Chapter M (23)

=Praxitĕles=, a famous sculptor of Magna Græcia, who flourished about
324 years before the christian era. He chiefly worked on Parian
marble, on account of its beautiful whiteness. He carried his art to
the greatest perfection, and was so happy in copying nature, that his
statues seemed to be animated. The most famous of his pieces was a
Cupid which he gave to Phryne. This celebrated courtesan, who wished
to have the best of all the statues of Praxiteles, and who could not
depend upon her own judgment in the choice, alarmed the sculptor,
by telling him his house was on fire. Praxiteles upon this showed
his eagerness to save his Cupid from the flames, above all his other
pieces; but Phryne restrained his fears, and, by discovering her
artifice, obtained the favourite statue. The sculptor employed his
chisel in making a statue of this beautiful courtesan, which was
dedicated in the temple of Delphi, and placed between the statues of
Archidamus king of Sparta, and Philip king of Macedon. He also made
a statue of Venus, at the request of the people of Cos, and gave them
their choice of the goddess, either naked or veiled. The former was
superior to the other in beauty and perfection, but the inhabitants
of Cos preferred the latter. The ♦Cnidians, who did not wish to
patronize modesty and decorum with the same eagerness as the people
of Cos, bought the naked Venus, and it was so universally esteemed,
that Nicomedes king of Bithynia offered the Cnidians to pay an
enormous debt under which they laboured, if they would give him
their favourite statue. This offer was not accepted. The famous Cupid
was bought of the Thespians by Caius Cæsar and carried to Rome, but
Claudius restored it to them, and Nero afterwards obtained possession
of it. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40; bk. 8, ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, chs.
34 & 36.

♦ ‘Cnidans’ replaced with ‘Cnidians’

=Praxithea=, a daughter of Phrasimus and Diogenea. She married
Erechtheus king of Athens, by whom she had Cecrops, Pandarus, and
Metion, and four daughters, Procris, Creusa, Chthonia, and Orithyia.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A daughter of Thestius, mother of
some children by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A daughter
of Erechtheus, sacrificed by order of the oracle.

=Prelius=, a lake of Tuscany, now _Castiglione_. _Cicero_, _For Milo_,
ch. 27.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.

=Presbon=, a son of Phryxus, father of Clymenus.――――A son of Clytodora
and Minyas also bore the same name. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 34 & 37.

=Pretor=, one of the chief magistrates at Rome. The office of pretor
was first instituted A.U.C. 388, by the senators, who wished by some
new honour to compensate for the loss of the consulship, of which
the plebeians had claimed a share. The pretor received his name a
_præeundo_. Only one was originally elected, and another A.U.C. 501.
One of them was totally employed in administering justice among
the citizens, whence he was called pretor _urbanus_; and the other
appointed judges in all causes which related to foreigners. In the
year of Rome 520, two more pretors were created to assist the consul
in the government of the provinces of Sicily and Sardinia, which had
been lately conquered, and two more when Spain was reduced into the
form of a Roman province, A.U.C. 521. Sylla the dictator added two
more, and Julius Cæsar increased the number to 10, and afterwards
to 16, and the second triumvirate to 64. After this their numbers
fluctuated, being sometimes 18, 16, or 12, till, in the decline
of the empire, their dignity decreased, and their numbers were
reduced to three. In his public capacity the pretor administered
justice, protected the rights of widows and orphans, presided at the
celebration of public festivals, and in the absence of the consul
assembled or prorogued the senate as he pleased. He also exhibited
shows to the people, and in the festivals of the Bona Dea, where
no males were permitted to appear, his wife presided over the rest
of the Roman matrons. Feasts were announced and proclaimed by him,
and he had the power to make and repeal laws, if it met with the
approbation of the senate and people. The questors were subject to
him, and in the absence of the consuls, he appeared at the head of
the armies, and in the city he kept a register of all the freedmen
of Rome, with the reasons for which they had received their freedom.
In the provinces the pretors appeared with great pomp; six lictors
with the fasces walked before them, and when the empire was increased
by conquests, they divided, like the consuls, their government, and
provinces were given them by lot. When the year of their pretorship
was elapsed, they were called _proprætors_, if they still continued
at the head of their province. At Rome the pretors appeared also with
much pomp; two lictors preceded them, they wore the _prætexta_, or
the white robe with purple borders, they sat in curule chairs, and
their tribunal was distinguished by a sword and a spear, while they
administered justice. The tribunal was called _prætorium_. When they
rode they appeared on white horses at Rome, as a mark of distinction.
The pretor who appointed judges to try foreign causes, was called
_prætor peregrinus_. The pretors _Cereales_, appointed by Julius
Cæsar, were employed in providing corn and provision for the city.
They were on that account often called _frumentarii_.

=Preugĕnes=, a son of Agenor. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 7, chs.
18 & 20.

=Prexaspes=, a Persian who put Smerdis to death, by order of king
Cambyses. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 30.

=Priamĭdes=, a patronymic applied to Paris, as being son of Priam. It
is also given to Hector, Deiphobus, and all the other children of
the Trojan monarch. _Ovid_, _Heroides_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 235.

=Priămus=, the last king of Troy, was son of Laomedon by Strymo, called
Placia by some. When Hercules took the city of Troy [_See:_ Laomedon],
Priam was in the number of his prisoners, but his sister Hesione
redeemed him from captivity, and he exchanged his original name of
Podarces for that of _Priam_, which signifies _bought_ or _ransomed_.
_See:_ Podarces. He was also placed on his father’s throne by
Hercules, and he employed himself with well-directed diligence in
repairing, fortifying, and embellishing the city of Troy. He had
married, by his father’s orders, Arisba, whom now he divorced for
Hecuba the daughter of Dimas, or Cisseus, a neighbouring prince.
He had by Hecuba 17 children, according to Cicero, or, according to
Homer, 19; the most celebrated of whom are Hector, Paris, Deiphobus,
Helenus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Troilus, Creusa,
Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. Besides these he had many others
by concubines. Their names, according to Apollodorus, are Melampus,
Gorgythion, Philæmon, Glaucus, Agathon, Evagoras, Hippothous,
Chersidamas, Hippodamas, Mestor, Atas, Dorcylus, Dryops, Lycaon,
Astygonus, Bias, Evander, Chromius, Telestas, Melius, Cebrion,
Laodocus, Idomeneus, Archemachus, Echephron, Hyperion, Ascanius,
Arrhetus, Democoon, Dejoptes, Echemon, Clovius, Ægioneus, Hypirychus,
Lysithous, Polymedon, Medusa, Lysimache, Medesicaste, and Aristodeme.
After he had reigned for some time in the greatest prosperity, Priam
expressed a desire to recover his sister Hesione, whom Hercules had
carried into Greece, and married to Telamon his friend. To carry
this plan into execution, Priam manned a fleet, of which he gave
the command to his son Paris, with orders to bring back Hesione.
Paris, to whom the goddess of beauty had promised the fairest woman
in the world [_See:_ Paris], neglected in some measure his father’s
injunctions, and as if to make reprisals upon the Greeks, he carried
away Helen the wife of Menelaus king of Sparta, during the absence of
her husband. Priam beheld this with satisfaction, and he countenanced
his son by receiving in his palace the wife of the king of Sparta.
This rape kindled the flames of war; all the suitors of Helen, at
the request of Menelaus [_See:_ Menelaus], assembled to revenge the
violence offered to his bed, and a fleet, according to some, of 140
ships under the command of the 69 chiefs that furnished them, set
sail for Troy. Priam might have averted the impending blow by the
restoration of Helen; but this he refused to do, when the ambassadors
of the Greeks came to him, and he immediately raised an army to
defend himself. Troy was soon besieged; frequent skirmishes took
place, in which the success was various, and the advantages on both
sides inconsiderable. The siege was continued for 10 successive years,
and Priam had the misfortune to see the greatest part of his children
massacred by the enemy. Hector, the eldest of these, was the only one
upon whom now the Trojans looked for protection and support; but he
soon fell a sacrifice to his own courage, and was killed by Achilles.
Priam severely felt his loss, and as he loved him with the greatest
tenderness, he wished to ransom his body, which was in the enemy’s
camp. The gods, according to Homer, interested themselves in favour
of old Priam. Achilles was prevailed upon by his mother, the goddess
Thetis, to restore Hector to Priam, and the king of Troy passed
through the Grecian camp conducted by Mercury the messenger of the
gods, who with his rod had made him invisible. The meeting of Priam
and Achilles was solemn and affecting; the conqueror paid to the
Trojan monarch that attention and reverence which was due to his
dignity, his years, and his misfortunes, and Priam in a suppliant
manner addressed the prince whose favours he claimed, and kissed
the hands that had robbed him of the greatest and the best of his
children. Achilles was moved by his tears and entreaties; he restored
Hector, and permitted Priam a truce of 12 days for the funeral of his
son. Some time after Troy was betrayed into the hands of the Greeks
by Antenor and Æneas, and Priam upon this resolved to die in defence
of his country. He put on his armour and advanced to meet the Greeks,
but Hecuba by her tears and entreaties detained him near an altar of
Jupiter, whither she had fled for protection. While Priam yielded to
the prayers of his wife, Polites, one of his sons, fled also to the
altar before Neoptolemus, who pursued him with fury. Polites, wounded
and overcome, fell dead at the feet of his parents, and the aged
father, fired with indignation, ventured the most bitter invectives
against the Greek, who paid no regard to the sanctity of altars and
temples, and raising his spear darted it upon him. The spear hurled
by the feeble hand of Priam touched the buckler of Neoptolemus, and
fell to the ground. This irritated the son of Achilles; he seized
Priam by his grey hairs, and without compassion or reverence for the
sanctity of the place, he plunged his dagger into his breast. His
head was cut off, ♦and the mutilated body was left among the heaps of
slain. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, &c.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 120.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk.
22, &c.――_Euripides_, _Troades_.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 1, ch. 35.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 2, li. 507, &c.――_Horace_, ode 10, li. 14.――_Hyginus_, fable 110.
――_Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bk. 15, li. 226.

♦ ‘und’ replaced with ‘and’

=Priāpus=, a deity among the ancients, who presided over gardens, and
the parts of generation in the sexes. He was son of Venus by Mercury
or Adonis, or, according to the more received opinion, by Bacchus.
The goddess of beauty, who was enamoured of Bacchus, went to meet
him as he returned victorious from his Indian expedition, and by him
she had Priapus, who was born at Lampsacus. Priapus was so deformed
in all his limbs, particularly the genitals, by means of Juno, who
had assisted at the delivery of Venus, that the mother, ashamed to
have given birth to such a monster, ordered him to be exposed on the
mountains. His life, however, was preserved by the shepherds, and he
received the name of Priapus _propter deformitatem & membri virilis
magnitudinem_. He soon became a favourite of the people of Lampsacus,
but he was expelled by the inhabitants on account of the freedom
which he took with their wives. This violence was punished by the
son of Venus, and when the Lampsacenians had been afflicted with a
disease in the genitals, Priapus was recalled, and temples erected to
his honour. Festivals were also celebrated, and the people, naturally
idle and indolent, gave themselves up to every lasciviousness and
impurity during the celebration. His worship was also introduced
in Rome; but the Romans revered him more as a god of orchards and
gardens, than as the patron of licentiousness. A crown painted with
different colours was offered to him in the spring, and in the summer
a garland of ears of corn. An ass was generally sacrificed to him,
because that animal, by its braying, awoke the nymph Lotis, to whom
Priapus was going to offer violence. He is generally represented with
a human face and the ears of a goat; he holds a stick in his hand,
with which he terrifies birds, as also a club to drive away thieves,
and a scythe to prune the trees and cut down corn. He was crowned
with the leaves of the vine, and sometimes with laurel or rocket.
The last of these plants was sacred to him, as it is said to raise
the passions and excite love. Priapus is often distinguished by
the epithet of _phallus_, _fascinus_, _Ictyphallus_, or _ruber_, or
_rubicundus_, which are all expressive of his deformity. _Catullus_,
poems 19 & 20.――_Columella_, bk. 2, _de Res Rustica_.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 1.――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 1, li. 18.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 415; bk. 6, li. 319.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7, li. 33;
_Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 111.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Hyginus_,
fable 190.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――――A town of Asia Minor near Lampsacus,
now _Caraboa_. Priapus was the chief deity of the place, and from him
the town received its name, because he had taken refuge there when
banished from Lampsacus. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――An island near Ephesus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.

=Priēne=, a maritime town of Asia Minor, at the foot of mount Mycale,
one of the 12 independent cities of Ionia. It gave birth to Bias,
one of the seven wise men of Greece. It had been built by an Athenian
colony. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2; bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.

=Prima=, a daughter of Romulus and Hersilia.

=Prion=, a place at Carthage.

=Prisciānus=, a celebrated grammarian at Athens, in the age of the
emperor Justinian.

=Priscilla=, a woman praised for her conjugal affection by Statius,
bk. 5, _Sylvæ_, poem 1.

=Priscus Servilius=, a dictator at Rome who defeated the Veientes and
the Fidenates.――――A surname of the elder Tarquin king of Rome. _See:_
Tarquinius.――――A governor of Syria, brother to the emperor Philip.
He proclaimed himself emperor in Macedonia when he was informed of
his brother’s death, but he was soon after conquered and put to death
by Decius, Philip’s murderer.――――A friend of the emperor Severus.
――――A friend of the emperor Julian, almost murdered by the populace.
――――Helvidius, a questor in Achaia during the reign of Nero,
remarkable for his independent spirit. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4,
ch. 6.――_Juvenal._――――An officer under Vitellius.――――One of the
emperor Adrian’s friends.――――A friend of Domitian.――――An orator,
whose dissipated and luxurious manners Horace ridicules, bk. 1,
satire 7, li. 9.

=Pristis=, the name of one of the ships that engaged in the naval
combat which was exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of his
father’s death. She was commanded by Mnestheus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 116.

=Privernus=, a Rutulian killed by Capys in the wars between Æneas and
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 576.

=Privernum=, now _Piperno Vecchio_, a town of the Volsci in Italy,
whose inhabitants were called _Privernates_. It became a Roman colony.
_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 540.――_Cicero_,
bk. 1, _De Divinatione_, ch. 43.

=Proba=, the wife of the emperor Probus.――――A woman who opened the
gates of Rome to the Goths.

=Probus Marcus Aurelius Severus=, a native of Sirmium in Pannonia. His
father was originally a gardener, who, by entering the army, rose
to the rank of a military tribune. His son obtained the same office
in the 22nd year of his age, and he distinguished himself so much by
his probity, his valour, his intrepidity, moderation, and clemency,
that, at the death of the emperor Tacitus, he was invested with
the imperial purple by the voluntary and uninfluenced choice of
his soldiers. His election was universally approved by the Roman
senate and the people; and Probus, strengthened on his throne by the
affection and attachment of his subjects, marched against the enemies
of Rome, in Gaul and Germany. Several battles were fought, and after
he had left 400,000 barbarians dead in the field, Probus turned
his arms against the Sarmatians. The same success attended him, and
after he had quelled and terrified to peace the numerous barbarians
of the north, he marched through Syria against the Blemmyes
in the neighbourhood of Egypt. The Blemmyes were defeated with
great slaughter, and the military character of the emperor was so
well established, that the king of Persia sued for peace by his
ambassadors, and attempted to buy the conqueror’s favour with the
most splendid presents. Probus was then feasting upon the most common
food when the ambassadors were introduced; but without even casting
his eyes upon them, he said, that if their master did not give proper
satisfaction to the Romans, he would lay his territories desolate,
and as naked as the crown of his head. As he spoke, the emperor took
off his cap, and showed the baldness of his head to the ambassadors.
The conditions were gladly accepted by the Persian monarch, and
Probus retired to Rome to convince his subjects of the greatness
of his conquests, and to claim from them the applause which their
ancestors had given to the conqueror of Macedonia or the destroyer of
Carthage, as he passed along the streets of Rome. His triumph lasted
several days, and the Roman populace were long entertained with
shows and combats. But the Roman empire, delivered from its foreign
enemies, was torn by civil discord; and peace was not re-established
till three usurpers had been severally defeated. While his
subjects enjoyed tranquillity, Probus encouraged the liberal
arts; he permitted the inhabitants of Gaul and Illyricum to plant
vines in their territories, and he himself repaired 70 cities in
different parts of the empire which had been reduced to ruins.
He also attempted to drain the waters which were stagnated in the
neighbourhood of Sirmium, by conveying them to the sea by artificial
canals. His armies were employed in this laborious undertaking; but
as they were unaccustomed to such toils, they soon mutinied, and
fell upon the emperor as he was passing into one of the towns of
Illyricum. He fled into an iron tower which he himself had built to
observe the marshes, but as he was alone, and without arms, he was
soon overpowered and murdered, in the 50th year of his age, after a
reign of six years and four months, on the second of November, after
Christ 282. The news of his death was received with the greatest
consternation; not only his friends, but his very enemies, deplored
his fate, and even the army, which had been concerned in his fall,
erected a monument over his body, and placed upon it this inscription:
_Hic Probus imperator, verè probus, situs est, victor omnium gentium
barbararum, victor etiam tyrannorum_. He was then preparing in a
few days to march against the Persians that had revolted, and his
victories there might have been as great as those he obtained in the
two other quarters of the globe. He was succeeded by Carus, and his
family, who had shared his greatness, immediately retired from Rome,
not to become objects either of private or public malice. _Zosimus._
――_Probus._――_Saturninus._――――Æmilius, a grammarian in the age of
Theodosius. The lives of excellent commanders, written by Cornelius
Nepos, have been falsely attributed to him by some authors.――――An
oppressive prefect of the pretorian guards, in the reign of
Valentinian.

=Procas=, a king of Alba after his father Aventinus. He was father of
Amulius and Numitor. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, li. 622.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 767.

=Prochy̆ta=, an island of Campania in the bay of Puteoli, now _Procida_.
It was situated near Inarima, from which it was said that it had
been separated by an earthquake. It received its name, according to
Dionysius, from the nurse of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 715.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.

=Procilius=, a Latin historian in the age of Pompey the Great. _Varro._

=Procilla Julia=, a woman of uncommon virtue, killed by the soldiers of
Otho. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_, ch. 4.

=Caius Valerius Procillus=, a prince of Gaul, intimate with Cæsar.

=Proclēa=, a daughter of Clitius, who married Cycnus, a son of Neptune.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.

=Procles=, a son of Aristodemus and Argia, born at the same birth
as Eurysthenes. There were continual dissensions between the two
brothers, who both sat on the Spartan throne, _See:_ Eurysthenes and
Lacedæmon.――――A native of Andros in the Ægean sea, who was crowned
at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 14.――――A man who headed
the Ionians when they took Samos. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――――A
Carthaginian writer, son of Eucrates. He wrote some historical
treatises, of which Pausanias has preserved some fragments.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35.――――A tyrant of Epidaurus, put to death
and thrown into the sea. _Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_.――――A
general of the Naxians in Sicily, who betrayed his country to
Dionysius the tyrant for a sum of money.

=Proclidæ=, the descendants of Procles, who sat on the throne of Sparta,
together with the Eurysthenidæ. _See:_ Lacedæmon and Eurysthenes.

=Procne.= _See:_ Progne.

=Proconnēsus=, now _Marmora_, an island of the Propontis, at the
north-east of Cyzicus; also called _Elaphonnesus_ and _Neuris_. It
was famous for its fine marble. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Strabo_,
bk. 13.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.

=Procopius=, a celebrated officer of a noble family in Cilicia, related
to the emperor Julian, with whom he lived in great intimacy. He
was universally admired for his integrity, but he was not destitute
of ambition or pride. After he had signalized himself under Julian
and his successor, he retired from the Roman provinces among the
barbarians in the Thracian Chersonesus, and some time after he
suddenly made his appearance at Constantinople, when the emperor
Valens had marched into the east, and he proclaimed himself master
of the eastern empire. His usurpation was universally acknowledged,
and his victories were so rapid, that Valens would have resigned
the imperial purple, had not his friends intervened. But now fortune
changed; Procopius was defeated in Phrygia, and abandoned by his army.
His head was cut off, and carried to Valentinian in Gaul, A.D. 366.
Procopius was slain in the 42nd year of his age, and he had usurped
the title of emperor for above eight months. _Ammianus Marcellinus_,
bks. 25 & 26.――――A Greek historian of Cæsarea in Palestine, secretary
to the celebrated Belisarius, A.D. 534. He wrote the history of
the reign of Justinian, and greatly celebrated the hero, whose
favours and patronage he enjoyed. This history is divided into eight
books, two of which give an account of the Persian war, two of the
Vandals, and four of the Goths, to the year 553, which was afterwards
continued in five books by Agathias till 559. Of this performance the
character is great, though perhaps the historian is often too severe
on the emperor. The works of Procopius were edited in 2 vols., folio,
Paris, 1662.

=Procris=, a daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. She married
Cephalus. _See:_ Cephalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 445.――――A
daughter of Thestius.

=Procrustes=, a famous robber of Attica, killed by Theseus near the
Cephisus. He tied travellers on a bed, and if their length exceeded
that of the bed, he used to cut it off, but if they were shorter,
he had them stretched to make their length equal to it. He is called
by some Damastes and Polypemon. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2, li. 69;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 43.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.

=Procŭla=, a prostitute in Juvenal’s age, satire 2, li. 68.

=Procūleius=, a Roman knight, very intimate with Augustus. He is
celebrated for his humanity and paternal kindness to his brothers
Muræna and Scipio, with whom he divided his possessions, after they
had forfeited their estates, and incurred the displeasure of Augustus
for siding with young Pompey. He was sent by Augustus to Cleopatra,
to endeavour to bring her alive into his presence, but to no purpose.
He destroyed himself when labouring under a heavy disease. _Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 2.――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 24.――――A
debauchee in Nero’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 40.

=Procŭlus Julius=, a Roman who, after the death of Romulus, declared
that he had seen him in his appearance more than human, and that
he had ordered him to bid the Romans to offer him sacrifices under
the name of Quirinus, and to rest assured that Rome was destined by
the gods to become the capital of the world. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――Geganius, a Roman consul.――――Placitius,
a Roman who conquered the Hernici.――――A friend of Vitellius.――――A
consul under Nerva.――――A man accused of extortion.――――An African in
the age of Aurelius. He published a book entitled _de regionibus_,
or _religionibus_, on foreign countries, &c.――――An officer who
proclaimed himself emperor in Gaul, in the reign of Probus. He was
soon after defeated, and exposed on a gibbet. He was very debauched
and licentious in his manners, and had acquired riches by piratical
excursions.

=Procyon=, a star near Sirius, or the dog-star, before which it
generally rises in July. Cicero calls it _Anticanis_, which is of the
same signification (προ κυων). _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 44.

=Prodĭcus=, a sophist and rhetorician of Cos, about 396 years before
Christ. He was sent as ambassador by his countrymen to Athens, where
he publicly taught, and had among his pupils Euripides, Socrates,
Theramenes, and Isocrates. He travelled from town to town in Greece,
to procure admirers and get money. He made his auditors pay to hear
him harangue, which has given occasion to some of the ancients to
speak of the orations of Prodicus for 50 drachmas. In his writings,
which were numerous, he composed a beautiful episode, in which virtue
and pleasure were introduced, as attempting to make Hercules one of
their votaries. The hero at last yielded to the charms of virtue and
rejected pleasure. This has been imitated by Lucian. Prodicus was at
last put to death by the Athenians on pretence that he corrupted the
morals of their youth. _Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_.

=Proerna=, a town of Phthiotis. _Livy_, bk. 63, ch. 14.

=Prœrosia=, a surname of Ceres. Her festivals, celebrated at Athens and
Eleusis before the sowing of corn, bore the same name. _Meursius_,
_Eleusinia_.

=Prœtĭdes=, the daughters of Prœtus king of Argolis, were three
in number, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa. They became insane
for neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to others,
for preferring themselves to Juno, and they ran about the fields,
believing themselves to be cows, and flying away not to be harnessed
to the plough or to the chariot. Prœtus applied to Melampus to cure
his daughters of their insanity, but he refused to employ him when he
demanded the third part of his kingdom as a reward. This neglect of
Prœtus was punished, the insanity became contagious, and the monarch
at last promised Melampus two parts of his kingdom and one of his
daughters, if he would restore them and the Argian women to their
senses. Melampus consented, and after he had wrought the cure, he
married the most beautiful of the Prœtides. Some have called them
Lysippe, Ipponoe, and Cyrianassa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li. 48.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15.――_Lactantius [Placidus]_ on _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bks. 1 & 3.

=Prœtus=, a king of Argos, son of Abas and Ocalea. He was twin brother
to Acrisius, with whom he quarrelled even before their birth. This
dissension between the two brothers increased with their years. After
their father’s death, they both tried to obtain the kingdom of Argos;
but the claims of Acrisius prevailed, and Prœtus left Peloponnesus
and retired to the court of Jobates king of Lycia, where he married
Stenobœa, called by some Antea or Antiope. He afterwards returned to
Argolis, and by means of his father-in-law he made himself master of
Tirynthus. Stenobœa had accompanied her husband to Greece, and she
became by him mother of the Prœtides, and of a son called Megapenthes,
who after his father’s death succeeded on the throne of Tirynthus.
_See:_ Stenobœa. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 160.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 2.

=Progne=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens by Zeuxippe. She married
Tereus king of Thrace, by whom she had a son called Itylus or Itys.
_See:_ Philomela.

=Prolăus=, a native of Elis, father to Philanthus and Lampus by Lysippe.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 2.

=Promăchus=, one of the Epigoni, son of Parthenopæus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 20.――――A son of Psophis daughter of Eryx king of Sicily.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 34.――――An athlete of Pallene.――――A son of
Æson, killed by Pelias. _Apollodorus._

=Promathĭdas=, an historian of Heraclea.

=Promathion=, a man who wrote a history of Italy. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.

=Promĕdon=, a native of the island of Naxos, &c.

=Promenæa=, one of the priestesses of the temple of Dodona. It was from
her that Herodotus received the tradition that two doves had flown
from Thebes in Egypt, one to Dodona, and the other to the temple of
Jupiter Ammon, where they gave oracles.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 55.

=Promethei jugum= and =antrum=, a place on the top of mount Caucasus,
in Albania.

=Promētheus=, a son of Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was
brother to Atlas, Menœtius, and Epimetheus, and surpassed all mankind
in cunning and fraud. He ridiculed the gods, and deceived Jupiter
himself. He sacrificed two bulls, and filled their skins, one with
the flesh and the other with the bones, and asked the father of the
gods which of the two he preferred as an offering. Jupiter became
the dupe of his artifice, and chose the bones, and from that time
the priests of the temples were ever after ordered to burn the whole
victims on the altars, the flesh and the bones altogether. To punish
Prometheus and the rest of mankind, Jupiter took fire away from the
earth, but the son of Iapetus outwitted the father of the gods. He
climbed the heavens by the assistance of Minerva, and stole fire from
the chariot of the sun, which he brought down upon the earth at the
end of a ferula. This provoked Jupiter the more; he ordered Vulcan
to make a woman of clay, and after he had given her life, he sent her
to Prometheus, with a box of the richest and most valuable presents
which she had received from the gods. _See:_ Pandora. Prometheus, who
suspected Jupiter, took no notice of Pandora or her box, but he made
his brother Epimetheus marry her, and the god, now more irritated,
ordered Mercury, or Vulcan, according to Æschylus, to carry this
artful mortal to mount Caucasus, and there tie him to a rock, where
for 30,000 years a vulture was to feed upon his liver, which was
never diminished, though continually devoured. He was delivered from
this painful confinement about 30 years afterwards by Hercules, who
killed the bird of prey. The vulture, or, according to others, the
eagle which devoured the liver of Prometheus, was born from Typhon
and Echidna. According to Apollodorus, Prometheus made the first man
and woman that ever were upon the earth with clay, which he animated
by means of the fire which he had stolen from heaven. On this account,
therefore, the Athenians raised him an altar in the grove of Academus,
where they yearly celebrated games to his honour. During these games
there was a race, and he who carried a burning torch in his hand
without extinguishing it obtained the prize. Prometheus, as it is
universally credited, had received the gift of prophecy; and all the
gods, and even Jupiter himself, consulted him as a most infallible
oracle. To him mankind are indebted for the invention of many of the
useful arts; he taught them the use of plants, with their physical
power, and from him they received the knowledge of taming horses
and different animals, either to cultivate the ground, or for
the purposes of luxury. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, lis. 510 & 550.
――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30; bk. 5,
ch. 11.――_Hyginus_, fable 144.――_Aeschylus_, _Prometheus Bound_.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 82.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 3.――_Seneca_, _Medea_, li. 823.

=Promēthis= and =Promethīdes=, a patronymic applied to the children
of Prometheus, as to Deucalion, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10,
li. 390.

=Promethus= and =Damasichthon=, two sons of Codrus, who conducted
colonies into Asia Minor. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.

=Promŭlus=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 574.

=Pronapĭdes=, an ancient Greek poet of Athens, who was, according to
some, preceptor to Homer. It is said that he first taught the Greeks
how to write from the left to the right, contrary to the custom of
writing from the right to the left, which is still observed by some
of the eastern nations. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.

=Pronax=, a brother of Adrastus king of Argos, son of Talaus and
Lysimache. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.

=Pronoe=, a daughter of Phorbas, mother of Pleuron and Calydon by Æolus.

=Pronŏmus=, a Theban who played so skilfully on the lute, that
the invention of that musical instrument is attributed to him.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Athenæus_, bk. 14, ch. 7.

=Pronous=, a son of Phlegeas, killed by the sons of Alcmæon.

=Pronŭba=, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriages.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 166.

=Propertius Sextus Aurelius=, a Latin poet born at Mevania, in Umbria.
His father was a Roman knight, whom Augustus proscribed, because
he had followed the interest of Antony. He came to Rome, where his
genius and poetical talents soon recommended him to the notice of the
great and powerful. Mecænas, Gallus, and Virgil became his friends,
and Augustus his patron. Mecænas wished him to attempt an epic poem,
of which he proposed the emperor for hero; but Propertius refused,
observing that his abilities were unequal to the task. He died
about 19 years before Christ, in the 40th year of his age. His works
consist of four books of elegies, which are written with so much
spirit, vivacity, and energy, that many authors call him the prince
of the elegiac poets among the Latins. His poetry, though elegant,
is not free from faults, and the many lascivious expressions which
he uses deservedly expose him to censure. Cynthia, who is the heroine
of all his elegies, was a Roman lady, whose real name was Hostia, or
Hostilia, of whom the poet was deeply enamoured. Though Mevania is
more generally supposed to be the place of his birth, yet four other
cities of Umbria have disputed the honour of it; Hespillus, Ameria,
Perusia, and Assisium. The best edition is that of Santenius, 4to,
Utrecht, 1780; and when published together with Catullus and Tibullus,
those of Grævius, 8vo, Utrecht, 1680, and of Vulpius, 4 vols.,
Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755, and the edition of Barbou, 12mo, Paris,
1754. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 465; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 55;
_De Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 333.――_Martial_, bk. 8, ltr. 73; bk. 14,
ltr. 189.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, _Letters_;
bk. 9, ltr. 22.

=Propœtĭdes=, some women of Cyprus, severely punished by Venus,
whose divinity they had despised. They sent their daughters to the
sea-shore, where they prostituted themselves to strangers. The poets
have feigned that they were changed into stones, on account of their
insensibility to every virtuous sentiment. _Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 238.

=Propontis=, a sea which has a communication with the Euxine, by the
Thracian Bosphorus, and with the Ægean by the Hellespont, now called
the sea of _Marmora_. It is about 175 miles long and 62 broad, and
it received its name from its vicinity to Pontus. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, bk. 1; _Tristia_, bk. 9, li. 29.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 22.

=Propylea=, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Eleusis in Attica.

=Proselystius=, a surname of Neptune among the Greeks. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2.

=Proserpĭna=, a daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, called by the Greeks
_Persephone_. She was so beautiful, that the father of the gods
himself became enamoured of her, and deceived her by changing himself
into a serpent, and folding her in his wreaths. Proserpine made
Sicily the place of her residence, and delighted herself with the
beautiful views, the flowery meadows, and limpid streams, which
surrounded the plains of Enna. In this solitary retreat, as she
amused herself with her female attendants in gathering flowers, Pluto
carried her away into the infernal regions, of which she became the
queen. _See:_ Pluto. Ceres was so disconsolate at the loss of her
daughter, that she travelled all over the world, but her inquiries
were in vain, and she never could have discovered whither she had
been carried, had not she found the girdle of Proserpine on the
surface of the waters of the fountain Cyane, near which the ravisher
had opened himself a passage to his kingdom by striking the earth
with his trident. Ceres soon learned from the nymph Arethusa that her
daughter had been carried away by Pluto, and immediately she repaired
to Jupiter, and demanded of him to punish the ravisher. Jupiter in
vain attempted to persuade the mother that Pluto was not unworthy
of her daughter, and when he saw that she was inflexible for the
restitution of Proserpine, he said that she might return on earth,
if she had not taken any aliments in the infernal regions. Her return,
however, was impossible. Proserpine, as she walked in the Elysian
fields, had gathered a pomegranate from a tree and eaten it, and
Ascalaphus was the only one who saw it, and for his discovery the
goddess instantly turned him into an owl. Jupiter, to appease the
resentment of Ceres, and soothe her grief, permitted that Proserpine
should remain six months with Pluto in the infernal regions, and
that she should spend the rest of the year with her mother on earth.
As queen of hell, and wife of Pluto, Proserpine presided over the
death of mankind, and, according to the opinion of the ancients, no
one could die, if the goddess herself, or Atropos her minister, did
not cut off one of the hairs from the head. From this superstitious
belief, it was usual to cut off some of the hair of the deceased, and
to strew it at the door of the house, as an offering for Proserpine.
The Sicilians were very particular in their worship to Proserpine,
and as they believed that the fountain Cyane had risen from the earth
at the very place where Pluto had opened himself a passage, they
annually sacrificed there a bull, of which they suffered the blood
to run into the water. Proserpine was universally worshipped by
the ancients, and she was known by the different names of _Core_,
_Theogamia_, _Libitina_, _Hecate_, _Juno inferna_, _Anthesphoria_,
_Cotyto_, _Deois_, _Libera_, &c. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 37; bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable
6; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 417.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 698;
bk. 6, li. 138.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 146.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Orpheus_, _Hymn 28_.――_Claudian_,
_de Raptu Proserpinæ_.

=Prosopītis=, an island in one of the mouths of the Nile. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.

=Prosper=, one of the fathers who died A.D. 466. His works have been
edited by Mangeant, folio, Paris, 1711.

=Prosymna=, a part of Argolis, where Juno was worshipped. It received
its name from a nymph of the same name, daughter of Asterion, who
nursed Juno. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.

=Protagŏras=, a Greek philosopher of Abdera in Thrace, who was
originally a porter. He became one of the disciples of Democritus,
when that philosopher had seen him carrying faggots on his head,
poised in a proper equilibrium. He soon rendered himself ridiculous
by his doctrines, and in a book which he published, he denied the
existence of a Supreme Being. This doctrine he supported by observing,
that his doubts arose from the uncertainty of the existence of a
Supreme Power, and from the shortness of human life. This book was
publicly burnt at Athens, and the philosopher banished from the city,
as a worthless and contemptible being. Protagoras visited from Athens
different islands in the Mediterranean, and died in Sicily in a very
advanced age, about 400 years before the christian era. He generally
reasoned by dilemmas, and always left the mind in suspense about all
the questions which he proposed. Some suppose that he was drowned.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 9.――♦_Plato_, _Protagoras_.――――A king of
Cyprus, tributary to the court of Persia.――――Another.

♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’

=Protagorĭdes=, an historian of Cyzicus, who wrote a treatise on the
games of Daphne, celebrated at Antioch.

=Protei columnæ=, a place in the remotest parts of Egypt. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 262.

=Protesilai turris=, the monument of Protesilaus, on the Hellespont.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.

=Prōtĕsĭlāus=, a king of part of Thessaly, son of Iphiclus, originally
called Iolaus, grandson of Phylacus, and brother to Alcimede the
mother of Jason. He married Laodamia the daughter of Acastus, and
some time after he departed with the rest of the Greeks for the
Trojan war with 40 sail. He was the first of the Greeks who set
foot on the Trojan shore, and as such he was doomed by the oracle
to perish, therefore he was killed as soon as he had leaped from his
ship, by Æneas or Hector. Homer has not mentioned the person who
killed him. His wife Laodamia destroyed herself when she heard of
his death. _See:_ Laodamia. Protesilaus has received the patronymic
of _Phylacides_ either because he was descended from Phylace, or
because he was a native of Phylace. He was buried on the Trojan
shore, and, according to Pliny, there were near his tomb certain
trees which grew to an extraordinary height, which, as soon as they
could be discovered and seen from Troy, immediately withered and
decayed, and afterwards grew up again to their former height, and
suffered the same vicissitude. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 205.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, fable 1; _Heroides_, poem 13,
li. 17.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 19.――_Hyginus_, fable 103, &c.

=Proteus=, a sea deity, son of Oceanus and Tethys, or, according to
some, of Neptune and Phœnice. He had received the gift of prophecy
from Neptune because he had tended the monsters of the sea, and from
his knowledge of futurity mankind received the greatest services.
He usually resided in the Carpathian sea, and, like the rest of
the gods, he reposed himself on the sea-shore, where such as wished
to consult him generally resorted. He was difficult of access, and
when consulted he refused to give answers, by immediately assuming
different shapes, and if not properly secured in fetters, eluding the
grasp in the form of a tiger, or a lion, or disappearing in a flame
of fire, a whirlwind, or a rushing stream. Aristæus and Menelaus
were in the number of those who consulted him, as also Hercules.
Some suppose that he was originally king of Egypt, known among his
subjects by the name of Cetes, and they assert that he had two sons,
Telegonus and Polygonus, who were both killed by Hercules. He had
also some daughters, among whom were Cabira, Eidothea, and Rhetia.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4, li. 360.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
fable 10; _Amores_, poem 12, li. 36.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 243.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 387.――_Hyginus_, fable 118.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 112.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.

=Prothēnor=, a Bœotian who went to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.

=Protheus=, a Greek at the Trojan war.――――A Spartan who endeavoured to
prevent a war with the Thebans.

=Prothous=, a son of Lycaon of Arcadia. _Apollodorus._――――A son of
Agrius.

=Proto=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._

=Protogenēa=, a daughter of Calydon, by Æolia the daughter of Amythaon.
She had a son called Oxylus by Mars. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.

=Protogĕnes=, a painter of Rhodes, who flourished about 328 years
before Christ. He was originally so poor that he painted ships to
maintain himself. His countrymen were ignorant of his ingenuity
before Apelles came to Rhodes, and offered to buy all his pieces.
This opened the eyes of the Rhodians; they became sensible of the
merit of their countrymen, and liberally rewarded him. Protogenes
was employed for seven years in finishing a picture of Jalysus,
a celebrated huntsman, supposed to have been the son of Apollo,
and the founder of Rhodes. During all this time the painter lived
upon lupines and water, thinking that such aliments would leave him
greater flights of fancy; but all this did not seem to make him more
successful in the perfection of his picture. He was to represent in
the piece a dog panting, and with froth at his mouth, but this he
never could do with satisfaction to himself; and when all his labours
seemed to be without success, he threw his sponge upon the piece in
a fit of anger. Chance alone brought to perfection what the utmost
labours of art could not do; the fall of the sponge upon the picture
represented the froth of the mouth of the dog in the most perfect
and natural manner, and the piece was universally admired. Protogenes
was very exact in his representations, and copied nature with the
greatest nicety, but this was blamed as a fault by his friend Apelles.
When Demetrius besieged Rhodes he refused to set fire to a part of
the city which might have made him master of the whole, because he
knew that Protogenes was then working in that quarter. When the town
was taken, the painter was found closely employed in a garden in
finishing a picture; and when the conqueror asked him why he showed
not more concern at the general calamity, he replied, that Demetrius
made war against the Rhodians, and not against the fine arts.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 120.――_Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――――One of Caligula’s favourites, famous for his cruelty
and extravagance.

=Protogenīa=, a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha. She was beloved
by Jupiter, by whom she had Æthlius the father of Endymion.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Hyginus_,
fable 155.――――Another. _See:_ Protogenea.

=Protomedūsa=, one of the Nereides, called Protomelia by Hesiod.
_Theogony_, li. 245.

=Proxĕnus=, a Bœotian of great authority at Thebes, in the age of
Xenophon. _Polyænus._――――A writer who published historical accounts
of Sparta. _Athenæus._

=Prudentius Aurelius Clemens=, a Latin poet who flourished A.D. 392,
and was successively a soldier, an advocate, and a judge. His poems
are numerous, and all theological, devoid of the elegance and purity
of the Augustan age, and yet greatly valued. The best editions are
the Delphin, 4to, Paris, 1687; that of Cellarius, 12mo, Halæ, 1703;
and that of Parma, 2 vols., 4to, 1788.

=Prumnides=, a king of Corinth.

=Prusa=, a town of Bithynia, built by king Prusias, from whom it
received its name. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ltr. 16.

=Prusæus Dion=, flourished A.D. 105.

=Prusias=, a king of Bithynia, who flourished 221 B.C.――――Another,
surnamed _Venator_, who made an alliance with the Romans when they
waged war with Antiochus king of Syria. He gave a kind reception
to Annibal, and by his advice he made war against Eumenes king of
Pergamus, and defeated him. Eumenes, who was an ally of Rome as well
as Prusias, complained before the Romans of the hostilities of the
king of Bithynia. Quinctius Flaminius was sent from Rome to settle
the disputes of the two monarchs, and he was no sooner arrived in
Bithynia, than Prusias, to gain his favour, prepared to deliver to
him, at his request, the celebrated Carthaginian, to whom he was
indebted for all the advantages which he had obtained over Eumenes;
but Annibal prevented it by a voluntary death. Prusias was obliged
by the Roman ambassador to make a restitution of the provinces he
had conquered, and by his meanness he continued to enjoy the favours
of the Romans. When some time after he visited the capital of Italy,
he appeared in the habit of a manumitted slave, calling himself
the freedman of the Romans; and when he was introduced into the
senate-house, he saluted the senators by the name of visible deities,
of saviours and deliverers. Such abject behaviour rendered him
contemptible not only in the eyes of the Romans, but of his subjects,
and when he returned home the Bithynians revolted, and placed his
son Nicomedes on the throne. The banished monarch fled to Nicomedia,
where he was assassinated near the altar of Jupiter, about 149 years
before Christ. Some say that his son became his murderer. Prusias,
according to Polybius, was the meanest of monarchs, without honesty,
without morals, virtue, or principle; he was cruel and cowardly,
intemperate and voluptuous, and an enemy to all learning. He was
naturally deformed, and he often appeared in public in the habit of
a woman, to render his deformities more visible. _Polybius._――_Livy._
――_Justin_, bk. 31, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――_Plutarch_,
_Titus Flamininus_, &c.

=Prymno=, one of the Oceanides.

=Prytănes=, certain magistrates at Athens who presided over the senate,
and had the privilege of assembling it when they pleased, festivals
excepted. They generally met in a large hall, called _prytaneum_,
where they gave audiences, offered sacrifices, and feasted together
with all those who had rendered signal service to their country. The
Prytanes were elected from the senators which were in number 500,
50 of which were chosen from each tribe. When they were elected, the
names of the 10 tribes of Athens were thrown into one vessel, and in
another were placed nine black beans and a white one. The tribe whose
name was drawn with the white bean, presided the first, and the rest
in the order in which they were drawn. They presided each for 35 days,
as the year was divided into 10 parts; but it is unknown what tribe
presided the rest of those days which were supernumerary. When the
number of tribes was increased to 12, each of the Prytanes presided
one full month.――――Some of the principal magistrates of Corinth were
also called Prytanes.

=Prytănis=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.――――One of the friends of Æneas killed by
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 767.

=Psamăthe=, one of the Nereides, mother of Phocus by Æacus king of
Ægina. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 398.――_Flaccus_, ♦bk. 1, li. 364.――――A daughter of Crotopus king
of Argos. She became mother of Linus by Apollo, and to conceal her
shame from her father, she exposed her child, which was found by dogs
and torn to pieces. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.――――A fountain and
town of Thebes. _Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 364.

♦ Book reference omitted in text.

=Psamathos=, a town and port of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.

=Psammenītus=, succeeded his father Amasis on the throne of Egypt.
Cambyses made war against him, and as he knew that the Egyptians
paid the greatest veneration to cats, the Persian monarch placed some
of these animals at the head of his army, and the enemy, unable to
defend themselves, and unwilling to kill those objects of adoration,
were easily conquered. Psammenitus was twice beaten at Pelusium and
in Memphis, and became one of the prisoners of Cambyses, who treated
him with great humanity. Psammenitus, however, raised seditions
against the Persian monarch; and attempted to make the Egyptians
rebel, for which he was put to death by drinking bull’s blood. He had
reigned about six months. He flourished about 525 years before the
christian era. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.