Peloponnēsus, a celebrated peninsula which comprehends the most southern parts of Greece. It received its name from Pelops, who settled there, as the name indicates (πηλοπος νησος, the island of Pelops). It had been called before Argia, Pelasgia, and Argolis, and in its form, it has been observed by the moderns, highly to resemble the leaf of the plane tree. Its present name is Morea, which seems to be derived either from the Greek word μορεα, or the Latin morus, which signifies a mulberry tree, which is found there in great abundance. The ancient Peloponnesus was divided into six different provinces, Messenia, Laconia, Elis, Arcadia, Achaia propria, and Argolis, to which some add Sicyon. These provinces all bordered on the sea-shore, except Arcadia. The Peloponnesus was conquered, some time after the Trojan war, by the Heraclidæ or descendants of Hercules, who had been forcibly expelled from it. The inhabitants of this peninsula rendered themselves illustrious, like the rest of the Greeks, by their genius, their fondness for the fine arts, the cultivation of learning, and the profession of arms, but in nothing more than by a celebrated war, which they carried on against Athens and her allies for 27 years, and which from them received the name of the Peloponnesian war. See: Peloponnesiacum bellum. The Peloponnesus scarce extended 200 miles in length, and 140 in breadth, and about 563 miles in circumference. It was separated from Greece by the narrow isthmus of Corinth, which, as being only five miles broad, Demetrius, Cæsar, Nero, and some others, attempted in vain to cut, to make a communication between the bay of Corinth, and the Saronicus sinus. Strabo, bk. 8.—Thucydides.—Diodorus, bk. 12, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 21; bk. 8, ch. 1.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 6.—Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 40.

Pelopēa mœnia, is applied to the cities of Greece, but more particularly to Mycenæ and Argos, where the descendants of Pelops reigned. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 193.

Pelops, a celebrated prince, son of Tantalus king of Phrygia. His mother’s name was Euryanassa, or, according to others, Euprytone, or Eurystemista, or Dione. He was murdered by his father, who wished to try the divinity of the gods who had visited Phrygia, by placing on their table the limbs of his son. The gods perceived his perfidious cruelty, and they refused to touch the meat, except Ceres, whom the recent loss of her daughter had rendered melancholy and inattentive. She ate one of the shoulders of Pelops, and therefore, when Jupiter had compassion on his fate, and restored him to life, he placed a shoulder of ivory instead of that which Ceres had devoured. This shoulder had an uncommon power, and it could heal by its very touch every complaint, and remove every disorder. Some time after, the kingdom of Tantalus was invaded by Tros king of Troy, on pretence that he had carried away his son Ganymedes. This rape had been committed by Jupiter himself; the war, nevertheless, was carried on, and Tantalus, defeated and ruined, was obliged to fly with his son Pelops, and to seek a shelter in Greece. This tradition is confuted by some, who support that Tantalus did not fly into Greece, as he had been some time before confined by Jupiter in the infernal regions for his impiety, and therefore Pelops was the only one whom the enmity of Tros persecuted. Pelops came to Pisa, where he became one of the suitors of Hippodamia the daughter of king Œnomaus, and he entered the lists against the father, who promised his daughter only to him who could outrun him in a chariot race. Pelops was not terrified at the fate of the 13 lovers, who before him had entered the course against Œnomaus, and had, according to the conditions proposed, been put to death when conquered. He previously bribed Myrtilus the charioteer of Œnomaus, and therefore he easily obtained the victory. See: Œnomaus. He married Hippodamia, and threw headlong into the sea Myrtilus, when he claimed the reward of his perfidy. According to some authors, Pelops had received some winged horses from Neptune, with which he was enabled to outrun Œnomaus. When he had established himself on the throne of Pisa, Hippodamia’s possession, he extended his conquests over the neighbouring countries, and from him the peninsula, of which he was one of the monarchs, received the name of Peloponnesus. Pelops, after death, received divine honours, and he was as much revered above all the other heroes of Greece, as Jupiter was above the rest of the gods. He had a temple at Olympia, near that of Jupiter, where Hercules consecrated to him a small portion of land, and offered to him a sacrifice. The place where this sacrifice had been offered was religiously observed, and the magistrates of the country yearly, on coming upon office, made there an offering of a black ram. During the sacrifice, the soothsayer was not allowed, as at other times, to have a share of the victim, but he alone who furnished the wood was permitted to take the neck. The wood for sacrifices, as may be observed, was always furnished by some of the priests to all such as offered victims, and they received a price equivalent to what they gave. The white poplar was generally used in the sacrifices made to Jupiter and to Pelops. The children of Pelops by Hippodamia were Pitheus, Trœzen, Atreus, Thyestes, &c., besides some by concubines. The time of his death is unknown, though it is universally agreed that he survived for some time Hippodamia. Some suppose that the Palladium of the Trojans was made with the bones of Pelops. His descendants were called Pelopidæ. Pindar, who, in his first Olympic, speaks of Pelops, confutes the traditions of his ivory shoulder, and says that Neptune took him up to heaven to become the cup-bearer to the gods, from which he was expelled, when the impiety of Tantalus wished to make mankind partake of the nectar and the entertainments of the gods. Some suppose that Pelops first instituted the Olympic games in honour of Jupiter, and to commemorate the victory which he had obtained over Œnomaus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Euripides, Iphigeneia.—Diodorus, bk. 3.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 18.—Pindar, Olympian, bk. 1.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 404, &c.—Hyginus, fables 9, 82, & 83.

Pelor, one of the men who sprang from the teeth of the dragon killed by Cadmus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 5.

Peloria, a festival observed by the Thessalians, in commemoration of the news which they received by one Pelorious, that the mountains of Tempe had been separated by an earthquake, and that the waters of the lake which lay there stagnated, had found a passage into the Alpheus, and left behind a vast, pleasant, and most delightful plain, &c. Athenæus, bk. 3.

Pelōrus (v. is-dis, v. ias-iados), now Cape Faro, one of the three great promontories of Sicily, on whose top is erected a tower to direct the sailor on his voyage. It lies near the coast of Italy, and received its name from Pelorus, the pilot of the ship which carried away Annibal from Italy. This celebrated general, as it is reported, was carried by the tides into the straits of Charybdis, and as he was ignorant of the coast, he asked the pilot of his ship the name of the promontory, which appeared at a distance. The pilot told him it was one of the capes of Sicily, but Annibal gave no credit to his information, and murdered him on the spot, on the apprehension that he would betray him into the hands of the Romans. He was, however, soon convinced of his error, and found that the pilot had spoken with great fidelity; and therefore, to pay honour to his memory, and to atone for his cruelty, he gave him a magnificent funeral, and ordered that the promontory should bear his name, and from that time it was called Pelorus. Some suppose that this account is false, and they observe that it bore that name before the age of Annibal. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 8.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, lis. 411 & 687.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 350; bk. 13, li. 727; bk. 15, li. 706.

Peltæ, a town of Phrygia.

Pelūsium, now Tineh, a town of Egypt, situate at the entrance of one of the mouths of the Nile, called from it Pelusian. It is about 20 stadia from the sea, and it has received the name of Pelusium from the lakes and marshes (♦πυλος) which are in its neighbourhood. It was the key of Egypt on the side of Phœnicia, as it was impossible to enter the Egyptian territories without passing by Pelusium, and therefore on that account it was always well fortified and garrisoned, as it was of such importance for the security of the country. It produced lentils, and was celebrated for the linen stuffs made there. It is now in ruins. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 9.—Columella, bk. 5, ch. 10.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 25.—Lucan, bk. 8, li. 466; bk. 9, li. 83; bk. 10, li. 53.—Livy, bk. 44, ch. 19; bk. 45, ch. 11.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 228.

♦ ‘πμλος’ replaced with ‘πυλος’

Pĕnātes, certain inferior deities among the Romans, who presided over houses and the domestic affairs of families. They were called Penates, because they were generally placed in the innermost and most secret parts of the house, in Penitissimâ ædium parte, quod, as Cicero says, penitus insident. The place ♦where they stood was afterwards called penetralia, and they themselves received the name of Penetrales. It was in the option of every master of a family to choose his Penates, and therefore Jupiter, and some of the superior gods, are often invoked as patrons of domestic affairs. According to some, the gods Penates were divided into four classes; the first comprehended all the celestial, the second the sea-gods, the third the gods of hell, and the last all such heroes as had received divine honours after death. The Penates were originally the manes of the dead, but when superstition had taught mankind to pay uncommon reverence to the statues and images of their deceased friends, their attention was soon exchanged for regular worship, and they were admitted by their votaries to share immortality and power over the world, with a Jupiter or a Minerva. The statues of the Penates were generally made with wax, ivory, silver, or earth, according to the affluence of the worshipper, and the only offerings they received were wine, incense, fruits, and sometimes the sacrifice of lambs, sheep, goats, &c. In the early ages of Rome, human sacrifices were offered to them; but Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins, abolished this unnatural custom. When offerings were made to them, their statues were crowned with garlands, poppies, or garlic, and besides the monthly day that was set apart for their worship, their festivals were celebrated during the Saturnalia. Some have confounded the Lares and the Penates, but they were different. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 27; Against Verres, bk. 2.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.

♦ ‘were’ replaced with ‘where’

Pendalium, a promontory of Cyprus.

Pēneia, or Penēis, an epithet applied to Daphne, as daughter of Peneus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 452.

Penelius, one of the Greeks killed in the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 494.——A son of Hippalmus among the Argonauts.

Pēnĕlŏpe, a celebrated princess of Greece, daughter of Icarius, and wife of Ulysses king of Ithaca. Her marriage with Ulysses was celebrated about the same time that Menelaus married Helen, and she retired with her husband to Ithaca, against the inclination of her father, who wished to detain her at Sparta, her native country. She soon after became mother of Telemachus, and was obliged to part with great reluctance from her husband, whom the Greeks obliged to go to the Trojan war. See: Palamedes. The continuation of hostilities for 10 years made her sad and melancholy; but when Ulysses did not return like the other princes of Greece at the conclusion of the war, her fears and her anxieties were increased. As she received no intelligence of his situation, she was soon beset by a number of importuning suitors, who wished her to believe that her husband was shipwrecked, and that therefore, she ought no longer to expect his return, but forget his loss, and fix her choice and affections on one of her numerous admirers. She received their addresses with coldness and disdain; but as she was destitute of power, and a prisoner, as it were, in their hands, she yet flattered them with hopes and promises, and declared that she would make choice of one of them, as soon as she had finished a piece of tapestry, on which she was employed. The work was done in a dilatory manner, and she baffled their eager expectations, by undoing in the night what she had done in the daytime. This artifice of Penelope has given rise to the proverb of Penelope’s web, which is applied to whatever labour can never be ended. The return of Ulysses, after an absence of 20 years, however, delivered her from her fears and from her dangerous suitors. Penelope is described by Homer as a model of female virtue and chastity, but some more modern writers dispute her claims to modesty and continence, and they represent her as the most debauched and voluptuous of her sex. According to their opinions, therefore, she liberally gratified the desires of her suitors, in the absence of her husband, and had a son whom she called Pan, as if to show that he was the offspring of all her admirers. Some, however, suppose that Pan was son of Penelope by Mercury, and that he was born before his mother’s marriage with Ulysses. The god, as it is said, deceived Penelope, under the form of a beautiful goat, as she was tending her father’s flocks on one of the mountains of Arcadia. After the return of Ulysses, Penelope had a daughter, who was called Ptoliporthe; but if we believe the traditions that were long preserved at Mantinea, Ulysses repudiated his wife for her incontinence during his absence, and Penelope fled to Sparta, and afterwards to Mantinea, where she died and was buried. After the death of Ulysses, according to Hyginus, she married Telegonus, her husband’s son by Circe, by order of the goddess Minerva. Some say that her original name was Arnea, or Amirace, and that she was called Penelope, when some river birds called Penelopes had saved her from the waves of the sea, when her father had exposed her. Icarius had attempted to destroy her, because the oracles had told him that his daughter by Peribœa would be the most dissolute of her sex, and a disgrace to his family. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 12.—Homer, Iliad & Odyssey.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 1; Metamorphoses.—Aristotle, History of Animals, bk. 8.—Hyginus, fable 127.—Aristophanes, The Birds.—Pliny, bk. 37.

Pēneus, a river of Thessaly, rising on mount Pindus, and falling into the Thermean gulf, after a wandering course between mount Ossa and Olympus, through the plains of Tempe. It received its name from Peneus, a son of Oceanus and Tethys. The Peneus anciently inundated the plains of Thessaly, till an earthquake separated the mountains Ossa and Olympus, and formed the beautiful vale of Tempe, where the waters formerly stagnated. From this circumstance, therefore, it obtained the name of Arexes, ab ἀρασσω, scindo. Daphne the daughter of the Peneus, according to the fables of the mythologists, was changed into a laurel on the banks of this river. This tradition arises from the quantity of laurels which grow near the Peneus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 452, &c.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 317.—Diodorus, bk. 4.——Also a small river of Elis in Peloponnesus, better known under the name of Araxes. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 24.—Strabo, bks. 8 & 11.

Penidas, one of Alexander’s friends, who went to examine Scythia under pretence of an embassy. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 6.

Penīnæ alpes, a certain part of the Alps. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 38.

Pentapŏlis, a town of India.——A part of Africa near Cyrene. It received this name on account of the five cities which it contained, Cyrene, Arsinoe, Berenice, Ptolemais, or Barce, and Apollonia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 5.——Also part of Palestine, containing the five cities of Gaza, Gath, Ascalon, Azotus, and Ekron.

Pentelĭcus, a mountain of Attica, where were found quarries of beautiful marble. Strabo, bk. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 32.

Penthesĭlēa, a queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars by Otrera, or Orithya. She came to assist Priam in the last years of the Trojan war, and fought against Achilles, by whom she was slain. The hero was so struck with the beauty of Penthesilea, when he stripped her of her arms, that he even shed tears for having too violently sacrificed her to his fury. Thersites laughed at the partiality of the hero, for which ridicule he was instantly killed. Lycophron says that Achilles slew Thersites because he had put out the eyes of Penthesilea when she was yet alive. The scholiast of Lycophron differs from that opinion, and declares, that it was commonly believed that Achilles offered violence to the body of Penthesilea when she was dead, and that Thersites was killed because he had reproached the hero for this infamous action, in the presence of all the Greeks. The death of Thersites so offended Diomedes that he dragged the body of Penthesilea out of the camp, and threw it into the Scamander. It is generally supposed that Achilles was enamoured of the Amazon before he fought with her, and that she had by him a son called Cayster. Dictys Cretensis, bks. 3 & 4.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 31.—Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bk. 1.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 495; bk. 11, li. 662.—Dares Phrygius.—Lycophron, Cassandra, li. 995, &c.—Hyginus, fable 112.

Pentheus, son of Echion and Agave, was king of Thebes in Bœotia. His refusal to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus was attended with the most fatal consequences. He forbade his subjects to pay adoration to this new god; and when the Theban women had gone out of the city to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus, Pentheus, apprised of the debauchery which attended the solemnity, ordered the god himself, who conducted the religious multitude, to be seized. His orders were obeyed with reluctance, but when the doors of the prison in which Bacchus had been confined opened of their own accord, Pentheus became more irritated, and commanded his soldiers to destroy the whole band of the bacchanals. This, however, was not executed, for Bacchus inspired the monarch with the ardent desire of seeing the celebration of the orgies. Accordingly, he hid himself in a wood on mount Cithæron, from whence he could see all the ceremonies unperceived. But here his curiosity soon proved fatal; he was descried by the bacchanals, and they all rushed upon him. His mother was the first who attacked him, and her example was instantly followed by her two sisters, Ino and Autonoe, and his body was torn to pieces. Euripides introduces Bacchus among his priestesses, when Pentheus was put to death; but Ovid, who relates the whole in the same manner, differs from the Greek poet only in saying, that not Bacchus himself, but one of his priests, was present. The tree on which the bacchanals found Pentheus, was cut down by the Corinthians, by order of the oracle, and with it two statues of the god of wine were made, and placed in their forum. Hyginus, fable 184.—Theocritus, poem 26.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, fables 7, 8, & 9.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 469.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Euripides, Bacchæ.—Seneca, Phœnissæ & Hippolytus.

Penthĭlus, a son of Orestes by Erigone the daughter of Ægysthus, who reigned conjointly with his brother Tisamenus at Argos. He was driven some time after from his throne by the Heraclidæ, and he retired to Achaia, and thence to Lesbos, where he planted a colony. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Paterculus bk. 1, ch. 1.

Penthylus, a prince of Paphos, who assisted Xerxes with 12 ships. He was seized by the Greeks, to whom he communicated many important things concerning the situation of the Persians, &c. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 195.

Pepărēthos, a small island of the Ægean sea, on the coast of Macedonia, about 20 miles in circumference. It abounded in olives, and its wines have always been reckoned excellent. They were not, however, palatable before they were seven years old. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 470.—Livy, bk. 28, ch. 5; bk. 31, ch. 58.

Pephnos, a town of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 26.

Pephrēdo, a sea nymph, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. She was born with white hair, and thence surnamed Graia. She had a sister called Enyo. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 270.—Apollodorus.

Peræa, or Beræa, a country of Judæa, near Egypt. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 14.——A part of Caria, opposite to Rhodes. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 33.——A colony of the Mityleneans in Æolia. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 21.

Perasippus, an ambassador sent to Darius by the Lacedæmonians, &c. Curtius, bk. 3, ch. 13.

Percōpe, or Percote, a city which assisted Priam during the Trojan war. See: Percote.

Percosius, a man acquainted with futurity. He attempted in vain to dissuade his two sons from going to the Trojan war by telling them that they should perish there.

Percōte, a town on the Hellespont, between Abydos and Lampsacus, near the sea-shore. Artaxerxes gave it to Themistocles, to maintain his wardrobe. It is sometimes called Percope. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 117.—Homer.

Perdiccas, the fourth king of Macedonia, B.C. 729, was descended from Temenus. He increased his dominions by conquest, and in the latter part of his life, he showed his son Argeus where he wished to be buried, and told him, that as long as the bones of his descendants and successors on the throne of Macedonia were laid in the same grave, so long would the crown remain in their family. These injunctions were observed till the time of Alexander, who was buried out of Macedonia. Herodotus, bks. 7 & 8.—Justin, bk. 7, ch. 2.——Another, king of Macedonia, son of Alexander. He reigned during the Peloponnesian war, and assisted the Lacedæmonians against Athens. He behaved with great courage on the throne, and died B.C. 413, after a long reign of glory and independence, during which he had subdued some of his barbarian neighbours.——Another, king of Macedonia, who was supported on his throne by Iphicrates the Athenian against the intrusions of Pausanias. He was killed in a war against the Illyrians, B.C. 360. Justin, bk. 7, &c.——One of the friends and favourites of Alexander the Great. At the king’s death he wished to make himself absolute; and the ring which he had received from the hand of the dying Alexander, seemed in some measure to favour his pretensions. The better to support his claims to the throne, he married Cleopatra the sister of Alexander, and strengthened himself by making a league with Eumenes. His ambitious views were easily discovered by Antigonus, and the rest of the generals of Alexander, who all wished, like Perdiccas, to succeed to the kingdom and honours of the deceased monarch. Antipater, Craterus, and Ptolemy, leagued with Antigonus against him, and after much bloodshed on both sides, Perdiccas was totally ruined, and at last assassinated in his tent in Egypt, by his own officers, about 321 years before the christian era. Perdiccas had not the prudence and the address which were necessary to conciliate the esteem and gain the attachment of his fellow-soldiers, and this impropriety of his conduct alienated the heart of his friends, and at last proved his destruction. Plutarch, Alexander.—Diodorus, bks. 17 & 18.—Curtius, bk. 10.—Cornelius Nepos, Eumenes.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12.

Perdix, a young Athenian, son of the sister of Dædalus. He invented the saw, and seemed to promise to become a greater artist than had ever been known. His uncle was jealous of his rising fame, and he threw him down from the top of a tower and put him to death. Perdix was changed into a bird which bears his name. Hyginus, fables 39 & 274.—Apollodorus, bk. 4, ch. 15.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 220, &c.

Perenna. See: Anna.

Perennis, a favourite of the emperor Commodus. He is described by some as a virtuous and impartial magistrate, while others paint him as a cruel, violent, and oppressive tyrant, who committed the greatest barbarities to enrich himself. He was put to death for aspiring to the empire. Herodian.

Pereus, a son of Elatus and Laodice, grandson of Arcas. He left only one daughter, called Neæra, who was mother of Auge, and of Cepheus and Lycurgus. Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.

Perga, a town of Pamphylia. See: Perge, Livy, bk. 38, ch. 57.

Pergămus (Pergama plural), the citadel of the city of Troy. The word is often used for Troy. It was situated in the most elevated part of the town, on the shores of the river Scamander. Xerxes mounted to the top of this citadel when he reviewed his troops as he marched to invade Greece. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 43.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 466, &c.

Pergamus, now Pergamo, a town of Mysia, on the banks of the Caycus. It was the capital of a celebrated empire called the kingdom of Pergamus, which was founded by Philæterus, a eunuch, whom Lysimachus, after the battle of Ipsus, had entrusted with the treasures which he had obtained in the war. Philæterus made himself master of the treasures and of Pergamus, in which they were deposited, B.C. 283, and laid the foundation of an empire, over which he himself presided for 20 years. His successors began to reign in the following order: His nephew Eumenes ascended the throne 263 B.C.; Attalus, 241; ♦Eumenes II., 197; Attalus Philadelphus, 159; Attalus Philomator, 138, who, B.C. 133, left the Roman people heirs to his kingdom, as he had no children. The right of the Romans, however, was disputed by a usurper, who claimed the empire as his own, and Aquilius the Roman general was obliged to conquer the different cities one by one, and to gain their submission by poisoning the waters which were conveyed to their houses till the whole was reduced into the form of a dependent province. The capital of the kingdom of Pergamus was famous for a library of 200,000 volumes, which had been collected by the different monarchs who had reigned there. This noble collection was afterwards transported to Egypt by Cleopatra, with the permission of Antony, and it adorned and enriched the Alexandrian library, till it was most fatally destroyed by the Saracens, A.D. 642. Parchment was first invented and made use of at Pergamus, to transcribe books, as Ptolemy king of Egypt had forbidden the exportation of papyrus from his kingdom, in order to prevent Eumenes from making a library as valuable and as choice as that of Alexandria. From this circumstance parchment has been called charta pergamena. Galenus the physician and Apollodorus the mythologist were born there. Æsculapius was the chief deity of the country. Pliny, bks. 5 & 15.—Isidorus, bk. 6, ch. 11.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Livy, bk. 29, ch. 11; bk. 31, ch. 46.—Pliny, bk. 10, ch. 21; bk. 13, ch. 11.——A son of Neoptolemus and Andromache, who, as some suppose, founded Pergamus in Asia. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.

♦ ‘Enmenes’ replaced with ‘Eumenes’

Perge, a town of Pamphylia, where Diana had a magnificent temple, whence her surname of Pergæa. Apollonius the geometrician was born there. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 14.—Strabo, bk. 14.

Pergus, a lake of Sicily near Enna, where Proserpine was carried away by Pluto. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 386.

Perĭander, a tyrant of Corinth, son of Cypselus. The first years of his government were mild and popular, but he soon learnt to become oppressive, when he had consulted the tyrant of Sicily, about the surest way of reigning. He received no other answer but whatever explanation he wished to place on the Sicilian tyrant’s having, in the presence of his messenger, plucked, in a field, all the ears of corn which seemed to tower above the rest. Periander understood the meaning of this answer. He immediately surrounded himself with a numerous guard, and put to death the richest and most powerful citizens of Corinth. He was not only cruel to his subjects, but his family also were objects of his vengeance. He committed incest with his mother, and put to death his wife Melissa, upon false accusation. He also banished his son Lycophron to the island of Corcyra, because the youth pitied and wept at the miserable end of his mother, and detested the barbarities of his father. Periander died about 585 years before the christian era, in his 80th year, and by the meanness of his flatterers, he was reckoned one of the seven wise men of Greece. Though he was tyrannical, yet he patronized the fine arts; he was fond of peace, and he showed himself the friend and the protector of genius and of learning. He used to say that a man ought solemnly to keep his word, but not to hesitate to break it if ever it clashed with his interest. He said also, that not only crimes ought to be punished, but also every wicked and corrupt thought. Diogenes Laërtius in Lives.—Aristotle, bk. 5, Politics.—Pausanias, bk. 2.——A tyrant of Ambracia, whom some rank with the seven wise men of Greece, and not the tyrant of Corinth.——A man distinguished as a physician, but contemptible as a poet. Plutarch.—Lucan.

Periarchus, a naval commander of Sparta, conquered by Conon. Diodorus.

Peribœa, the second wife of Œneus king of Calydon, was daughter of Hipponous. She became mother of Tydeus. Some suppose that Œneus debauched her, and afterwards married her. Hyginus, fable 69.——A daughter of Alcathous, sold by her father on suspicion that she was courted by Telamon, son of Æacus king of Ægina. She was carried to Cyprus, where Telamon the founder of Salamis married her, and she became mother of Ajax. She also married Theseus, according to some. She is also called Eribœa. Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 17 & 42.—Hyginus, fable 97.——The wife of Polybus king of Corinth, who educated Œdipus as her own child.——A daughter of Eurymedon, who became mother of Nausithous by Neptune.——The mother of Penelope, according to some authors.

Peribomius, a noted debauchee, &c. Juvenal, satire 2, li. 16.

Perĭcles, an Athenian of a noble family, son of Xanthippus and Agariste. He was naturally endowed with great powers, which he improved by attending the lectures of Damon, of Zeno, and of Anaxagoras. Under these celebrated masters, he became a commander, a statesman, and an orator, and gained the affections of the people by his uncommon address and well-directed liberality. When he took a share in the administration of public affairs, he rendered himself popular by opposing Cimon, who was the favourite of the nobility; and to remove every obstacle which stood in the way of his ambition, he lessened the dignity and the power of the court of the Areopagus, which the people had been taught for ages to respect and to venerate. He also attacked Cimon, and caused him to be banished by the ostracism. Thucydides also, who had succeeded Cimon on his banishment, shared the same fate, and Pericles remained for 15 years the sole minister, and, as it may be said, the absolute sovereign of a republic which always showed itself so jealous of her liberties, and which distrusted so much the honesty of her magistrates. In his ministerial capacity Pericles did not enrich himself, but the prosperity of Athens was the object of his administration. He made war against the Lacedæmonians, and restored the temple of Delphi to the care of the Phocians, who had been illegally deprived of that honourable trust. He obtained a victory over the Sicyonians near Nemæa, and waged a successful war against the inhabitants of Samos, at the request of his favourite mistress, Aspasia. The Peloponnesian war was fomented by his ambitious views [See: Peloponnesiacum bellum], and when he had warmly represented the flourishing state, the opulence, and actual power of his country, the Athenians did not hesitate a moment to undertake a war against the most powerful republics of Greece, a war which continued for 27 years, and which was concluded by the destruction of their empire, and the demolition of their walls. The arms of the Athenians were for some time crowned with success; but an unfortunate expedition raised clamours against Pericles, and the enraged populace attributed all their losses to him, and to make atonement for their ill success, they condemned him to pay 50 talents. This loss of popular favour by republican caprice, did not so much affect Pericles as the recent death of all his children; and when the tide of unpopularity was passed by, he condescended to come into the public assembly, and to view with secret pride the contrition of his fellow-citizens, who universally begged his forgiveness for the violence which they had offered to his ministerial character. He was again restored to all his honours, and if possible invested with more power and more authority than before; but the dreadful pestilence which had diminished the number of his family proved fatal to him, and about 429 years before Christ in his 70th year, he fell a sacrifice to that terrible malady which robbed Athens of so many of her citizens. Pericles was for 40 years at the head of the administration, 25 with others, and 15 alone; and the flourishing state of the empire during his government gave occasion to the Athenians publicly to lament his loss, and venerate his memory. As he was expiring, and seemingly senseless, his friends that stood around his bed expatiated with warmth on the most glorious actions of his life, and the victories which he had won, when he suddenly interrupted their tears and conversation, by saying that, in mentioning the exploits that he had achieved, and which were common to him with all generals, they had forgotten to mention a circumstance which reflected far greater glory upon him as a minister, a general, and above all, as a man. “It is,” says he, “that not a citizen in Athens has been obliged to put on mourning on my account.” The Athenians were so pleased with his eloquence that they compared it to thunder and lightning, and, as to another father of the gods, they gave him the surname of Olympian. The poets, his flatterers, said that the goddess of persuasion, with all her charms and attractions, dwelt upon his tongue. When he marched at the head of the Athenian armies, Pericles observed that he had the command of a free nation that were Greeks, and citizens of Athens. He also declared, that not only the hand of a magistrate, but also his eyes and his tongue, should be pure and undefiled. Yet great and venerable as his character may appear, we must not forget the follies of Pericles. His vicious partiality for the celebrated courtesan Aspasia subjected him to the ridicule and the censure of his fellow-citizens; but if he triumphed over satire and malevolent remarks, the Athenians had occasion to execrate the memory of a man who by his example corrupted the purity and innocence of their morals, and who made licentiousness respectable, and the indulgence of every impure desire the qualification of the soldier as well as of the senator. Pericles lost all his legitimate children by the pestilence, and to call a natural son by his own name he was obliged to repeal a law which he had made against spurious children, and which he had enforced with great severity. This son, called Pericles, became one ♦of the 10 generals who succeeded Alcibiades in the administration of affairs, and, like his colleagues, he was condemned to death by the Athenians, after the unfortunate battle of Arginusæ. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 25.—Plutarch, Lives.—Quintilian, bk. 12, ch. 9.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 3.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 4, ch. 10.—Xenophon, Hellenica.—Thucydides.

♦ duplicate ‘of’ removed

Periclymĕnus, one of the 12 sons of Neleus, brother to Nestor, killed by Hercules. He was one of the Argonauts, and had received from Neptune his grandfather the power of changing himself into whatever shape he pleased. Apollodorus.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 556.

Peridia, a Theban woman, whose son was killed by Turnus in the Rutulian war. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 515.

Periegētes Dionysius, a poet. See: Dionysius.

Periēres, a son of Æolus, or, according to others, of Cynortas. Apollodorus.——The charioteer of Menœceus. Apollodorus.

Perigĕnes, an officer of Ptolemy, &c.

Perigŏne, a woman who had a son called Melanippus by Theseus. She was daughter of Synnis the famous robber, whom Theseus killed. She married Deioneus the son of Eurytus, by consent of Theseus. Plutarch, Theseus.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 25.

Perilāus, an officer in the army of Alexander the Great. Curtius, bk. 10.——A tyrant of Argos.

Perilēus, a son of Icarius and Peribœa.

Perilla, a daughter of Ovid the poet. She was extremely fond of poetry and literature. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 1.

Perillus, an ingenious artist at Athens, who made a brazen bull for Phalaris tyrant of Agrigentum. This machine was fabricated to put criminals to death by burning them alive, and it was such that their cries were like the roaring of a bull. When Perillus gave it to Phalaris, the tyrant made the first experiment upon the donor, and cruelly put him to death by lighting a slow fire under the belly of the bull. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.—Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, li. 653; Ibis, li. 439.——A lawyer and usurer in the age of Horace. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 75.

Perimēde, a daughter of Æolus, who married Achelous.——The wife of Licymnius.——A woman skilled in the knowledge of herbs and of enchantments. Theocritus, poem 2.

Perimēla, a daughter of Hippodamus, thrown into the sea for receiving the addresses of the Achelous. She was changed into an island in the Ionian sea, and became one of the Echinades. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 690.

Perinthia, a play of Menander’s. Terence, Andria, prologue, li. 9.

Pĕrinthus, a town of Thrace, on the Propontis, anciently surnamed Mygdonica. It was afterwards called Heraclea, in honour of Hercules, and now Erekli. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 29.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.—Livy, bk. 33, ch. 30.

Peripatetĭci, a sect of philosophers at Athens, disciples to Aristotle. They derived this name from the place where they were taught, called Peripaton, in the Lyceum, or because they received the philosopher’s lectures as they walked (περιπατουντες). The Peripatetics acknowledged the dignity of human nature, and placed their summum bonum, not in the pleasures of passive sensation, but in the due exercise of the moral and intellectual faculties. The habit of this exercise, when guided by reason, constituted the highest excellence of man. The philosopher contended that our own happiness chiefly depends upon ourselves, and though he did not require in his followers that self-command to which others pretended, yet he allowed a moderate degree of perturbation, as becoming human nature, and he considered a certain sensibility of passion totally necessary, as by resentment we are enabled to repel injuries, and the smart which past calamities have inflicted renders us careful to avoid the repetition. Cicero, Academica, bk. 2, &c.

Perĭphas, a man who attempted, with Pyrrhus, Priam’s palace, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 476.——A son of Ægyptus, who married Actæa. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1.——One of the Lapithæ. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 449.——One of the first kings of Attica, before the age of Cecrops, according to some authors.

Periphēmus, an ancient hero of Greece, to whom Solon sacrificed at Salamis, by order of the oracle.

♦Periphētes, a robber of Attica, son of Vulcan, destroyed by Theseus. He is also called Corynetes. Hyginus, fable 38.—Diodorus, bk. 5.

♦ ‘Periphātes’ replaced with ‘Periphētes’
Resorted in alphebetical order.

Perisades, a people of Illyricum.

Peristhĕnes, a son of Ægyptus, who married Electra. Apollodorus.

Peritanus, an Arcadian who enjoyed the company of Helen after her elopement with Paris. The offended lover punished the crime by mutilation, whence mutilated persons were called Peritani in Arcadia. Ptolemy Hephæstion, bk. 1, near the beginning.

Peritas, a favourite dog of Alexander the Great, in whose honour the monarch built a city.

Peritonium, a town of Egypt, on the western side of the Nile, esteemed of great importance, as being one of the keys of the country. Antony was defeated there by Caius Gallus the lieutenant of Augustus.

Permessus, a river of Bœotia, rising in mount Helicon, and flowing all round it. It received its name from Permessus, the father of a nymph called Aganippe, who also gave her name to one of the fountains of Helicon. The river Permessus, as well as the fountain Aganippe, were sacred to the Muses. Strabo, bk. 8.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 8.

Pero, or Perone, a daughter of Neleus king of Pylos by Chloris. Her beauty drew many admirers, but she married Bias son of Amythaon, because he had by the assistance of his brother Melampus [See: Melampus], and according to her father’s desire, recovered some oxen which Hercules had stolen away; and she became mother of Talaus. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 284.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 2, li. 17.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 36.——A daughter of Cimon, remarkable for her filial affection. When her father had been sent to prison, where his judges had condemned him to starve, she supported his life by giving him the milk of her breasts, as to her own child. Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.

Peroe, a fountain of Bœotia, called after Peroe, a daughter of the Asopus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 4.

Perola, a Roman who meditated the death of Hannibal in Italy. His father Pacuvius dissuaded him from assassinating the Carthaginian general.

Perpenna Marcus, a Roman who conquered Aristonicus in Asia, and took him prisoner. He died B.C. 130.——Another, who joined the rebellion of Sertorius, and opposed Pompey. He was defeated by Metellus, and some time after he had the meanness to assassinate Sertorius, whom he had invited to his house. He fell into the hands of Pompey, who ordered him to be put to death. Plutarch, Sertorius.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 30.——A Greek who obtained the consulship at Rome. Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Perperēne, a place of Phrygia, where, as some suppose, Paris adjudged the prize of beauty to Venus. Strabo, bk. 5.

Perranthes, a hill of Epirus, near Ambracia. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 4.

Perrhæbia, a part of Thessaly situate on the borders of the Peneus, extending between the town of Atrax and the vale of Tempe. The inhabitants were driven from their possessions by the Lapithæ, and retired into Ætolia, where part of the country received the name of Perrhæbia. Propertius, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 33—Strabo, bk. 9.—Livy, bk. 33, ch. 34; bk. 39, ch. 34.

Persa, or Perseis, one of the Oceanides, mother of Æetes, Circe, and Pasiphae by Apollo. Hesiod, Theogony.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.

Persæ, the inhabitants of Persia. See: Persia.

Persæus, a philosopher intimate with Antigonus, by whom he was appointed over the Acrocorinth. He flourished B.C. 274. Diogenes Laërtius, Zeno of Citium.

Persēe, a fountain near Mycenæ, in Peloponnesus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 16.

Persēis, one of the Oceanides.——A patronymic of Hecate, as daughter of Perses. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 69.

Persĕphŏne, a daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, called also Proserpine. See: Proserpina.——The mother of Amphion by Jasus.

Persĕpŏlis, a celebrated city, the capital of the Persian empire. It was laid in ruins by Alexander after the conquest of Darius. The reason of this is unknown. Diodorus says that the sight of about 800 Greeks, whom the Persians had shamefully mutilated, so irritated Alexander, that he resolved to punish the barbarity of the inhabitants of Persepolis, and of the neighbouring country, by permitting his soldiers to plunder their capital. Others suppose that Alexander set it on fire at the instigation of Thias, one of his courtesans, when he had passed the day in drinking and in riot and debauchery. The ruins of Persepolis, now Estakar, or Tehel-Minar, still astonish the modern traveller by their grandeur and magnificence. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 7.—Diodorus, bk. 17, &c.—Arrian.—Plutarch, Alexander.—Justin, bk. 11, ch. 14.

Perses, a son of Perseus and Andromeda. From him the Persians, who were originally called Cephenes, received their name. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 61.——A king of Macedonia. See: Perseus.

Perseus, a son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of Acrisius. As Acrisius had confined his daughter in a brazen tower to prevent her becoming a mother, because he was to perish, according to the words of an oracle, by the hands of his daughter’s son, Perseus was no sooner born [See: Danae] than he was thrown into the sea with his mother Danae. The hopes of Acrisius were frustrated; the slender boat which carried Danae and her son was driven by the winds on the coasts of the island of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, where they were found by a fisherman called Dictys, and carried to Polydectes the king of the place. They were treated with great humanity, and Perseus was entrusted to the care of the priests of Minerva’s temple. His rising genius and manly courage, however, soon displeased Polydectes, and the monarch, who wished to offer violence to Danae, feared the resentment of her son. Yet Polydectes resolved to remove every obstacle. He invited all his friends to a sumptuous entertainment, and it was requisite that all such as came should present the monarch with a beautiful horse. Perseus was in the number of the invited, and the more particularly so, as Polydectes knew that he could not receive from him the present which he expected from all the rest. Nevertheless, Perseus, who wished not to appear inferior to the others in magnificence, told the king that as he could not give him a horse, he would bring him the head of Medusa, the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality. The offer was doubly agreeable to Polydectes, as it would remove Perseus from Seriphos, and on account of its seeming impossibility, the attempt might perhaps end in his ruin. But the innocence of Perseus was patronized by the gods. Pluto lent him his helmet, which had the wonderful power of making its bearer invisible; Minerva gave him her buckler, which was as resplendent as glass; and he received from Mercury wings and the talaria, with a short dagger, made of diamonds, and called herpe. According to some it was from Vulcan, and not from Mercury, that he received the herpe, which was in form like a scythe. With these arms Perseus began his expedition, and traversed the air, conducted by the goddess Minerva. He went to the Graiæ, the sisters of the Gorgons, who, according to the poets, had wings like the Gorgons, but only one eye and one tooth between them all, of which they made use, each in her turn. They were three in number, according to Æschylus and Apollodorus; or only two, according to Ovid and Hesiod. With Pluto’s helmet, which rendered him invisible, Perseus was enabled to steal their eye and their tooth while they were asleep, and he returned them only when they had informed him where their sisters the Gorgons resided. When he had received every necessary information, Perseus flew to the habitation of the Gorgons, which was situate beyond the western ocean, according to Hesiod and Apollodorus; or in Libya, according to Ovid and Lucan; or in the deserts of Asiatic Scythia, according to Æschylus. He found these monsters asleep; and as he knew that if he fixed his eyes upon them, he should be instantly changed into a stone, he continually looked on his shield, which reflected all the objects as clearly as the best of glasses. He approached them, and with a courage which the goddess Minerva supported, he cut off Medusa’s head with one blow. The noise awoke the two immortal sisters, but Pluto’s helmet rendered Perseus invisible, and the attempts of the Gorgons to revenge Medusa’s death proved fruitless; the conqueror made his way through the air, and from the blood which dropped from Medusa’s head sprang all those innumerable serpents which have ever since infested the sandy deserts of Libya. Chrysaor also, with the golden sword, sprung from these drops of blood, as well as the horse Pegasus, which immediately flew through the air, and stopped on mount Helicon, where he became the favourite of the Muses. Meantime Perseus had continued his journey across the deserts of Libya; but the approach of night obliged him to alight in the territories of Atlas king of Mauritania. He went to the monarch’s palace, where he hoped to find a kind reception by announcing himself as the son of Jupiter, but in this he was disappointed. Atlas recollected that, according to an ancient oracle, his gardens were to be robbed of their fruit by one of the sons of Jupiter, and therefore he not only refused Perseus the hospitality which he demanded, but he even offered violence to his person. Perseus, finding himself inferior to his powerful enemy, showed him Medusa’s head, and instantly Atlas was changed into a large mountain which bore the same name in the deserts of Africa. On the morrow Perseus continued his flight, and as he passed across the territories of Libya, he discovered, on the coasts of Æthiopia, the naked Andromeda, exposed to a sea monster. He was struck at the sight, and offered her father Cepheus to deliver her from instant death, if he obtained her in marriage as a reward of his labours. Cepheus consented, and immediately Perseus raised himself in the air, flew towards the monster, which was advancing to devour Andromeda, and he plunged his dagger in ♦its right shoulder, and destroyed it. This happy event was attended with the greatest rejoicings. Perseus raised three altars to Mercury, Jupiter, and Pallas, and after he had offered the sacrifice of a calf, a bullock, and a heifer, the nuptials were celebrated with the greatest festivity. The universal joy, however, was soon disturbed. Phineus, Andromeda’s uncle, entered the palace with a number of armed men, and attempted to carry away the bride, whom he had courted and admired long before the arrival of Perseus. The father and mother of Andromeda interfered, but in vain; a bloody battle ensued, and Perseus must have fallen a victim to the rage of Phineus, had not he defended himself at last with the same arms which proved fatal to Atlas. He showed the Gorgon’s head to his adversaries, and they were instantly turned to stone, each in the posture and attitude in which he then stood. The friends of Cepheus, and such as supported Perseus, shared not the fate of Phineus, as the hero had previously warned them of the power of Medusa’s head, and of the services which he received from it. Soon after this memorable adventure Perseus retired to Seriphos, at the very moment that his mother Danae fled to the altar of Minerva, to avoid the pursuit of Polydectes, who attempted to offer her violence. Dictys, who had saved her from the sea, and who, as some say, was the brother of Polydectes, defended her against the attempts of her enemies, and therefore Perseus, sensible of his merit, and of his humanity, placed him on the throne of Seriphos, after he had with Medusa’s head turned into stones the wicked Polydectes, and the officers who were the associates of his guilt. He afterwards restored to Mercury his talaria and his wings, to Pluto his helmet, to Vulcan his sword, and to Minerva her shield; but as he was more particularly indebted to the goddess of wisdom for her assistance and protection, he placed the Gorgon’s head on her shield, or rather, according to the more received opinion, on her ægis. After he had finished these celebrated exploits, Perseus expressed a wish to return to his native country; and accordingly he embarked for the Peloponnesus, with his mother and Andromeda. When he reached the Peloponnesian coasts he was informed that Teutamias king of Larissa was then celebrating funeral games in honour of his father. This intelligence drew him to Larissa to signalize himself in throwing the quoit, of which, according to some, he was the inventor. But here he was attended by an evil fate, and had the misfortune to kill a man with a quoit which he had thrown in the air. This was no other than his grandfather Acrisius, who, on the first intelligence that his grandson had reached the Peloponnesus, fled from his kingdom of Argos to the court of his friend and ally Teutamias, to prevent the fulfilling of the oracle which had obliged him to treat his daughter with so much barbarity. Some suppose, with Pausanias, that Acrisius had gone to Larissa to be reconciled to his grandson, whose fame had been spread in every city of Greece; and Ovid maintains that the grandfather was under the strongest obligations to his son-in-law, as through him he had received his kingdom, from which he had been forcibly driven by the sons of his brother Prœtus. This unfortunate murder greatly depressed the spirits of Perseus: by the death of Acrisius he was entitled to the throne of Argos, but he refused to reign there; and to remove himself from a place which reminded him of the parricide which he had unfortunately committed, he exchanged his kingdom for that of Tirynthus, and the maritime coast of Argolis, where Megapenthes the son of Prœtus then reigned. When he had finally settled in this part of the Peloponnesus, he determined to lay the foundations of a new city, which he made the capital of his dominions, and which he called Mycenæ, because the pommel of his sword, called by the Greeks myces, had fallen there. The time of his death is unknown, yet it is universally agreed that he received divine honours like the rest of the ancient heroes. He had statues at Mycenæ, and in the island of Seriphos, and the Athenians raised him a temple, in which they consecrated an altar in honour of Dictys, who had treated Danae and her infant son with so much paternal tenderness. The Egyptians also paid particular honour to his memory, and asserted that he often appeared among them wearing shoes two cubits long, which was always interpreted as a sign of fertility. Perseus had by Andromeda, Alceus, Sthenelus, Nestor, Electryon, and Gorgophone, and after death, according to some mythologists, he became a constellation in the heavens. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 91.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18; bk. 3, ch. 17, &c.—Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 4, li. 1509.—Silius Italicus, bk. 9, li. 442.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 16; bk. 5, fable 1, &c.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 668.—Hyginus, fable 64.—Hesiod, Theogony, li. 270, & Shield of Heracles.—Pindar, Pythian, li. 7, & Olympian, bk. 3.—Silius Italicus, bk. 9.—Propertius, bk. 2.—Athenæus, bk. 13.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 14.—Tzetzes, on Lycophron, ch. 17.——A son of Nestor and Anaxibia. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——A writer who published a treatise on the republic of Sparta.——A philosopher, disciple to Zeno. See: Persæus.

♦ ‘his’ replaced with ‘its’

Perseus, or Perses, a son of Philip king of Macedonia. He distinguished himself, like his father, by his enmity to the Romans, and when he had made sufficient preparations, he declared war against them. His operations, however, were slow and injudicious; he wanted courage and resolution, and though he at first obtained some advantage over the Roman armies, yet his avarice and his timidity proved destructive to his cause. When Paulus was appointed to the command of the Roman armies in Macedonia, Perseus showed his inferiority by his imprudent encampments, and when he had at last yielded to the advice of his officers, who recommended a general engagement, and drawn up his forces near the walls of Pydna, B.C. 168, he was the first who ruined his own cause, and, by flying as soon as the battle was begun, he left the enemy masters of the field. From ♦Pydna, Perseus fled to Samothrace, but he was soon discovered in his obscure retreat, and brought into the presence of the Roman conqueror, where the meanness of his behaviour exposed him to ridicule, and not to mercy. He was carried to Rome, and dragged along the streets of the city to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. His family was also exposed to the sight of the Roman populace, who shed tears on viewing in their streets, dragged like a slave, a monarch who had once defeated their armies, and spread alarm all over Italy, by the greatness of his military preparations, and by his bold undertakings. Perseus died in prison, or, according to some, he was put to a shameful death the first year of his captivity. He had two sons, Philip and Alexander, and one daughter, whose name is not known. Alexander, the younger of these, was hired to a Roman carpenter, and led the greatest part of his life in obscurity, till his ingenuity raised him to notice. He was afterwards made secretary to the senate. Livy, bk. 40, &c.—Justin, bk. 33, ch. 1, &c.—Plutarch, Æmilius Paulus.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 12.—Propertius, bk. 4, poem 12, li. 39.

♦ ‘Pydua’ replaced with ‘Pydna’

Persia, a celebrated kingdom of Asia, which, in its ancient state, extended from the Hellespont to the Indus, above 2800 miles, and from Pontus to the shores of Arabia, above 2000 miles. As a province, Persia was but small, and according to the description of Ptolemy, it was bounded on the north by Media, west by Susiana, south by the Persian gulf, and east by Carmania. The empire of Persia, or the Persian monarchy, was first founded by Cyrus the Great, about 559 years before the christian era, and under the succeeding monarchs it became one of the most considerable and powerful kingdoms of the earth. The kings of Persia began to reign in the following order: Cyrus, B.C. 559; Cambyses 529; and, after the usurpation of Smerdis for seven months, Darius, 521; Xerxes the Great, 485; Artabanus seven months, and Artaxerxes Longimanus, 464; Xerxes II., 425; Sogdianus seven months, 424; Darius II., or Nothus, 423; Artaxerxes II., or Memnon, 404; Artaxerxes III., or Ochus, 358; Arses, or Arogus, 337; and Darius III., or Codomanus, 335, who was conquered by Alexander the Great, 331. The destruction of the Persian monarchy by the Macedonians was easily effected, and from that time Persia became tributary to the Greeks. After the death of Alexander, when the Macedonian empire was divided among the officers of the deceased conqueror, Seleucus Nicanor made himself master of the Persian provinces, till the revolt of the Parthians introduced new revolutions in the east. Persia was partly reconquered from the Greeks, and remained tributary to the Parthians for near 500 years. After this the sovereignty was again placed into the hands of the Persians, by the revolt of Artaxerxes, a common soldier, A.D. 229, who became the founder of the second Persian monarchy, which proved so inimical to the power of the Roman emperors. In their national character, the Persians were warlike, they were early taught to ride, and to handle the bow, and by the manly exercises of hunting, they were inured to bear the toils and fatigues of a military life. Their national valour, however, soon degenerated, and their want of employment at home soon rendered them unfit for war. In the reign of Xerxes, when the empire of Persia was in its most flourishing state, a small number of Greeks were enabled repeatedly to repel for three successive days an almost innumerable army. This celebrated action, which happened at Thermopylæ, shows in a strong light the superiority of the Grecian soldiers over the Persians, and the battles that before, and a short time after, were fought between the two nations at Marathon, Salamis, Platæa, and Mycale, are again an incontestible proof that these Asiatics had more reliance upon their numbers and upon the splendour and richness of their arms, than upon the valour and the discipline of their troops. Their custom, too prevalent among the eastern nations, of introducing luxury into the camp, proved also in some measure destructive to their military reputation, and the view which the ancients give us of the army of Xerxes, of his cooks, stage-dancers, concubines, musicians, and perfumers, is no very favourable sign of the sagacity of a monarch, who, by his nod, could command millions of men to flock to his standard. In their religion the Persians were very superstitious; they paid the greatest veneration to the sun, the moon, and the stars, and they offered sacrifices to fire, but the supreme Deity was never represented by statues among them. They permitted polygamy, and it was no incest among them to marry a sister or a mother. In their punishments they were extremely severe, even to barbarity. The monarch always appeared with the greatest pomp and dignity; his person was attended by a guard of 15,000 men, and he had besides a body of 10,000 chosen horsemen, called immortal. He styled himself, like the rest of the eastern monarchs, the king of kings, as expressive of his greatness and his power. The Persians were formerly called Cephenes, Achæmenians, and Artæi, and they are often confounded with the Parthians by the ancient poets. They received the name of Persians from Perses the son of Perseus and Andromeda, who is supposed to have settled among them. Persepolis was the capital of the country. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 14; bk. 5, ch. 3.—Plutarch, Artaxerxes, Alexander, &c.—Mela, bk. 1, &c.—Strabo, bk. 2, ch. 15.—Xenophon, Cyropædia.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 125, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 2.—Marcellinus, ch. 23.