♦ ‘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:

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 3242l. 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 300l. “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.