hyginus, fable 243.――――A river of Cilicia, rising in mount Taurus, and falling into the Pamphylian sea. Cicero, bk. 3, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 11.――Dionysius Periegetes.
=Pyrenæa Venus=, a town of Gallia ♦Narbonensis.
♦ ‘Narbonesis’ replaced with ‘Narbonensis’
=Pyrēnæi=, a mountain, or a long ridge of high mountains, which separate Gaul from Spain, and extend from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea. They receive their name from Pyrene the daughter of Bebrycius [See: Pyrene], or from the fire (πυρ) which once raged there for several days. This fire was originally kindled by shepherds, and so intense was the heat which it occasioned, that all the silver mines of the mountains were melted, and ran down in large rivulets. This account is deemed fabulous by Strabo and others. Diodorus, bk. 5.――Strabo, bk. 3.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.――Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 415.――Livy, bk. 21, ch. 60.――Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 34.
=Pyrenæus=, a king of Thrace, who, during a shower of rain, gave shelter in his house to the nine muses, and attempted to offer them violence. The goddesses upon this took to their wings and flew away. Pyrenæus, who attempted to follow them, as if he had wings, threw himself down from the top of a tower and was killed. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 274.
=Pyrēne=, a daughter of Bebrycius king of the southern parts of Spain. Hercules offered violence to her before he went to attack Geryon, and she brought into the world a serpent, which so terrified her, that she fled into the woods, where she was torn to pieces by wild beasts.――――A nymph, mother of Cycnus by Mars. Apollodorus.――――A fountain near Corinth.――――A small village in Celtic Gaul, near which, according to some, the river Ister took its rise.
=Pyrgi=, an ancient town of Etruria, on the sea coast. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 184.――Livy, bk. 36, ch. 3.
=Pyrgion=, an historian who wrote on the laws of Crete. Athenæus.
=Pyrgo=, the nurse of Priam’s children, who followed Æneas in his flight from Troy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 645.
=Pyrgotĕles=, a celebrated engraver on gems in the age of Alexander the Great. He had the exclusive privilege of engraving the conqueror, as Lysippus was the only sculptor who was permitted to make statues of him. Pliny, bk. 37, ch. 1.
=Pyrgrus=, a fortified place of Elis in the Peloponnesus.
=Pyrippe=, a daughter of Thespius.
=Pyro=, one of the Oceanides. Hesiod.
=Pyrodes=, a son of Cilix, said to be the first who discovered and applied to human purposes the fire concealed in flints. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56.
=Pyrois=, one of the horses of the sun. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 153.
=Pyronia=, a surname of Diana. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 16.
=Pyrrha=, a daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, who married Deucalion the son of Prometheus, who reigned in Thessaly. In her age all mankind were destroyed by a deluge, and she alone, with her husband, escaped from the general destruction, by saving themselves in a boat which Deucalion had made by his father’s advice. When the waters had retired from the surface of the earth, Pyrrha, with her husband, went to the oracle of Themis, where they were directed, to repair the loss of mankind, to throw stones behind their backs. They obeyed, and the stones which Pyrrha threw were changed into women, and those of Deucalion into men. See: Deucalion. Pyrrha became mother of Amphictyon, Hellen, and Protogenea by Deucalion. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 350, &c.――Hyginus, fable 153. ――Apollonius of Rhodes, bk. 3, li. 1085.――――A daughter of Creon king of Thebes. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――The name which Achilles bore when he disguised himself in women’s clothes, at the court of Lycomedes. Hyginus, fable 96.――――A town of Eubœa. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A promontory of Phthiotis, on the bay of Malia.――――A town of Lesbos.――――A beautiful courtesan at Rome, of whom Horace was long an admirer. Horace, bk. 1, ode 5.
=Pyrrheus=, a place in the city of Ambracia. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 5.
=Pyrrhi castra=, a place of Lucania. Livy, bk. 35, ch. 27.
=Pyrrhias=, a boatman of Ithaca, remarkable for his humanity. He delivered from slavery an old man who had been taken by pirates, and robbed of some pots full of pitch. The old man was so grateful for his kindness, that he gave the pots to his deliverer, after he had told him that they contained gold under the pitch. Pyrrhias, upon this, offered the sacrifice of a bull to the old man, and retained him in his house, with every act of kindness and attention, till the time of his death. Plutarch, Quæstiones Græcæ.――――A general of the Ætolians, defeated by Philip, king of Macedonia.
=Pyrrhicha=, a kind of dance, said to be invented and introduced into Greece by Pyrrhus the son of Achilles. The dancers were generally armed. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56.
=Pyrrhicus=, a free town of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 21. ――Athenæus, bk. 14.
=Pyrrhidæ=, a patronymic given to the successors of Neoptolemus in Epirus.
=Pyrrho=, a philosopher of Elis, disciple to Anaxarchus, and originally a painter. His father’s name was Plistarchus, or Pistocrates. He was in continual suspense of judgment; he doubted of everything, never made any conclusions, and when he had carefully examined a subject, and investigated all its parts, he concluded by still doubting of its evidence. This manner of doubting in the philosopher has been called Pyrrhonism, and his disciples have received the appellation of sceptics, inquisitors, examiners, &c. He pretended to have acquired an uncommon dominion over opinion and passions. The former of these virtues he called ataraxia, and the latter matriopathia, and so far did he carry his want of common feeling and sympathy, that he passed with unconcern near a ditch in which his master Anaxarchus had fallen, and where he nearly perished. He was once in a storm, and when all hopes were vanished, and destruction certain, the philosopher remained unconcerned; and while the rest of the crew were lost in lamentations, he plainly told them to look at a pig which was then feeding himself on board the vessel, exclaiming, “This is a true model for a wise man.” As he showed so much indifference in everything, and declared that life and death were the same thing, some of his disciples asked him why he did not hurry himself out of the world. “Because,” says he, “there is no difference between life and death.” When he walked in the streets he never looked behind, or moved from the road for a chariot, even in its most rapid course; and, indeed, as some authors remark, this indifference for his safety often exposed him to the greatest and most imminent dangers, from which he was saved by the interference of his friends who followed him. He flourished B.C. 304, and died at the advanced age of 90. He left no writings behind him. His countrymen were so partial to him that they raised statues to his memory, and exempted all the philosophers of Elis from taxes. Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 9. ――Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 3, ch. 17.――Aulus Gellius, bk. 11, ch. 5.――Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 24.
=Pyrrhus=, a son of Achilles and Deidamia the daughter of king Lycomedes, who received this name from the yellowness of his hair. He was also called Neoptolemus, or new warrior, because he came to the Trojan war in the last year of the celebrated siege of the capital of Troas. See: Neoptolemus.――――A king of Epirus, descended from Achilles by the side of his mother, and from Hercules by that of his father, and son of Æacides and Phthia. He was saved when an infant, by the fidelity of his servants, from the pursuits of the enemies of his father, who had been banished from his kingdom, and he was carried to the court of Glautias king of Illyricum, who educated him with great tenderness. Cassander king of Macedonia wished to despatch him, as he had so much to dread from him; but Glautias not only refused to deliver him up into the hands of his enemy but he even went with an army and placed him on the throne of Epirus, though only 12 years of age. About five years after, the absence of Pyrrhus, to attend the nuptials of one of the daughters of ♦Glautias, raised new commotions. The monarch was expelled from his throne by Neoptolemus, who had usurped it after the death of Æacides; and being still without resources, he applied to his brother-in-law Demetrius for assistance. He accompanied Demetrius at the battle of Ipsus, and fought there with all the prudence and intrepidity of an experienced general. He afterwards passed into Egypt, where, by his marriage with Antigone the daughter of Berenice, he soon obtained a sufficient force to attempt the recovery of his throne. He was successful in the undertaking, but to remove all causes of quarrel, he took the usurper to share with him the royalty, and some time after he put him to death under pretence that he had attempted to poison him. In the subsequent years of his reign, Pyrrhus engaged in the quarrels which disturbed the peace of the Macedonian monarchy; he marched against Demetrius, and gave the Macedonian soldiers fresh proofs of his valour and activity. By dissimulation he ingratiated himself in the minds of his enemy’s subjects, and when Demetrius laboured under a momentary illness, Pyrrhus made an attempt upon the crown of Macedonia, which, if not then successful, soon after rendered him master of the kingdom. This he shared with Lysimachus for seven months, till the jealousy of the Macedonians, and the ambition of his colleague, obliged him to retire. Pyrrhus was meditating new conquests, when the Tarentines invited him to Italy to assist them against the encroaching power of Rome. He gladly accepted the invitation, but his passage across the Adriatic proved nearly fatal, and he reached the shores of Italy, after the loss of the greatest part of his troops in a storm. At his entrance into Tarentum, B.C. 280, he began to reform the manners of the inhabitants, and by introducing the strictest discipline among their troops, to accustom them to bear fatigue and to despise dangers. In the first battle which he fought with the Romans, he obtained the victory, but for this he was more particularly indebted to his elephants, whose bulk and uncommon appearance astonished the Romans and terrified their cavalry. The number of the slain was equal on both sides, and the conqueror said that such another victory would totally ruin him. He also sent Cineas, his chief minister, to Rome, and though victorious, he sued for peace. These offers of peace were refused, and when Pyrrhus questioned Cineas about the manners and the character of the Romans, the sagacious minister replied, that their senate was a venerable assembly of kings, and that to fight against them, was to attack another Hydra. A second battle was fought near Asculum, but the slaughter was so great, and the valour so conspicuous on both sides, that the Romans and their enemies reciprocally claimed the victory as their own. Pyrrhus still continued the war in favour of the Tarentines, when he was invited into Sicily by the inhabitants, who laboured under the yoke of Carthage, and the cruelty of their own petty tyrants. His fondness of novelty soon determined him to quit Italy; he left a garrison at Tarentum, and crossed over to Sicily, where he obtained two victories over the Carthaginians, and took many of their towns. He was for a while successful, and formed the project of invading Africa; but soon his popularity vanished, his troops became insolent, and he behaved with haughtiness, and showed himself oppressive, so that his return to Italy was deemed a fortunate event for all Sicily. He had no sooner arrived at Tarentum than he renewed hostilities with the Romans with great acrimony, but when his army of 80,000 men had been defeated by 20,000 of the enemy, under Curius, he left Italy with precipitation, B.C. 274, ashamed of the enterprise, and mortified by the victories which had been obtained over one of the descendants of Achilles. In Epirus he began to repair his military character by attacking Antigonus, who was then on the Macedonian throne. He gained some advantages over his enemy, and was at last restored to the throne of Macedonia. He afterwards marched against Sparta, at the request of Cleonymus, but when all his vigorous operations were insufficient to take the capital of Laconia, he retired to Argos, where the treachery of Aristeus invited him. The Argives desired him to retire, and not to interfere in the affairs of their republic, which were confounded by the ambition of two of their nobles. He complied with their wishes, but in the night he marched his forces into the town, and might have made himself master of the place had he not retarded his progress by entering it with his elephants. The combat that ensued was obstinate and bloody, and the monarch, to fight with more boldness, and to encounter dangers with more facility, exchanged his dress. He was attacked by one of the enemy, but as he was going to run him through in his own defence, the mother of the Argive, who saw her son’s danger from the top of a house, threw down a tile and brought Pyrrhus to the ground. His head was cut off, and carried to Antigonus, who gave his remains a magnificent funeral, and presented his ashes to his son Helenus, 272 years before the christian era. Pyrrhus has been deservedly commended for his talents as a general; and not only his friends, but also his enemies, have been warm in extolling him; and Annibal declared, that for experience and sagacity the king of Epirus was the first of commanders. He had chosen Alexander the Great for a model, and in everything he wished not only to imitate, but to surpass him. In the art of war none were superior to him; he not only made it his study as a general, but even he wrote many books on encampments, and the different ways of training up an army, and whatever he did was by principle and rule. His uncommon understanding and his penetration are also admired; but the general is severely censured, who has no sooner conquered a country, than he looks for other victories, without regarding or securing what he has already obtained, by measures and regulations honourable to himself, and advantageous to his subjects. The Romans passed great encomiums upon him, and Pyrrhus was no less struck with their magnanimity and valour; so much indeed, that he exclaimed that if he had soldiers like the Romans, or if the Romans had him for a general, he would leave no corner of the earth unseen, and no nation unconquered. Pyrrhus married many wives, and all for political reasons; besides Antigone, he had Lanassa the daughter of Agathocles, as also a daughter of Autoleon king of Pæonia. His children, as his biographer observes, derived a warlike spirit from their father, and when he was asked by one to which of them he should leave the kingdom of Epirus, he replied, to him who has the sharpest sword. Ælian, De Natura Animalium, bk. 10.――Plutarch, Lives.――Justin, bk. 17, &c.――Livy, bks. 13 & 14.――Horace, bk. 3, ode 6.――――A king of Epirus, son of Ptolemy, murdered by the people of Ambracia. His daughter, called Laudamia, or Deidamia, succeeded him. Pausanias.――――A son of Dædalus.
♦ ‘Glautius’ replaced with ‘Glautias’
=Pyste=, the wife of Seleucus, taken prisoner by the Gauls, &c. Polyænus, bk. 2.
=Pythagŏras=, a celebrated philosopher, born at Samos. His father Mnesarchus was a person of distinction, and therefore the son received that education which was most calculated to enlighten his mind and invigorate his body. Like his contemporaries, he was early made acquainted with poetry and music; eloquence and astronomy became his private studies, and in gymnastic exercises he often bore the palm for strength and dexterity. He first made himself known in Greece, at the Olympic games, where he obtained, in the 18th year of his age, the prize for wrestling; and, after he had been admired for the elegance and the dignity of his person, and the brilliancy of his understanding, he retired into the east. In Egypt and Chaldæa he gained the confidence of the priests, and learned from them the artful policy, and the symbolic writings, by which they governed the prince as well as the people, and, after he had spent many years in gathering all the information which could be collected from antique tradition concerning the nature of the gods and the immortality of the soul, Pythagoras revisited his native island. The tyranny of Polycrates at Samos disgusted the philosopher, who was a great advocate for national independence; and though he was the favourite of the tyrant, he retired from the island, and a second time assisted at the Olympic games. His fame was too well known to escape notice; he was saluted in the public assembly by the name of Sophist, or wise man; but he refused the appellation, and was satisfied with that of philosopher, or, the friend of wisdom. “At the Olympic games,” said he, in explanation of this new appellation he wished to assume, “some are attracted with the desire of obtaining crowns and honours, others come to expose their different commodities to sale, while curiosity draws a third class, and the desire of contemplating whatever deserves notice in that celebrated assembly; thus, on the more extensive theatre of the world, while many struggle for the glory of a name, and many pant for the advantages of fortune, a few, and indeed but a few, who are neither desirous of money nor ambitious of fame, are sufficiently gratified to be spectators of the wonder, the hurry, and the magnificence of the scene.” From Olympia, the philosopher visited the republics of Elis and Sparta, and retired to Magna Græcia, where he fixed his habitation in the town of Crotona, about the 40th year of his age. Here he founded a sect which has received the name of the Italian, and he soon saw himself surrounded by a great number of pupils, which the recommendation of his mental as well as his personal accomplishments had procured. His skill in music and medicine, and his knowledge of mathematics and of natural philosophy, gained him friends and admirers, and amidst the voluptuousness that prevailed among the inhabitants of Crotona, the Samian sage found his instructions respected and his approbation courted; the most debauched and effeminate were pleased with the eloquence and the graceful delivery of the philosopher, who boldly upbraided them for their vices, and called them to more virtuous and manly pursuits. These animated harangues were attended with rapid success, and a reformation soon took place in the morals and the life of the people of Crotona. The females were exhorted to become modest, and they left off their gaudy ornaments; the youths were called away from their pursuits of pleasure, and instantly they forgot their intemperance, and paid to their parents that submissive attention and deference which the precepts of Pythagoras required. As to the old, they were directed no longer to spend their time in amassing money, but to improve their understanding, and to seek that peace and those comforts of mind which frugality, benevolence, and philanthropy alone can produce. The sober and religious behaviour of the philosopher strongly recommended the necessity and importance of these precepts. Pythagoras was admired for his venerable aspect; his voice was harmonious, his eloquence persuasive, and the reputation he had acquired by his distant travels, and by being crowned at the Olympic games, was great and important. He regularly frequented the temples of the gods, and paid his devotion to the divinity at an early hour; he lived upon the purest and most innocent food, he clothed himself like the priests of the Egyptian gods, and by his continual purifications and regular offerings, he seemed to be superior to the rest of mankind in sanctity. These artful measures united to render him an object not only of reverence, but of imitation. To set himself at a greater distance from his pupils, a number of years was required to try their various dispositions; the most talkative were not permitted to speak in the presence of their master before they had been his auditors for five years, and those who possessed a natural taciturnity were allowed to speak after a probation of two years. When they were capable of receiving the secret instructions of the philosopher, they were taught the use of cyphers and hieroglyphic writings, and Pythagoras might boast that his pupils could correspond together, though in the most distant regions, in unknown characters; and by the signs and words which they had received, they could discover, though strangers and barbarians, those that had been educated in the Pythagorean school. So great was his authority among his pupils, that to dispute his word was deemed a crime, and the most stubborn were drawn to coincide with the opinions of their opponent, when they helped their arguments by the words of the master said so, an expression which became proverbial in jurare in verba magistri. The great influence which the philosopher possessed in his school was transferred to the world: the pupils divided the applause and the approbation of the people with their venerable master, and in a short time the rulers and the legislators of all the principal towns of Greece, Sicily, and Italy, boasted in being the disciples of Pythagoras. The Samian philosopher was the first who supported the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of the soul into different bodies, and those notions he seemed to have imbibed among the priests of Egypt, or in the solitary retreats of the Brachmans. More strenuously to support his chimerical system, he declared he recollected the different bodies which his soul had animated before that of the son of Mnesarchus. He remembered to have been Æthalides the son of Mercury, to have assisted the Greeks during the Trojan war in the character of Euphorbus [See: Euphorbus], to have been Hermotimus, afterwards a fisherman, and last of all Pythagoras. He forbade his disciples to eat flesh, as also beans, because he supposed them to have been produced from the same putrefied matter from which, at the creation of the world, man was formed. In his theological system Pythagoras supported that the universe was created from a shapeless heap of passive matter by the hands of a powerful being, who himself was the mover and soul of the world, and of whose substance the souls of mankind were a portion. He considered numbers as the principles of everything, and perceived in the universe regularity, correspondence, beauty, proportion, and harmony, as intentionally produced by the Creator. In his doctrines of morality, he perceived in the human mind propensities common to us with the brute creation; but besides these, and the passions of avarice and ambition, he discovered the nobler seeds of virtue, and supported that the most ample and perfect gratification was to be found in the enjoyment of moral and intellectual pleasures. The thoughts of the past he considered as always present to us, and he believed that no enjoyment could be had where the mind was disturbed by consciousness of guilt, or fears about futurity. This opinion induced the philosopher to recommend to his followers a particular mode of education. The tender years of the Pythagoreans were employed in continual labour, in study, in exercise, and repose; and the philosopher maintained his well-known and important maxim, that many things, especially love, are best learnt late. In a more advanced age, the adult was desired to behave with caution, spirit, and patriotism, and to remember that the community and civil society demanded his exertions, and that the good of the public, and not his own private enjoyments, were the ends of his creation. From lessons like these, the Pythagoreans were strictly enjoined to call to mind, and carefully to review, the actions, not only of the present, but of the preceding days. In their acts of devotion, they early repaired to the most solitary places of the mountains, and after they had examined their private and public conduct, and conversed with themselves, they joined in the company of their friends, and early refreshed their body with light and frugal aliments. Their conversation was of the most innocent nature; political or philosophic subjects were discussed with propriety, but without warmth, and after the conduct of the following day was regulated, the evening was spent with the same religious ceremony as the morning, in a strict and partial self-examination. From such regularity nothing but the most salutary consequences could arise, and it will not appear wonderful that the disciples of Pythagoras were so much respected and admired as legislators, and imitated for their constancy, friendship, and humanity. The authors that lived in, and after, the age of Alexander, have rather tarnished than brightened the glory of the founder of the Pythagorean school, and they have obscured his fame by attributing to him actions which were dissonant with his character as a man and a moralist. To give more weight to his exhortations, as some writers mention, Pythagoras retired into a subterraneous cave, where his mother sent him intelligence of everything which happened during his absence. After a certain number of months he again reappeared on the earth, with a grim and ghastly countenance, and declared, in the assembly of the people, that he was returned from hell. From similar exaggerations, it has been asserted that he appeared at the Olympic games with a golden thigh, and that he could write in letters of blood whatever he pleased on a looking-glass, and that, by setting it opposite to the moon, when full, all the characters which were on the glass became legible on the moon’s disc. They also support that, by some magical words, he tamed a bear, stopped the flight of an eagle, and appeared on the same day and at the same instant in the cities of Crotona and Metapontum, &c. The time and the place of the death of this great philosopher are unknown; yet many suppose that he died at Metapontum about 497 years before Christ; and so great was the veneration of the people of Magna Græcia for him, that he received the same honours as were paid to the immortal gods, and his house became a sacred temple. Succeeding ages likewise acknowledged his merits, and when the Romans, A.U.C. 411, were commanded by the oracle of Delphi to erect a statue to the bravest and wisest of the Greeks, the distinguished honour was conferred on Alcibiades and Pythagoras. Pythagoras had a daughter, called Damo. There is now extant a poetical composition ascribed to the philosopher, and called the golden verses of Pythagoras, which contain the greatest part of his doctrines and moral precepts; but many support that it is a supposititious composition, and that the true name of the writer was Lysis. Pythagoras distinguished himself also by his discoveries in geometry, astronomy, and mathematics, and it is to him that the world is indebted for the demonstration of the 47th proposition of the first book of Euclid’s elements, about the square of the hypothenuse. It is said that he was so elated after making the discovery, that he made an offering of a hecatomb to the gods; but the sacrifice was undoubtedly of small oxen, made with wax, as the philosopher was ever an enemy to shedding the blood of all animals. His system of the universe, in which he placed the sun in the centre, and all the planets moving in elliptical orbits round it, was deemed chimerical and improbable, till the deep inquiries and the philosophy of the 16th century proved it, by the most accurate calculations, to be true and incontestable. Diogenes Laërtius, Porphyry, Iamblicus, and others, have written an account of his life, but with more erudition, perhaps, than veracity. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, ch. 5; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 4, ch. 1.――Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 8, &c. ――Hyginus, fable 112.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 60, &c.――Plato.――Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 6.――Aulus Gellius, bk. 9. ――Iamblic.――Porphyry.――Plutarch.――――A soothsayer of Babylon, who foretold the death of Alexander and of Hephæstion, by consulting the entrails of victims.――――A tyrant of Ephesus.――――One of Nero’s wicked favourites.
=Pytheas=, an archon at Athens.――――A native of Massilia, famous for his knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and geography. He also distinguished himself by his travels, and, with a mind that wished to seek information in every corner of the earth, he advanced far into the northern seas, and discovered the island of Thule, and entered that then unknown sea, which is now called the Baltic. His discoveries in astronomy and geography were ingenious, and, indeed, modern navigators have found it expedient to justify and accede to his conclusions. He was the first who established a distinction of climate by the length of days and nights. He wrote different treatises in Greek, which have been lost, though some of them were extant in the beginning of the fifth century. Pytheas lived, according to some, in the age of Aristotle. Strabo, bk. 2, &c.――Pliny, bk. 37.――――An Athenian rhetorician, in the age of Demosthenes, who distinguished himself by his intrigues, rapacity, and his opposition to the measures of Demosthenes, of whom he observed that his orations smelt of the lamp. Pytheas joined Antipater after the death of Alexander the Great. His orations were devoid of elegance, harsh, unconnected, and diffuse, and from this circumstance he has not been ranked among the orators of Athens. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 7, ch. 7.――Plutarch, Demosthenes & Politica Præcepta.
=Pythes=, a native of Abdera, in Thrace, son of Andromache, who obtained a crown at the Olympian games. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 7. ――Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 14.
=Pytheus=, a Lydian in the age of Xerxes, famous for his riches. He kindly entertained the monarch and all his army, when he was marching on his expedition against Greece, and offered him to defray the expenses of the whole war. Xerxes thanked him with much gratitude, and promised to give him whatever he should require. Pytheus asked him to dismiss his son from the expedition; upon which the monarch ordered the young man to be cut in two, and one half of the body to be placed on the right hand of the way, and the other on the left, that his army might march between them. Plutarch, de Mulierum Virtutes.――Herodotus.
=Pythia=, the priestess of Apollo at Delphi. She delivered the answer of the god to such as came to consult the oracle, and was supposed to be suddenly inspired by the sulphureous vapours which issued from the hole of a subterraneous cavity within the temple, over which she sat bare on a three-legged stool, called a tripod. In this stool was a small aperture, through which the vapour was inhaled by the priestess, and, at this divine inspiration, her eyes suddenly sparkled, her hair stood on end, and a shivering ran over all her body. In this convulsive state she spoke the oracles of the god, often with loud howlings and cries, and her articulations were taken down by the priest, and set in order. Sometimes the spirit of inspiration was more gentle, and not always violent; yet Plutarch mentions one of the priestesses who was thrown into such an excessive fury, that not only those that consulted the oracle, but also the priest that conducted her to the sacred tripod, and attended her during the inspiration, were terrified and forsook the temple; and so violent was the fit, that she continued for some days in the most agonizing situation, and at last died. The Pythia, before she placed herself on the tripod, used to wash her whole body, and particularly her hair, in the waters of the fountain Castalis, at the foot of mount Parnassus. She also shook a laurel tree that grew near the place, and sometimes ate the leaves with which she crowned herself. The priestess was originally a virgin, but the institution was changed when Echecrates, a Thessalian, had offered violence to one of them, and none but women who were above the age of 50 were permitted to enter upon that sacred office. They always appeared dressed in the garments of virgins, to intimate their purity and modesty, and they were solemnly bound to observe the strictest laws of temperance and chastity, that neither fantastical dresses nor lascivious behaviour might bring the office, the religion, or the sanctity of the place into contempt. There was originally but one Pythia, besides subordinate priests, and afterwards two were chosen, and sometimes more. The most celebrated of all these is Phemonoe, who is supposed by some to have been the first who gave oracles at Delphi. The oracles were always delivered in hexameter verses, a custom which was some time after discontinued. The Pythia was consulted only one month in the year, about the spring. It was always required that those who consulted the oracle should make large presents to Apollo, and from thence arose the opulence, splendour, and the magnificence of that celebrated temple of Delphi. Sacrifices were also offered to the divinity, and if the omens proved unfavourable, the priestess refused to ♦give an answer. There were generally five priests who assisted at the offering of the sacrifices, and there was also another who attended the Pythia, and assisted her in receiving the oracle. See: ♠Delphi, Oraculum. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 5.――Diodorus, bk. 16. ――Strabo, bks. 6 & 9.――Justin, bk. 24, ch. 5.――Plutarch, De Defectu Oraculorum.――Euripides, Ion.――Dio Chrysostom.――――Games celebrated in honour of Apollo, near the temple of Delphi. They were at first instituted, according to the more received opinion, by Apollo himself, in commemoration of the victory which he had obtained over the serpent Python, from which they received their name; though others maintain that they were first established by Agamemnon, or Diomedes, or by Amphictyon, or, lastly, by the council of Amphictyons, B.C. 1263. They were originally celebrated once in nine years, but afterwards every fifth year, or the second year of every olympiad, according to the number of the Parnassian nymphs who congratulated Apollo after his victory. The gods themselves were originally among the combatants, and, according to some authors, the first prize was won by Pollux, in boxing; by Castor, in horse-races; by Hercules, in the pancratium; by Zetes, in fighting with the armour; by Calais, in running; by Telamon, in wrestling; and by Peleus in throwing the quoit. These illustrious conquerors were rewarded by Apollo himself, who was present, with crowns and laurels. Some, however, observe that it was nothing but a musical contention, in which he who sung best the praises of Apollo obtained the prize, which was presents of gold or silver, which were afterwards exchanged for a garland of the palm tree, or of beech leaves. It is said that Hesiod was refused admission to these games because he was not able to play upon the harp, which was required of all such as entered the lists. The songs which were sung were called Πυθικοι νομοι, the Pythian modes, divided into five parts, which contained a representation of the fight and victory of Apollo over Python; ἀνακρουσις, the preparation for the fight; ἐμπειρα, the first attempt; κατακελευσμος, taking breath and collecting courage; ἰαμβοι και δακτυλοι, the insulting sarcasms of the god over his vanquished enemy; συριγγες, an imitation of the hisses of the serpent, just as he expired under the blows of Apollo. A dance was also introduced; and in the 48th Olympiad, the Amphictyons, who presided over the games, increased the number of musical instruments by the addition of a flute; but, as it was more peculiarly used in funeral songs and lamentations, it was soon rejected as unfit for merriment, and the festivals which represented the triumph of Apollo over the conquered serpent. The Romans, according to some, introduced them into their city, and called them Apollinares ludi. Pausanias, bk. 10, chs. 13 & 37. ――Strabo, bk. 9.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 447.――Pliny, bk. 7.――Livy, bk. 25.
♦ ‘gave’ replaced with ‘give’
♠ ‘Delphia’ replaced with ‘Delphi’
=Pythias=, a Pythagorean philosopher, intimate with Damon. See: Phintias.――――A road which led from Thessaly to Tempe. Ælian.――――A comic character, &c.
=Pythion=, an Athenian killed, with 420 soldiers, when he attempted to drive the garrison of Demetrius from Athens, &c. Polyænus, bk. 5.
=Pythium=, a town of Thessaly. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 53; bk. 44, ch. 2.
=Pythius=, a Syracusan, who defrauded Canius, a Roman knight, to whom he had sold his gardens, &c. Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A surname of Apollo, which he had received for his having conquered the serpent Python, or because he was worshipped at Delphi; called also Pytho. Macrobius, bk. 1, Saturnalia, ch. 17. ――Propertius, bk. 2, poem 33, li. 16.
=Pytho=, the ancient name of the town of Delphi, which it received ἀπο του πυθεσθαι, because the serpent which Apollo killed, _rotted there_. It was also called Parnassia Nape. See: Delphi.
=Pythochăris=, a musician, who assuaged the fury of some wolves by playing on a musical instrument, &c. Ælian.
=Pythŏcles=, an Athenian descended from Aratus. It is said, that on his account, and for his instruction, Plutarch wrote the life of Aratus. ――――A man put to death with Phocion.――――A man who wrote on Italy.
=Pythodōrus=, an Athenian archon in the age of Themistocles.
=Pytholāus=, the brother of Theba, the wife of Alexander tyrant of Pheræ. He assisted his sister in despatching her husband. Plutarch.
=Python=, a native of Byzantium, in the age of Philip of Macedonia. He was a great favourite of the monarch who sent him to the Thebes, when that city, at the instigation of Demosthenes, was going to take arms against Philip. Plutarch, Demosthenes.――Diodorus.――――One of the friends of Alexander, put to death by Ptolemy Lagus.――――A man who killed Cotys king of Thrace at the instigation of the Athenians.――――A celebrated serpent sprung from the mud and stagnated waters which remained on the surface of the earth after the deluge of Deucalion. Some, however, suppose that it was produced from the earth by Juno, and sent by the goddess to persecute Latona, who was then pregnant by Jupiter. Latona escaped his fury by means of her lover, who changed her into a quail during the remaining months of her pregnancy, and afterwards restored her to her original shape in the island of Delos, where she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Apollo, as soon as he was born, attacked the monster and killed him with his arrows, and in commemoration of the victory which he had obtained, he instituted the celebrated Pythian games. Strabo, bk. 8.――Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 7; bk. 10, ch. 6.――Hyginus.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 438, &c.――Lucan, bk. 5, li. 134.
=Pythonĭce=, an Athenian prostitute greatly honoured by Harpalus, whom Alexander some time before had entrusted with the treasures of Babylon. He married her; and according to some, she died at the very moment that the nuptials were going to be celebrated. He raised her a splendid monument on the road which led from Athens to Eleusis, which cost him 30 talents. Diodorus, bk. 17.――Pausanias, bk. 1. ――Athenæus, bk. 13, &c.
=Pythonissa=, a name given to the priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi. She is more generally called Pythia. See: Pythia. The word Pythonissa was commonly applied to women who attempted to explain futurity.
=Pytna=, a part of mount Ida.
=Pyttalus=, a celebrated athlete, son of Lampis of Elis, who obtained a prize at the Olympic games. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 16.
Q
=Quaderna=, a town of Italy.
=Quadi=, an ancient nation of Germany, near the country of the Marcomanni, on the borders of the Danube, in modern Moravia. They rendered themselves celebrated by their opposition to the Romans, by whom they were often defeated, though not totally subdued. Tacitus, Germania, chs. 42 & 43; Annals, bk. 2, ch. 63.
=Quadrātus=, a surname given to Mercury, because some of his statues were square. The number 4, according to Plutarch, was sacred to Mercury, because he was born on the 4th day of the month. Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium, ch. 9.――――A governor of Syria in the age of Nero.
=Quadrĭfrons=, or =Quadrĭceps=, a surname of Janus, because he was represented with four heads. He had a temple on the Tarpeian rock, raised by Lucius Catulus.
=Quæstōres=, two officers at Rome, first created A.U.C. 269. They received their name a quærendo, because they collected the revenues of the state, and had the total management of the public treasury. The questorship was the first office which could be had in the state. It was requisite that the candidates should be 24 or 25 years of age, or, according to some, 27. In the year 332, A.U.C., two more were added to the others, to attend the consuls, to take care of the pay of the armies abroad, and sell the plunder and booty which had been acquired by conquest. These were called Peregrini, whilst the others, whose employment was in the city, received the name of Urbani. When the Romans were masters of all Italy, four more were created, A.U.C. 439, to attend the proconsuls and propretors in their provinces, and to collect all the taxes and customs which each particular district owed to the republic. They were called Provinciales. Sylla the dictator created 20 questors, and Julius Cæsar 40, to fill up the vacant seats in the senate; from whence it is evident that the questors ranked as senators in the senate. The questors were always appointed by the senate at Rome, and if any person was appointed to the questorship without their permission, he was only called proquestor. The quæstores urbani were apparently of more consequence than the rest, the treasury was entrusted to their care, they kept an account of all the receipts and disbursements, and the Roman eagles or ensigns were always in their possession when the armies were not on an expedition. They required every general before he triumphed to tell them, upon his oath, that he had given a just account of the number of the slain on both sides, and that he had been saluted imperator by the soldiers, a title which every commander generally received from his army after he had obtained a victory, and which was afterwards confirmed and approved by the senate. The city questors had also the care of the ambassadors; they lodged and received them, and some time after, when Augustus was declared emperor, they kept the decrees of the senate, which had been before entrusted with the ediles and the tribunes. This gave rise to two new offices of trust and honour, one of which was quæstor palatii, and the other quæstor principis, or augusti, sometimes called candidatus principis. The tent of the questor in the camp was called quæstorium. It stood near that of the general. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.――Livy, bk. 4, ch. 43.――Dio Cassius, bk. 43.
=Quari=, a people of Gaul.
=Quarius=, a river of Bœotia.
=Quercens=, a Rutulian who fought against the Trojans. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 684.
=Querquetulānus=, a name given to mount Cœlius at Rome, from the oaks which grew there. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 65.
=Quiētis fanum=, a temple without the walls of the city of Rome. Quies was the goddess of rest. Her temple was situate near the Colline gate. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 4.――Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 16.
=Lucius Quiētus=, an officer under the emperor Trajan, who behaved with great valour in the expeditions which were undertaken by the army which he commanded. He was put to death by Adrian.
=Quinctia prata.= See: Quintia.
=Quinctiānus=, a man who conspired against Nero, for which he was put to death.
=Quinctilia=, a comedian who refused to betray a conspiracy which had been formed against Caligula.
=Quinctius Titus=, a Roman consul who gained some victories over the Æqui and the Volsci, and obtained a triumph for subduing Præneste. ――――Cæso, a man accused before the Roman people, and vindicated by his father Cincinnatus.――――A Roman celebrated for his frugality. See: Cincinnatus.――――A master of horse.――――A Roman consul when Annibal invaded Italy.――――A brother of Flaminius, banished from the senate by Cato, for killing a Gaul.――――An officer killed by the Carthaginians.――――An officer under Dolabella.――――Another who defeated the Latins.――――A consul who obtained a victory over the Volsci. ――――Hirpinus. See: Hirpinus.
=Quinda=, a town of Cilicia.
=Quindecimvĭri=, an order of priests whom Tarquin the Proud appointed to take care of the Sibylline books. They were originally two, but afterwards the number was increased to 10, to whom Sylla added five more, whence their name. See: Decemviri and Duumviri.
=Quinquatria=, a festival in honour of Minerva at Rome, which continued during five days. The beginning of the celebration was the 18th of March. The first day sacrifices and oblations were presented, but, however, without the effusion of blood. On the second, third, and fourth days, shows of gladiators were exhibited, and on the fifth day there was a solemn procession through the streets of the city. On the days of the celebration, scholars obtained holidays, and it was usual for them to offer prayers to Minerva for learning and wisdom, which the goddess patronized; and on their return to school they presented their master with a gift which has received the name of Minerval. They were much the same as the Panathenæa of the Greeks. Plays were also acted, and disputations were held on subjects of literature. They received their name from the five days which were devoted for the celebration.
=Quinquennāles ludi=, games celebrated by the Chians in honour of Homer every fifth year. There were also some games among the Romans which bore this name. They are the same as the Actian games. See: Actia.
=Quintia Prata=, a place on the borders of the Tiber near Rome, which had been cultivated by the great Cincinnatus. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Quintiliānus Marcus Fabius=, a celebrated rhetorician born in Spain. He opened a school of rhetoric at Rome, and was the first who obtained a salary from the state as being a public teacher. After he had remained 20 years in this laborious employment, and obtained the merited applause of the most illustrious Romans, not only as a preceptor, but as a pleader at the bar, Quintilian, by the permission of the emperor Domitian, retired to enjoy the fruits of his labours and industry. In his retirement he assiduously dedicated his time to the study of literature, and wrote a treatise on the causes of the corruption of eloquence. Some time after, at the pressing solicitations of his friends, he wrote his institutiones oratoricæ, the most perfect and complete system of oratory extant. It is divided into 12 books, in which the author explains from observation, as well as from experience, what can constitute a good and perfect orator, and in this he not only mentions the pursuits and the employments of the rhetorician, but he also speaks of his education, and begins with the attention which ought to be shown him even in his cradle. He was appointed preceptor to the two young princes whom Domitian destined for his successors on the throne, but the pleasures which the rhetorician received from the favours and the attention of the emperor and from the success which his writings met in the world, were embittered by the loss of his wife, and of his two sons. It is said that Quintilian was poor in his retirement, and that his indigence was relieved by the liberality of his pupil Pliny the younger. He died A.D. 95. His Institutions were discovered in the 1415th year of the christian era, in an old tower of a monastery at St. Gal, by Poggio Bracciolini, a native of Florence. The best editions of Quintilian are those of Gesner, 4to, Göttingen, 1738; of Leiden, 8vo, cum notis variorum, 1665; of Gibson, 4to, Oxford, 1693; and that of Rollin, republished in 8vo, London, 1792.
=Quintilius Varus=, a Roman governor of Syria. See: Varus.――――A friend of the emperor Alexander.――――A man put to death by the emperor Severus.
=Quintilla=, a courtesan at Rome, &c. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 75.
=Quintillus Marcus Aurelius Claudius=, a brother of Claudius, who proclaimed himself emperor, and 17 days after destroyed himself by opening his veins in a bath, when he heard that Aurelian was marching against him, about the 270th year of the christian era.
=Quintius Curtius Rufus=, a Latin historian, who flourished, as some suppose, in the reign of Vespasian or Trajan. He has rendered himself known by his history of the reign of Alexander the Great. This history was divided into 10 books, of which the two first, the end of the fifth, and the beginning of the sixth, are lost. This work is admired for the elegance, the purity, and the floridness of its style. It is, however, blamed for great anachronisms and glaring mistakes in geography as well as history. Freinshemius has written a supplement to Curtius, in which he seems to have made some very satisfactory amends for the loss of which the history had suffered, by a learned collection of facts and circumstances from all the different authors who have employed their pen in writing an account of Alexander, and of his Asiatic conquests. Some suppose that the historian is the same with that Curtius Rufus who lived in the age of Claudius, under whom he was made consul. This Rufus was born of an obscure family, and he attended a Roman questor in Africa, when he was met at Adrumentum by a woman above a human shape, as he was walking under the porticoes in the middle of the day. This extraordinary character addressed the indigent Roman, and told him that the day should come in which he should govern Africa with consular power. This strange prophecy animated Rufus; he repaired to Rome, where he gained the favours of the emperor, obtained consular honours, and at last retired as proconsul to Africa, where he died. The best editions of Curtius are those of Elzevir, 8vo, Amsterdam, 1673; of Snakenburg, 4to, Leiden, 1724; and of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1757. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 23, &c.
♦=Quintus=, or =Quinctius=, one of the names of Cincinnatus. Persius, bk. 1, li. 73.――――Pedius, a painter. See: Pedius.
♦ Out of alphabetical order in the text.
=Quintus Veranius=, a governor of Cappadocia.――――Cicero, the brother of Cicero.――――Catulus, a Roman consul.――――A friend of Cæsar.
=Quirinalia=, festivals in honour of Romulus, surnamed Quirinus, celebrated on the 13th of the calends of March.
=Quirinālis=, a hill at Rome, originally called Agonius, and afterwards Collinus. The name of Quirinalis is obtained from the inhabitants of Cures, who settled there under their king Tatius. It was also called Cabalinus, from two marble statues of a horse, one of which was the work of Phidias, and the other of Praxiteles. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 44.――Ovid, Fasti, li. 375; Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 843.――――One of the gates of Rome near mount Quirinalis.
=Quirīnus=, a surname of Mars among the Romans. This name was also given to Romulus when he had been made a god by his superstitious subjects. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 475.――――Also a surname of the god Janus.――――Sulpitius, a Roman consul, born at Lanuvium. Though descended of an obscure family, he was raised to the greatest honours by Augustus. He was appointed governor of Syria, and was afterwards made preceptor to Caius the grandson of the emperor. He married Æmilia Lepida the granddaughter of Sylla and Pompey, but some time after he shamefully repudiated her. He died A.D. 22. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3, &c.
=Quirītes=, a name given to the Roman citizens, because they admitted into their city the Sabines, who inhabited the town of Cures, and who on that account were called Quirites. After this union, the two nations were indiscriminately and promiscuously called by that name. It is, however, to be observed that the word was confined to Rome, and not used in the armies, as we find some of the generals applying it only to such of their soldiers as they dismissed or disgraced. Even some of the emperors appeased a sedition, by calling their rebellious soldiers by the degrading appellation of Quirites. Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 170.――Lampridius, bk. 53.――Lucan, bk. 5, li. 558.――Horace, bk. 4, ode 14, li. 1.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.――Livy, bk. 1, ch. 13.――Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 479.
R
=Rabirius Caius=, a Roman knight, who lent an immense sum of money to Ptolemy Auletes king of Egypt. The monarch afterwards not only refused to repay him, but even confined him, and endangered his life. Rabirius escaped from Egypt with difficulty, but at his return to Rome, he was accused by the senate of having lent money to an African prince, for unlawful purposes. He was ably defended by Cicero, and acquitted with difficulty. Cicero, For Rabirius.――――A Latin poet in the age of Augustus, who wrote, besides satires and epigrams, a poem on the victory which the emperor had gained over Antony at Actium. Seneca has compared him to Virgil for elegance and majesty, but Quintilian is not so favourable to his poetry.――――An architect in the reign of Domitian, who built a celebrated palace for the emperor, of which the ruins are still seen at Rome.
=Racillia=, the wife of Cincinnatus. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Racilius=, a tribune who complained in the senate of the faction of Clodius. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 2, ch. 12; Letters to his brother Quintus, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Ræsaces=, an officer of Artaxerxes. He revolted from his master, and fled to Athens.
=Ramises=, a king of Egypt. See: Rhamses.
=Ramnes=, or =Rhamnenses=, one of the three centuries instituted by Romulus. After the Roman people had been divided into three tribes, the monarch elected out of each 100 young men of the best and noblest families, with which he formed three companies of horse. One of them was called Ramnes, either from the tribe of which it was chosen, or from Romulus. Another was called Tatian, and the third Luceres. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 9.――Livy, bk. 1, ch. 13. ――Horace, Art of Poetry, li. 304.――Plutarch, Romulus.
=Randa=, a village of Persia, where 3000 rebellious Persians were slain by Chiles. Polyænus, bk. 7.
=Rapo=, a Rutulian chief, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 748.
=Rascipŏlis=, a Macedonian sent to the assistance of Pompey. Cæsar, Civil War, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Ravenna=, a town of Italy on the Adriatic, which became celebrated under the Roman emperors for its capacious harbour, which could contain 250 ships, and for being for some time the seat of the western empire. It was difficult of access by land, as it stood on a small peninsula; and so ill supplied with water, that it was sold at a higher price than wine, according to Martial. The emperors kept one of their fleets there, and the other at Misenum, on the other side of Italy. It was founded by a colony of Thessalians, or, according to others, of Sabines. It is now fallen from its former grandeur, and is a wretched town situate at the distance of about four miles from the sea, and surrounded with swamps and marshes. Strabo, bk. 5. ――Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 49.――Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 12.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.――Martial, bk. 3, ltr. 93, li. 8, &c.
=Rāvŏla=, a celebrated debauchee, &c. Juvenal.
=Rauraci=, a people of Gaul, whose chief town is now Augst on the Rhine. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 5.
=Reāte=, a pleasant town of Umbria, built, as some suppose, before the Trojan war, about 15 miles from Fanum Vacunæ, near the lake Velinus. Cybele was the chief deity of the place. It was famous for its asses. Strabo, bk. 5.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.――Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1.――Livy, bk. 25, ch. 7; bk. 26, ch. 11; bk. 28, ch. 45.――Cicero, Against Catiline, bk. 3, ch. 2; de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Redicŭlus=, a deity whose name is derived from the word redire (to return). The Romans raised a temple to this imaginary deity on the spot where Annibal had retired when he approached Rome, as if to besiege it. Festus, Lexicon of Festus.
=Redŏnes=, a nation among the Armorici, now the people of Rennes and St. Maloes, in Brittany. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 41.
=Regillæ=, or =Regillum=, a town in the country of the Sabines in Italy, about 20 miles from Rome, celebrated for a battle which was fought there, A.U.C. 258, between 24,000 Romans and 40,000 Etrurians, who were headed by the Tarquins. The Romans obtained the victory, and scarce 10,000 of the enemy escaped from the field of battle. Castor and Pollux, according to some accounts, were seen mounted on white horses, and fighting at the head of the Roman army. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 16.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 5.――Plutarch, Caius Marcius Coriolanus.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 1.――Florus, bk. 1. ――Suetonius, Tiberias, ch. 1.
=Regilliānus Q. Nonius=, a Dacian who entered the Roman armies, and was raised to the greatest honours under Valerian. He was elected emperor by the populace, who were dissatisfied with Gallienus, and was soon after murdered by his soldiers, A.D. 262.
=Regillus=, a small lake of Latium, whose waters fall into the Anio, at the east of Rome. The dictator Posthumius defeated the Latin army near it. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Regīnum=, a town of Germany, now supposed Ratisbon or Regensburg.
=Regium Lepidum=, a town of Modena, now Regio, at the south of the Po. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 15.――Cicero, bk. 12, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 5; bk. 13, ltr. 7.
=Marcus Attilius Regŭlus=, a consul during the first Punic war. He reduced Brundusium, and in his second consulship he took 64, and sunk 30 galleys of the Carthaginian fleet, on the coast of Sicily. Afterwards he landed in Africa, and so rapid was his success, that in a short time he defeated three generals, and made himself master of about 200 places of consequence on the coast. The Carthaginians sued for peace, but the conqueror refused to grant it, and soon after he was defeated in a battle by Xanthippus, and 30,000 of his men were left on the field of battle, and 15,000 taken prisoners. Regulus was in the number of the captives, and he was carried in triumph to Carthage. He was afterwards sent by the enemy to Rome, to propose an accommodation, and an exchange of prisoners; and if his commission was unsuccessful, he was bound by the most solemn oaths to return to Carthage without delay. When he came to Rome, Regulus dissuaded his countrymen from accepting the terms which the enemy proposed, and when his opinion had had due influence on the senate, he then retired to Carthage agreeable to his engagements. The Carthaginians were told that their offers of peace had been rejected at Rome by the means of Regulus, and therefore they prepared to punish him with the greatest severity. His eyebrows were cut, and he was exposed for some days to the excessive heat of the meridian sun, and afterwards confined in a barrel, whose sides were everywhere filled with large iron spikes, till he died in the greatest agonies. His sufferings were heard at Rome, and the senate permitted his widow to inflict whatever punishments she pleased on some of the most illustrious captives of Carthage, who were in their hands. She confined them also in presses filled with sharp iron points, and was so exquisite in her cruelty, that the senate at last interfered, and stopped the barbarity of her punishments. Regulus died about 251 years before Christ. Silius Italicus, bk. 6, li. 319.――Florus, bk. 2, ch. 3.――Horace, bk. 3, ode 5.――Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 1, ch. 13.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 9, ch. 2.――Livy, ltr. 16.――――Memmius, a Roman made governor of Greece by Caligula. While Regulus was in this province, the emperor wished to bring the celebrated statue of Jupiter Olympius, by Phidias, to Rome; but this was supernaturally prevented, and according to ancient authors, the ship which was to convey it was destroyed by lightning, and the workmen who attempted to remove the statue were terrified away by sudden noises. Dio Cassius.――――A man who condemned Sejanus.――――Roscius, a man who held the consulship but for one day, in the reign of Vitellius.
=Remi=, a nation of Gaul, whose principal town, Duricortorium, is now Rheims, in the north of Champagne. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 17.――Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Remmia lex=, de judiciis, was enacted to punish all calumniators. The letter K was marked on their forehead. This law was abolished by Constantine the Great. Cicero, For Quintus Roscius.
=Rĕmŭlus=, a chief of Tibur, whose arms were seized by the Rutulians, and afterwards became part of the plunder which Euryalus obtained. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 360.――――A friend of Turnus, trampled to death by his horse, which Orsilochus had wounded. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 636, &c.
=Rĕmŭlus Sylvius=, a king of Alba, destroyed by lightning on account of his impiety. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 4, li. 50.
=Remuria=, festivals established at Rome by Romulus, to appease the manes of his brother Remus. They were afterwards called Lemuria, and celebrated yearly.
=Remus=, the brother of Romulus, was exposed, together with him, by the cruelty of his grandfather. In the contest which happened between the two brothers about building a city, Romulus obtained the preference, and Remus, for ridiculing the rising walls, was put to death by his brother’s orders, or by Romulus himself. See: Romulus. The Romans were afflicted with a plague after this murder, upon which the oracle was consulted, and the manes of Remus appeased by the institution of the Remuria. Ovid.――――One of the auxiliaries of Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 330.
=Resæna=, a town of Mesopotamia, famous for the defeat of Sapor by Gordian.
=Resus=, a small river of Asia Minor, falling into the Mæander.
=Retina=, a village near Misenum. Pliny, bk. 6, ltr. 16.
=Reudigni=, a nation of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 40.
=Rha=, a large river, now the Volga, of Russia. A medicinal root which grew on its bank was called Rha barbarum, Rhubarb.
=Rhacia=, a promontory in the Mediterranean sea, projecting from the Pyrenean mountains.
=Rhacius=, a Cretan prince, the first of that nation who entered Ionia with a colony. He seized Claros, of which he became the sovereign. He married Manto the daughter of Tiresias, who had been seized on his coasts. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Rhacōtis=, an ancient name of Alexandria the capital of Egypt. Strabo.――Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Rhadamanthus=, a son of Jupiter and Europa. He was born in Crete, which he abandoned about the 30th year of his age. He passed into some of the Cyclades, where he reigned with so much justice and impartiality, that the ancients have said he became one of the judges of hell, and that he was employed in the infernal regions in obliging the dead to confess their crimes, and in punishing them for their offences. Rhadamanthus reigned not only over some of the Cyclades, but over many of the Greek cities of Asia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 53.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 435.――Diodorus, bk. 5. ――Plato.――Homer. Iliad, bk. 4, li. 564.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 566.
=Rhadamistus=, a son of Pharnasmanes king of Iberia. He married Zenobia, the daughter of his uncle Mithridates king of Armenia, and some time after put him to death. He was put to death by his father for his cruelties, about the year 52 of the christian era. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 37.
=Rhadius=, a son of Neleus.
=Rhæteum=, a city of Phrygia.
=Rhæti=, or =Ræti=, an ancient and warlike nation of Etruria. They were driven from their native country by the Gauls, and went to settle on the other side of the Alps. See: Rhætia. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 10. ――Justin, bk. 20, ch. 5.
=Rhætia=, a country at the north of Italy, between the Alps and the Danube, which now forms the territories of the Grisons, of the Tyrol, and part of Italy. It was divided into two parts, Rhætia prima and Rhætia secunda. The first extended from the sources of the Rhine to those of the Licus or Lek, a small river which falls into the Danube. The other, called also Vindelicia, extended from the Licus to another small river called Œnus, or Inn, towards the east. The principal towns of Rhætia were called Curia, Tridentum, Belunum, Feltria. The Rhætians rendered themselves formidable by the frequent invasions which they made upon the Roman empire, and were at last conquered by Drusus the brother of Tiberius, and others under the Roman emperors. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 96.――Strabo, bk. 4. ――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 20; bk. 14, ch. 2, &c.――Horace, bk. 4, ode 4 & 14.
=Rhamnes=, a king and augur, who assisted Turnus against Æneas. He was killed in the night by Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 325.
=Rhamnus=, a town of Attica, famous for a temple of Amphiaraus, and a statue of the goddess Nemesis, who was from thence called Rhamnusia. This statue was made by Phidias, out of a block of Parian marble, which the Persians intended as a pillar to be erected to commemorate their expected victory over Greece. Pausanias, bk. 1.――Pliny, bk. 36.
=Rhamnusia=, a name of Nemesis. See: Rhamnus.
=Rhampsinītus=, an opulent king of Egypt, who succeeded Proteus. He built a large tower with stones at Memphis, where his riches were deposited, and of which he was robbed by the artifice of the architect, who had left a stone in the wall easily movable, so as to admit a plunderer. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 121, &c.
=Rhamses=, or =Ramises=, a powerful king of Egypt, who, with an army of 700,000 men, conquered Æthiopia, Libya, Persia, and other eastern nations. In his reign, according to Pliny, Troy was taken. Some authors consider him to be the same as Sesostris. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 60.――Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 8.
=Rhanis=, one of Diana’s attendant nymphs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.
=Rharos=, or =Rharium=, a plain of Attica, where corn was first sown by Triptolemus. It received its name from the sower’s father, who was called Rharos. Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 14 & 38.
=Rhascupŏris=, a king of Thrace, who invaded the possessions of Cotys, and was put to death by order of Tiberius, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 64.
=Rhea=, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, who married Saturn, by whom she had Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Pluto, Neptune, &c. Her husband, however, devoured them all as soon as born, as he had succeeded to the throne with the solemn promise that he would raise no male children, or, according to others, because he had been informed by an oracle that one of his sons would dethrone him. To stop the cruelty of her husband, Rhea consulted her parents, and was advised to impose upon him, or perhaps to fly into Crete. Accordingly, when she brought forth, the child was immediately concealed, and Saturn devoured up a stone which his wife had given him as her own child. The fears of Saturn were soon proved to be well founded. A year after, the child, whose name was Jupiter, became so strong and powerful, that he drove his father from his throne. Rhea has been confounded by the mythologists with some of the other goddesses, and many have supposed that she was the same divinity that received adoration under the various names of Bona Dea, Cybele, Dindymena, Magna mater, Ceres, Vesta, Titæa, and Terra, Tellus, and Ops. See: Cybele, Ceres, Vesta, &c. Rhea, after the expulsion of her husband from his throne, followed him to Italy, where he established a kingdom. Her benevolence in this part of Europe was so great, that the golden age of Saturn is often called the age of Rhea. Hesiod, Theogony. ――Orpheus, Hymns.――Homer, Hymns.――Æschylus, Prometheus Bound.――Euripides, Bacchæ & Electra.――Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 197.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――――Sylvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus. She is also called Ilia. See: Ilia.――――A nymph of Italy, who is said to have borne a son called Aventinus to Hercules. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 659.
=Rhebas=, or =Rhebus=, a river of Bithynia, flowing from mount Olympus into the Euxine sea. Flaccus, bk. 7, li. 698.
=Rhedŏnes.= See: Redones.
=Rhegium=, now Rheggio, a town of Italy, in the country of the Brutii, opposite Messana in Sicily, where a colony of Messenians under Alcidamidas settled, B.C. 723. It was originally called Rhegium, and afterwards Rhegium Julium, to distinguish it from Rhegium Lepidi, a town of Cisalpine Gaul. Some suppose that it received its name from the Greek word ῥηγνυμι, to break, because it is situate on the straits of Charybdis, which were formed when the island of Sicily, as it were, was broken and separated from the continent of Italy. This town has always been subject to great earthquakes, by which it has often been destroyed. The neighbourhood is remarkable for its great fertility, and for its delightful views. Silius Italicus, bk. 13, li. 94.――Cicero, For Archias, ch. 3. ――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, lis. 5 & 48.――Justin, bk. 4, ch. 1.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.――Strabo, bk. 6.
=Rhegusci=, a people of the Alps.
=Rhemi.= See: Remi.
=Rhene=, a small island of the Ægean, about 200 yards from Delos, 18 miles in circumference. The inhabitants of Delos always buried their dead there, and their women also retired there during their labour, as their own island was consecrated to Apollo, where Latona had brought forth, and where no dead bodies were to be inhumated. Strabo says that it was uninhabited, though it was once as populous and flourishing as the rest of the Cyclades. Polycrates conquered it, and consecrated it to Apollo, after he had tied it to Delos, by means of a long chain. Rhene was sometimes called the small Delos, and the island of Delos the great Delos. Thucydides, bk. 3.――Strabo, bk. 10.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Rheni=, a people on the borders of the Rhine.
=Rhenus=, one of the largest rivers of Europe, which divides Germany from Gaul. It rises in the Rhætian Alps, and falls into the German ocean. Virgil has called it bicornis, because it divides itself into two streams. The river Rhine was a long time a barrier between the Romans and the Germans, and on that account its banks were covered with strong castles. Julius Cæsar was the first Roman who crossed it to invade Germany. The waters of that river were held in great veneration, and were supposed by the ancient Germans to have some peculiar virtue, as they threw their children into it, either to try the fidelity of the mothers, or to brace and invigorate their limbs. If the child swam on the surface, the mother was acquitted of suspicion, but if it sunk to the bottom, its origin was deemed illegitimate. In modern geography the Rhine is known as dividing itself into four large branches; the Waal, Lech, Issel, and the Rhine. That branch which still retains the name of Rhine loses itself in the sands above modern Leyden, and is afterwards no longer known by its ancient appellation, since the year 860, A.D., when inundations of the sea destroyed the regularity of its mouth. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 258.――Strabo, bk. 4.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 5, ch. 2.――Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 4, ch. 10.――Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 6.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 727.――――A small river of Italy, falling into the Po on the south, now Rheno. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 600.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16; bk. 16, ch. 36.
=Rheomitres=, a Persian who revolted from Artaxerxes, &c. Diodorus, bk. 15.――――A Persian officer killed at the battle of Issus. Curtius, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Rhesus=, a king of Thrace, son of the Strymon and Terpsichore, or, according to others, of Eioneus by Euterpe. After many warlike exploits and conquests in Europe, he marched to the assistance of Priam king of Troy, against the Greeks. He was expected with great impatience, as an ancient oracle had declared that Troy should never be taken if the horses of Rhesus drank the waters of the Xanthus, and fed upon the grass of the Trojan plains. This oracle was well known to the Greeks, and therefore two of their best generals, Diomedes and Ulysses, were commissioned by the rest to intercept the Thracian prince. The Greeks entered his camp in the night, slew him, and carried away his horses to their camp. Homer, Iliad, bk. 10. ――Dictys Cretensis, bk. 2.――Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 473.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 98.
=Rhetogĕnes=, a prince of Spain, who surrendered to the Romans, and was treated with great humanity.
=Rhetĭco=, a mountain of Rhætia.
=Rheunus=, a place in Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Rhexēnor=, a son of Nausithous king of Phæacia. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 7.――――The father of Chalciope, the wife of Ægeus king of Athens. ――――A musician who accompanied Antony in Asia.
=Rhexibius=, an athlete of Opus, who obtained a prize in the Olympic games, and had a statue in the grove of Jupiter. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 18.
=Rhiānus=, a Greek poet of Thrace, originally a slave. He wrote an account of the war between Sparta and Messenia, which continued for 20 years, as also a history of the principal revolutions and events which had taken place in Thessaly. Of this poetical composition nothing but a few verses are extant. He flourished about 200 years before the christian era. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Rhidago=, a river of Hyrcania falling into the Caspian sea. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Rhimotăcles=, a king of Thrace, who revolted from Antony to Augustus. He boasted of his attachment to the emperor’s person at an entertainment, upon which Augustus said, proditionem amo, proditores vero odi.
=Rhinocolūra=, a town on the borders of Palestine and Egypt. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 11.
♦=Rhinthon=, a Greek poet of Tarentum, in the age of Alexander. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 20.
♦ Out of alphabetical order in the text.
=Rhion=, a promontory of Achaia, opposite to Antirrhium in Ætolia, at the mouth of the Corinthian gulf, called also the Dardanelles of Lepanto. The strait between Naupactum and Patræ bore also the same name. The tomb of Hesiod was at the top of the promontory. Livy, bk. 27, ch. 30; bk. 38, ch. 7.――Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 2.――Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Rhipha=, or =Rhiphe=, a town of Arcadia. Statius, bk. 4, Thebaid, li. 286.
=Rhiphæi=, large mountains at the north of Scythia, where, as some suppose, the Gorgons had fixed their residence. The name of Rhiphæan was applied to any cold mountain in a northern country, and, indeed, these mountains seem to have existed only in the imagination of the poets, though some make the Tanais rise there. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.――Lucan, bk. 3, li. 272; bk. 3, li. 282; bk. 4, li. 418.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 240; bk. 4, li. 518.
=Rhipheus=, one of the Centaurs. Ovid, Metamorphoses.――――A Trojan praised for his justice, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 426. See: Ripheus.
=Rhium.= See: Rhion.
=Rhizonitæ=, a people of Illyricum, whose chief town was called Rhizinium. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Rhoda=, now Roses, a seaport town of Spain. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 8. ――――A town on the Rhone, from which the river received its name. It was ruined in Pliny’s age. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Rhodănus=, a river of Gallia Narbonensis, arising in the Rhætian Alps, and falling into the Mediterranean sea, near Marseilles. It is one of the largest and most rapid rivers of Europe, now known by the name of the Rhone. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 3, ch. 3.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 258.――Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 477. ――Marcellinus, bk. 15, &c.――Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 1. ――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.――Strabo, bk. 4.――Lucan, bk. 1, li. 433; bk. 6, li. 475.
=Rhode=, a daughter of Neptune. Apollodorus.――――Of Danaus. Apollodorus.
=Rhodia=, one of the Oceanides. Hesiod.――――A daughter of Danaus. Apollodorus.
=Rhodogȳne=, a daughter of Phraates king of Parthia, who married Demetrius, when he was in banishment at her father’s court. Polyænus, bk. 8.
=Rhŏdŏpe=, or =Rhodōpis=, a celebrated courtesan of Greece, who was fellow-servant with Æsop, at the court of a king of Samos. She was carried to Egypt by Xanthus, and her liberty was at last bought by Charaxes of Mitylene, the brother of Sappho, who was enamoured of her, and who married her. She sold her favours at Naucratis, where she collected so much money, that, to render her name immortal, she consecrated a number of spits in the temple of Apollo at Delphi; or, according to others, erected one of the pyramids of Egypt. Ælian says that, as Rhodope was one day bathing herself, an eagle carried away one of her sandals, and dropped it near Psammetichus king of Egypt, at Memphis. The monarch was struck with the beauty of the sandal, strict inquiry was made to find the owner, and Rhodope, when discovered, married Psammetichus. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 134, &c. ――Ovid, Heroides, poem 15.――Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 13, ch. 33. Perizonius supposes there were two persons of that name.
=Rhŏdŏpe=, a high mountain of Thrace, extending as far as the Euxine sea, all across the country, nearly in an eastern direction. Rhodope, according to the poets, was the wife of Hæmus king of Thrace, who was changed into this mountain, because she preferred herself to Juno in beauty. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 87, &c.――Virgil, Eclogues, poem 8; Georgics, bk. 3, li. 351.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2. ――Strabo, bk. 7.――Silius Italicus, bk. 2, li. 73.――Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus.
=Rhodopēius=, is used in the same signification as Thracian, because Rhodope was a mountain of that country. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 3, li. 321; Heroides, poem 2.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 461.
=Rhodunia=, the top of mount Œta. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 16.
=Rhodus=, a celebrated island in the Carpathian sea, 120 miles in circumference, at the south of Caria, from which it is distant about 20 miles. Its principal cities were Rhodes, founded about 408 years before the christian era, Lindus, Camisus, Jalysus. Rhodes was famous for the siege which it supported against Demetrius, and for a celebrated statue of Apollo. See: Colossus. The Rhodians were originally governed by kings, and were independent, but this government was at last exchanged for a democracy and an aristocracy. They were naturally given up to commerce, and, during many ages, they were the most powerful nation by sea. Their authority was respected, and their laws were so universally approved, that every country made use of them to decide disputes concerning maritime affairs, and they were at last adopted by other commercial nations, and introduced into the Roman codes, from whence they have been extracted to form the basis of the maritime regulations of modern Europe. When Alexander made himself master of Asia, the Rhodians lost their independence, but they soon after asserted their natural privileges under his cruel successors, and continued to hold that influence among nations to which their maritime power and consequence entitled them. They assisted Pompey against Cæsar, and were defeated by Cassius, and became dependent upon the Romans. The island of Rhodes has been known by the several names of Ophiusa, Stadia, Telchinus, Corymbia, Trinacria, Æthrea, Asteria, Poessa, Atabyria, Oloessa, Marcia, and Pelagia. It received the name of Rhodes, either on account of Rhode, a beautiful nymph who dwelt there, and who was one of the favourites of Apollo, or because roses (ῥοδον) grew in great abundance all over the island. Strabo, bk. 14.――Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.――Diodorus, bk. 5.――Pliny, bk. 2, chs. 62 & 87; bk. 5, ch. 31.――Florus, bk. 2, ch. 7.――Pindar, Olympian, poem 7.――Lucan, bk. 8, li. 248.――Cicero, On Pompey’s Command; Brutus, ltr. 13.――Livy, bk. 27, ch. 30; bk. 31, ch. 2.
=Rhœbus=, a horse of Mezentius, whom his master addressed with the determination to conquer or to die, when he saw his son Lausus brought lifeless from the battle. This beautiful address is copied from Homer, where likewise Achilles addresses his horses. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 861.
=Rhœcus=, one of the Centaurs who attempted to offer violence to Atalanta. He was killed at the nuptials of Pirithous by Bacchus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 301.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2.――――One of the giants killed by Bacchus, under the form of a lion, in the war which these sons of the earth waged against Jupiter and the gods. Horace, bk. 2, ode 19, li. 23.
=Rhœo=, a nymph beloved by Apollo. Diodorus, bk. 5.
=Rhœtēum=, or =Rhœtus=, a promontory of Troas, on the Hellespont, near which the body of Ajax was buried. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 197; bk. 4, Fasti, li. 279.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 505; bk. 12, li. 456.
=Rhœtius=, a mountain of Corsica, now Rosso.
=Rhœtus=, a king of the Marrubii, who married a woman called Casperia, to whom Archemorus, his son by a former wife, offered violence. After this incestuous attempt, ♦Archemorus fled to Turnus king of the Rutuli. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 388.――――A Rutulian killed by Euryalus in the night. Æneid, bk. 9, li. 344.――――An Æthiopian killed by Perseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 38.
♦ ‘Archemorous’ replaced with ‘Archemorus’
=Rhosaces=, a Persian killed by Clitus as he was going to stab Alexander at the battle of the Granicus. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 1.
=Rhosus=, a town of Syria, on the gulf of Issus, celebrated for its earthen wares. Cicero, bk. 6, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 1.
=Rhoxalāni=, a people at the north of the Palus Mæotis. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 79.
=Rhoxāna=, or =Roxāna=, a mistress of Alexander, daughter of a Persian satrap. See:, Roxana.
=Rhoxāni=, a nation against whom Mithridates made war.
=Rhutēni= and =Rhuthēni=, a people of Gaul.
=Rhyndăcus=, a large river of Mysia, in Asia Minor. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 32.
=Rhynthon=, a dramatic writer of Syracuse, who flourished at Tarentum, where he wrote 38 plays. Authors are divided with respect to the merit of his compositions, and the abilities of the writer. See: Rhinthon.
=Rhypæ=, a town of Achaia, at the west of Helice.
=Rigodulum=, a village of Germany, now Rigol, near Cologne. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 71.
=Riphæi.= See: Rhiphæi.
=Ripheus=, a Trojan who joined Æneas the night that Troy was reduced to ashes, and was at last killed after making a great carnage of the Greeks. He is commended for his love of justice and equity. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, lis. 339 & 426.――――One of the Centaurs killed by Theseus at the nuptials of Pirithous. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 352.
=Rixamăræ=, a people of Illyricum. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Robīgo=, or =Rubīgo=, a goddess at Rome, particularly worshipped by husbandmen, as she presided over corn. Her festivals, called Robigalia, were celebrated on the 25th of April, and incense was offered to her, as also the entrails of a sheep and of a dog. She was intreated to preserve the corn from blights. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 911.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 151.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5; de Re Rustica, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Rodumna=, now Roanne, a town of the Ædui, on the Loire.
=Roma=, a city of Italy, the capital of the Roman empire, situate on the banks of the river Tiber, at the distance of about 16 miles from the sea. The name of its founder, and the manner of its foundation, are not precisely known. Romulus, however, is universally supposed to have laid the foundations of that celebrated city, on the 20th of April, according to Varro, in the year 3961 of the Julian period, 3251 years after the creation of the world, 753 before the birth of Christ, and 431 years after the Trojan war, and in the fourth year of the sixth Olympiad. In its original state, Rome was but a small castle on the summit of mount Palatine; and the founder, to give his followers the appearance of a nation or a barbarian horde, was obliged to erect a standard as a common asylum, for every criminal, debtor, or murderer, who fled from their native country to avoid the punishment which attended them. From such an assemblage a numerous body was soon collected, and before the death of the founder, the Romans had covered with their habitations the Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, Esquiline hills, with mount Cœlius and Quirinalis. After many successful wars against the neighbouring states, the views of Romulus were directed to regulate a nation naturally fierce, warlike, and uncivilized. The people were divided into classes, the interests of the whole were linked in a common chain, and the labours of the subject, as well as those of his patron, tended to the same end, the aggrandizement of the state. Under the successors of Romulus, the power of Rome was increased, and the boundaries of her dominions extended; while one was employed in regulating the forms of worship, and inculcating in the minds of his subjects a reverence for the deity, the other was engaged in enforcing discipline among the army, and raising the consequence of the soldiers in the government of the state; and a third made the object of his administration consist in adorning his capital, in beautifying its edifices, and in fortifying it with towers and walls. During 244 years the Romans were governed by kings, but the tyranny, the oppression, and the violence of the last of these monarchs and of his family, became so atrocious, that a revolution was effected in the state, and the democratical government was established. The monarchical government existed under seven princes, who began to reign in the following order: Romulus, B.C. 753; and after one year’s interregnum, Numa, 715; Tullus Hostilius, 672; Ancus Martius, 640; Tarquin Priscus, 616; Servius Tullius, 578; and Tarquin the Proud, 534, expelled 25 years after, B.C. 509; and this regal administration has been properly denominated the infancy of the Roman empire. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from the throne, the Romans became more sensible of their consequence: with their liberty they acquired a spirit of faction, and they became so jealous of their independence, that the first of their consuls who had been the most zealous and animated in the assertion of their freedom, was banished from the city because he bore the name, and was of the family, of the tyrants; and another, to stop their suspicions, was obliged to pull down his house, whose stateliness and magnificence above the rest seemed incompatible with the duties and the rank of a private citizen. They knew more effectually their power when they had fought with success against Porsenna the king of Etruria, and some of the neighbouring states, who supported the claim of the tyrant, and attempted to replace him on his throne by force of arms. A government which is entrusted into the hands of two of the most distinguished of its members, for the limited space of one year, cannot but give rise to great men, glorious exploits, and tremendous seditions. The general who is placed at the head of an army during a campaign, must be active and diligent, when he knows that his power is terminated with the year, and if he has a becoming ambition, he will distinguish his consulship by some uncommon act of valour, before he descends from the dignity of an absolute magistrate to the dependence of a fellow-citizen. Yet these attempts for the attainment of glory often failed of success; and though the Romans could once boast that every individual in their armies could discharge with fidelity and honour the superior offices of magistrate and consul, there are to be found in their annals many years marked by overthrows, or disgraced by the ill conduct, the oppression, and the wantonness of their generals. See: Consul. To the fame which their conquests and daily successes had gained abroad, the Romans were not a little indebted for their gradual rise to superiority; and to this may be added the policy of the census, which every fifth year told them their actual strength, and how many citizens were able to bear arms. And indeed it was no small satisfaction to a people who were continually making war, to see that, in spite of all the losses which they might sustain in the field, the increase of the inhabitants of the city was prodigious, and almost incredible; and had Romulus lived after the battle of Actium, he would have been persuaded with difficulty that above 4,000,000 of inhabitants were contained within those walls, which in the most flourishing period of his reign could scarce muster an army of 3000 infantry and 300 horse. But when Rome had flourished under the consular government for about 120 years, and had beheld with pleasure the conquests of her citizens over the neighbouring states and cities, which, according to a Roman historian, she was ashamed to recollect in the summit of her power, an irruption of the barbarians of Gaul rendered her very existence precarious, ♦and her name was nearly extinguished. The valour of an injured individual [See: Camillus] saved it from destruction, yet not before its buildings and temples were reduced to ashes. This celebrated event, which gave the appellation of another founder of Rome to Camillus, has been looked upon as a glorious era to the Romans. The huts and cottages which Romulus had erected, and all his successors repaired, were totally consumed, and when the city arose again from its ruins, the streets were enlarged, convenience as well as order was observed, taste and regularity were consulted, and the poverty, ignorance, and rusticity of the Romans seemed to be extinguished with their old habitations. But no sooner were they freed from the fears of their barbarian invaders, than they turned their arms against those states which refused to acknowledge their superiority, or yield their independence. Their wars with Pyrrhus and the Tarentines displayed their character in a different view; if they before had fought for freedom and independence, they now drew their sword for glory; and here we may see them conquered in the field, and yet refusing to grant that peace for which their conqueror himself had sued. The advantages they gained from their battles with Pyrrhus were many. The Roman name became known in Greece, Sicily, and Africa, and in losing or gaining a victory, the Romans were enabled to examine the manœuvres, observe the discipline, and contemplate the order and the encampments of those soldiers whose friends and ancestors had accompanied Alexander the Great in the conquest of Asia. Italy became subjected to the Romans at the end of the war with the Tarentines, and that period of time has been called the second age, or the adolescence of the Roman empire. After this memorable era they tried their strength not only with distant nations, but also upon a new element; and in the long wars which they waged against Carthage, they acquired territory, and obtained the sovereignty of the sea; and though Annibal for 16 years kept them in continual alarms, hovered round their gates, and destroyed their armies almost before their walls, yet they were doomed to conquer [See: Punicum bellum], and soon to add the kingdom of Macedonia [See: Macedonicum bellum] and the provinces of Asia [See: Mithridaticum bellum] to their empire. But while we consider the Romans as a nation subduing their neighbours by war, their manners, their counsels, and their pursuits at home are not to be forgotten. To be warriors was their profession; their assemblies in the Campus Martius were a meeting of armed men, and very properly denominated an army. Yet while their conquests were so extensive abroad, we find them torn by factions at home; and so far was the resentment of the poorer citizens carried, that we see the enemy at the gates of the city, while all are unwilling to take up arms and to unite in the defence of their common liberty. The senators and nobles were ambitious of power, and endeavoured to retain in their hands that influence which had been exercised with so much success, and such cruelty, by their monarchs. This was the continual occasion of tumults and sedition. The people were jealous of their liberty. The oppression of the nobles irritated them, and the stripes to which they were too often exposed without mercy, was often productive of revolutions. The plebeians, though originally the poorest and most contemptible citizens of an indigent nation, whose food in the first ages of the empire was only bread and salt, and whose drink was water, soon gained rights and privileges by their opposition. Though really slaves, they became powerful in the state; one concession from the patricians produced another, and when their independence was boldly asserted by their tribunes, they were admitted to share in the highest offices of the state, and the laws which forbade the intermarriage of plebeian and patrician families were repealed, and the meanest peasant could by valour and fortitude be raised to the dignity of dictator and consul. It was not till these privileges were obtained by the people from the senate, that Rome began to enjoy internal peace and tranquillity; her battles were then fought with more vigour, her soldiers were more animated, and her sovereignty was more universally established. But supreme power lodged in the hands of a factious and ambitious citizen, becomes too often dangerous. The greatest oppression and tyranny took place of subordination and obedience; and from those causes proceeded the unparalleled slaughter and effusion of blood under a Sylla and a Marius. It has been justly observed, that the first Romans conquered their enemies by valour, temperance, and fortitude; their moderation also and their justice were well known among their neighbours, and not only private possessions, but even mighty kingdoms and empires, were left in their power, to be distributed among a family or to be ensured in the hands of a successor. They were also chosen umpires to decide quarrels, but in this honourable office they consulted their own interest; they artfully supported the weaker side, that the more powerful might be reduced, and gradually become their prey. Under Julius Cæsar and Pompey, the rage of civil war was carried to unprecedented excess: it was not merely to avenge a private injury, but it was a contest for the sovereignty; and though each of the adversaries wore the mask of pretended sincerity, and professed himself to be the supporter of the republic, no less than the abolition of freedom and the public liberty was the aim. What Julius began, his adopted son achieved: the ancient spirit of national independence was extinguished at Rome; and after the battle of Actium, the Romans seemed unable to govern themselves without the assistance of a chief, who, under the title of imperator, an appellation given to every commander by his army after some signal victory, reigned with as much power and as much sovereignty as another Tarquin. Under their emperors, the Romans lived a luxurious and indolent life; they had long forgot to appear in the field, and their wars were left to be waged by mercenary troops, who fought without spirit or animosity, and who were ever ready to yield to him who bought their allegiance and fidelity with the greatest sums of money. Their leaders themselves were not the most prudent or the most humane; the power which they had acquired by bribery was indeed precarious, and among a people where not only the highest offices of the state, but even the imperial purple itself, are exposed to sale, there cannot be expected much happiness or tranquillity in the palace of the emperor. The reigns of the successors of Augustus were distinguished by variety; one was the most abandoned and profligate of men, whom his own vices and extravagance hurried out of the world, while his successor, perhaps the most clement, just, and popular of princes, was sacrificed in the midst of his guards and attendants by the dagger of some offended favourite or disappointed eunuch. Few indeed were the emperors of Rome whose days were not shortened by poison, or the sword of an assassin. If one for some time had the imprudence to trust himself in the midst of a multitude, at last to perish by his own credulity, the other consulted his safety, but with no better success, in the innumerable chambers of his palace, and changed every day, to elude discovery, the place of his retirement. After they had been governed by a race of princes, remarkable for the variety of their characters, the Roman possessions were divided into two distinct empires, by the enterprising Constantine, A.D. 328. Constantinople became the seat of the eastern empire, and Rome remained in the possession of the western emperors, and continued to be the capital of their dominions. In the year 800 of the christian era, Rome with Italy was delivered by Charlemagne, the then emperor of the west, into the hands of the Pope, who still continues to hold the sovereignty, and to maintain his independence under the name of the Ecclesiastical States. The original poverty of the Romans has often been disguised by their poets and historians, who wished it to appear that a nation who were masters of the world, had had better beginning than to be a race of shepherds and robbers. Yet it was to this simplicity they were indebted for their successes. Their houses were originally destitute of every ornament, they were made with unequal boards, and covered with mud, and these served them rather as a shelter against the inclemency of the seasons than for relaxation and ease. Till the age of Pyrrhus, they despised riches, and many salutary laws were enacted to restrain luxury and to punish indolence. They observed great temperance in their meals; young men were not permitted to drink wine till they had attained their 30th year, and it was totally forbidden to women. Their national spirit was supported by policy; the triumphal procession of a conqueror along the streets amidst the applause of thousands, was well calculated to promote emulation, and the number of gladiators who were regularly introduced not only in public games and spectacles, but also at private meetings, served to cherish their fondness for war, whilst it steeled their hearts against the calls of compassion; and when they could gaze with pleasure upon wretches whom they forcibly obliged to murder one another, they were not inactive in the destruction of those whom they considered as inveterate foes or formidable rivals in the field. In their punishments, civil as well as military, the Romans were strict and rigorous; a deserter was severely whipped and sold as a slave, and the degradation from the rank of a soldier and dignity of a citizen was the most ignominious stigma which could be affixed upon a seditious mutineer. The transmarine victories of the Romans proved at last the ruin of their innocence and bravery. They grew fond of the luxury of the Asiatics; and, conquered by the vices and indolence of those nations whom they had subdued, they became as effeminate and as dissolute as their captives. Marcellus was the first who introduced a taste for the fine arts among his countrymen. The spoils and treasures that were obtained in the plunder of Syracuse and Corinth, rendered the Romans partial to elegant refinement and ornamental equipage. Though Cato had despised philosophy [See: Carneades], and declared that war was the only profession of his countrymen, the Romans, by their intercourse with the Greeks, soon became fond of literature; and though they had once banished the sophists of Athens from their city, yet they beheld with rapture their settlement among them in the principal towns of Italy, after the conquest of Achaia. They soon after began to imitate their polished captives, and to cultivate poetry with success. From the valour of their heroes and conquerors, indeed, the sublimest subjects were offered to the genius of their poets; but of the little that remains to celebrate the early victories of Rome, nothing can be compared to the nobler effusions of the Augustan age. Virgil has done so much for the Latin name that the splendour and the triumphs of his country are forgotten for a while, when we are transported in the admiration of the majesty of his numbers, the elegant delicacy of his expressions, and the fire of his muse; and the applauses given to the lyric powers of Horace, the softness of Tibullus, the vivacity of Ovid, and to the ♠superior compositions of other respectable poets, shall be unceasing so long as the name of Rome excites our reverence and our praises, and so long as genius, virtue, and abilities are honoured amongst mankind. Though they originally rejected with horror a law which proposed the building of a public theatre, and the exhibition of plays, like the Greeks, yet the Romans soon proved favourable to the compositions of their countrymen. Livius was the first dramatic writer of consequence at Rome, whose plays began to be exhibited A.U.C. 514. After him Nævius and Ennius wrote for the stage; and in a more polished period Plautus, Terence, Cæcilius, and Afranius claimed the public attention and gained the most unbounded applause. Satire did not make its appearance at Rome till 100 years after the introduction of comedy, and so celebrated was Lucilius in this kind of writing, that he was called the inventor of it. In historical writing the progress of the Romans was slow and inconsiderable, and for many years they employed the pen of foreigners to compile their annals, till the superior abilities of a Livy were made known. In their worship and sacrifices the Romans were uncommonly superstitious; the will of the gods was consulted on every occasion, and no general marched to an expedition without the previous assurance from the augurs that the omens were propitious, and his success almost indubitable. Their sanctuaries were numerous; they raised altars not only to the gods, who, as they supposed, presided over their city, but also to the deities of conquered nations, as well as to the different passions and virtues. There were no less than 420 temples at Rome, crowded with statues; the priests were numerous, and each divinity had a particular college of sacerdotal servants. Their wars were declared in the most awful and solemn manner, and prayers were always offered in the temples for the prosperity of Rome, when a defeat had been sustained or a victory won. The power of fathers over their children was very extensive, and indeed unlimited; they could sell them or put them to death at pleasure, without the forms of a trial, or the interference of the civil magistrate. Many of their ancient families were celebrated for the great men whom they had produced, but the vigorous and interested part they took in the government of the republic exposed them often to danger; and some have observed that the Romans sunk into indolence and luxury when the Cornelii, the Fabii, the Æmylii, the Marcelli, &c., who had so often supported their spirit and led them to victory, had been extinguished in the bloody wars of Marius and of the two triumvirates. When Rome was become powerful, she was distinguished from other cities by the flattery of her neighbours and citizens; a form of worship was established to her as a deity, and temples were raised in her honour, not only in the city but in the provinces. The goddess Roma was represented like Minerva, all armed and sitting on a rock, holding a pike in her hand, with her head covered with a helmet, and a trophy at her feet. Livy, bk. 1, &c.――Cato, de Re Rustica. ――Virgil, Eclogues, Georgics, & Æneid.――Horace, bk. 2, satire 6, &c.――Florus, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――Paterculus.――Tacitus, Annals & Histories.――Tibullus, bk. 4.――Lucan.――Plutarch, Romulus, Numa, &c.――Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, &c. ――Pliny, bk. 7, &c.――Justin, bk. 43.――Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, &c.――Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 8. ――――A daughter of Evander.――――A Trojan woman who came to Italy with Æneas.――――A daughter of Italus and Luceria. It was after one of these females, according to some authors, that the capital of Italy was called Roma.
♦ ‘aud’ replaced with ‘and’
♠ ‘superor’ replaced with ‘superior’
=Romāni=, the inhabitants of Rome. See: Roma.
=Romānus=, an officer under Theodosius.――――Another, poisoned by Nero. ――――A son of Constans, &c.
=Romilius Marcellus=, a Roman centurion in Galba’s reign, &c. Tacitus, bk. 1, Histories.
=Romŭla=, a name given to the fig tree under which Romulus and Remus were found. Ovid., bk. 2, Fasti, li. 412.
=Romulea=, a town of the Samnites. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 17.
=Rōmŭlĭdæ=, a patronymic given to the Roman people from Romulus their first king, and the founder of their city. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 638.
=Romŭlus=, a son of Mars and Ilia, grandson of Numitor king of Alba, was born at the same birth with Remus. These two children were thrown into the Tiber by order of Amulius, who usurped the crown of his brother Numitor; but they were preserved, and, according to Florus, the river stopped its course, and a she-wolf came and fed them with her milk, till they were found by Faustulus, one of the king’s shepherds, who educated them as his own children. When they knew their real origin, the twins, called Romulus and Remus, put Amulius to death, and restored the crown to their grandfather Numitor. They afterwards undertook to build a city, and to determine which of the two brothers should have the management of it, they had recourse to omens and the flight of birds. Remus went to mount Aventine, and Romulus to mount Palatine. Remus saw first a flight of six vultures, and soon after, Romulus 12; and therefore, as his number was greater, he began to lay the foundations of the city, hoping that it would become a warlike and powerful nation, as the birds from which he had received the omen were fond of prey and slaughter. Romulus marked with a furrow the place where he wished to erect the walls; but their slenderness was ridiculed by Remus, who leaped over them with the greatest contempt. This irritated Romulus, and Remus was immediately put to death, either by the hand of his brother or one of the workmen. When the walls were built, the city was without inhabitants; but Romulus, by making an asylum of a sacred grove, soon collected a number of fugitives, foreigners, and criminals, whom he received as his lawful subjects. Yet, however numerous these might be, they were despised by the neighbouring inhabitants, and none were willing to form matrimonial connections with them. But Romulus obtained by force what was denied to his petitions. The Romans celebrated games in honour of the god Consus, and forcibly carried away all the females who had assembled there to be spectators of these unusual exhibitions. These violent measures offended the neighbouring nations; they made war against the ravishers with various success, till at last they entered Rome, which had been betrayed to them by one of the stolen virgins. A violent engagement was begun in the middle of the Roman forum; but the Sabines were conquered, or, according to Ovid, the two enemies laid down their arms when the women had rushed between the two armies, and by their tears and entreaties raised compassion in the bosoms of their parents and husbands. The Sabines left their original possessions and came to live in Rome, where Tatius their king shared the sovereign power with Romulus. The introduction of the Sabines into the city of Rome was attended with the most salutary consequences, and the Romans, by pursuing this plan, and admitting the conquered nations among their citizens, rendered themselves more powerful and more formidable. Afterwards Romulus divided the lands which he had obtained by conquest; one part was reserved for religious uses, to maintain the priests, to erect temples, and to consecrate altars; the other was appropriated for the expenses of the state; and the third part was equally distributed among his subjects, who were divided into three classes or tribes. The most aged and experienced, to the number of 100, were also chosen, whom the monarch might consult in matters of the highest importance, and from their age they were called senators, and from their authority patres. The whole body of the people were also distinguished by the name of patricians and plebeians, patron and client, who by mutual interest were induced to preserve the peace of the state, and to promote the public good. Some time after Romulus disappeared as he was giving instructions to the senators, and the eclipse of the sun, which happened at that time, was favourable to the rumour which asserted that the king had been taken up to heaven, 714 B.C., after a reign of 39 years. This was further confirmed by Julius Proculus, one of the senators, who solemnly declared, that as he returned from Alba, he had seen Romulus in a form above human, and that he had directed him to tell the Romans to pay him divine honours under the name of Quirinus, and to assure them that their city was doomed one day to become the capital of the world. This report was immediately credited, and the more so as the senators dreaded the resentment of the people, who suspected them of having offered him violence. A temple was raised to him, and a regular priest, called Flamen Quirinalis, was appointed to offer him sacrifices. Romulus was ranked by the Romans among the 12 great gods, and it is not to be wondered that he received such distinguished honours, when the Romans considered him as the founder of their city and empire, and the son of the god of war. He is generally represented like his father, so much that it is difficult to distinguish them. The fable of the two children of Rhea Sylvia being nourished by a she-wolf, arose from Lupa, Faustulus’s wife, having brought them up. See: Acca. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bks. 1 & 2.――Livy, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.――Justin, bk. 43, chs. 1 & 2.――Florus, bk. 1, ch. 1.――Plutarch, Romulus. ――Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 5, ch. 3.――Pliny, bk. 15, ch. 18, &c.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, lis. 342, 605.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, lis. 616 & 845; Fasti, bk. 4, &c. ――Horace, bk. 3, ode 3.――Juvenal, satire 18, li. 272.
=Romŭlus Sylvius=, or =Alladius=, a king of Alba.――――Momyllus Augustulus, the last of the emperors of the western empire of Rome. His country was conquered A.D. 476, by the Heruli, under Odoacer, who assumed the name of king of Italy.
=Romus=, a son of Æneas by Lavinia. Some suppose that he was the founder of Rome.――――A son of Æmathion sent by Diomedes to Italy, and also supposed by some to be the founder of Rome.
=Roscia lex=, de theatris, by Lucius Roscius Otho the tribune, A.U.C. 685. It required that none should sit in the first 14 seats of the theatre, if they were not in possession of 400 sestertia, which was the fortune required to be a Roman knight.
=Roscianum=, the port of Thurii, now Rossano.
=Quintus Roscius=, a Roman actor, born at Lanuvium, so celebrated on the stage that every comedian of excellence and merit has received his name. His eyes were naturally distorted, and he always appeared on the stage with a mask, but the Romans obliged him to act his characters without, and they overlooked the deformities of his face, that they might the better hear his elegant pronunciation, and be delighted with the sweetness of his voice. He was accused on suspicion of dishonourable practices; but Cicero, who had been one of his pupils, undertook his defence, and cleared him of the malevolent aspersions of his enemies, in an elegant oration still extant. Roscius wrote a treatise, in which he compared with great success and much learning the profession of the orator with that of the comedian. He died about 60 years before Christ. Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1.――Quintilian.――Cicero, For Quintus Roscius the Actor; On Oratory, bk. 3; de Divinatione, bk. 1, &c.; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 3, &c.――Plutarch, Cicero.――――Sextus, a rich citizen of Ameria, murdered in the dictatorship of Sylla. His son, of the same name, was accused of the murder, and eloquently defended by Cicero, in an oration still extant, A.U.C. 673. Cicero, _For Quintus Roscius the Actor_.――――Lucius, a lieutenant of Cæsar’s army in Gaul.――――Otho, a tribune, who made a law to discriminate the knights from the common people at public spectacles.
=Rosiæ campus=, or =Rosia=, a beautiful plain in the country of the Sabines, near the lake Velinum. Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1, ch. 7.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 712.――Cicero, bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 15.
=Rosillanus ager=, a territory in Etruria.
=Rosius=, a harbour of Cilicia.――――A man made consul only for one day under Vitellius, &c. Tacitus.
=Rosulum=, a town of Etruria, now Monte Rosi.
=Rotomagus=, a town of Gaul, now Rouen.
=Roxāna=, a Persian woman, taken prisoner by Alexander. The conqueror became enamoured of her and married her. She behaved with great cruelty after Alexander’s death, and she was at last put to death by Cassander’s order. She was daughter of Darius, or, according to others, of one of his satraps. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 4; bk. 10, ch. 6. ――Plutarch, Alexander.――――A wife of Mithridates the Great, who poisoned herself.
=Roxolāni=, a people of European Sarmatia, who proved very active and rebellious in the reign of the Roman emperors.
=Rubeæ=, the north cape at the north of Scandinavia.
=Rubellius Blandus=, a man who married Julia the daughter of Drusus, &c. ――――One of the descendants of Augustus, treacherously put to death by Nero, &c. Tacitus.――――Plautus, an illustrious Roman who disgraced himself by his arrogance and ambitious views. Juvenal, satire 8, li. 39.
=Rubi=, now Ruvo, a town of Apulia, from which the epithet Rubeus is derived, applied to bramble bushes which grew there. The inhabitants were called Rubitini. Horace, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 94. ――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 266.
=Rubĭcon=, now Rugone, a small river of Italy, which it separates from Cisalpine Gaul. It rises in the Apennine mountains, and falls into the Adriatic sea. By crossing it, and thus transgressing the boundaries of his province, Julius Cæsar declared war against the senate and Pompey, and began the civil wars. Lucan, bk. 1, lis. 185 & 213.――Strabo, bk. 5.――Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 32.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Rubiēnus Lappa=, a tragic poet in the age of Juvenal, conspicuous as much for his great genius as his poverty. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 72.
=Rubīgo=, a goddess. See: Robigo.
=Rubo=, the Dwina, a river which falls into the Baltic at Riga.
=Rubra saxa=, a place of Etruria, near Veii, at the distance of above eight miles from Rome. Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 64, li. 15.――Livy, bk. 3, ch. 49.
=Rubria lex=, was enacted after the taking of Carthage, to make an equal division of the lands in Africa.
=Rubrius=, a Roman knight accused of treason under Tiberius, &c. Tacitus.――――A man who fled to Parthia on suspicion that the Roman affairs were ruined.――――A friend of Vitellius.――――An obscure Gaul in great favour with Domitian. Juvenal, satire 4, li. 145.――――An officer in Cæsar’s army.
=Rubrum mare= (the Red sea), is situate between Arabia, Egypt, and Æthiopia, and is often called Erythræum mare, and confounded with the Arabicus sinus, and the Indian sea. Pliny, bk. 6, chs. 23 & 24. ――Livy, bk. 36, ch. 17; bk. 42, ch. 52; bk. 45, ch. 9.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 686.――Lucan, bk. 8, li. 853.
=Rudiæ=, a town of Calabria near Brundusium, built by a Greek colony, and famous for giving birth to the poet Ennius. Cicero, For Archias, ch. 10.――Silius Italicus, bk. 12, li. 396.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Ruffīnus=, a general in Gaul in the reign of Vitellius, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 94.
=Ruffus Crispīnus=, an officer of the pretorian guards under Claudius. He was banished by Agrippina for his attachment to Britannicus and Octavius the sons of Messalina, and put himself to death. His wife Poppæa Sabina, by whom he had a son called Ruffinus Crispinus, afterwards married Nero. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 12, ch. 42; bk. 16, ch. 17.――――A soldier presented with a civic crown for preserving the life of a citizen, &c.
=Rufiāna=, a town of Gaul, now Rufash, in Alsace.
=Rufilius=, a Roman ridiculed by Horace, satire 2, li. 27, for his effeminacy.
=Julius Rufinianus=, a rhetorician, &c.
=Rufinus=, a general of Theodosius, &c.
=Rufræ=, a town of Campania, of which the inhabitants were called Rufreni. Cicero, bk. 10, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 71. ――Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 568.――Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 739.
=Rufrium=, a town of Samnium, now Ruvo. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Rufus=, a Latin historian. See: Quintius.――――A friend of Commodus, famous for his avarice and ambition.――――One of the ancestors of Sylla, degraded from the rank of a senator because 10 pounds’ weight of gold were found in his house.――――A governor of Judæa.――――A man who conspired against Domitian.――――A poet of Ephesus in the reign of Trajan. He wrote six books on simples, now lost.――――A Latin poet. ――――Sempronius. See: Prætorius.
=Rugia=, now Rugen, an island of the Baltic.
=Rugii=, a nation of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 43.
=Rupilius=, an officer surnamed Rex, for his authoritative manners. He was proscribed by Augustus and fled to Brutus. Horace, bk. 1, satire 7, li. 1.――――A writer whose treatises _de figuris sententiarum_, &c., were edited by Runken, 8vo, Leiden, 1786.
=Ruscino=, a town of Gaul at the foot of the Pyrenees. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 24.――――A seaport town of Africa. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 10.
=Ruscius=, a town of Gaul.
=Rusconia=, a town of Mauritania. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 24.
=Rusellæ=, an inland town of Etruria destroyed by the Romans. Livy, bk. 28, ch. 45.
=Ruspĭna=, a town of Africa near Adrumetum. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 260.――Hirtius, African War, li. 640.
=Rustĭcus Lucius Junius Arulenus=, a man put to death by Domitian. He was the friend and preceptor of Pliny the younger, who praises his abilities, and he is likewise commended by Tacitus, bk. 16, Histories, ch. 26.――Pliny, bk. 1, ltr. 14.――Suetonius, Domitian.――――A friend of Marcus Aurelius.
=Rusuccurum=, a town of Mauritania, believed to be modern Algiers.
=Rutēni=, a people of Gaul, now Ruvergne, in Guienne. Cæsar, Gallic War.
=Rutila=, a deformed old woman, who lived near 100 years, &c. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 48.――Juvenal, satire 10, li. 294.
=Publius Rutilius Rufus=, a Roman consul in the age of Sylla, celebrated for his virtues and writings. He refused to comply with the requests of his friends because they were unjust. When Sylla had banished him from Rome he retired to Smyrna, amidst the acclamations and praises of the people; and when some of his friends wished him to be recalled home by means of a civil war, he severely reprimanded them, and said, that he wished rather to see his country blush at his exile, than to plunge it into distress by his return. He was the first who taught the Roman soldiers the principles of fencing, and by thus mixing dexterity with valour, rendered their attacks more certain, and more irresistible. During his banishment he employed his time in study, and wrote a history of Rome in Greek, and an account of his own life in Latin, besides many other works. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 563.――Seneca, de Beneficiis.――Cicero, Brutus; On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 53.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 6, ch. 4.――Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 9.――――A Roman proconsul, who is supposed to have encouraged Mithridates to murder all the Romans who were in his province.――――Lupus, a pretor, who fled away with three cohorts from Tarracina.――――A rhetorician. Quintilian, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A man who went against Jugurtha.――――A friend of Nero.――――Claudius Numantianus, a poet of Gaul, in the reign of Honorius. According to some he wrote a poem on mount Ætna. He wrote also an itinerary, published by Burman in the Poetæ Latini Minores, Leiden, 4to, 1731.
=Rutilus=, a rich man reduced to beggary by his extravagance. Juvenal, satire 11, li. 2.
=Rutŭba=, a river of Liguria, falling from the Apennines into the Mediterranean. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 422.――――Of Latium, falling into the Tiber. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 422.
=Rutŭbus=, a gladiator, &c. Horace, bk. 2, satire 7, li. 96.
=Rŭtŭli=, a people of Latium, known as well as the Latins, by the name of Aborigines. When Æneas came into Italy, Turnus was their king, and they supported him in the war which he waged against this foreign prince. The capital of their dominions was called Ardea. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 883; Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 455, &c.――Virgil, Æneid, 7, &c.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Rŭtŭpæ=, a seaport town on the southern coasts of Britain, abounding in excellent oysters, whence the epithet of Rutupinus. Some suppose that it is the modern town of Dover, but others Richborough or Sandwich. Lucan, bk. 6, li. 67.――Juvenal, satire 4, li. 141.
=Ryphæi montes.= See: ♦Rhiphæi.
♦ ‘Rhipæi’ replaced with ‘Rhiphæi’
S
=Saba=, a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. The inhabitants were called Sabæi. Strabo, bk. 16. ――Diodorus, bk. 3.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 57; Æneid, bk. 1, li. 420.
=Sabăchus=, or =Sabacon=, a king of Æthiopia, who invaded Egypt and reigned there, after the expulsion of king Amasis. After a reign of 50 years he was terrified by a dream, and retired into his own kingdom. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 137, &c.
=Sabæi=, a people of Arabia. See: Saba.
=Sabāta=, a town of Liguria with a safe and beautiful harbour, supposed to be the modern Savona. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 461. ――Strabo, bk. 4.――――A town of Assyria.
=Sabatha=, a town of Arabia, now Sanaa.
=Sabatra=, a town of Syria. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 256.
=Sabatini=, a people of Samnium, living on the banks of the Sabatus, a river which falls into the Vulturnus. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 33.
=Sabazius=, a surname of Bacchus, as also of Jupiter. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.――Arnobius, bk. 4.
=Sabbas=, a king of India.
=Sabella=, the nurse of the poet Horace, bk. 1, satire 9, li. 29.
=Sabelli=, a people of Italy, descended from the Sabines, or, according to some, from the Samnites. They inhabited that part of the country which lies between the Sabines and the Marsi. Hence the epithet of Sabellicus. Horace, bk. 3, ode 6.――Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 255.
=Sabellus=, a Latin poet in the reign of Domitian and Nerva.
=Julia Sabīna=, a Roman matron, who married Adrian by means of Plotina the wife of Trajan. She is celebrated for her private as well as public virtues. Adrian treated her with the greatest asperity, though he had received from her the imperial purple; and the empress was so sensible of his unkindness, that she boasted in his presence that she had disdained to make him a father, lest his children should become more odious or more tyrannical than he himself was. The behaviour of Sabina at last so exasperated Adrian that he poisoned her, or, according to some, obliged her to destroy herself. The emperor at that time laboured under a mortal disease, and therefore he was the more encouraged to sacrifice Sabina to his resentment, that she might not survive him. Divine honours were paid to her memory. She died after she had been married 38 years to Adrian, A.D. 138.
=Sabīni=, an ancient people of Italy, reckoned among the Aborigines, or those inhabitants whose origin was not known. Some suppose that they were originally a Lacedæmonian colony, who settled in that part of the country. The possessions of the Sabines were situated in the neighbourhood of Rome, between the river Nar and the Anio, and bounded on the north by the Apennines and Umbria, south by Latium, east by the Æqui, and Etruria on the west. The greatest part of the contiguous nations were descended from them, such as the Umbrians, the Campanians, the Sabelli, the Osci, Samnites, Hernici, Æqui, Marsi, Brutii, &c. The Sabines are celebrated in ancient history as being the first who took up arms against the Romans, to avenge the rape of their females at a spectacle where they had been invited. After some engagements, the greatest part of the Sabines left their ancient possessions, and migrated to Rome, where they settled with their new allies. They were at last totally subdued, about the year of Rome 373, and ranked as Roman citizens. Their chief cities were Cures, Fidenæ, Reate, Crustumerium, Corniculum, Nomentum, Collatia, &c. The character of the nation for chastity, for purity of morals, and for the knowledge of herbs and incantations, was very great. Horace, epode 17, li. 28.――Cicero, Against Vatinius, ch. 15.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 12.――Livy, bk. 1, chs. 9 & 18.――Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 2, ch. 51.――Strabo, bk. 5.――Florus, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 18.――Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 424.――Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, lis. 775 & 797; Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, li. 101; ♦Amores, bk. 3, poem 8, li. 61.――Juvenal, satire 10, li. 197.
♦ Book name omitted from text.
=Sabiniānus=, a general who revolted in Africa, in the reign of Gordian, and was defeated soon after, A.D. 240.――――A general of the eastern empire, &c.
=Sabīnus Aulus=, a Latin poet intimate with Ovid. He wrote some epistles and elegies, in the number of which were mentioned, an epistle from Æneas to Dido, from Hippolytus to Phædra, and from Jason to ♦Hypsipyle, from Demophoon to Phyllis, from Paris to Œnome, from Ulysses to Penelope; the three last of which, though said to be his composition, are spurious. Ovid, Amores, bk. 2, poem 13, li. 27. ――――A man from whom the Sabines received their name. He received divine honours after death, and was one of those deities whom Æneas invoked when he entered Italy. He was supposed to be of Lacedæmonian origin. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 171.――――An officer of Cæsar’s army defeated by the Gauls.――――Julius, an officer who proclaimed himself emperor in the beginning of Vespasian’s reign. He was soon after defeated in a battle; and, to escape from the conqueror, he hid himself in a subterraneous cave, with two faithful domestics, where he continued unseen for nine successive years. His wife found out his retreat, and spent her time with him, till her frequent visits to the cave discovered the place of his concealment. He was dragged before Vespasian, and by his orders put to death, though his friends interested themselves in his cause, and his wife endeavoured to raise the emperor’s pity, by showing him the twins whom she had brought forth in their subterraneous retreat.――――Cornelius, a man who conspired against Caligula, and afterwards destroyed himself. ――――Titius, a Roman senator, shamefully accused and condemned by Sejanus. His body, after execution, was dragged through the streets of Rome, and treated with the greatest indignities. His dog constantly followed the body, and when it was thrown into the Tiber, the faithful animal plunged in after it, and was drowned. Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 40.――――Poppæus, a Roman consul, who presided above 24 years over Mœsia, and obtained a triumph for his victories over the barbarians. He was a great favourite of Augustus and of Tiberius. Tacitus, Annals.――――Flavius, a brother of Vespasian, killed by the populace. He was well known for his fidelity to Vitellius. He commanded in the Roman armies 35 years, and was governor of Rome for 12.――――A friend of Domitian.――――A Roman who attempted to plunder the temple of the Jews.――――A friend of the emperor Alexander.――――A lawyer.
♦ ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency.
=Sabis=, now Sambre, a river of Belgic Gaul, falling into the Maese at Namur. Cæsar, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18.
=Sabota=, the same as Sabatha.
=Sabracæ=, a powerful nation of India. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 8.
=Sabrăta=, a maritime town of Africa, near the Syrtes. It was a Roman colony, about 70 miles from the modern Tripoli. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 256.――Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Sabrina=, the Severn in England.
=Sabŭra=, a general of Juba king of Numidia, defeated and killed in a battle. Lucan, bk. 4, li. 722.
=Saburānus=, an officer of the pretorian guards. When he was appointed to this office by the emperor Trajan, the prince presented him with a sword, saying, “Use this weapon in my service as long as my commands are just; but turn it against my own breast, whenever I become cruel or malevolent.”
=Sabus=, one of the ancient kings of the Sabines; the same as Sabinus. See: Sabinus.――――A king of Arabia.
=Sacădas=, a musician and poet of Argos, who obtained three several times the prize at the Pythian games. Plutarch, de Musica. ――Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 14.
=Sacæ=, a people of Scythia, who inhabited the country that lies at the east of Bactriana and Sogdiana, and towards the north of mount Imaus. The name of Sacæ was given in general to all the Scythians, by the Persians. They had no towns, according to some writers, but lived in tents. Ptolemy, bk. 6, ch. 13.――Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 93; bk. 7, ch. 63.――Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 17.――Solinus, ch. 62.
=Sacer mons=, a mountain near Rome. See: Mons sacer.
=Sacer lucus=, a wood of Campania, on the Liris.
=Sacer portus=, or =Sacri portus=, a place of Italy, near Præneste, famous for a battle that was fought there between Sylla and Marius, in which the former obtained the victory. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 26. ――Lucan, bk. 2, li. 134.
=Sacrāni=, a people of Latium, who assisted Turnus against Æneas. They were descended from the Pelasgians, or from a priest of Cybele. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 796.
=Sacrātor=, one of the friends of Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 747.
=Sacra via=, a celebrated street of Rome, where a treaty of peace and alliance was made between Romulus and Tatis. It led from the amphitheatre to the capitol, by the temple of the goddess of peace, and the temple of Cæsar. The triumphal processions passed through it to go to the capitol. Horace, bk. 4, ode 2; bk. 1, satire 9. ――Livy, bk. 2, ch. 13.――Cicero, For Plancius, ch. 7, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 4.
=Sacrāta lex=, militaris, A.U.C. 411, by the dictator Valerius Corvus, as some suppose, enacted that the name of no soldier which had been entered in the muster roll should be struck out but by his consent, and that no person who had been a military tribune should execute the office of ductor ordinum.
=Marcus Sacrātĭvir=, a friend of Cæsar, killed at Dyrrachium. Cæsar, Gallic War.
=Sacri portus.= See: Sacer portus.
=Sacrum bellum=, a name given to the wars carried on concerning the temple of Delphi. The first began B.C. 448, and in it the Athenians and Lacedæmonians were auxiliaries on opposite sides. The second war began 357 B.C., and finished nine years after by Philip of Macedonia, who destroyed all the cities of the Phocians. See: Phocis. ――――Promontorium, a promontory of Spain, now Cape St. Vincent, called by Strabo the most westerly part of the earth.
=Sadales=, a son of Cotys king of Thrace, who assisted Pompey with a body of 500 horsemen. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3.――Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 1.
=Sadus=, a river of India.
=Sadyātes=, one of the Mermnadæ, who reigned in Lydia 12 years after his father Gyges. He made war against the Milesians for six years. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.
=Sætabis=, a town of Spain near the Lucro, on a rising hill, famous for its fine linen. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 373.
=Sagalassus=, a town of Pisidia on the borders of Phrygia, now Sadjaklu. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Sagăna=, a woman acquainted with magic and enchantments. Horace, epode 5, li. 25.
=Sagăris=, a river of Asia, rising from mount Dindymus in Phrygia, and falling into the Euxine. See: Sangaris. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 47.――――One of the companions of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 263; bk. 9, li. 575.
=Claudius Sagitta=, an officer who encouraged Piso to rebel against the emperor Nero, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Sagra=, a small river of Italy in the country of the Brutii, where 130,000 Crotoniatæ were routed by 10,000 Locrians and Rhegians. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 2.――Strabo, bk. 6.
=Saguntum=, or =Saguntus=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis at the west of the Iberus, about one mile from the sea-shore, now called Morvedro. It had been founded by a colony of Zacynthians, and by some of the Rutuli of Ardea. Saguntum is celebrated for the clay in its neighbourhood, with which cups, pocula Saguntina, were made, but more particularly it is famous as being the cause of the second Punic war, and for the attachment of its inhabitants to the interest of Rome. Hannibal took it after a siege of about eight months; and the inhabitants, not to fall into the enemy’s hands, burnt themselves with their houses, and with all their effects. The conqueror afterwards rebuilt it, and placed a garrison there, with all the noblemen whom he detained as hostages from the several neighbouring nations of Spain. Some suppose that he called it Spartagene. Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.――Livy, bk. 21, chs. 2, 7, 9.――Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 271.――Lucan, bk. 3, li. 250.――Strabo, bk. 3. ――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Sais=, now Sa, a town in the Delta of Egypt, situate between the Canopic and Sebennytican mouths of the Nile, and anciently the capital of Lower Egypt. There was there a celebrated temple dedicated to Minerva, with a room cut out of one stone, which had been conveyed by water from Elephantis by the labours of 2000 men in three years. The stone measured on the outside 21 cubits long, 14 broad, and eight high. Osiris was also buried near the town of Sais. The inhabitants were called Saitæ. One of the mouths of the Nile, which is adjoining to the town, has received the name of Saiticum. Strabo, bk. 17.――Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 17, &c.
=Sala=, a town of Thrace, near the mouths of the Hebrus.――――A town of Mauritania.――――Of Phrygia.――――A river of Germany falling into the Elbe, near which are salt-pits. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 57. ――――Another falling into the Rhine, now the Issel.
=Salăcon=, a poor man who pretended to be uncommonly rich, &c. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 7, ch. 24.
♦=Salamantica=, a town of Spain, now Salamanca.
♦ Placed in alphabetical order.
=Salamīnia=, a name given to a ship at Athens, which was employed by the republic in conveying the officers of state to their different administrations abroad, &c.――――A name given to the island of Cyprus, on account of Salamis, one of its capital cities.
=Sălămis=, a daughter of the river Asopus by Methone. Neptune became enamoured of her, and carried her to an island of the Ægean, which afterwards bore her name, and where she gave birth to a son called Cenchreus. Diodorus, bk. 4.
=Sălămis=, =Salamins=, or =Salamīna=, now Colouri, an island in the Saronicus sinus, on the southern coast of Attica, opposite Eleusis, at the distance of about a league, with a town and harbour of the same name. It is about 50 miles in circumference. It was originally peopled by a colony of Ionians, and afterwards by some of the Greeks from the adjacent islands and countries. It is celebrated for a battle which was fought there between the fleet of the Greeks and that of the Persians, when Xerxes invaded Attica. The enemy’s ships amounted to above 2000, and those of the Peloponnesians to about 380 sail. In this engagement, which was fought on the 20th of October, B.C. 480, the Greeks lost 40 ships, and the Persians about 200, besides an immense number which were taken, with all the ammunition they contained. The island of Salamis was anciently called Sciras, Cychria, or Cenchria, and its bay the gulf of Engia. It is said that Xerxes attempted to join it to the continent. Teucer and Ajax, who went to the Trojan war, were natives of Salamis. Strabo, bk. 2. ――Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 56, &c.――Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles, &c.――Diodorus, bk. 4.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 3.――Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 35, &c.――Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7. ――Lucan, bk. 5, li. 109.――Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 283.
=Sălămis=, or =Salămīna=, a town at the east of the island of Cyprus. It was built by Teucer, who gave it the name of the island Salamis, from which he had been banished about 1270 years before the christian era; and from this circumstance the epithets of ambigua and of altera were applied to it, as the mother country was also called vera, for the sake of distinction. His descendants continued masters of the town for above 800 years. It was destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt in the fourth century, and called Constantia. Strabo, bk. 9.――Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 94, &c. ――Horace, bk. 1, ode 7, li. 21.――Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 1. ――Lucan, bk. 3, li. 183.
=Sălāpia=, or =Sălăpiæ=, now Salpe, a town of Apulia, where Annibal retired after the battle of Cannæ, and where he devoted himself to licentious pleasure, forgetful of his fame, and of the interests of his country. It was taken from the Carthaginian general by Marcellus. Some remains of this place may be traced near a lake called Salapina Palus, now used for making salt, which, from the situation near the sea, is easily conveyed by small boats to ships of superior burden. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 377.――Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 8.――Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Salăra=, a town of Africa propria, taken by Scipio. Livy, bk. 29, ch. 34, &c.
=Salaria=, a street and gate at Rome which led towards the country of the Sabines. It received the name of Salaria, because salt (sal) was generally conveyed to Rome that way. Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 64. ――――A bridge called Salarius, was built four miles from Rome through the Salarian gate on the river Anio.