A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY, ETC., ETC. (continued 34)

Philiscus, a famous sculptor, whose statues of Latona, Venus, Diana, the Muses, and a naked Apollo, were preserved in the portico belonging to Octavia.――A Greek comic poet. Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 9.――An Athenian who received Cicero when he fled to Macedonia.――An officer of Artaxerxes, appointed to make peace with the Greeks.

Philistion, a comic poet of Nicæa in the age of Socrates. Martial, bk. 2, ltr. 41.――A physician of Locris. Aulus Gellius, bk. 7, ch. 12.

Philistus, a musician of Miletus.――A Syracusan, who, during his banishment from his native country, wrote a history of Sicily, in 12 books, which was commended by some, though condemned for inaccuracy by Pausanias. He was afterwards sent against the Syracusans by Dionysius the younger, and he killed himself when overcome by the enemy, 356 B.C. Plutarch, Dion.—Diodorus, bk. 13.

Phillo, an Arcadian maid, by whom Hercules had a son. The father, named Alcimedon, exposed his daughter, but she was saved by means of her lover, who was directed to the place where she was doomed to perish, by the chirping of a magpie, which imitated the plaintive cries of a child. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 12.

Philo, a Jewish writer of Alexandria, A.D. 40, sent as ambassador from his nation to Caligula. He was unsuccessful in his embassy, of which he wrote an entertaining account; and the emperor, who wished to be worshipped as a god, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Jews, because they refused to place his statues in their temples. He was so happy in his expressions, and elegant in his variety, that he has been called the Jewish Plato, and the book which he wrote on the sufferings of the Jews in the reign of Caius, met with such unbounded applause in the Roman senate, where he read it publicly, that he was permitted to consecrate it in the public libraries. His works were divided into three parts, of which the first related to the creation of the world, the second spoke of sacred history, and in the third the author made mention of the laws and customs of the Jewish nation. The best edition of Philo is that of Mangey, 2 vols., folio, London, 1742.――A man who fell in love with his daughter, called Proserpine, as she was bathing. He had by her a son, Mercurius Trismegistus.――A man who wrote an account of a journey to Arabia.――A philosopher who followed the doctrines of Carneades, B.C. 100.――Another philosopher of Athens, tutor to Cicero.――A grammarian in the first century.――An architect of Byzantium, who flourished about three centuries before the christian era. He built a dock at Athens, where ships were drawn in safety, and protected from storms. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 14.――A Greek christian writer, whose work was edited at Rome, 4to, 1772.――A dialectic philosopher, 260 B.C.

Philobœotus, a mountain of Bœotia. Plutarch.

Philochorus, a man who wrote a history of Athens in 17 books, a catalogue of the archons, two books of olympiads, &c. He died B.C. 222.

Philŏcles, one of the admirals of the Athenian fleet, during the Peloponnesian war. He recommended to his countrymen to cut off the right hand of such of the enemies as were taken, that they might be rendered unfit for service. His plan was adopted by all the 10 admirals except one; but their expectations were frustrated, and instead of being conquerors, they were totally defeated at Ægospotamos by Lysander, and Philocles, with 3000 of his countrymen, was put to death, and denied the honours of a burial. Plutarch, Lysander.――A general of Ptolemy king of Egypt.――A comic poet.――Another, who wrote tragedies at Athens.

Philocrātes, an Athenian, famous for his treachery, &c.――A writer who published a history of Thessaly.――A servant of Caius Gracchus.――A Greek orator.

Philoctētes, son of Pœan and Demonassa, was one of the Argonauts, according to Flaccus and Hyginus, and the arm-bearer and particular friend of Hercules. He was present at the death of Hercules, and because he had erected the burning pile on which the hero was consumed, he received from him the arrows which had been dipped in the gall of the hydra, after he had bound himself by a solemn oath not to betray the place where his ashes were deposited. He had no sooner paid the last office to Hercules, than he returned to Melibœa, where his father reigned. From thence he visited Sparta, where he became one of the numerous suitors of Helen, and soon after, like the rest of those princes who had courted the daughter of Tyndarus, and who had bound themselves to protect her from injury, he was called upon by Menelaus to accompany the Greeks to the Trojan war, and he immediately set sail from Melibœa with seven ships, and repaired to Aulis, the general rendezvous of the combined fleet. He was here prevented from joining his countrymen, and the offensive smell which arose from a wound in his foot, obliged the Greeks, at the instigation of Ulysses, to remove him from the camp, and he was accordingly carried to the island of Lemnos, or, as others say, to Chryse, where Phimachus the son of Dolophion was ordered to wait upon him. In this solitary retreat he was suffered to remain for some time, till the Greeks, on the tenth year of the Trojan war, were informed by the oracle that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules, which were then in the possession of Philoctetes. Upon this Ulysses, accompanied by Diomedes, or, according to others, by Pyrrhus, was commissioned by the rest of the Grecian army to go to Lemnos, and to prevail upon Philoctetes to come and finish the tedious siege. Philoctetes recollected the ill-treatment which he had received from the Greeks, and particularly from Ulysses, and therefore he not only refused to go to Troy, but he even persuaded Pyrrhus to conduct him to Melibœa. As he embarked, the manes of Hercules forbade him to proceed, but immediately to repair to the Grecian camp, where he should be cured of his wounds, and put an end to the war. Philoctetes obeyed, and after he had been restored to his former health by Æsculapius, or, according to some, by Machaon, or Podalirus, he destroyed an immense number of the Trojan enemy, among whom was Paris the son of Priam, with the arrows of Hercules. When by his valour Troy had been ruined, he set sail from Asia, but as he was unwilling to visit his native country, he came to Italy, where, by the assistance of his Thessalian followers, he was enabled to build a town in Calabria, which he called Petilia. Authors disagree about the causes of the wound which Philoctetes received on the foot. The most ancient mythologists support that it was the bite of the serpent which Juno had sent to torment him, because he had attended Hercules in his last moments, and had buried his ashes. According to another opinion, the princes of the Grecian army obliged him to discover where the ashes of Hercules were deposited, and as he had made an oath not to mention the place, he only with his foot struck the ground where they lay, and by this means concluded he had not violated his solemn engagement. For this, however, he was soon after punished, and the fall of one of the poisoned arrows from his quiver upon the foot which had struck the ground, occasioned so offensive a wound, that the Greeks were obliged to remove him from their camp. The sufferings and adventures of Philoctetes are the subject of one of the best tragedies of Sophocles, Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 46.—Pindar, Pythian, poem 1.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, ch. 14.—Seneca, Hercules.—Sophocles, Philoctetes.—Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bks. 9 & 10.—Hyginus, fables 26, 97, & 102.—Diodorus, bks. 2 & 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 329; bk. 9, li. 234; Tristia, bk. 5, poem 2.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, ch. 2.—Ptolemy, Hephæstion, ch. 6.

Philocyprus, a prince of Cyprus in the age of Solon, by whose advice he changed the situation of a city, which in gratitude he called Soli. Plutarch, Solon.

Philodamēa, one of the Danaides, mother of Phares by Mercury. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 22.

Philodēmus, a poet in the age of Cicero, who rendered himself known by his lascivious and indelicate verses. Cicero, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, bk. 2.—Horace, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 121.――A comic poet, ridiculed by Aristophanes.

Philodĭce, a daughter of Inachus, who married Leucippus.

Philolāus, a son of Minos by the nymph Paria, from whom the island of Paros received its name. Hercules put him to death, because he had killed two of his companions. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.――A Pythagorean philosopher of Crotona, B.C. 374, who first supported the diurnal motion of the earth round its axis, and its annual motion round the sun. Cicero, Academica, bk. 4, ch. 39, has ascribed this opinion to the Syracusan philosopher Nicetas, and likewise to Plato; and from this passage some supposed that Copernicus started the idea of the system which he afterwards established. Diogenes Laërtius.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 3.—Plutarch.――A lawgiver of Thebes. He was a native of Corinth, and of the family of the Bacchiades, &c. Aristotle, bk. 2, Politics, final chapter.――A mechanic of Tarentum.――A surname of Æsculapius, who had a temple in Laconia, near the Asopus.

Philolŏgus, a freedman of Cicero. He betrayed his master to Antony, for which he was tortured by Pomponia the wife of Cicero’s brother, and obliged to cut off his own flesh by piece-meal, and to boil and eat it up. Plutarch, Cicero, &c.

Philomăche, the wife of Pelias king of Iolchos. According to some writers, she was daughter to Amphion king of Thebes, though she is more generally called Anaxibia daughter of Bias. Apollodorus, bk. 1.

Philombrŏtus, an archon at Athens, in whose age the state was entrusted to Solon, when torn by factions. Plutarch, Solon.

Philomēdus, a man who made himself absolute in Phocæa, by promising to assist the inhabitants. Polyænus.

Phĭlŏmēla, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens, and sister to Procne, who had married Tereus king of Thrace. Procne separated from Philomela, to whom she was particularly attached, spent her time in great melancholy till she prevailed upon her husband to go to Athens, and bring his sister to Thrace. Tereus obeyed his wife’s injunctions, but he had no sooner obtained Pandion’s permission to conduct Philomela to Thrace, than he became enamoured of her, and resolved to gratify his passion. He dismissed the guards, whom the suspicions of Pandion had appointed to watch his conduct, and he offered violence to Philomela, and afterwards cut off her tongue, that she might not be able to discover his barbarity, and the indignities which she had suffered. He confined her also in a lonely castle, and after he had taken every precaution to prevent a discovery, he returned to Thrace, and he told Procne that Philomela had died by the way, and that he had paid the last offices to her remains. Procne, at this sad intelligence, put on mourning for the loss of Philomela; but a year had scarcely elapsed before she was secretly informed that her sister was not dead. Philomela, during her captivity, described on a piece of tapestry her misfortunes and the brutality of Tereus, and privately conveyed it to Procne. She was then going to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus when she received it; she disguised her resentment, and as, during the festivals of the god of wine, she was permitted to rove about the country, she hastened to deliver her sister Philomela from her confinement, and she concerted with her on the best measures of punishing the cruelty of Tereus. She murdered her son Itylus, who was in the sixth year of his age, and served him up as food before her husband during the festival. Tereus, in the midst of his repast, called for Itylus, but Procne immediately informed him that he was then feasting on his flesh, and that instant Philomela, by throwing on the table the head of Itylus, convinced the monarch of the cruelty of the scene. He drew his sword to punish Procne and Philomela, but as he was going to stab them to the heart, he was changed into a hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow, and Itylus into a pheasant. This tragical scene happened at Daulis in Phocis; but Pausanias and Strabo, who mention the whole of the story, are silent about the transformation; and the former observes that Tereus, after this bloody repast, fled to Megara, where he destroyed himself. The inhabitants of the place raised a monument to his memory, where they offered yearly sacrifices, and placed small pebbles instead of barley. It was on this monument that the birds called hoopoes were first seen; hence the fable of his metamorphosis. Procne and Philomela died through excess of grief and melancholy, and as the nightingale’s and swallow’s voice is peculiarly plaintive and mournful, the poets have embellished the fable by supposing that the two unfortunate sisters were changed into birds. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 14.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 4.—Hyginus, fable 45.—♦Strabo, bk. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, fables 9 & 10.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, lis. 15 & 511.――A daughter of Actor king of the Myrmidons.

Philomēlum, a town of Phrygia. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 5, ltr. 20; Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 83.

Philomēlus, a general of Phocis, who plundered the temple of Delphi, and died B.C. 354. See: Phocis.――A rich musician. Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 5.

Philon, a general of some Greeks, who settled in Asia. Diodorus, bk. 18.

Philonides, a courier of Alexander, who ran from Sicyon to Elis, 160 miles, in nine hours, and returned the same journey in 15 hours. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 71.

Philonis, a name of Chione daughter of Dædalion, made immortal by Diana.

Philonoe, a daughter of Tyndarus king of Sparta by Leda daughter of Thestius. Apollodorus.――A daughter of Iobates king of Lycia, who married Bellerophon. Pliny, bk. 2.

Philonŏme, a daughter of Nyctimus king of Arcadia, who threw into the Erymanthus two children whom she had by Mars. The children were preserved, and afterwards ascended their grandfather’s throne. Plutarch, Pericles.――The second wife of Cycnus the son of Neptune. She became enamoured of Tennes, her husband’s son by his first wife Proclea the daughter of Clytius, and when he refused to gratify her passion, she accused him of attempts upon her virtue. Cycnus believed the accusation, and ordered Tennes to be thrown into the sea, &c. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 14.

Philonŏmus, a son of Electryon king of Mycenæ by Anaxo. Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Philonus, a village of Egypt. Strabo.

Philopător, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt. See: Ptolemæus.

Philophron, a general who, with 5000 soldiers, defended Pelusium against the Greeks who invaded Egypt. Diodorus, bk. 16.

Philopœmen, a celebrated general of the Achæan league, born at Megalopolis. His father’s name was Grangis. His education was begun and finished under Cassander, Ecdemus, and Demophanes, and he early distinguished himself in the field of battle, and appeared fond of agriculture and a country life. He proposed himself Epaminondas for a model, and he was not unsuccessful in imitating the prudence and the simplicity, the disinterestedness and activity, of this famous Theban. When Megalopolis was attacked by the Spartans, Philopœmen, then in the 30th year of his age, gave the most decisive proofs of his valour and intrepidity. He afterwards assisted Antigonus, and was present in the famous battle in which the Ætolians were defeated. Raised to the rank of chief commander, he showed his ability to discharge that important trust, by killing with his own hand Mechanidas the ♦tyrant of Sparta; and if he was defeated in a naval battle by Nabis, he soon after repaired his losses by taking the capital of Laconia, B.C. 188, and by abolishing the laws of ♠Lycurgus, which had flourished there for such a length of time. Sparta, after its conquest, became tributary to the Achæans, and Philopœmen enjoyed the triumph of having reduced to ruins one of the greatest and the most powerful of the cities of Greece. Some time after the Messenians revolted from the Achæan league, and Philopœmen, who headed the Achæans, unfortunately fell from his horse, and was dragged to the enemy’s camp. ♣Dinocrates the general of the Messenians treated him with great severity; he was thrown into a dungeon, and obliged to drink a dose of poison. When he received the cup from the hand of the executioner, Philopœmen asked him how his countrymen had behaved in the field of battle; and when he heard that they had obtained the victory, he drank the whole with pleasure, exclaiming that this was comfortable news. The death of Philopœmen, which happened about 183 years before the christian era, in his 70th year, was universally lamented, and the Achæans, to revenge his fate, immediately marched to Messenia, where Dinocrates, to avoid their resentment, killed himself. The rest of his murderers were dragged to his tomb, where they were sacrificed; and the people of Megalopolis, to show further their great sense of his merit, ordered a bull to be yearly offered on his tomb, and hymns to be sung in his praise, and his actions to be celebrated in a panegyrical oration. He had also statues raised to his memory, which some of the Romans attempted to violate, and to destroy, to no purpose, when Mummius took Corinth. Philopœmen has been justly called by his countrymen the last of the Greeks. Plutarch, Lives.—Justin, bk. 32, ch. 4.—Polybius.――A native of Pergamus, who died B.C. 138.

Phĭlostrătus, a famous sophist born at Lemnos, or, according to some, at Athens. He came to Rome, where he lived under the patronage of Julia the wife of the emperor Severus, and he was entrusted by the empress with all the papers which contained some account or anecdotes of Apollonius Thyanæus, and he was ordered to review them, and with them to compile a history. The life of Apollonius is written with elegance, but the improbable accounts, the fabulous stories, and the exaggerated details which it gives, render it disgusting. There is, besides, another treatise remaining of his writings, &c. He died A.D. 244. The best edition of his writings is that of Olearius, folio, Lipscomb, 1709.――His nephew, who lived in the reign of Heliogabalus, wrote an account of sophists.――A philosopher in the reign of Nero.――Another in the age of Augustus.

Philōtas, a son of Parmenio, distinguished in the battles of Alexander, and at last accused of conspiring against his life. He was tortured and stoned to death, or, according to some, struck through with darts by the soldiers, B.C. 330. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 11.—Plutarch.—Arrian.――An officer in the army of Alexander.――Another, who was made master of Cilicia, after Alexander’s death.――A physician in the age of Antony. He ridiculed the expenses and the extravagance of this celebrated Roman. Plutarch.

Philotĕra, the mother of Mylo, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.

Philotĭmus, a freedman of Cicero. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 3, ch. 9.

Philōtis, a servant-maid at Rome, who saved her countrymen from destruction. After the siege of Rome by the Gauls, the Fidenates assembled an army, under the command of Lucius Posthumius, and marched against the capital, demanding all the wives and daughters in the city, as the conditions of peace. This extraordinary demand astonished the senators, and when they refused to comply, Philotis advised them to send all their female slaves disguised in matron’s clothes, and she offered to march herself at the head. Her advice was followed, and when the Fidenates had feasted late in the evening, and were quite intoxicated, and fallen asleep, Philotis lighted a torch as a signal for her countrymen to attack the enemy. The whole was successful, the Fidenates were conquered, and the senate, to reward the fidelity of the female slaves, permitted them to appear in the dress of the Roman matrons. Plutarch, Romulus.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5.—Ovid, de Ars Amatoria, bk. 2.

Philoxĕnus, an officer of Alexander, who received Cilicia, at the general division of the provinces.――A son of Ptolemy, who was given to Pelopidas as a hostage.――A dithyrambic poet of Cythera, who enjoyed the favour of Dionysius tyrant of Sicily for some time, till he offended him by seducing one of his female singers. During his confinement, Philoxenus composed an allegorical poem, called Cyclops, in which he had delineated the character of the tyrant under the name of Polyphemus, and represented his mistress under the name of Galatæa, and himself under that of Ulysses. The tyrant, who was fond of writing poetry, and of being applauded, removed Philoxenus from his dungeon, but the poet refused to purchase his liberty, by saying things unworthy of himself, and applauding the wretched verses of Dionysius, and therefore he was sent to the quarries. When he was asked his opinion at a feast about some verses which Dionysius had just repeated, and which the courtiers had received with the greatest applause, Philoxenus gave no answer, but he ordered the guards that surrounded the tyrant’s table to take him back to the quarries. Dionysius was pleased with his pleasantry and with his firmness, and immediately forgave him. Philoxenus died at Ephesus, about 380 years before Christ. Plutarch.――A celebrated musician of Ionia.――A painter of Eretria, who made for Cassander an excellent representation of the battle of Alexander with Darius. He was pupil to Nicomachus. Pliny, bk. 31, ch. 10.――A philosopher, who wished to have the neck of a crane, that he might enjoy the taste of his aliments longer, and with more pleasure. Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics, bk. 3.

Philyllius, a comic poet. Athenæus.

Phily̆ra, one of the Oceanides, who was met by Saturn in Thrace. The god, to escape from the vigilance of Rhea, changed himself into a horse, to enjoy the company of Philyra by whom he had a son, half a man and half a horse, called Chiron. Philyra was so ashamed of giving birth to such a monster, that she entreated the gods to change her nature. She was metamorphosed into the linden tree, called by her name among the Greeks. Hyginus, fable 138.――The wife of Nauplius.

Philyres, a people near Pontus.

Phily̆rĭdes, a patronymic of Chiron the son of Philyra. Ovid, Ars Amatoria.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 550.

Phineus, a son of Agenor king of Phœnicia, or, according to some, of Neptune, who became king of Thrace, or, as the greater part of the mythologists support, of Bithynia. He married Cleopatra the daughter of Boreas, whom some call Cleobula, by whom he had Plexippus and Pandion. After the death of Cleopatra, he married Idæa the daughter of Dardanus. Idæa, jealous of Cleopatra’s children, accused them of attempts upon their father’s life and crown, or, according to some, of attempts upon her virtue, and they were immediately condemned by Phineus to be deprived of their eyes. This cruelty was soon after punished by the gods. Phineus suddenly became blind, and the Harpies were sent by Jupiter to keep him under continual alarm, and to spoil the meats which were placed on his table. He was some time after delivered from these dangerous monsters by his brothers-in-law Zetes and Calais, who pursued them as far as the Strophades. He also recovered his sight by means of the Argonauts, whom he had received with great hospitality, and instructed in the easiest and speediest way by which they could arrive in Colchis. The causes of the blindness of Phineus are a matter of dispute among the ancients, some supposing that this was inflicted by Boreas, for his cruelty to his grandson, whilst others attribute it to the anger of Neptune, because he had directed the sons of Phryxus how to escape from Colchis to Greece. Many, however, think that it proceeded from his having rashly attempted to develop futurity, while others assert that Zetes and Calais put out his eyes on account of his cruelty to their nephews. The second wife of Phineus is called by some Dia, Eurytia, Danae, and Idothea. Phineus was killed by Hercules. Argonautica, bk. 2.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 15.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 19.—Orpheus.—Flaccus.――The brother of Cepheus king of Æthiopia. He was going to marry his niece Andromeda, when her father Cepheus was obliged to give her up to be devoured by a sea monster, to appease the resentment of Neptune. She was, however, delivered by Perseus, who married her by the consent of her parents, for having destroyed the sea monster. This marriage displeased Phineus; he interrupted the ceremony, and, with a number of attendants, attacked Perseus and his friends. Perseus defended himself, and turned into stone Phineus and his companions, by showing them the Gorgon’s head. Apollodorus, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fables 1 & 2.—Hyginus, fable 64.――A son of Melas.――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia.――A son of Belus and Anchinoe.

Phinta, a king of Messenia, &c. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 4.

Phinthias, a fountain where it is said nothing could sink. Pliny, bk. 31, ch. 2.

Phintia, a town of Sicily, at the mouth of the Himera. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 83.

Phintias, called also Pithias, Pinthias, and Phytias, a man famous for his unparalleled friendship for Damon. See: Damon. Cicero, de Officiis, bk. 3, bk. 10; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 22.—Diodorus, bk. 6.――A tyrant of Agrigentum, B.C. 282.

Phinto, a small island between Sardinia and Corsica, now Figo.

Phla, a small island in the lake Tritonis. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 178.

Phlegelas, an Indian king beyond the Hydaspes, who surrendered to Alexander. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 1.

Phlegĕthon, a river of hell, whose waters were burning, as the word φλεγεθω, from which the name is derived, seems to indicate. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 550.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 532.—Seneca, Thyestes Hippolytus.—Silius Italicus, bk. 13, li. 564.

Phlegias, a man of Cyzicus when the Argonauts visited it, &c. Flaccus.

Phlegon, a native of Tralles in Lydia, one of the emperor Adrian’s freedmen. He wrote different treatises on the long-lived, on wonderful things, besides an historical account of Sicily, 16 books on the olympiads, an account of the principal places in Rome, three books of fasti, &c. Of these some fragments remain. His style was not elegant, and he wrote without judgment or precision. His works have been edited by Meursius, 4to, Leiden, 1620.――One of the horses of the sun. The word signifies burning. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2.

Phlegra, or Phlegræus Campus, a place of Macedonia, afterwards called Pallene, where the giants attacked the gods and were defeated by Hercules. The combat was afterwards renewed in Italy, in a place of the same name near Cumæ. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 538; bk. 9, li. 305.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Diodorus, bks. 4 & 5.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 151; bk. 12, li. 378; bk. 15, li. 532.—Statius, bk. 5, Sylvæ, poem 3, li. 196.

Phlegyæ, a people of Thessaly. Some authors place them in Bœotia. They received their name from Phlegyas the son of Mars, with whom they plundered and burned the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Few of them escaped to Phocis, where they settled. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 36.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, li. 301.—Strabo, bk. 9.

Phlegyas, a son of Mars by Chryse daughter of Halmus, was king of the Lapithæ in Thessaly. He was father of Ixion and Coronis, to whom Apollo offered violence. When the father heard that his daughter had been so wantonly abused, he marched an army against Delphi, and reduced the temple of the god to ashes. This was highly resented. Apollo killed Phlegyas and placed him in hell, where a huge stone hangs over his head, and keeps him in continual alarms, by its appearance of falling every moment. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 36.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Pindar, Pythian, bk. 3.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 87.—Servius, Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil, bk. 6, li. 618.

Phlias, one of the Argonauts, son of Bacchus and Ariadne. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 12.

Phliasia, a country of Peloponnesus, near Sicyon, of which Phlius was the capital.

Phlius, (genitive, untis), a town in Peloponnesus, now Staphlica, in the territory of Sicyon.――Another, in Elis.――Another, in Argolis, now Drepano.

Phlœus, a surname of Bacchus, expressive of his youth and vigour. Plutarch, Quæstiones Convivales, bk. 5, qu. 8.

Phobētor, one of the sons of Somnus, and his principal minister. His office was to assume the shape of serpents and wild beasts, to inspire terror into the minds of men, as his name intimates (φοβεω). The other two ministers of Somnus were Phantasia and Morpheus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 640.

Phobos, son of Mars, and god of terror among the ancients, was represented with a lion’s head, and sacrifices were offered to him to deprecate his appearance in armies. Plutarch, Amatorius.

Phocæa, now Fochia, a maritime town of Ionia, in Asia Minor, with two harbours, between Cumæ and Smyrna, founded by an Athenian colony. It received its name from Phocus the leader of the colony, or from phocæ, sea calves, which are found in great abundance in the neighbourhood. The inhabitants, called Phocæi and Phocæenses, were expert mariners, and founded many cities in different parts of Europe. They left Ionia, when Cyrus attempted to reduce them under his power, and they came after many adventures into Gaul, where they founded Massilia, now Marseilles. The town of Marseilles is often distinguished by the epithet of Phocaica, and its inhabitants called Phocæenses. Phocæa was declared independent by Pompey, and under the first emperors of Rome it became one of the most flourishing cities of Asia Minor. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 34; bk. 37, ch. 31; bk. 38, ch. 39.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 17.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 165.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Horace, epode 16.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 9.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Phocenses and Phocĭci, the inhabitants of Phocis in Greece.

Phocilides, a Greek poet and philosopher of Miletus, about 540 years before the christian era. The poetical piece now extant called νουθετικον, and attributed to him, is not of his composition, but of another poet who lived in the reign of Adrian.

Phocion, an Athenian, celebrated for his virtues, private as well as public. He was educated in the school of Plato and Xenocrates, and as soon as he appeared among the statesmen of Athens, he distinguished himself by his prudence and moderation, his zeal for the public good, and his military abilities. He often checked the violent and inconsiderate measures of Demosthenes, and when the Athenians seemed eager to make war against Philip king of Macedonia, Phocion observed that war should never be undertaken without the strongest and most certain expectations of success and victory. When Philip endeavoured to make himself master of Eubœa, Phocion stopped his progress, and soon obliged him to relinquish his enterprise. During the time of his administration he was always inclined to peace, though he never suffered his countrymen to become indolent, and to forget the jealousy and rivalship of their neighbours. He was 45 times appointed governor of Athens, and no greater encomium can be passed upon his talents as a minister and statesman, than that he never solicited that high, though dangerous, office. In his rural retreat, or at the head of the Athenian armies, he always appeared barefooted, and without a cloak, whence one of his soldiers had occasion to observe, when he saw him dressed more warmly than usual during a severe winter, that since Phocion wore his cloak it was a sign of the most inclement weather. If he was the friend of temperance and discipline, he was not a less brilliant example of true heroism. Philip, as well as his son Alexander, attempted to bribe him, but to no purpose; and Phocion boasted in being one of the poorest of the Athenians, and in deserving the appellation of the Good. It was through him that Greece was saved from an impending war, and he advised Alexander rather to turn his arms against Persia, than to shed the blood of the Greeks, who were either his allies or his subjects. Alexander was so sensible of his merit and of his integrity, that he sent him 100 talents from the spoils which he had obtained from the Persians, but Phocion was too great to suffer himself to be bribed; and when the conqueror had attempted a second time to oblige him, and to conciliate his favour, by offering him the government and possession of five cities, the Athenian rejected the presents with the same indifference, and with the same independent mind. But not totally to despise the favours of the monarch, he begged Alexander to restore to their liberty four slaves that were confined in the citadel of Sardis. Antipater, who succeeded in the government of Macedonia after the death of Alexander, also attempted to corrupt the virtuous Athenian, but with the same success as his royal predecessor; and when a friend had observed to Phocion, that if he could so refuse the generous offers of his patrons, yet he should consider the good of his children, and accept them for their sake, Phocion calmly replied, that if his children were like him they could maintain themselves as well as their father had done, but if they behaved otherwise he declared that he was unwilling to leave them anything which might either supply their extravagancies, or encourage their debaucheries. But virtues like these could not long stand against the insolence and fickleness of an Athenian assembly. When the Piræus was taken, Phocion was accused of treason, and therefore, to avoid the public indignation, he fled for safety to Polyperchon. Polyperchon sent him back to Athens, where he was immediately condemned to drink the fatal poison. He received the indignities of the people with uncommon composure; and when one of his friends lamented his fate, Phocion exclaimed, “This is no more than what I expected; this treatment the most illustrious citizens of Athens have received before me.” He took the cup with the greatest serenity of mind, and as he drank the fatal draught, he prayed for the prosperity of Athens, and bade his friends to tell his son Phocus not to remember the indignities which his father had received from the Athenians. He died about 318 years before the christian era. His body was deprived of a funeral by order of the ungrateful Athenians, and if it was at last interred, it was by stealth, under a hearth, by the hand of a woman who placed this inscription over his bones: Keep inviolate, O sacred hearth, the precious remains of a good man, till a better day restores them to the monument of their forefathers, when Athens shall be delivered of her frenzy, and shall be more wise. It has been observed of Phocion, that he never appeared elated in prosperity, or dejected in adversity, he never betrayed pusillanimity by a tear, nor joy by a smile. His countenance was stern and unpleasant, but he never behaved with severity; his expressions were mild, and his rebukes gentle. At the age of 80 he appeared at the head of the Athenian armies like the most active officer, and to his prudence and cool valour in every period of life his citizens acknowledged themselves much indebted. His merits were not buried in oblivion; the Athenians repented of their ingratitude, and honoured his memory by raising him statues, and putting to a cruel death his guilty accusers. Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Lives.—Diodorus, bk. 16.

Phocis, a country of Greece, bounded on the east by Bœotia, and by Locris on the west. It originally extended from the bay of Corinth to the sea of Eubœa, and reached on the north as far as Thermopylæ, but its boundaries were afterwards more contracted. Phocis received its name from Phocus, a son of Ornytion, who settled there. The inhabitants were called Phocenses, and from thence the epithet of Phocicus was formed. Parnassus was the most celebrated of the mountains of Phocis, and Delphi was the greatest of its towns. Phocis is rendered famous for a war which it maintained against some of the Grecian republics, and which has received the name of the Phocian war. This celebrated war originated in the following circumstances:—When Philip king of Macedonia had, by his intrigues and well-concerted policy, fomented divisions in Greece, and disturbed the peace of every republic, the Greeks universally became discontented in their situation, fickle in their resolutions, and jealous of the prosperity of the neighbouring states. The Amphictyons, who were the supreme rulers of Greece, and who at that time were subservient to the views of the Thebans, the inveterate enemies of the Phocians, showed the same spirit of fickleness, and, like the rest of their countrymen, were actuated by the same fears, the same jealousy and ambition. As the supporters of religion, they accused the Phocians of impiety for ploughing a small portion of land which belonged to the god of Delphi. They immediately commanded that the sacred field should be laid waste, and that the Phocians, to expiate their crime, should pay a heavy fine to the community. The inability of the Phocians to pay the fine, and that of the Amphictyons to enforce their commands by violence, gave rise to new events. The people of Phocis were roused by the eloquence and the popularity of Philomelus, one of their countrymen, and when this ambitious ringleader had liberally contributed the great riches he possessed for the good of his countrymen, they resolved to oppose the Amphictyonic council by force of arms. He seized the rich temple of Delphi, and employed the treasures which it contained to raise a mercenary army. During two years hostilities were carried on between the Phocians and their enemies, the Thebans and the people of Locris, but no decisive battles were fought; and it can only be observed, that the Phocian prisoners were always put to an ignominious death, as guilty of the most abominable sacrilege and impiety, a treatment which was liberally retaliated on such of the army of the Amphictyons as became the captives of the enemy. The defeat, however, and death of Philomelus for a while checked their successes; but the deceased general was soon succeeded in the command by his brother, called Onomarchus, his equal in boldness and ambition, and his superior in activity and enterprise. Onomarchus rendered his cause popular, the Thessalians joined his army, and the neighbouring states observed at least a strict neutrality, if they neither opposed nor favoured his arms. Philip of Macedonia, who had assisted the Thebans, was obliged to retire from the field with dishonour, but a more successful battle was fought near Magnesia, and the monarch, by crowning the head of his soldiers with laurel, and telling them that they fought in the cause of Delphi and heaven, obtained a complete victory. Onomarchus was slain, and his body exposed on a gibbet; 6000 shared his fate, and their bodies were thrown into the sea, as unworthy of funeral honours, and 3000 were taken alive. This fatal defeat, however, did not ruin the Phocians; Phayllus, the only surviving brother of Philomelus, took the command of their armies, and doubling the pay of his soldiers, he increased his forces by the addition of 9000 men from Athens, Lacedæmon, and Achaia. But all this numerous force at last proved ineffectual; the treasures of the temple of Delphi, which had long defrayed the expenses of the war, began to fail; dissensions arose among the ringleaders of Phocis; and when Philip had crossed the straits of Thermopylæ, the Phocians, relying on his generosity, claimed his protection, and implored him to plead their cause before the Amphictyonic council. His feeble intercession was not attended with success, and the Thebans, the Locrians, and the Thessalians, who then composed the Amphictyonic council, unanimously decreed that the Phocians should be deprived of the privilege of sending members among the Amphictyons. Their arms and their horses were to be sold, for the benefit of Apollo; they were to pay the annual sum of 60,000 talents till the temple of Delphi had been restored to its ancient splendour and opulence; their cities were to be dismantled, and reduced to distinct villages, which were to contain no more than 60 houses each, at the distance of a furlong from one another, and all the privileges and the immunities of which they were stripped, were to be conferred on Philip king of Macedonia, for his eminent services in the ♦prosecution of the Phocian war. The Macedonians were ordered to put these cruel commands into execution. The Phocians were unable to make resistance, and 10 years after they had undertaken the sacred war, they saw their country laid desolate, their walls demolished, and their cities in ruins, by the wanton jealousy of their enemies, and the inflexible cruelty of the Macedonian soldiers, B.C. 348. They were not, however, long under this disgraceful sentence; their well-known valour and courage recommended them to favour, and they gradually regained their influence and consequence by the protection of the Athenians, and the favours of Philip. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 18.—Ovid, bk. 2, Amores, poem 6, li. 15; Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 276.—Demosthenes.—Justin, bk. 8, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 16, &c.—Plutarch, Demosthenes, Lysander, Pericles, &c.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 5.

Phocus, son of Phocion, was dissolute in his manners and unworthy of the virtues of his great father. He was sent to Lacedæmon to imbibe there the principles of sobriety, of temperance, and frugality. He cruelly revenged the death of his father, whom the Athenians had put to death. Plutarch, Phocion & Apophthegmata Laconica.――A son of Æacus by Psamathe, killed by Telamon. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.――A son of Ornytion, who led a colony of Corinthians into Phocis. He cured Antiope, a daughter of Nycteus, of insanity, and married her, and by her became father of Panopeus and Crisus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Phocylides, an ancient poet. See: Phocilides.

Phœbas, a name applied to the priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 128, &c.

Phœbe, a name given to Diana, or the moon, on account of the brightness of that luminary. She became, according to Apollodorus, mother of Asteria and Latona. See: Diana.――A daughter of Leucippus and Philodice, carried away, with her sister Hilaira, by Castor and Pollux, as she was going to marry one of the sons of Aphareus. See: Leucippides. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 10.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22.

Phœbeum, a place near Sparta.

Phœbĭdas, a Lacedæmonian general sent by the Ephori to the assistance of the Macedonians against the Thracians. He seized the citadel of Thebes; but though he was disgraced and banished from the Lacedæmonian army for this perfidious measure, yet his countrymen kept possession of the town. He died B.C. 377. Cornelius Nepos, Pelopidas.—Diodorus, bk. 14, &c.

Phœbigĕna, a surname of Æsculapius, &c., as being descended from Phœbus. Virgil, Æneid, ♦bk. 7, li. 773.

Phœbus, a name given to Apollo, or the sun. This word expresses the brightness and splendour of that luminary (φοιβος). See: Apollo.

Phœmos, a lake of Arcadia.

Phœnīce, or Phœnīcia, a country of Asia, at the east of the Mediterranean, whose boundaries have been different in different ages. Some suppose that the names of Phœnicia, Syria, and Palestine are indiscriminately used for one and the same country. Phœnicia, according to Ptolemy, extended on the north as far as the Eleutherus, a small river which falls into the Mediterranean sea, a little below the island of Aradus, and it had Pelusium or the territories of Egypt as its more southern boundary, and Syria on the east. Sidon and Tyre were the most capital towns of the country. The inhabitants were naturally industrious; the invention of letters is attributed to them, and commerce and navigation were among them in the most flourishing state. They planted colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean, particularly Carthage, Hippo, Marseilles, and Utica; and their manufactures acquired such a superiority over those of other nations, that among the ancients, whatever was elegant, great, or pleasing, either in apparel, or domestic utensils, received the epithet of Sidonian. The Phœnicians were originally governed by kings. They were subdued by the Persians, and afterwards by Alexander, and remained tributary to his successors and to the Romans. They were called Phœnicians, from Phœnix son of Agenor, who was one of their kings, or, according to others, from the great number of palm trees (θοινικες) which grow in the neighbourhood. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 42; bk. 5, ch. 58.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 15.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 11; bk. 2, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 16.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Lucretius, bk. 2, li. 829.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 47; bk. 5, ch. 12.—Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 2.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 104; bk. 14, li. 345; bk. 15, li. 288.

Phœnīce, a town of Epirus. Livy, bk. 22, ch. 12.

Phœnīcia. See:, Phœnice.

Phœnīcus, a mountain of Bœotia.――Another in Lycia, called also Olympus, with a town of the same name.――A port of Erythræ. Livy, bk. 56, ch. 45.

Phœnicŭsa, now Felicudi, one of the Æolian islands.

Phœnissa, a patronymic given to Dido, as a native of Phœnicia. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 529.

Phœnix, son of Amyntor king of Argos by Cleobule, or Hippodamia, was preceptor to young Achilles. When his father proved faithless to his wife, on account of his fondness for a concubine called Clytia, Cleobule, jealous of her husband, persuaded her son Phœnix to ingratiate himself into the favours of his father’s mistress. Phœnix easily succeeded, but when Amyntor discovered his intrigues, he drew a curse upon him, and the son was soon after deprived of his sight by divine vengeance. According to some, Amyntor himself put out the eyes of his son, which so cruelly provoked him, that he meditated the death of his father. Reason and piety, however, prevailed over passion, and Phœnix, not to become a parricide, fled from Argos to the court of Peleus king of Phthia. Here he was treated with tenderness. Peleus carried him to Chiron, who restored to him his eyesight, and soon after he was made preceptor to Achilles, his benefactor’s son. He was also presented with the government of many cities, and made king of the Dolopes. He accompanied his pupil to the Trojan war, and Achilles was ever grateful for the instructions and precepts which he had received from Phœnix. After the death of Achilles, Phœnix, with others, was commissioned by the Greeks to return to Greece, to bring to the war young Pyrrhus. This commission he performed with success, and after the fall of Troy, he returned with Pyrrhus, and died in Thrace. He was buried at Æon, or, according to Strabo, near Trachinia, where a small river in the neighbourhood received the name of Phœnix. Strabo, bk. 9.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 9, &c.—Ovid, Ibis, li. 259.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 762.――A son of Agenor, by a nymph who was called Telephassa, according to Apollodorus and Moschus, or, according to others, Epimedusa, Perimeda, or Agriope. He was, like his brothers Cadmus and Cilix, sent by his father in pursuit of his sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried away under the form of a bull, and when his inquiries proved unsuccessful, he settled in a country which, according to some, was from him called Phœnicia. From him, as some suppose, the Carthaginians were called Pœni. Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Hyginus, fable 178.――The father of Adonis, according to Hesiod.――A Theban, delivered to Alexander, &c.――A native of Tenedos, who was an officer in the service of Eumenes.

Pholoe, one of the horses of Admetus.――A mountain of Arcadia, near Pisa. It received its name from Pholus the friend of Hercules, who was buried there. It is often confounded with another of the same name in Thessaly, near mount Othrys. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 6.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 198; bk. 6, li. 388; bk. 7, li. 449.—Ovid, bk. 2, Fasti, li. 273.――A female servant, of Cretan origin, given with her two sons to Sergestus by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 285.――A courtesan in the age of Horace. Horace, bk. 1, ode 33, li. 7.

Pholus, one of the Centaurs, son of Silenus and Melia, or, according to others, of Ixion and the cloud. He kindly entertained Hercules when he was going against the boar of Erymanthus, but he refused to give him wine, as that which he had belonged to the rest of the Centaurs. Hercules, upon this, without ceremony, broke the cask and drank the wine. The smell of the liquor drew the Centaurs from the neighbourhood to the house of Pholus, but Hercules stopped them when they forcibly entered the habitation of his friend, and killed the greatest part of them. Pholus gave the dead a decent funeral, but he mortally wounded himself with one of the arrows which were poisoned with the venom of the hydra, and which he attempted to extract from the body of one of the Centaurs. Hercules, unable to cure him, buried him when dead, and called the mountain where his remains were deposited by the name of Pholoe. Apollodorus, bk. 1.—Pausanias, bk. 3.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 456; Æneid, bk. 8, li. 294.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1.—Lucan, bks. 3, 6 & 7.—Statius Thebaid, bk. 2.――One of the friends of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 341.

Phorbas, a son of Priam and Epithesia, killed during the Trojan war by Menelaus. The god Somnus borrowed his features when he deceived Palinurus, and threw him into the sea near the coast of Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 842.――A son of Lapithus, who married Hyrmine the daughter of Epeus, by whom he had Actor. Pelops, according to Diodorus, shared his kingdom with Phorbas, who also, says the same historian, established himself at Rhodes, at the head of a colony from Elis and Thessaly, by order of the oracle, which promised, by his means only, deliverance from the numerous serpents which infested the island. Diodorus, bk. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1.――A shepherd of Polybus king of Corinth.――A man who profaned Apollo’s temple, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 414.――A king of Argos.――A native of Cyrene, son of Methion, killed by Perseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 3.

Phorcus, or Phorcys, a sea deity, son of Pontus and Terra, who married his sister Ceto, by whom he had the Gorgons, the dragon that kept the apples of the Hesperides, and other monsters. Hesiod, Theogony.—Apollodorus.――One of the auxiliaries of Priam, killed by Ajax during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 17.――A man whose seven sons assisted Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 328.

Phormio, an Athenian general, whose father’s name was Asopicus. He impoverished himself to maintain and support the dignity of his army. His debts were some time after paid by the Athenians, who wished to make him their general, an office which he refused, while he had so many debts, observing that it was unbecoming an officer to be at the head of an army, when he knew that he was poorer than the meanest of his soldiers.――A general of Crotona.――A peripatetic philosopher of Ephesus, who once gave a lecture upon the duties of an officer, and a military profession. The philosopher was himself ignorant of the subject which he treated, upon which Hannibal the Great, who was one of his auditors, exclaimed that he had seen many doting old men, but never one worse than Phormio. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2.――An Athenian archon.――A disciple of Plato, chosen by the people of Elis to make a reformation in their government and their jurisprudence.

Phormis, an Arcadian who acquired great riches at the court of Gelon and Hiero in Sicily. He dedicated the brazen statue of a mare to Jupiter Olympius in Peloponnesus, which so much resembled nature, that horses came near it, as if it had been alive. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 27.

Phŏrōneus, the god of a river of Peloponnesus of the same name. He was son of the river Inachus by Melissa, and he was the second king of Argos. He married a nymph called Cerdo, or Laodice, by whom he had Apis, from whom Argolis was called Apia, and Niobe, the first woman of whom Jupiter became enamoured. Phoroneus taught his subjects the utility of laws, and the advantages of a social life and of friendly intercourse, whence the inhabitants of Argolis are often called Phoronæi. Pausanias relates that Phoroneus, with the Cephisus, Asterion, and Inachus, were appointed as umpires in a quarrel between Neptune and Juno, concerning their right of patronizing Argolis. Juno gained the preference, upon which Neptune, in a fit of resentment, dried up all the four rivers, whose decision he deemed partial. He afterwards restored them to their dignity and consequence. Phoroneus was the first who raised a temple to Juno. He received divine honours after death. His temple still existed at Argos, under Antoninus the Roman emperor. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 15, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Hyginus, fable 143.

Phorōnis, a patronymic of Io the sister of Phoroneus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 625.

Phorōnium, a town of Argolis, built by Phoroneus.

Photīnus, a eunuch who was prime minister to Ptolemy king of Egypt. When Pompey fled to the court of Ptolemy, after the battle of Pharsalia, Photinus advised his master not to receive him, but to put him to death. His advice was strictly followed. Julius Cæsar some time after visited Egypt, and Photinus raised seditions against him, for which he was put to death. When Cæsar triumphed over Egypt and Alexandria, the pictures of Photinus, and of some of the Egyptians, were carried in the procession at Rome. Plutarch.

Photius, a son of Antonina, who betrayed to Belisarius his wife’s debaucheries.――A patrician in Justinian’s reign.

Phoxus, a general of the Phocæans, who burnt Lampsacus, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.――A tyrant of Chalcis, banished by his subjects, &c. Aristotle, Politics, bk. 5, ch. 4.

Phraates I., a king of Parthia, who succeeded Arsaces III., called also Phriapatius. He made war against Antiochus king of Syria, and was defeated in three successive battles. He left many children behind him, but as they were all too young, and unable to succeed to the throne, he appointed his brother Mithridates king, of whose abilities and military prudence he had often been a spectator. Justin, bk. 41, ch. 5.

Phraates II., succeeded his father Mithridates as king of Parthia; and made war against the Scythians, whom he called to his assistance against Antiochus king of Syria, and whom he refused to pay, on the pretence that they came too late. He was murdered by some Greek mercenaries, who had been once his captives, and who had enlisted in his army, B.C. 129. Justin, bk. 42, ch. 1.—Plutarch, Pompey.

Phraates III., succeeded his father Pacorus on the throne of Parthia, and gave one of his daughters in marriage to Tigranes the son of Tigranes king of Armenia. Soon after he invaded the kingdom of Armenia, to make his son-in-law sit on the throne of his father. His expedition was attended with ill success. He renewed a treaty of alliance which his father had made with the Romans. At his return in Parthia, he was assassinated by his sons Orodes and Mithridates. Justin.

Phraates IV., was nominated king of Parthia by his father Orodes, whom he soon after murdered, as also his own brothers. He made war against Marcus Antony with great success, and obliged him to retire with much loss. Some time after he was dethroned by the Parthian nobility, but he soon regained his power, and drove away the usurper, called Tiridates. The usurper claimed the protection of Augustus the Roman emperor, and Phraates sent ambassadors to Rome to plead his cause, and gain the favour of his powerful judge. He was successful in his embassy: he made a treaty of peace and alliance with the Roman emperor, restored the ensigns and standards which the Parthians had taken from Crassus and Antony, and gave up his four sons with their wives as hostages, till his engagements were performed. Some suppose that Phraates delivered his children into the hands of Augustus to be confined at Rome, that he might reign with greater security, as he knew his subjects would revolt as soon as they found any one of his family inclined to countenance their rebellion, though at the same time they scorned to support the interest of any usurper who was not of the royal house of the Arsacidæ. He was, however, at last murdered by one of his concubines, who placed her son called Phraatices on the throne. Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 6.—Justin, bk. 42, ch. 5.—Dio Cassius, bk. 51, &c.—Plutarch, Antonius, &c.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 32.

Phraates, a prince of Parthia in the reign of Tiberius.――A satrap of Parthia. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 42.

Phraatices, a son of Phraates IV. He, with his mother, murdered his father, and took possession of the vacant throne. His reign was short; he was deposed by his subjects, whom he had offended by cruelty, avarice, and oppression.

Phradates, an officer in the army of Darius at the battle of Arbela.

Phragrandæ, a people of Thrace. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 25.

Phrahates, the same as Phraates. See: Phraates.

Phranicates, a general of the Parthian armies, &c. Strabo, bk. 16.

Phraortes, succeeded his father Deioces on the throne of Media. He made war against the neighbouring nations, and conquered the greatest part of Asia. He was defeated and killed in a battle by the Assyrians, after a reign of 22 years, B.C. 625. His son Cyaxares succeeded him. It is supposed that the Arphaxad mentioned in Judith is Phraortes. Pausanias.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 102.――A king of India, remarkable for his frugality. Philostratus.

Phrasĭcles, a nephew of Themistocles, whose daughter Nicomacha he married. Plutarch, Themistocles.

Phrasimus, the father of Praxithea. Apollodorus.

Phrasius, a Cyprian soothsayer, sacrificed on an altar by Busiris king of Egypt.

Phrataphernes, a general of the Massagetæ, who surrendered to Alexander. Curtius, bk. 8.――A satrap who, after the death of Darius, fled to Hyrcania, &c. Curtius.

Phriapatius, a king of Parthia, who flourished B.C. 195.

Phricium, a town near Thermopylæ. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 13.

Phrixus, a river of Argolis. There is also a small town of that name in Elis, built by the Minyæ. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 148.

Phronĭma, a daughter of Etearchus king of Crete. She was delivered to a servant to be thrown into the sea, by order of her father, at the instigation of his second wife. The servant was unwilling to murder the child, but as he was bound by an oath to throw her into the sea, he accordingly let her down into the water by a rope, and took her out again unhurt. Phronima was afterwards in the number of the concubines of Polymnestus, by whom she became mother of Battus the founder of Cyrene. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 154.

Phrontis, son of Onetor, pilot of the ship of Menelaus, after the Trojan war, was killed by Apollo just as the ship reached Sunium. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 3, li. 282.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 25.――One of the Argonauts. Apollodorus, bk. 1.

Phruri, a Scythian nation.

Phryges, a river of Asia Minor, dividing Phrygia from Caria, and falling into the Hermus. Pausanias.

Phrygia, a country of Asia Minor, generally divided into Phrygia Major and Minor. Its boundaries are not properly or accurately defined by ancient authors, though it appears that it was situate between Bithynia, Lydia, Cappadocia and Caria. It received its name from the Bryges, a nation of Thrace, or Macedonia, who came to settle there, and from their name, by corruption, arose the word Phrygia. Cybele was the chief deity of the country, and her festivals were observed with the greatest solemnity. The most remarkable towns, besides Troy, were Laodice, Hierapolis, and Synnada. The invention of the pipe of reeds, and of all sorts of needlework, is attributed to the inhabitants, who are represented by some authors as stubborn, but yielding to correction (hence Phryx verberatus melior), as imprudent, effeminate, servile, and voluptuous; and to this Virgil seems to allude. Æneid, bk. 9, li. 617. The Phrygians, like all other nations, were called barbarians by the Greeks; their music (Phrygii cantus) was of a grave and solemn nature, when opposed to the brisker and more cheerful Lydian airs. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.—Strabo, bk. 2, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 429, &c.—Cicero, bk. 7, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 18.—Flaccus, bk. 27.—Dio Cassius, bk. 1, ch. 50.—Pliny, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 16.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 25.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 73.――A city of Thrace.

Phryne, a celebrated prostitute who flourished at Athens about 328 years before the christian era. She was mistress to Praxiteles, who drew her picture. See: Praxiteles. This was one of his best pieces, and it was placed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. It is said that Apelles painted his Venus Anadyomene after he had seen Phryne on the sea-shore naked, and with dishevelled hair. Phryne became so rich by the liberality of her lovers, that she offered to rebuild, at her own expense, Thebes, which Alexander had destroyed, provided this inscription was placed on the walls: Alexander diruit, sed meretrix Phryne refecit. This was refused. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.――There was also another of the same name who was accused of impiety. When she saw that she was going to be condemned, she unveiled her bosom, which so influenced her judges, that she was immediately acquitted. Quintilian, bk. 2, ch. 15.

Phrynĭcus, a general of Samos, who endeavoured to betray his country to the Athenians, &c.――A flatterer at Athens.――A tragic poet of Athens, disciple to Thespis. He was the first who introduced a female character on the stage. Strabo, bk. 14.――A comic poet.

Phrynis, a musician of Mitylene, the first who obtained a musical prize at the Panathenæa at Athens. He added two strings to the lyre, which had always been used with seven by all his predecessors, B.C. 438. It is said that he was originally a cook at the house of Hiero king of Sicily.――A writer in the reign of Commodus, who made a collection, in 36 books, of phrases and sentences from the best Greek authors, &c.

Phryno, a celebrated general of Athens, who died B.C. 590.

Phryxus, a son of ♦Athamas king of Thebes by Nephele. After the repudiation of his mother, he was persecuted with the most inveterate fury by his stepmother Ino, because he was to sit on the throne of Athamas, in preference to the children of a second wife. He was apprised of Ino’s intentions upon his life by his mother Nephele, or, according to others, by his preceptor; and the better to make his escape, he secured part of his father’s treasures, and privately left Bœotia, with his sister Helle, to go to their friend and relation Æetes king of Colchis. They embarked on board a ship, or, according to the fabulous account of the poets and mythologists, they mounted on the back of a ram whose fleece was of gold, and proceeded on their journey through the air. The height to which they were carried made Helle giddy, and she fell into the sea. Phryxus gave her a decent burial on the sea-shore, and after he had called the place Hellespont from her name, he continued his flight, and arrived safe in the kingdom of Æetes, where he offered the ram on the altars of Mars. The king received him with great tenderness, and gave him his daughter Chalciope in marriage. She had by him Phrontis, Melias, Argos, Cylindrus, whom some call Cytorus, Catis, Lorus, and Hellen. Some time after he was murdered by his father-in-law, who envied him the possession of the golden fleece; and Chalciope, to prevent her children from sharing their father’s fate, sent them privately from Colchis to Bœotia, as nothing was to be dreaded there from the jealousy or resentment of Ino, who was then dead. The fable of the flight of Phryxus to Colchis on a ram has been explained by some, who observe that the ship on which he embarked was either called by that name, or carried on her prow the figure of that animal. The fleece of gold is explained by recollecting that Phryxus carried away immense treasures from Thebes. Phryxus was placed among the constellations of heaven after death. The ram which carried him to Asia is said to have been the fruit of Neptune’s amour with Theophane the daughter of Altis. This ram had been given to Athamas by the gods, to reward his piety and religious life, and Nephele procured it for her children, just as they were going to be sacrificed to the jealousy of Ino. The murder of Phryxus was some time after amply revenged by the Greeks. It gave rise to a celebrated expedition which was achieved under Jason and many of the princes of Greece, and which had for its object the recovery of the golden fleece, and the punishment of the king of Colchis for his cruelty to the son of Athamas. Diodorus, bk. 4.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 197.—Apollodorus, Argonautica.—Orpheus.—Flaccus.—Strabo.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Pindar, Pythian, poem 4.—Hyginus, fables 14, 188, &c.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 18; Metamorphoses, bk. 4.――A small river of Argolis.

Phthia, a town of Phthiotis, at the east of mount Othrys in Thessaly, where Achilles was born, and from which he is often called Phthius heros. Horace, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 156.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 14, li. 38.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 10.――A nymph of Achaia, beloved by Jupiter, who, to seduce her, disguised himself under the shape of a pigeon. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1, ch. 15.――A daughter of Amphion and Niobe, killed by Diana. Apollodorus.

Phthiōtis, a small province of Thessaly, between the Pelasgicus sinus, and the Maliacus sinus, Magnesia, and mount Œta. It was also called Achaia. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 8.

Phya, a tall and beautiful woman of Attica, whom Pisistratus, when he wished to re-establish himself a third time in his tyranny, dressed like the goddess Minerva, and led to the city on a chariot, making the populace believe that the goddess herself came to restore him to power. The artifice succeeded. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 59.—Polyænus, bk. 1, ch. 40.

Phycus (untis), a promontory near Cyrene, now called Ras-al-sem. Lucan, bk. 9.

Phylăce, a town of Thessaly, built by Phylacus. Protesilaus reigned there, from whence he is often called Phylacides. Lucan, bk. 6, li. 252.――A town of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 34.――A town of Epirus. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.

Phylăcus, a son of Deion king of Phocis. He married Clymene the daughter of Mynias, and founded Phylace. Apollodorus.

Phylarchus, a Greek biographer, who flourished B.C. 221. He was accused of partiality by Plutarch, Aratus.

Phylas, a king of Ephyre, son of Antiochus and grandson of Hercules.

Phyle, a well-fortified village of Attica, at a little distance from Athens. Cornelius Nepos, Thrasybulus.

Phyleis, a daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.

Phylēus, one of the Greek captains during the Trojan war.――A son of Augeas. He blamed his father for refusing to pay Hercules what he had promised him for cleaning his stables. He was placed on his father’s throne by Hercules.

Phylĭra. See: Philyra.

Phylla, the wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and mother of Stratonice the wife of Seleucus.

Phyllalia, a part of Arcadia.――A place in Thessaly.

Phylleius, a mountain, country, and town of Macedonia. Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 1.

Phyllis, a daughter of Sithon, or, according to others, of Lycurgus king of Thrace, who hospitably received Demophoon the son of Theseus, who, at his return from the Trojan war, had stopped on her coasts. She became enamoured of him, and did not find him insensible to her passion. After some months of mutual tenderness and affection, Demophoon set sail for Athens, where his domestic affairs recalled him. He promised faithfully to return as soon as a month was expired; but either his dislike for Phyllis, or the irreparable situation of his affairs, obliged him to violate his engagement, and the queen, grown desperate on account of his absence, hanged herself, or, according to others, threw herself down a precipice into the sea, and perished. Her friends raised a tomb over her body, where there grew up certain trees, whose leaves at a particular season of the year, suddenly became wet, as if shedding tears for the death of Phyllis. According to an old tradition mentioned by Servius, Virgil’s commentator, Phyllis was changed by the gods into an almond tree, which is called Phylla by the Greeks. Some days after this metamorphosis, Demophoon revisited Thrace, and when he heard of the fate of Phyllis, he ran and clasped the tree, which, though at that time stripped of its leaves, suddenly shot forth and blossomed, as if still sensible of tenderness and love. The absence of Demophoon from the house of Phyllis has given rise to a beautiful epistle of Ovid, supposed to have been written by the Thracian queen, about the fourth month after her lover’s departure. Ovid, Heroides, poem 2; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 2, li. 353; Tristia, bk. 2, li. 437.—Hyginus, fable 59.――A country woman introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.――The nurse of the emperor Domitian. Suetonius, Domitian, ch. 17.――A country of Thrace, near mount Pangæus. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 13.

Phyllius, a young Bœotian, uncommonly fond of Cygnus the son of Hyria, a woman of Bœotia. Cygnus slighted his passion, and told him that, to obtain a return of affection, he must previously destroy an enormous lion, take alive two large vultures, and sacrifice on Jupiter’s altars a wild bull that infested the country. This he easily effected by means of artifice, and by the advice of Hercules he forgot his partiality for the son of Hyria. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 372.—Nicander, Heteroeumena, bk. 3.――A Spartan remarkable for the courage with which he fought against Pyrrhus king of Epirus.

Phyllŏdŏce, one of Cyrene’s attendant nymphs. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 336.

Phyllos, a country of Arcadia.――A town of Thessaly near Larissa, where Apollo had a temple.

Phyllus, a general of Phocis during the Phocian or sacred war against the Thebans. He had assumed the command after the death of his brothers Philomelus and Onomarchus. He is called by some Phayllus. See: Phocis.

Physcella, a town of Macedonia. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.

Physcion, a famous rock of Bœotia, which was the residence of the Sphinx, and against which the monster destroyed himself, when his enigmas were explained by Œdipus. Plutarch.

Physcoa, a woman of Elis, mother of Narcæus by Bacchus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 16.

Physcon, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt, from the great prominency of his belly (φνοκη, venter). Athenæus, bk. 2, ch. 23.

Physcos, a town of Caria, opposite Rhodes. Strabo, bk. 14.

Physcus, a river of Asia falling into the Tigris. The 10,000 Greeks crossed it on their return from Cunaxa.

Phytălĭdes, the descendants of Phytalus, a man who hospitably received and entertained Ceres, when she visited Attica. Plutarch, Theseus.

Phyton, a general of the people of Rhegium, against Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily. He was taken by the enemy and tortured, B.C. 387, and his son was thrown into the sea. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Phyxium, a town of Elis.

Pia, or Pialia, festivals instituted in honour of Adrian, by the Emperor Antoninus. They were celebrated at Puteoli, on the second year of the Olympiads.

Piăsus, a general of the Pelasgi. Strabo, bk. 13.

Picēni, the inhabitants of Picenum, called also Picentes. They received their name from picus, a bird by whose auspices they had settled in that part of Italy. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 425.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Picentia, the capital of the Picentini.

Picentīni, a people of Italy between Lucania and Campania on the Tuscan sea. They are different from the Piceni or Picentes, who inhabited Picenum. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 450.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 62.

Picēnum, or Picēnus ager, a country of Italy near the Umbrians and Sabines, on the borders of the Adriatic. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 6; bk. 22, ch. 9; bk. 27, ch. 43.—Silius Italicus, bk. 10, li. 313.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 272.—Martial, bk. 1, ltr. 44.

Picra, a lake of Africa, which Alexander crossed when he went to consult the oracle of Ammon. Diodorus.

Pictæ, or Picti, a people of Scythia, called also Agathyrsæ. They received this name from their painting their bodies with different colours, to appear more terrible in the eyes of their enemies. A colony of these, according to Servius, Virgil’s commentator, emigrated to the northern parts of Britain, where they still preserved their name and their savage manners, but they are mentioned only by later writers. Marcellinus, bk. 27, ch. 18.—Claudian, de Consulatu Honorii, li. 54.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 1.

Pictāvi, or Pictŏnes, a people of Gaul in the modern country of Poictou. Cæsar, bk. 7, Gallic War, ch. 4.

Pictăvium, a town of Gaul.

Fabius Pictor, a consul under whom silver was first coined at Rome, A.U.C. 485.

Picumnus and Pilumnus, two deities at Rome, who presided over the auspices that were required before the celebration of nuptials. Pilumnus was supposed to patronize children, as his name seems, in some manner, to indicate, quod pellat mala infantiæ. The manuring of lands was first invented by Picumnus, from which reason he is called Sterquilinius. Pilumnus is also invoked as the god of bakers and millers, as he is said to have first invented how to grind corn. Turnus boasted of being one of his lineal descendants. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 4.—Varro.

Picus, a king of Latium, son of Saturn, who married Venilia, who is also called Canens, by whom he had Faunus. He was tenderly loved by the goddess Pomona, and he returned a mutual affection. As he was one day hunting in the woods, he was met by Circe, who became deeply enamoured of him, and who changed him into a woodpecker, called by the name of picus among the Latins. His wife Venilia was so disconsolate when she was informed of his death, that she pined away. Some suppose that Picus was the son of Pilumnus, and that he gave out prophecies to his subjects, by means of a favourite woodpecker, from which circumstance originated the fable of his being metamorphosed into a bird. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, lis. 48, 171, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 320, &c.

Pidorus, a town near mount Athos. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 122.

Pidytes, a man killed by Ulysses during the Trojan war.

Piĕlus, a son of Neoptolemus king of Epirus, after his father. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.

Pĭĕra, a fountain of Peloponnesus, between Elis and Olympia. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 16.

Piĕria, a small tract of country in Thessaly or Macedonia, from which the epithet of Pierian was applied to the Muses, and to poetical compositions. Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 88, li. 3.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 8, li. 20.――A place between Cilicia and Syria.――One of the wives of Danaus, mother of six daughters, called Actea, Podarce, Dioxippe, Adyte, Ocypete, and Pilarge. Apollodorus, bk. 2.――The wife of Oxylus the son of Hæmon, and mother of Ætolus and Laias. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.――The daughter of Pythas, a Milesian, &c.

Piĕrĭdes, a name given to the Muses, either because they were born in Pieria, in Thessaly, or because they were supposed by some to be the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia, who settled in Bœotia.――Also the daughters of Pierus, who challenged the Muses to a trial in music, in which they were conquered, and changed into magpies. It may perhaps be supposed that the victorious Muses assumed the name of the conquered daughters of Pierus, and ordered themselves to be called Pierides, in the same manner as Minerva was called Pallas because she had killed the giant Pallas. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 300.

Piĕris, a mountain of Macedonia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.

Piĕrus, a mountain of Thessaly, sacred to the Muses, who were from thence, as some imagine, called Pierides.――A rich man of Thessaly, whose nine daughters, called Pierides, challenged the Muses, and were changed into magpies when conquered. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.――A river of Achaia, in Peloponnesus.――A town of Thessaly. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 21.――A mountain with a lake of the same name in Macedonia.

Piĕtas, a virtue which denotes veneration for the deity, and love and tenderness to our friends. It received divine honours among the Romans, and was made one of their gods. Acilius Glabrio first erected a temple to this new divinity, on the spot where a woman had fed with her own milk her aged father, who had been imprisoned by the order of the senate, and deprived of all aliments. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 36.

Pigres and Mattyas, two brothers, &c. Herodotus.――The name of three rivers.

Pigrum mare, a name applied to the Northern sea, from its being frozen. The word Pigra is applied to the Palus Mœotis. Ovid, bk. 4, ex Ponto, ltr. 10, li. 61.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 13.—Tacitus, Germania, ch. 45.

Pilumnus, the god of bakers at Rome. See: Picumnus.

Pimpla, a mountain of Macedonia, with a fountain of the same name, on the confines of Thessaly, near Olympus, sacred to the Muses, who on that account are often called Pimpleæ and Pimpleades. Horace, bk. 1, ode 26, li. 9.—Strabo, bk. 10.—Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 11, li. 3.—Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 4, li. 26; Sylvæ, poem 2, li. 36.

Pimprana, a town on the Indus. Arrian.

Pinăre, an island of the Ægean sea.――A town of Syria, at the south of mount Amanus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 25.――Of Lycia. Strabo, bk. 14.

Pinārius and Potitius, two old men of Arcadia, who came with Evander to Italy. They were instructed by Hercules, who visited the court of Evander, how they were to offer sacrifices to his divinity, in the morning, and in the evening, immediately at sunset. The morning sacrifice they punctually performed, but on the evening Potitius was obliged to offer the sacrifice alone, as Pinarius neglected to come till after the appointed time. This negligence offended Hercules, and he ordered that for the future Pinarius and his descendants should preside over the sacrifices, but that Potitius, with his posterity, should wait upon the priests as servants, when the sacrifices were annually offered to him on mount Aventine. This was religiously observed till the age of Appius Claudius, who persuaded the Potitii, by a large bribe, to discontinue their sacred office, and to have the ceremony performed by slaves. For this negligence, as the Latin authors observe, the Potitii were deprived of sight, and the family became a little time after totally extinct. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 269, &c.—Victor, de Origo Gentis Romanæ, ch. 8.

Marcus Pinārius Rusca, a pretor, who conquered Sardinia, and defeated the Corsicans. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2.

Pinarus, or Pindus, now Delifou, a river falling into the sea near Issus, after flowing between Cilicia and Syria. Dionysius Periegeta.

Pincum, a town of Mœsia Superior, now Gradisca.

Pindărus, a celebrated lyric poet of Thebes. He was carefully trained from his earliest years to the study of music and poetry, and he was taught how to compose verses with elegance and simplicity, by Myrtis and Corinna. When he was young, it is said that a swarm of bees settled on his lips, and there left some honeycombs as he reposed on the grass. This was universally explained as a prognostic of his future greatness and celebrity, and indeed he seemed entitled to notice when he had conquered Myrtis in a musical conquest. He was not, however, so successful against Corinna, who obtained five times, while he was competitor, a poetical prize, which, according to some, was adjudged rather to the charms of her person, than to the brilliancy of her genius, or the superiority of her composition. In the public assemblies of Greece, where females were not permitted to contend, Pindar was rewarded with the prize, in preference to every other competitor; and as the conquerors at Olympia were the subject of his compositions, the poet was courted by statesmen and princes. His hymns and pæans were repeated before the most crowded assemblies in the temples of Greece; and the priestess of Delphi declared that it was the will of Apollo that Pindar should receive the half of all the first fruit offerings that were annually heaped on his altars. This was not the only public honour which he received; after his death, he was honoured with every mark of respect, even to adoration. His statue was erected at Thebes in the public place where the games were exhibited, and six centuries after it was viewed with pleasure and admiration by the geographer Pausanias. The honours which had been paid to him while alive, were also shared by his posterity; and at the celebration of one of the festivals of the Greeks, a portion of the victim which had been offered in sacrifice, was reserved for the descendants of the poet. Even the most inveterate enemies of the Thebans showed regard for his memory, and the Spartans spared the house which the prince of Lyrics had inhabited, when they destroyed the houses and the walls of Thebes. The same respect was also paid him by Alexander the Great when Thebes was reduced to ashes. It is said that Pindar died at the advanced age of 86, B.C. 435. The greatest part of his works have perished. He had written some hymns to the gods, poems in honour of Apollo, dithyrambics to Bacchus, and odes on several victories obtained at the four greatest festivals of the Greeks, the Olympic, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemean games. Of all these, the odes are the only compositions extant, admired for sublimity of sentiments, grandeur of expression, energy and magnificence of style, boldness of metaphors, harmony of numbers, and elegance of diction. In these odes, which were repeated with the aid of musical instruments, and accompanied by the various inflections of the voice, with suitable attitudes and proper motions of the body, the poet has not merely celebrated the place where the victory was won, but has introduced beautiful episodes, and by unfolding the greatness of his heroes, the dignity of their characters, and the glory of the several republics where they flourished, he has rendered the whole truly beautiful and in the highest degree interesting. Horace has not hesitated to call Pindar inimitable, and this panegyric will not perhaps appear too offensive when we recollect that succeeding critics have agreed in extolling his beauties, his excellence, the fire, animation, and enthusiasm of his genius. He has been censured for his affectation in composing an ode from which the letter S was excluded. The best editions of Pindar are those of Heyne, 4to, Gottingen, 1773; of Glasgow, 12mo, 1774; and of Schmidius, 4to, Witteberg, 1616. Athenæus.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 2.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 3.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 23.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 12.—Plutarch, Alexander.—Curtius, bk. 1, ch. 13.――A tyrant of Ephesus, who killed his master at his own request, after the battle of Philippi. Plutarch.――A Theban, who wrote a Latin poem on the Trojan war.

Pindăsus, a mountain of Troas.

Pindenissus, a town of Cilicia, on the borders of Syria. Cicero, when proconsul in Asia, besieged it for 25 days and took it. Cicero, For Marcus Cælius; Letters to his Friends, bk. 2, ltr. 10.

Pindus, a mountain, or rather a chain of mountains, between Thessaly, Macedonia, and Epirus. It was greatly celebrated as being sacred to the Muses and to Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 570.—Strabo, bk. 18.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 10.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 674; bk. 6, li. 339.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.――A town of Doris in Greece, called also Cyphas. It was watered by a small river of the same name which falls into the Cephisus, near Lilæa. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 56.

Pingus, a river of Mœsia, falling into the Danube. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 26.

Pinna, a town of Italy at the mouth of the Matrinus, south of Picenum. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 518.

Pinthias. See: Phinthias.

Pintia, a town of Spain, now supposed to be Valladolid.

Pion, one of the descendants of Hercules, who built Pionia, near the Caycus in Mysia. It is said that smoke issued from his tomb as often as sacrifices were offered to him. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 18.

Pione, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus.

Piŏnia, a town of Mysia, near the Caycus.

Piræus, or Pyræeus, a celebrated harbour at Athens, at the mouth of the Cephisus, about three miles distant from the city. It was joined to the town by two walls, in circumference seven miles and a half, and 60 feet high, which Themistocles wished to raise in a double proportion. One of these was built by Pericles, and the other by Themistocles. The towers which were raised on the walls to serve as a defence, were turned into dwelling-houses, as the population of Athens gradually increased. It was the most capacious of all the harbours of the Athenians, and was naturally divided into three large basins called Cantharos, Aphrodisium, and Zea, improved by the labours of Themistocles, and made sufficiently commodious for the reception of a fleet of 400 ships, in the greatest security. The walls which joined it to Athens, with all the fortifications, were totally demolished when Lysander put an end to the Peloponnesian war by the reduction of Attica. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Justin, bk. 5, ch. 8.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 446.

Piranthus, a son of Argus and Evadne, brother to Jasus, Epidaurus, and Perasus. Pausanias, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 17.—Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Pirēne, a daughter of Danaus.――A daughter of Œbalus, or, according to others, of the Achelous. She had by Neptune two sons, called Leches and Cenchrius, who gave their names to two of the harbours of Corinth. Pirene was so disconsolate at the death of her son Cenchrius, who had been killed by Diana, that she pined away, and was dissolved, by her continual weeping, into a fountain of the same name, which was still seen at Corinth in the age of Pausanias. The fountain Pirene was sacred to the Muses, and, according to some, the horse Pegasus was then drinking some of its waters, when Bellerophon took it to go and conquer the Chimæra. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 240.

Pirĭthous, a son of Ixion and the cloud, or, according to others, of Dia the daughter of Deioneus. Some make him son of Dia by Jupiter, who assumed the shape of a horse whenever he paid his addresses to his mistress. He was king of the Lapithæ, and, as an ambitious prince, he wished to become acquainted with Theseus, king of Athens, of whose fame and exploits he had heard so many reports. To see him, and at the same time to be a witness of his valour, he resolved to invade his territories with an army. Theseus immediately met him on the borders of Attica, but at the sight of one another the two enemies did not begin the engagement, but, struck with the appearance of each other, they stepped between the hostile armies. Their meeting was like that of the most cordial friends, and Pirithous, by giving Theseus his hand as a pledge of his sincerity, promised to repair all the damages which his hostilities in Attica might have occasioned. From that time, therefore, the two monarchs became the most intimate and the most attached of friends, so much, that their friendship, like that of Orestes and Pylades, is become proverbial. Pirithous some time after married Hippodamia, and invited not only the heroes of his age, but also the gods themselves, and his neighbours the Centaurs, to celebrate his nuptials. Mars was the only one of the gods who was not invited, and to punish this neglect, the god of war was determined to raise a quarrel among the guests, and to disturb the festivity of the entertainment. Eurythion, captivated with the beauty of Hippodamia, and intoxicated with wine, attempted to offer violence to the bride, but he was prevented by Theseus, and immediately killed. This irritated the rest of the Centaurs; the contest became general, but the valour of Theseus, Pirithous, Hercules, and the rest of the Lapithæ, triumphed over their enemies. Many of the Centaurs were slain, and the rest saved their lives by flight. See: Lapithus. The death of Hippodamia left Pirithous very disconsolate, and he resolved with his friend Theseus, who had likewise lost his wife, never to marry again, except to a goddess, or one of the daughters of the gods. This determination occasioned the rape of Helen by the two friends; the lot was drawn, and it fell to the share of Theseus to have the beautiful prize. Pirithous upon this undertook with his friend to carry away Proserpine and to marry her. They descended into the infernal regions, but Pluto, who was apprised of their machinations to disturb his conjugal peace, stopped the two friends and confined them there. Pirithous was tied to his father’s wheel, or, according to Hyginus, he was delivered to the furies to be continually tormented. His punishment, however, was short, and when Hercules visited the kingdom of Pluto, he obtained from Proserpine the pardon of Pirithous, and brought him back to his kingdom safe and unhurt. Some suppose that he was torn to pieces by the dog Cerberus. See: Theseus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, fable 4 & 5.—Hesiod, Shield of Heracles.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 10.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 2, ch. 5.—Hyginus, fables 14, 79, 155.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Plutarch, Theseus.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 7.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 304.—Martial, bk. 7, ltr. 23.

Pirus, a captain of the Thracians during the Trojan war, killed by Thoas king of Ætolia. Homer, Iliad, bk. 4.

Pirustæ, a people of Illyricum. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.

Pisa, a town of Elis, on the Alpheus at the west of the Peloponnesus, founded by Pisus the son of Perieres, and grandson of Æolus. Its inhabitants accompanied Nestor to the Trojan war, and they enjoyed long the privilege of presiding at the Olympic games, which were celebrated near their city. This honourable appointment was envied by the people of Elis, who made war against the Piseans, and after many bloody battles took their city and totally demolished it. It was at Pisa that Œnomaus murdered the suitors of his daughter, and that he himself was conquered by Pelops. The inhabitants were called Pisæi. Some have doubted the existence of such a place as Pisa; but this doubt originates from Pisa’s having been destroyed in so remote an age. The horses of Pisa were famous. The year on which the Olympic games were celebrated, was often called Pisæus annus, and the victory which was obtained there was called Pisææ ramus olivæ. See: Olympia. Strabo, bk. 8.—Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 386; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 95.—Mela, bk. 2.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 180.—Statius, Thebaid, bk. 7, li. 417.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 22.

Pisæ, a town of Etruria, built by a colony from Pisa in the Peloponnesus. The inhabitants were called Pisani. Dionysius of Halicarnassus affirms that it existed before the Trojan war, but others support that it was built by a colony of Pisæans, who were shipwrecked on the coast of Etruria at their return from the Trojan war. Pisæ was once a very powerful and flourishing city, which conquered the Baleares, together with Sardinia and Corsica. The sea on the neighbouring coast was called the bay of Pisæ. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 179.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 401.—Livy, bk. 39, ch. 2; bk. 45, ch. 13.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 103.

Pisæus, a surname of Jupiter at Pisa.

Pisander, a son of Bellerophon, killed by the Solymi.――A Trojan chief, killed by Menelaus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, li. 601.――One of Penelope’s suitors, son of Polyctor. Ovid, Heroides, poem 1.――A son of Antimachus, killed by Agamemnon during the Trojan war. He had had recourse to entreaties and promises, but in vain, as the Grecian wished to resent the advice of Antimachus, who opposed the restoration of Helen. Homer, Iliad, bk. 11, li. 123.――An admiral of the Spartan fleet during the Peloponnesian war. He abolished the democracy at Athens, and established the aristocratical government of the 400 tyrants. He was killed in a naval battle by Conon the Athenian general near Cnidus, in which the Spartans lost 50 galleys, B.C. 394. Diodorus.――A poet of Rhodes, who composed a poem called Heraclea, in which he gave an account of all the labours and all the exploits of Hercules. He was the first who ever represented his hero armed with a club. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 22.

Pisātes, or Pisæi, the inhabitants of Pisa in the Peloponnesus.

Pisaurus, now Poglia, a river of Picenum, with a town called Pisaurum, now Pesaro, which became a Roman colony in the consulship of Claudius Pulcher. The town was destroyed by an earthquake in the beginning of the reign of Augustus. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Catullus, poem 82.—Pliny, bk. 3.—Livy, bk. 39, ch. 44; bk. 41, ch. 27.

Pisēnor, a son of Ixion and the cloud.――One of the ♦ancestors of the nurse of Ulysses. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 1.

Piseus, a king of ♦Etruria, about 260 years before the foundation of Rome. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 26.

Pisias, a general of the Argives in the age of Epaminondas.――A statuary at Athens, celebrated for his pieces. Pausanias.

Pĭsĭdia, an inland country of Asia Minor, between Phrygia, Pamphylia, Galatia, and Isauria. It was rich and fertile. The inhabitants were called Pisidæ. Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Strabo, bk. 12.—Livy, bk. 37, chs. 54 & 56.

Pisidĭce, a daughter of Æolus, who married Myrmidon.――A daughter of Nestor.――A daughter of Pelias.――The daughter of a king of Methymna in Lesbos. She became enamoured of Achilles when he invaded her father’s kingdom, and she promised to deliver the city into his hands if he would marry her. Achilles agreed to the proposal, but when he became master of Methymna, he ordered Pisidice to be stoned to death for her perfidy. Parthenius, Narrationes Amatoriæ, ch. 21.

Pisis, a native of Thespia, who gained uncommon influence among the Thebans, and behaved with great courage in the defence of their liberties. He was taken prisoner by Demetrius, who made him governor of Thespia.

Pisistrătĭdæ, the descendants of Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. See: Pisistratus.

Pisistrătĭdes, a man sent as ambassador to the satraps of the king of Persia, by the Spartans.

Pisistrătus, an Athenian, son of Hippocrates, who early distinguished himself by his valour in the field, and by his address and eloquence at home. After he had rendered himself the favourite of the populace by his liberality, and by the intrepidity with which he had fought their battles, particularly near Salamis, he resolved to make himself master of his country. Everything seemed favourable to his views; but Solon alone, who was then at the head of affairs, and who had lately instituted his celebrated laws, opposed him, and discovered his duplicity and artful behaviour before the public assembly. Pisistratus was not disheartened by the measures of his relation Solon, but he had recourse to artifice. In returning from his country house, he cut himself in various places, and after he had exposed his mangled body to the eyes of the populace, deplored his misfortunes, and accused his enemies of attempts upon his life, because he was the friend of the people, the guardian of the poor, and the reliever of the oppressed; he claimed a chosen body of 50 men from the populace to defend his person in future from the malevolence and the cruelty of his enemies. The unsuspecting people unanimously granted his request, though Solon opposed it with all his influence; and Pisistratus had no sooner received an armed band, on whose fidelity and attachment he could rely, than he seized the citadel of Athens, and made himself absolute. The people too late perceived their credulity; yet, though the tyrant was popular, two of the citizens, Megacles and Lycurgus, conspired together against him, and by their means he was forcibly ejected from the city. His house and all his effects were exposed to sale, but there was found in Athens only one man who would buy them. The private dissensions of the friends of liberty proved favourable to the expelled tyrant, and Megacles, who was jealous of Lycurgus, secretly promised to restore Pisistratus to all his rights and privileges in Athens, if he would marry his daughter. Pisistratus consented, and, by the assistance of his father-in-law, he was soon enabled to expel Lycurgus, and to re-establish himself. By means of a woman called Phya, whose shape was tall, and whose features were noble and commanding, he imposed upon the people, and created himself adherents even among his enemies. Phya was conducted through the streets of the city, and, showing herself subservient to the artifice of Pisistratus, she was announced as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of Athens, who was come down from heaven to re-establish her favourite Pisistratus, in a power which was sanctioned by the will of the gods, and favoured by the affection of the people. In the midst of his triumph, however, Pisistratus felt himself unsupported, and some time after, when he repudiated the daughter of Megacles, he found that not only the citizens, but even his very troops, were alienated from him by the influence, the intrigues, and the bribery of his father-in-law. He fled from Athens, where he could no longer maintain his power, and retired to Eubœa. Eleven years after, he was drawn from his obscure retreat, by means of his son Hippias, and he was a third time received by the people of Athens as their master and sovereign. Upon this he sacrificed to his resentment the friends of Megacles, but he did not lose sight of the public good; and while he sought the aggrandizement of his family, he did not neglect the dignity and the honour of the Athenian name. He died about 527 years before the christian era, after he had enjoyed the sovereign power at Athens for 33 years, including the years of his banishment, and he was succeeded by his son Hipparchus. Pisistratus claims our admiration for his justice, his liberality, and his moderation. If he was dreaded and detested as a tyrant, the Athenians loved and respected his private virtues and his patriotism as a fellow-citizen; and the opprobrium which generally falls on his head may be attributed not to the severity of his administration, but to the republican principles of the Athenians, who hated and exclaimed against the moderation and equity of the mildest sovereign, while they flattered the pride and gratified the guilty desires of the most tyrannical of their fellow-subjects. Pisistratus often refused to punish the insolence of his enemies; and when he had one day been violently accused of murder, rather than inflict immediate punishment upon the man who had criminated him, he went to the Areopagus, and there convinced the Athenians that the accusations of his enemies were groundless, and that his life was irreproachable. It is to his labours that we are indebted for the preservation of the poems of Homer, and he was the first, according to Cicero, who introduced them at Athens, in the order in which they now stand. He also established a public library at Athens; and the valuable books which he had diligently collected, were carried into Persia when Xerxes made himself master of the capital of Attica. Hipparchus and Hippias, the sons of Pisistratus, who have received the name of Pisistratidæ, rendered themselves as illustrious as their father; but the flames of liberty were too powerful to be extinguished. The Pisistratidæ governed with great moderation, yet the name of tyrant or sovereign was insupportable to the Athenians. Two of the most respectable of the citizens, called Harmodius and Aristogiton, conspired against them, and Hipparchus was dispatched in a public assembly. This murder was not, however, attended with any advantage, and though the two leaders of the conspiracy, who have been celebrated through every age for their patriotism, were supported by the people, yet Hippias quelled the tumult by his uncommon firmness and prudence, and for a while preserved that peace in Athens which his father had often been unable to command. This was not long to continue, Hippias was at last expelled by the united efforts of the Athenians and of their allies of Peloponnesus; and he left Attica, when he found himself unable to maintain his power and independence. The rest of the family of Pisistratus followed him in his banishment, and after they had refused to accept the liberal offers of the princes of Thessaly, and the king of Macedonia, who wished them to settle in their respective territories, the Pisistratidæ retired to Sigæum, which their father had, in the summit of his power, conquered and bequeathed to his posterity. After the banishment of the Pisistratidæ, the Athenians became more than commonly jealous of their liberty, and often sacrificed the most powerful of their citizens, apprehensive of the influence which popularity and a well-directed liberality might gain among the fickle and unsettled populace. The Pisistratidæ were banished from Athens about 18 years after the death of Pisistratus, B.C. 510. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 13, ch. 14.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 26.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 59; bk. 6, ch. 103.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 3.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 2.――A son of Nestor. Apollodorus.――A king of Orchomenos, who rendered himself odious by his cruelty towards his nobles. He was put to death by them; and they carried away his body from the public assembly, by hiding each a piece of his flesh under their garments, to prevent a discovery from the people, of whom he was a great favourite. Plutarch, Parallela minora.――A Theban attached to the Roman interest while the consul Flaminius was in Greece. He assassinated the pretor of Bœotia, for which he was put to death, &c.