Chapter M (20)

=Pisuthnes=, a Persian satrap of Lydia, who revolted from Darius Nothus.
His father’s name was Hystaspes. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.

=Pităne=, a town of Æolia in Asia Minor. The inhabitants made bricks
which swam on the surface of the water. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 305.
――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Vitruvius_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch.
18.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 357.――――A town of Laconia.
_Pindar_, ode 6, li. 46.

=Pitarātus=, an Athenian archon, during whose magistracy Epicurus died.
_Cicero_, _De Fato_, ch. 9.

=Pithecūsa=, a small island on the coast of Etruria, anciently called
_Ænaria_ and _Enarina_, with a town of the same name, on the top of
a mountain. The frequent earthquakes to which it was subject obliged
the inhabitants to leave it. There was a volcano in the middle of
the island, which has given occasion to the ancients to say that the
giant Typhon was buried there. Some suppose that it received its name
from πιθηκοι, _monkeys_, into which the inhabitants were changed by
Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 90.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 6.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, poem 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 1.

=Pitheus.= _See:_ Pittheus.

=Pitho=, called also _Suada_, the goddess of persuasion among the
Greeks and Romans supposed to be the daughter of Mercury and Venus.
She was represented with a diadem on her head, to intimate her
influence over the hearts of men. One of her arms appears raised,
as in the attitude of an orator haranguing in a public assembly, and
with the other she holds a thunderbolt, and fetters made with flowers,
to signify the powers of reasoning and the attractions of eloquence.
A caduceus, as a symbol of persuasion, appears at her feet, with the
writings of Demosthenes and Cicero, the two most celebrated among
the ancients, who understood how to command the attention of their
audience, and to rouse and animate their various passions.――――A Roman
courtesan. She received this name on account of the allurements which
her charms possessed, and of her winning expressions.

=Pitholāus= and =Lycophron=, seized upon the sovereign power of Pheræ,
by killing Alexander. They were ejected by Philip of Macedonia.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.

=Pīthŏleon=, an insignificant poet of Rhodes, who mingled Greek and
Latin in his compositions. He wrote some epigrams against Julius
Cæsar, and drew upon himself the ridicule of Horace, on account of
the inelegance of his style. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the Rhetoricians_.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 21.――_Macrobius_, bk. 2,
_Saturnalia_, ch. 2.

=Pithon=, one of the body-guards of Alexander, put to death by Antiochus.

=Pithys=, a nymph beloved by Pan. Boreas was also fond of her, but she
slighted his addresses, upon which he dashed her against a rock, and
she was changed into a pine tree.

=Pittăcus=, a native of Mitylene in Lesbos, was one of the seven wise
men of Greece. His father’s name was Cyrrhadius. With the assistance
of the sons of Alcæus, he delivered his country from the oppression
of the tyrant Melanchrus, and in the war which the Athenians waged
against Lesbos he appeared at the head of his countrymen, and
challenged to single combat Phrynon, the enemy’s general. As the
event of the war seemed to depend upon this combat, Pittacus had
recourse to artifice, and when he engaged, he entangled his adversary
in a net, which he had concealed under his shield, and easily
despatched him. He was amply rewarded for his victory, and his
countrymen, sensible of his merit, unanimously appointed him governor
of their city with unlimited authority. In this capacity Pittacus
behaved with great moderation and prudence, and after he had governed
his fellow-citizens with the strictest justice, and after he had
established and enforced the most salutary laws, he voluntarily
resigned the sovereign power after he had enjoyed it for 10 years,
observing that the virtues and innocence of private life were
incompatible with the power and influence of a sovereign. His
disinterestedness gained him many admirers, and when the Mityleneans
wished to reward his public services by presenting him with an
immense tract of territory, he refused to accept more land than what
should be contained within the distance to which he could throw a
javelin. He died in the 82nd year of his age, about 570 years before
Christ, after he had spent the last 10 years of his life in literary
ease, and peaceful retirement. One of his favourite maxims was,
that man ought to provide against misfortunes to avoid them; but
that if they ever happened he ought to support them with patience
and resignation. In prosperity friends were to be acquired, and
in the hour of adversity their faithfulness was to be tried. He
also observed, that in our actions it was imprudent to make others
acquainted with our designs, for if we failed we had exposed
ourselves to censure and to ridicule. Many of his maxims were
inscribed on the walls of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, to show the
world how great an opinion the Mityleneans entertained of his
abilities as a philosopher, a moralist, and a man. By one of his
laws, every fault committed by a man when intoxicated, deserved
double punishment. The titles of some of his writings are preserved
by Laërtius, among which are mentioned elegiac verses, some laws
in prose, addressed to his countrymen, epistles, and moral precepts
called _adomena_. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Aristotle_, _Politics_.
――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch.
24.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6,
ch. 2, sect. 5.――――A grandson of Porus king of India.

=Pitthea=, a town near Trœzene. Hence the epithet of _Pittheus_ in
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 296.

=Pitthēus=, a king of Trœzene in Argolis, son of Pelops and Hippodamia.
He was universally admired for his learning, wisdom, and application;
he publicly taught in a school at Trœzene, and even composed a book,
which was seen by Pausanias the geographer. He gave his daughter
Æthra in marriage to Ægeus king of Athens, and he himself took
particular care of the youth and education of his grandson Theseus.
He was buried at Trœzene, which he had founded, and on his tomb
were seen, for many ages, three seats of white marble, on which he
sat, with two other judges, whenever he gave laws to his subjects
or settled their disputes. _Pausanias_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.

=Pituanius=, a mathematician in the age of Tiberius, thrown down from
the Tarpeian rock, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2.

=Pitulāni=, a people of Umbria. Their chief town was called _Pitulum_.

=Pityæa=, a town of Asia Minor. _Apollonius._

=Pityassus=, a town of Pisidia. _Strabo._

=Pityonēsus=, a small island on the coast of Peloponnesus, near
Epidaurus. _Pliny._

=Pityus= (untis), now _Pitchinda_, a town of Colchis. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 5.

=Pityūsa=, a small island on the coast of Argolis. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.――――A name of Chios.――――Two small islands in the Mediterranean,
near the coast of Spain, of which the larger was called _Ebusus_,
and the smaller _Ophiusa_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo._――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.

=Pius=, a surname given to the emperor Antoninus, on account of his
piety and virtue.――――A surname given to a son of Metellus, because
he interested himself so warmly to have his father recalled from
banishment.

=Placentia=, now called _Placenza_, an ancient town and colony of Italy,
at the confluence of the Trebia and Po. _Livy_, bk. 21, chs. 25 & 56;
bk. 37, ch. 10.――――Another, near Lusitania, in Spain.

=Placideianus=, a gladiator in Horace’s age, bk. 2, satire 7.

=Placidia=, a daughter of Theodosius the Great, sister to Honorius
and Arcadius. She married Adolphus king of the Goths, and afterwards
Constantine, by whom she had Valentinian III. She died A.D. 449.

=Placidius Julius=, a tribune of a cohort, who imprisoned the emperor
Vitellius, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 85.

=Planasia=, a small island of the ♦Tyrrhene sea.――――Another, on the
coast of Gaul, where Tiberius ordered Agrippa the grandson of
Augustus to be put to death. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――――A
town on the Rhone.

♦ ‘Tyrhene’ replaced with ‘Tyrrhene’

=Plancīna=, a woman celebrated for her intrigues and her crimes, who
married Piso, and was accused with him of having murdered Germanicus,
in the reign of Tiberius. She was acquitted either by means of the
empress Livia, or on account of the partiality of the emperor for her
person. She had long supported the spirits of her husband, during his
confinement, but when she saw herself freed from the accusation, she
totally abandoned him to his fate. Subservient in everything to the
will of Livia, she, at her instigation, became guilty of the greatest
crimes, to injure the character of Agrippina. After the death of
Agrippina, Plancina was accused of the most atrocious villanies, and,
as she knew she could not elude justice, she put herself to death,
A.D. 33. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 26, &c.

=Lucius Plancus Munatius=, a Roman, who rendered himself ridiculous
by his follies and his extravagance. He had been consul, and had
presided over a province in the capacity of governor; but he forgot
all his dignity, and became one of the most servile flatterers
of Cleopatra and Antony. At the court of the Egyptian queen in
Alexandria, he appeared in the character of the meanest stage dancer,
and in a comedy he personated Glaucus, and painted his body of a
green colour, dancing on a public stage quite naked, only with a
crown of green reeds on his head, while he had tied behind his back
the tail of a large sea fish. This exposed him to the public derision,
and when Antony had joined the rest of his friends in censuring him
for his unbecoming behaviour, he deserted to Octavius, who received
him with great marks of friendship and attention. It was he who
proposed, in the Roman senate, that the title of Augustus should
be conferred on his friend Octavius, as expressive of the dignity and
the reverence which the greatness of his exploits seemed to claim.
Horace has dedicated bk. 1, ode 7, to him; and he certainly deserved
the honour, from the elegance of his letters, which are still
extant, written to Cicero. He founded a town in Gaul, which he called
Lugdunum. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A patrician, proscribed by the
second triumvirate. His servants wished to save him from death, but
he refused it, rather than to expose their persons to danger.

=Phangon=, a courtesan of Miletus, in Ionia.

=Platæa=, a daughter of Asopus king of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 1, &c.――――An island on the coast of Africa in the Mediterranean.
It belonged to the Cyreneans. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 157.

=Platæa=, and æ (arum), a town of Bœotia, near mount Cithæron, on
the confines of Megaris and Attica, celebrated for a battle fought
there between Mardonius the commander of Xerxes king of Persia,
and Pausanias the Lacedæmonian, and the Athenians. The Persian
army consisted of 300,000 men, 3000 of which scarce escaped with
their lives by flight. The Grecian army, which was greatly inferior,
lost but few men, and among these 91 Spartans, 52 Athenians, and 16
Tegeans, were the only soldiers found in the number of the slain. The
plunder which the Greeks obtained in the Persian camp was immense.
Pausanias received the tenth of all the spoils, on account of his
uncommon valour during the engagement, and the rest were rewarded
each according to their respective merit. This battle was fought on
the 22nd September, the same day as the battle of Mycale, 479 B.C.,
and by it Greece was totally delivered for ever from the continual
alarms to which she was exposed on account of the Persian invasions,
and from that time none of the princes of Persia dared to appear with
a hostile force beyond the Hellespont. The Platæans were naturally
attached to the interest of the Athenians, and they furnished them
with 1000 soldiers when Greece was attacked by Datis the general of
Darius. Platæa was taken by the Thebans, after a famous siege, in the
beginning of the Peloponnesian war, and destroyed by the Spartans,
B.C. 427. Alexander rebuilt it, and paid great encomiums to the
inhabitants, on account of their ancestors, who had so bravely fought
against the Persians at the battle of Marathon, and under Pausanias.
_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 50.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_,
_Alexander_, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_,
bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Strabo._――_Justin._

=Platanius=, a river of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.

=Plato=, a celebrated philosopher at Athens, son of Ariston and
Parectonia. His original name was Aristocles, and he received that of
Plato from the largeness of his shoulders. As one of the descendants
of Codrus, and as the offspring of a noble, illustrious, and opulent
family, Plato was educated with care, his body was formed and
invigorated with gymnastic exercises, and his mind was cultivated
and enlightened by the study of poetry and of geometry, from which
he derived that acuteness of judgment and warmth of imagination which
have stamped his character as the most subtle and flowery writer of
antiquity. He first began his literary career by writing poems and
tragedies; but he was soon disgusted with his own productions, when,
at the age of 20, he was introduced into the presence of Socrates,
and when he was enabled to compare and examine, with critical
accuracy, the merit of his compositions with those of his poetical
predecessors. He therefore committed to the flames these productions
of his early years, which could not command the attention or gain
the applause of a maturer age. During eight years he continued to be
one of the pupils of Socrates; and if he was prevented by a momentary
indisposition from attending the philosopher’s last moments, yet he
collected from the conversation of those that were present, and from
his own accurate observations, the minutest and most circumstantial
accounts, which can exhibit, in its truest colours, the concern
and sensibility of the pupil, and the firmness, virtues, and moral
sentiments of the dying philosopher. After the death of Socrates,
Plato retired from Athens, and to acquire that information which the
accurate observer can derive in foreign countries, he began to travel
over Greece. He visited Megara, Thebes, and Elis, where he met with
the kindest reception from his fellow-disciples, whom the violent
death of their master had likewise removed from Attica. He afterwards
visited Magna Græcia, attracted by the fame of the Pythagorean
philosophy, and by the learning, abilities, and reputation of its
professors, Philolaus, Archytas, and Eurytus. He afterwards passed
into Sicily, and examined the eruptions and fires of the volcano
of that island. He also visited Egypt, where then the mathematician
Theodorus flourished, and where he knew that the tenets of the
Pythagorean philosophy and metempsychosis had been fostered and
cherished. When he had finished his travels, Plato retired to
the groves of Academus, in the neighbourhood of Athens, where
his lectures were soon attended by a crowd of learned, noble, and
illustrious pupils; and the philosopher, by refusing to have a share
in the administration of affairs, rendered his name more famous, and
his school more frequented. During forty years he presided at the
head of the academy, and there he devoted his time to the instruction
of his pupils, and composed those dialogues which have been the
admiration of every age and country. His studies, however, were
interrupted for a while, whilst he obeyed the pressing calls
and invitations of Dionysius, and whilst he persuaded the tyrant
to become a man, the father of his people, and the friend of
liberty. _See:_ Dionysius II. In his dress the philosopher was not
ostentatious; his manners were elegant but modest, simple without
affectation; and the great honours which his learning deserved were
not paid to his appearance. When he came to the Olympian games,
Plato resided, during the celebration, in a family who were totally
strangers to him. He ate and drank with them, he partook of their
innocent pleasures and amusements; but though he told them his name
was Plato, yet he never spoke of the employment which he pursued
at Athens, and never introduced the name of that philosopher whose
doctrines he followed, and whose death and virtues were favourite
topics of conversation in every part of Greece. When he returned home,
he was attended by the family which had so kindly entertained him;
and, as being a native of Athens, he was desired to show them the
great philosopher whose name he bore: their surprise was great when
he told them that he himself was the Plato whom they wished to behold.
In his diet he was moderate, and, indeed, to sobriety and temperance
in the use of food, and to the want of those pleasures which enfeeble
the body and enervate the mind, some have attributed his preservation
during the tremendous pestilence which raged at Athens with so much
fury at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Plato was never
subject to any long or lingering indisposition, and though change of
climate had enfeebled a constitution naturally strong and healthy,
the philosopher lived to an advanced age, and was often heard to say,
when his physicians advised him to leave his residence at Athens,
where the air was impregnated by the pestilence, that he would
not advance one single step to gain the top of mount Athos, were
he assured to attain the great longevity which the inhabitants of
that mountain were said to enjoy above the rest of mankind. Plato
died on his birthday, in the 81st year of his age, about 348 years
before the christian era. His last moments were easy and without pain,
and, according to some, he expired in the midst of an entertainment,
or, according to Cicero, as he was writing. The works of Plato are
numerous; they are all written in the form of a dialogue, except 12
letters. He speaks always by the mouth of others, and the philosopher
has nowhere made mention of himself except once in his dialogue
intituled Phædon, and another time in his apology for Socrates. His
writings were so celebrated, and, his opinion so respected, that he
was called divine; and for the elegance, melody, and sweetness of his
expressions, he was distinguished by the appellation of the Athenian
bee. Cicero had such an esteem for him, that in the warmth of
panegyric, he exclaimed, _Errare meherculè malo cum Platone quàm cum
istis vera sentire_; and Quintilian said that, when he read Plato, he
seemed to hear not a man, but a divinity speaking. His style, however,
though admired and commended by the best and most refined of critics
among the ancients, has not escaped the censure of some of the
moderns; and the philosopher has been blamed, who supports that fire
is a pyramid tied to the earth by numbers, that the world is a figure
consisting of 12 pentagons, and who, to prove the metempsychosis and
the immortality of the soul, asserts that the dead are born from the
living, and the living from the dead. The speculative mind of Plato
was employed in examining things divine and human, and he attempted
to fix and ascertain, not only the practical doctrine of morals and
politics, but the more subtle and abstruse theory of mystical
theogony. His philosophy was universally received and adopted, and it
has not only governed the opinions of the speculative part of mankind,
but it continues still to influence the reasoning, and to divide the
sentiments, of the moderns. In his system of philosophy he followed
the physics of Heraclitus, the metaphysical opinions of Pythagoras,
and the morals of Socrates. He maintained the existence of two beings,
one self-existent, and the other formed by the hand of a pre-existent
creature, god and man. The world was created by that self-existent
cause, from the rude undigested mass of matter which had existed
from all eternity, and which had even been animated by an irregular
principle of motion. The origin of evil could not be traced under the
government of a deity, without admitting a stubborn intractability
and wildness congenial to matter, and from these, consequently, could
be demonstrated the deviations from the laws of nature, and from
thence the extravagant passions and appetites of men. From materials
like these were formed the four elements, and the beautiful structure
of the heavens and the earth; and into the active but irrational
principle of matter, the divinity infused a rational soul. The souls
of men were formed from the remainder of the rational soul of the
world, which had previously given existence to the invisible gods and
demons. The philosopher, therefore, supported the doctrine of ideal
forms, and the pre-existence of the human mind, which he considered
as emanations of the Deity, which can never remain satisfied with
objects or things unworthy of their divine original. Men could
perceive, with their corporeal senses, the types of immutable things
and the fluctuating objects of the material world; but the sudden
changes to which these are continually obnoxious, create innumerable
disorders, and hence arise deception, and, in short, all the errors
and miseries of human life. Yet, in whatever situation man may be,
he is still an object of divine concern; and, to recommend himself
to the favour of the pre-existent cause, he must comply with the
purposes of his creation, and, by proper care and diligence, he can
recover those immaculate powers with which he was naturally endowed.
All science the philosopher made to consist in reminiscence, and in
recalling the nature, forms, and proportions of those perfect and
immutable essences with which the human mind had been conversant.
From observations like these, the summit of felicity might be
attained by removing from the material, and approaching nearer to
the intellectual world, by curbing and governing the passions which
were ever agitated and inflamed by real and imaginary objects. The
passions were divided into two classes: the first consisted of the
irascible passions, which originated in pride or resentment, and were
seated in the breast; the other, founded on the love of pleasure, was
the concupiscible part of the soul seated in the belly, and inferior
parts of the body. These different orders induced the philosopher
to compare the soul to a small republic, of which the reasoning and
judging powers were stationed in the head, as in a firm citadel, and
of which the senses were its guards and servants. By the irascible
part of the soul men asserted their dignity, repelled injuries, and
scorned danger; and the concupiscible part provided for the support
and the necessities of the body, and when governed with propriety, it
gave rise to temperance. Justice was produced by the regular dominion
of reason, and by the submission of the passions; and prudence arose
from the strength, acuteness, and perfection of the soul, without
which all other virtues could not exist. But, amidst all this, wisdom
was not easily attained; at their creation all minds were not endowed
with the same excellence, the bodies which they animated on earth
were not always in harmony with the divine emanation; some might be
too weak, others too strong, and on the first years of a man’s life
depended his future consequence; as an effeminate and licentious
education seemed calculated to destroy the purposes of the divinity,
while the contrary produced different effects, and tended to
cultivate and improve the reasoning and judging faculty, and to
produce wisdom and virtue. Plato was the first who supported the
immortality of the soul upon arguments solid and permanent, deduced
from truth and experience. He did not imagine that the diseases,
and the death of the body, could injure the principle of life and
destroy the soul, which, of itself, was of divine origin, and of an
uncorrupted and immutable essence, which, though inherent for a while
in matter, could not lose that power which was the emanation of God.
From doctrines like these, the great founder of Platonism concluded
that there might exist in the world a community of men, whose
passions could be governed with moderation, and who, from knowing
the evils and miseries which arise from ill conduct, might aspire to
excellence, and attain that perfection which can be derived from the
proper exercise of the rational and moral powers. To illustrate this
more fully, the philosopher wrote a book, well known by the name of
the republic of Plato, in which he explains with acuteness, judgment,
and elegance the rise and revolution of civil society; and so
respected was his opinion as a legislator, that his scholars were
employed in regulating the republics of Arcadia, Elis, and Cnidus, at
the desire of those states, and Xenocrates gave political rules for
good and impartial government to the conqueror of the east. The best
editions of Plato are those of Frankfurt, folio, 1602; and Bipontium,
12 vols. 8vo, 1718. _Plato_, _Dialogues_, &c.――_Cicero_, _de
Officiis_, bk. 1; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 36; _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 2, ch. 12; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Plutarch_,
_Solon_, &c.――_Seneca_, _Epistulæ_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1, &c.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 2 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30.
――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia.――――A Greek
poet, called the prince of the middle comedy, who flourished B.C. 445.
Some fragments remain of his pieces.

=Plator=, a man of Dyrrhachium, put to death by Piso. _Cicero_,
_Against Piso_, ch. 34.

=Plavis=, a river of Venetia, in Italy.

=Plautia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Plautius the tribune, A.U.C. 664.
It required every tribe annually to choose 15 persons of their body,
to serve as judges, making the honour common to all the three orders,
according to the majority of votes in every tribe.――――Another, called
also _Plotia_, A.U.C. 675. It punished with the _interdictio ignis &
aquæ_, all persons who were found guilty of attempts upon the state,
or the senators or magistrates, or such as appeared in public, armed
with an evil design, or such as forcibly expelled any person from his
legal ♦possessions.

♦ ‘possesions’ replaced with ‘possessions’

=Plautiānus Fulvius=, an African of mean birth, who was banished
for his seditious behaviour in the years of his obscurity. In his
banishment, Plautianus formed an acquaintance with Severus, who, some
years after, ascended the imperial throne. This was the beginning
of his prosperity; Severus paid the greatest attention to him, and,
if we believe some authors, their familiarity and intercourse were
carried beyond the bounds of modesty and propriety. Plautianus shared
the favours of Severus on the throne as well as in obscurity. He
was invested with as much power as his patron at Rome, and in the
provinces; and, indeed, he wanted but the name of emperor to be his
equal. His table was served with more delicate meats than that of
the emperor; when he walked in the public streets he received the
most distinguishing honours, and a number of criers ordered the most
noble citizens, as well as the meanest beggars, to make way for the
favourite of the emperor, and not to fix their eyes upon him. He
was concerned in all the rapine and destruction which were committed
through the empire, and he enriched himself with the possessions of
those who had been sacrificed to the emperor’s cruelty or avarice. To
complete his triumph, and to make himself still greater, Plautianus
married his favourite daughter Plautilla to Caracalla the son of the
emperor, and so eager was the emperor to indulge his inclinations in
this and in every other respect, that he declared he loved Plautianus
so much that he would even wish to die before him. The marriage of
Caracalla with Plautilla was attended with serious consequences.
The son of Severus had complied with great reluctance, and, though
Plautilla was amiable in her manners, commanding in aspect, and of
a beautiful countenance, yet the young prince often threatened to
punish her haughty and imperious behaviour as soon as he succeeded to
the throne. Plautilla reported the whole to her father, and to save
his daughter from the vengeance of Caracalla, Plautianus conspired
against the emperor and his son. The conspiracy was discovered, and
Severus forgot his attachment to Plautianus, and the favours he had
heaped upon him, when he heard of his perfidy. The wicked minister
was immediately put to death, and Plautilla banished to the island
of Lipari, with her brother Plautius, where, seven years after,
she was put to death by order of Caracalla, A.D. 211. Plautilla had
two children, a son who died in his childhood, and a daughter, whom
Caracalla murdered in the arms of her mother. _Dio Cassius._

=Plautilla=, a daughter of Plautianus the favourite minister of Severus.
_See:_ Plautianus.――――The mother of the emperor Nerva, descended of a
noble family.

=Plautius=, a Roman, who became so disconsolate at the death of his
wife, that he threw himself upon her burning pile. _Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 4, ch. 6.――――Caius, a consul sent against the Privernates, &c.
――――Aulus, a governor of Britain who obtained an ovation for the
conquests he had gained there over the barbarians.――――One of Otho’s
friends. He dissuaded him from killing himself.――――Lateranus, an
adulterer of Messalina, who conspired against Nero, and was capitally
condemned.――――Aulus, a general who defeated the Umbrians and the
Etrurians.――――Caius, another general, defeated in Lusitania.――――A man
put to death by order of Caracalla.――――Marcus Sylvanus, a tribune,
who made a law to prevent seditions in the public assemblies.
――――Rubellius, a man accused before Nero, and sent to Asia, where he
was assassinated.

=Marcus Accius Plautus=, a comic poet, born at Sarsina, in Umbria.
Fortune proved unkind to him, and, from competence, he was reduced
to the meanest poverty, by engaging in a commercial line. To maintain
himself, he entered into the family of a baker as a common servant,
and while he was employed in grinding corn, he sometimes dedicated
a few moments to the comic muse. Some, however, confute this account
as false, and support that Plautus was never obliged to the laborious
employments of a bakehouse for his maintenance. He wrote 25 comedies,
of which only 20 are extant. He died about 184 years before the
christian era; and Varro, his learned countryman, wrote this stanza,
which deserved to be engraved on his tomb:

_Postquam morte captus est Plautus,
Comœdia luget, scena est deserta;
Deinde risus, ludus, jocusque, & numeri
Innumeri simul omnes collacrymârunt._

The plays of Plautus were ♦universally esteemed at Rome, and the
purity, the energy, and the elegance of his language were, by
other writers, considered as objects of imitation; and Varro, whose
judgment is great, and generally decisive, declares, that if the
Muses were willing to speak Latin, they would speak in the language
of Plautus. In the Augustan age, however, when the Roman language
became more pure and refined, the comedies of Plautus did not
appear free from inaccuracy. The poet, when compared to the more
elegant expressions of a Terence, was censured for his negligence
in versification, his low wit, execrable puns, and disgusting
obscenities. Yet, however censured as to language or sentiments,
Plautus continued to be a favourite on the stage. If his expressions
were not choice or delicate, it was ♦universally admitted that he was
more happy than other comic writers in his pictures; the incidents of
his plays were more varied, the acts more interesting, the characters
more truly displayed, and the catastrophe more natural. In the
reign of the emperor Diocletian, his comedies were still acted on
the public theatres; and no greater compliment can be paid to his
abilities as a comic writer, and no greater censure can be passed
upon his successors in dramatic composition, than to observe, that
for 500 years, with all the disadvantages of obsolete language and
diction, in spite of the change of manners, and the revolutions of
government, he commanded and received that applause which no other
writer dared to dispute with him. The best editions of Plautus
are that of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1664; that of Barbou, 12mo, in
3 vols., Paris, 1759; that of Ernesti, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1760;
and that of Glasgow, 3 vols., 12mo, 1763. _Varro_ on _Quintilian_, bk.
10, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 1, &c.; _On Oratory_, bk. 3,
&c.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, lis. 58, 170; _Art of Poetry_, lis. 54
& 270.――――Ælianus, a high priest, who consecrated the capitol in the
reign of Vespasian. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 53.

♦ ‘univerally’ replaced with ‘universally’

=Plēiădes=, or =Vergĭliæ=, a name given to seven of the daughters of
Atlas by Pleione or Æthra, one of the Oceanides. They were placed
in the heavens after death, where they formed a constellation called
Pleiades, near the back of the bull in the Zodiac. Their names were
Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Sterope, and Celeno. They
all, except Merope, who married Sisyphus king of Corinth, had some
of the immortal gods for their suitors. On that account, therefore,
Merope’s star is dim and obscure among the rest of her sisters,
because she married a mortal. The name of the Pleiades is derived
from the Greek word πλεειν, _to sail_, because that constellation
shows the time most favourable to navigators, which is in the spring.
The name of Vergiliæ they derive from _ver_, _the spring_. They are
sometimes called _Atlantides_, from their father, or _Hesperides_,
from the gardens of that name, which belonged to Atlas. _Hyginus_,
fable 192; _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 21.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 293; _Fasti_, bk. 5, lis. 106 & 170;
_Hesiod_, _Works and Days_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 5.――_Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 14.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 138; bk. 4, li. 233.
――――Seven poets, who, from their number, have received the name of
Pleiades, near the age of Philadelphus Ptolemy king of Egypt. Their
names were Lycophron, Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius,
Philicus, and Homerus the younger.

=Pleiōne=, one of the Oceanides, who married Atlas king of Mauritania,
by whom she had 12 daughters, and a son called Hyas. Seven of the
daughters were changed into a constellation called _Pleiades_, and
the rest into another called _Hyades_. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 84.

=Plemmy̆rium=, now _Massa Oliveri_, a promontory with a small castle of
that name, in the bay of Syracuse. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 693.

=Plemneus=, a king of Sicyon, son of Peratus. His children always died
as soon as born, till Ceres, pitying his misfortune, offered herself
as a nurse to his wife as she was going to be brought to bed. The
child lived by the care and protection of the goddess, and Plemneus
was no sooner acquainted with the dignity of his nurse, than he
raised her a temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 5 & 11.

=Pleumosii=, a people of Belgium, the inhabitants of modern Tournay.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 38.

=Pleurātus=, a king of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24.

=Pleuron=, a son of Ætolus, who married Xantippe the daughter of Dorus,
by whom he had Agenor. He founded a city in Ætolia on the Evenus,
which bore his name. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch.
2.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 310.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 13.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 382.

=Plexaure=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._

=Plexippus=, a son of Thestius, brother to Althæa the wife of Œneus.
He was killed by his nephew Meleager, in hunting the Calydonian boar.
His brother Toxeus shared his fate. _See:_ Althæa and Meleager.――――A
son of Phineus and Cleopatra, brother to Pandion king of Athens.
_Apollodorus._

=Caius Plinius Secundus=, surnamed the _Elder_, was born at Verona, of
a noble family. He distinguished himself in the field, and, after he
had been made one of the augurs at Rome, he was appointed governor
of Spain. In his public character he did not neglect the pleasures
of literature; the day was employed in the administration of the
affairs of his province, and the night was dedicated to study. Every
moment of time was precious to him; at his meals one of his servants
read to him books valuable for their information, and from them he
immediately made copious extracts, in a memorandum book. Even while
he dressed himself after bathing, his attention was called away
from surrounding objects, and he was either employed in listening to
another, or in dictating himself. To a mind so earnestly dedicated
to learning, nothing appeared too laborious, no undertaking too
troublesome. He deemed every moment lost which was not devoted to
study, and from these reasons he never appeared at Rome but in a
chariot, and wherever he went, he was always accompanied by his
amanuensis. He even censured his nephew, Pliny the younger, because
he had indulged himself with a walk, and sternly observed, that he
might have employed those moments to better advantage. But if his
literary pursuits made him forget the public affairs, his prudence,
his abilities, and the purity and innocence of his character, made
him known and respected. He was courted and admired by the emperors
Titus and Vespasian, and he received from them all the favours which
a virtuous prince could offer, and an honest subject receive. As he
was at Misenum, where he commanded the fleet, which was then
stationed there, Pliny was surprised at the sudden appearance of
a cloud of dust and ashes. He was then ignorant of the cause which
produced it, and he immediately set sail in a small vessel for
mount Vesuvius, which he at last discovered to have made a dreadful
eruption. The sight of a number of boats that fled from the coast
to avoid the danger, might have deterred another, but the curiosity
of Pliny excited him to advance with more boldness, and though his
vessel was often covered with stones and ashes, that were continually
thrown up by the mountain, yet he landed on the coast. The place
was deserted by the inhabitants, but Pliny remained there during
the night, the better to observe the mountain, which, during the
obscurity, appeared to be one continual blaze. He was soon disturbed
by a dreadful earthquake, and the contrary wind on the morrow
prevented him from returning to Misenum. The eruption of the volcano
increased, and at last the fire approached the place where the
philosopher made his observations. Pliny endeavoured to fly before
it, but though he was supported by two of his servants, he was unable
to escape. He soon fell down, suffocated by the thick vapours that
surrounded him, and the insupportable stench of sulphureous matter.
His body was found three days after, and decently buried by his
nephew, who was then at Misenum with the fleet. This memorable event
happened in the 79th year of the christian era, and the philosopher
who perished by the eruptions of the volcano, has been called by some
the martyr of nature. He was then in the 56th year of his age. Of the
works which he composed, none are extant but his natural history in
37 books. It is a work, as Pliny the younger says, full of erudition,
and as varied as nature itself. It treats of the stars, the heavens,
wind, rain, hail, minerals, trees, flowers, and plants, besides
an account of all living animals, birds, fishes, and beasts; a
geographical description of every place on the globe, and a history
of every art and science, of commerce and navigation, with their rise,
progress, and several improvements. He is happy in his descriptions
as a naturalist; he writes with force and energy, and though many of
his ideas and conjectures are sometimes ill-founded, yet he possesses
that fecundity of imagination, and vivacity of expression, which are
requisite to treat a subject with propriety, and to render a history
of nature pleasing, interesting, and, above all, instructive. His
style possesses not the graces of the Augustan age; he has neither
its purity and elegance, nor its simplicity, but it is rather cramped,
obscure, and sometimes unintelligible. Yet for all this it has ever
been admired and esteemed, and it may be called a compilation of
everything which had been written before his age on the various
subjects which he treats, and a judicious collection from the
most excellent treatises which had been composed on the various
productions of nature. Pliny was not ashamed to mention the authors
which he quoted; he speaks of them with admiration, and while he
pays the greatest compliment to their abilities, his encomiums
show, in the strongest light, the goodness, the sensibility, and
the ingenuousness of his own mind. He had written 160 volumes of
remarks and annotations on the various authors which he had read,
and so great was the opinion in his contemporaries of his erudition
and abilities, that a man called Lartius Lutinius offered to buy
his notes and observations for the enormous sum of about 3242_l._
English money. The philosopher, who was himself rich and independent,
rejected the offer, and his compilations, after his death, came into
the hands of his nephew Pliny. The best editions of Pliny are that
of Harduin, 3 vols., folio, Paris, 1723; that of Frantzius, 10 vols.,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1728; that of Brotier, 6 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1779;
and the Variorum 8vo, in 8 vols., Lipscomb, 1778 to 1789. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 69; bk. 13, ch. 20; bk. 15, ch. 53.――_Pliny_,
_Epistulæ_, &c.――――Caius Cæcilius Secundus, surnamed the _Younger_,
was son of Lucius Cæcilius by the sister of Pliny the elder. He was
adopted by his uncle, whose name he assumed, and whose estates and
effects he inherited. He received the greatest part of his education
under Quintilian, and at the age of 19 he appeared at the bar,
where he distinguished himself so much by his eloquence, that he
and Tacitus were reckoned the two greatest orators of their age.
He did not make his profession an object of gain like the rest of
the Roman orators, but he refused fees from the rich as well as from
the poorest of his clients, and declared that he cheerfully employed
himself for the protection of innocence, the relief of the indigent,
and the detection of vice. He published many of his harangues and
orations, which have been lost. When Trajan was invested with the
imperial purple, Pliny was created consul by the emperor. This honour
the consul acknowledged in a celebrated panegyric, which, at the
request of the Roman senate, and in the name of the whole empire,
he pronounced on Trajan. Some time after he presided over Pontus
and Bithynia, in the office and with the power of proconsul, and by
his humanity and philanthropy the subject was freed from the burden
of partial taxes, and the persecution which had been begun against
the christians of his province was stopped, when Pliny solemnly
declared to the emperor that the followers of Christ were a meek and
inoffensive sect of men, that their morals were pure and innocent,
that they were free from all crimes, and that they voluntarily bound
themselves by the most solemn oaths to abstain from vice, and to
relinquish every sinful pursuit. If he rendered himself popular in
his province, he was not less respected at Rome. He was there the
friend of the poor, the patron of learning, great without arrogance,
affable in his behaviour, and an example of good breeding, sobriety,
temperance, and modesty. As a father and a husband his character
was amiable; as a subject he was faithful to his prince; and as a
magistrate he was candid, open, and compassionate. His native country
shared, among the rest, his unbounded benevolence; and Comum, a small
town of Insubria, which gave him birth, boasted of his liberality in
the valuable and choice library of books which he collected there. He
also contributed towards the expenses which attended the education of
his countrymen, and liberally spent part of his estate for the
advancement of literature, and for the instruction of those whom
poverty otherwise deprived of the advantages of a public education.
He made his preceptor Quintilian and the poet Martial objects of his
benevolence, and when the daughter of the former was married, Pliny
wrote to the father with the greatest civility; and while he observed
that he was rich in the possession of learning, though poor in the
goods of fortune, he begged of him to accept, as a dowry for his
beloved daughter, 50,000 sesterces, about 300_l._ “I would not,”
continued he, “be so moderate, were I not assured, from your modesty
and disinterestedness, that the smallness of the present will render
it acceptable.” He died in the 52nd year of his age, A.D. 113. He had
written a history of his own times, which is lost. It is said that
Tacitus did not begin his history till he had found it impossible
to persuade Pliny to undertake that laborious task; and, indeed,
what could not have been expected from the panegyrist of Trajan,
if Tacitus acknowledged himself inferior to him in delineating the
character of the times? Some suppose, but falsely, that Pliny wrote
the lives of illustrious men, universally ascribed to Cornelius Nepos.
He also wrote poetry, but his verses have all perished, and nothing
of his learned work remains, but his panegyric on the emperor Trajan,
and 10 books of letters, which he himself collected and prepared for
the public, from a numerous and respectable correspondence. These
letters contain many curious and interesting facts; they abound with
many anecdotes of the generosity and the humane sentiments of the
writer. They are written with elegance and great purity, and the
reader everywhere discovers that affability, that condescension
and philanthropy, which so egregiously marked the advocate of
the christians. These letters are esteemed by some equal to the
voluminous epistles of Cicero. In his panegyric, Pliny’s style is
florid and brilliant; he has used, to the greatest advantage, the
liberties of the panegyrist, and the eloquence of the courtier. His
ideas are new and refined, but his diction is distinguished by that
affectation and pomposity which marked the reign of Trajan. The best
editions of Pliny are those of Gesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1770, and of
Lallemand, 12mo, Paris apud Barbou; and of the panegyric separate,
that of Schwartz, 4to, 1746, and of the epistles, the Variorum,
Leiden, 1669, 8vo. _Pliny_, _Epistulæ_.――_Vossius._――_Sidonius._

=Plinthīne=, a town of Egypt on the Mediterranean.

=Plistarchus=, son of Leonidas, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ,
succeeded on the Spartan throne at the death of Cleombrotus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――A brother of Cassander.

=Plisthanus=, a philosopher of Elis, who succeeded in the school of
Phædon. _Diogenes Laërtius._

=Plisthĕnes=, a son of Atreus king of Argos, father of Menelaus and
Agamemnon, according to Hesiod and others. Homer, however, calls
Menelaus and Agamemnon sons of Atreus, though they were in reality
the children of Plisthenes. The father died very young, and the two
children were left in the house of their grandfather, who took care
of them and instructed them. From his attention to them, therefore,
it seems probable that Atreus was universally acknowledged their
protector and father, and thence their surname of _Atridæ_. _Ovid_,
_Remedia Amoris_, li. 778.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_.

=Plistīnus=, a brother of Faustulus the shepherd, who saved the life of
Romulus and Remus. He was killed in a scuffle which happened between
the two brothers.

=Plistoănax= and =Plistōnax=, son of Pausanias, was general of the
Lacedæmonian armies in the Peloponnesian war. He was banished from
his kingdom of Sparta for 19 years, and was afterwards recalled by
order of the oracle of Delphi. He reigned 58 years. He had succeeded
Plistarchus. _Thucydides._

=Plistus=, a river of Phocis falling into the bay of Corinth. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.

=Plotæ=, small islands on the coast of Ætolia, called also Strophades.

=Plotīna Pompeia=, a Roman lady who married Trajan while he was yet a
private man. She entered Rome in the procession with her husband when
he was saluted emperor, and distinguished herself by the affability
of her behaviour, her humanity, and liberal offices to the poor and
friendless. She accompanied Trajan in the east, and at his death she
brought back his ashes to Rome, and still enjoyed all the honours
and titles of a Roman empress under Adrian, who by her means had
succeeded to the vacant throne. At her death, A.D. 122, she was
ranked among the gods, and received divine honours, which, according
to the superstition of the times, she seemed to deserve, from her
regard for the good and prosperity of the Roman empire, and for her
private virtues. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._

=Plotinopŏlis=, a town of Thrace, built by the emperor Trajan, and
called after Plotina, the founder’s wife.――――Another in Dacia.

=Plotīnus=, a Platonic philosopher of Lycopolis in Egypt. He was
for eleven years a pupil of Ammonius the philosopher, and after he
had profited by all the instructions of his learned preceptor, he
determined to improve his knowledge, and to visit the territories
of India and Persia to receive information. He accompanied Gordian
in his expedition into the east, but the day which proved fatal to
the emperor, nearly terminated the life of the philosopher. He saved
himself by flight, and the following year he retired to Rome, where
he publicly taught philosophy. His school was frequented by people
of every sex, age, and quality; by senators as well as plebeians, and
so great was the opinion of the public of his honesty and candour,
that many, on their death-bed, left all their possessions to his care,
and entrusted their children to him, as a superior being. He was the
favourite of all the Romans; and while he charmed the populace by the
force of his eloquence, and the senate by his doctrines, the emperor
Gallienus courted him, and admired the extent of his learning. It
is even said that the emperor and the empress Salonina intended to
rebuild a decayed city of Campania, and to appoint the philosopher
over it, that there he might experimentally know, while he presided
over a colony of philosophers, the validity and the use of the ideal
laws of the republic of Plato. This plan was not executed, through
the envy and malice of the enemies of Plotinus. The philosopher,
at last become helpless and infirm, returned to Campania, where the
liberality of his friends for a while maintained him. He died A.D.
270, in the 66th year of his age, and as he expired, he declared
that he made his last and most violent efforts to give up what there
was most divine in him and in the rest of the universe. Amidst the
great qualities of the philosopher, we discover some ridiculous
singularities. Plotinus never permitted his picture to be taken,
and he observed, that to see a painting of himself in the following
age, was beneath the notice of an enlightened mind. These reasons
also induced him to conceal the day, the hour, and the place of
his birth. He never made use of medicines, and though his body was
often debilitated by abstinence or too much study, he despised to
have recourse to a physician, and thought that it would degrade the
gravity of a philosopher. His writings have been collected by his
pupil Porphyry. They consist of 54 different treatises divided into
six equal parts, written with great spirit and vivacity; but the
reasonings are abstruse, and the subjects metaphysical. The best
edition is that of Picinus, folio, Basil, 1580.

=Plotius Crispīnus=, a stoic philosopher and poet, whose verses were
very inelegant, and whose disposition was morose, for which he has
been ridiculed by Horace, and called _Aretalogus_. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 1, li. 4.――――Gallus, a native of Lugdunum, who taught grammar
at Rome, and had Cicero among his pupils. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_.
――――Griphus, a man made senator by Vespasian. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 3.――――A centurion in Cæsar’s army. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3,
ch. 19.――――Tucca, a friend of Horace and of Virgil, who made him his
heir. He was selected by Augustus, with Varius, to review the Æneid
of Virgil. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40.――――Lucius, a poet in
the age of the great Marius, whose exploits he celebrated in his
verses.

=Plusios=, a surname of Jupiter at Sparta, expressive of his power to
grant riches. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 19.