Chapter XXVIII: Part II: The Middle Ages and the Reformation. A.D. 1381-1593 (27)

PICTŪRA (γραφή, γραφική, ζωγραφία), painting. I. _History of the Art._ It is singular that the poems of Homer do not contain any mention of painting as an imitative art. This is the more remarkable, since Homer speaks of rich and elaborate embroidery as a thing not uncommon. This embroidery is actual painting in principle, and is a species of painting in practice, and it was considered such by the Romans, who termed it “pictura textilis.” The various allusions also to other arts, similar in nature to painting, are sufficient to prove that painting must have existed in some degree in Homer’s time, although the only kind of painting he notices is the “red-cheeked” and “purple-cheeked ships,” and an ivory ornament for the faces of horses, which a Maeonian or Carian woman colours with purple. Painting seems to have made considerable progress in Asia Minor while it was still in its infancy in Greece, for Candaules, king of Lydia (B.C. 716), is said to have purchased at a high price a painting of Bularchus, which represented a battle of the Magnetes. The old Ionic painting probably flourished at the same time with the Ionian architecture, and continued as an independent school until the sixth century B.C., when the Ionians lost their liberty, and with their liberty their art. Herodotus (i. 164) mentions that when Harpagus besieged the town of Phocaea (B.C. 544), the inhabitants collected all their valuables, their statues and votive offerings from the temples, leaving only their _paintings_, and such works in metal or of stone as could not easily be removed, and fled with them to the island of Chios; from which we may conclude that paintings were not only valued by the Phocaeans, but also common among them. Herodotus (iv. 88) also informs us that Mandrocles of Samos, who constructed for Darius Hystaspis the bridge of boats across the Bosporus (B.C. 508), had a picture painted, representing the passage of Darius’s army, and the king seated on a throne reviewing the troops as they passed, which he dedicated in the temple of Hera at Samos. After the conquest of Ionia, Samos became the seat of the arts. The Heraeum at Samos, in which the picture of Mandrocles was placed, was a general depository for works of art, and in the time of Strabo appears to have been particularly rich in paintings, for he terms it a “picture-gallery” (πινακοθήκη). The first painter in Greece itself, whose name is recorded, is Cimon of Cleonae. His exact period is uncertain, but he was probably a contemporary of Solon, and lived at least a century before Polygnotus. It was with Polygnotus of Thasos that painting reached its full development (about B.C. 463). Previous to this time the only cities that had paid any considerable attention to painting were Aegina, Sicyon, Corinth, and Athens. Sicyon and Corinth had long been famous for their paintings upon vases and upon articles of furniture; the school of Athens had attained no celebrity whatever until the arrival of Polygnotus from Thasos raised it to that pre-eminence which it continued to maintain for more than two centuries, although very few of the great painters of Greece were natives of Athens. The principal contemporaries of Polygnotus were Dionysius of Colophon, Plistaenetus and Panaenus of Athens, brothers (or the latter perhaps a nephew) of Phidias, and Micon, also of Athens. The works of Polygnotus and his contemporaries were conspicuous for expression, character, and design; the more minute discriminations of tone and local colour, united with dramatic composition and effect, were accomplished in the succeeding generation, about 420 B.C., through the efforts of Apollodorus of Athens and Zeuxis of Heraclea. The contemporaries of Apollodorus and Zeuxis, and those who carried out their principles, were Parrhasius of Ephesus, Eupompus of Sicyon, and Timanthes of Cythnus, all painters of the greatest fame. Athens and Sicyon were the principal seats of the art at this period. Eupompus of Sicyon was the founder of the celebrated Sicyonian school of painting which was afterwards established by Pamphilus. The Alexandrian period was the last of progression or acquisition; but it only added variety of effect to the tones it could not improve, and was principally characterised by the diversity of the styles of so many contemporary artists. The most eminent painters of this period were Protogenes, Pamphilus, Melanthius, Antiphilus, Theon of Samos, Apelles, Euphranor, Pausias, Nicias, Nicomachus, and his brother Aristides. Of all these Apelles was the greatest. The quality in which he surpassed all other painters will scarcely bear a definition; it has been termed grace, elegance, beauty, χάρις, _venustas_. His greatest work was perhaps his Venus Anadyomene, Venus rising out of the waters. He excelled in portrait, and indeed all his works appear to have been portraits in an extended sense; for his pictures, both historical and allegorical, consisted nearly all of single figures. He enjoyed the exclusive privilege of painting the portraits of Alexander.--The works of Greek art brought from Sicily by Marcellus were the first to inspire the Romans with the desire of adorning their public edifices with statues and paintings, which taste was converted into a passion when they became acquainted with the great treasures and almost inexhaustible resources of Greece, and their rapacity knew no bounds. Mummius, after the destruction of Corinth, B.C. 146, carried off or destroyed more works of art than all his predecessors put together. Scaurus, in his aedileship, B.C. 58, had all the public pictures still remaining in Sicyon transported to Rome, on account of the debts of the former city, and he adorned the great temporary theatre which he erected upon that occasion with 3000 bronze statues. Verres ransacked Asia and Achaia, and plundered almost every temple and public edifice in Sicily of whatever was valuable in it. Amongst the numerous robberies of Verres, Cicero mentions particularly twenty-seven beautiful pictures taken from the temple of Minerva at Syracuse, consisting of portraits of the kings and tyrants of Sicily. Yet Rome was, about the end of the republic, full of painters, who appear, however, to have been chiefly occupied in portrait, or decorative and arabesque painting. Among the Romans the earliest painter mentioned is a member of the noble house of the Fabii, who received the surname of Pictor through some paintings which he executed in the temple of Salus at Rome, B.C. 304, which lasted till the time of the emperor Claudius, when they were destroyed by the fire that consumed that temple. Pacuvius also, the tragic poet, and nephew of Ennius, distinguished himself by some paintings in the temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium, about 180 B.C. But generally speaking the artists at Rome were Greeks. Julius Caesar, Agrippa, and Augustus were among the earliest great patrons of artists. Caesar expended great sums in the purchase of pictures by the old masters. He gave as much as 80 talents for two pictures by his contemporary Timomachus of Byzantium, one an Ajax, and the other a Medea meditating the murder of her children. These pictures, which were painted in encaustic, were very celebrated works; they are alluded to by Ovid (_Trist._ ii. 525), and are mentioned by many other ancient writers.--There are three distinct periods observable in the history of painting in Rome. The first or great period of Graeco-Roman art may be dated from the conquest of Greece until the time of Augustus, when the artists were chiefly Greeks. The second, from the time of Augustus to the so-called Thirty Tyrants and Diocletian, or from the beginning of the Christian era until about the latter end of the third century, during which time the great majority of Roman works of art were produced. The third comprehends the state of the arts during the exarchate, when Rome, in consequence of the foundation of Constantinople, and the changes it involved, suffered similar spoliations to those which it had previously inflicted upon Greece. This was the period of the total decay of the imitative arts amongst the ancients. About the beginning of the second period is the earliest age in which we have any notice of portrait painters (_imaginum pictores_) as a distinct class. Portraits must have been exceedingly numerous amongst the Romans; Varro made a collection of the portraits of 700 eminent men. The portraits or statues of men who had performed any public service were placed in the temples and other public places; and several edicts were passed by the emperors of Rome respecting the placing of them. The portraits of authors also were placed in the public libraries; they were apparently fixed above the cases which contained their writings, below which chairs were placed for the convenience of readers. They were painted also at the beginning of manuscripts. Several of the most celebrated ancient artists were both sculptors and painters; Phidias and Euphranor were both; Zeuxis and Protogenes were both modellers; Polygnotus devoted some attention to statuary; and Lysippus consulted Eupompus upon style in sculpture. Moreover scene-painting shows that the Greeks were acquainted with perspective at a very early period; for when Aeschylus was exhibiting tragedies at Athens, Agatharchus made a scene, and left a treatise upon it.--II. _Methods of Painting._ There were two distinct classes of painting practised by the ancients--in water colours, and in wax, both of which were practised in various ways. Of the former the principal were fresco, al fresco; and the various kinds of distemper (a tempera), with glue, with the white of egg, or with gums (a guazzo); and with wax or resins when these were rendered by any means vehicles that could be worked with water. Of the latter the principal was through fire (διὰ πυρὸς), termed encaustic (ἐγκαυστική, _encaustica_). The painting in wax (κηρογραφία), or ship painting (_inceramenta navium_), was distinct from encaustic. It does not appear that the Greeks or Romans ever painted in oil; the only mention of oil in ancient writers in connection with painting is the small quantity which entered into the composition of encaustic varnish to temper it. They painted upon wood, clay, plaster, stone, parchment, and canvas. The use of canvas must have been of late introduction, as there is no mention of it having been employed by the Greek painters of the best periods. They generally painted upon panels or tablets (πίνακες, πινόκια, _tabulae_, _tabellae_), which when finished were fixed into frames of various descriptions and materials, and encased in walls. The style or cestrum used in drawing, and for spreading the wax colours, pointed at one end and broad and flat at the other, was termed γραφίς by the Greeks and cestrum by the Romans; it was generally made of metal. The hair pencil (_penicillus_, _penicillum_) was termed ὑπογραφίς, and apparently also ῥαβδίον. The ancients used also a palette very similar to that used by the moderns. Encaustic was a method very frequently practised by the Roman and later Greek painters; but it was in very little use by the earlier painters, and was not generally adopted until after the time of Alexander. Pliny defines the term thus: “ceris pingere ac picturam inurere,” to paint with wax or wax colours, and to _burn in_ the picture afterwards with the cauterium; it appears therefore to have been the simple addition of the process of _burning in_ to the ordinary method of painting with wax colours. Cerae (waxes) was the ordinary term for painters’ colours amongst the Romans, but more especially encaustic colours, and they kept them in partitioned boxes, as painters do at present.--III. _Polychromy._ Ancient statues were often painted, and what is now termed polychrome sculpture was very common in Greece. The practice of colouring statues is undoubtedly as ancient as the art of statuary itself; although they were perhaps originally coloured more from a love of colour than from any design of improving the resemblance of the representation. The Jupiter of the Capitol, placed by Tarquinius Priscus, was coloured with minium. In later times the custom seems to have been reduced to a system, and was practised with more reserve. The practice also of colouring architecture seems to have been universal amongst the Greeks, and very general amongst the Romans.--IV. _Vase Painting._ The fictile-vase painting of the Greeks was an art of itself, and was practised by a distinct class of artists. The designs upon these vases (which the Greeks termed λήκυθοι) have been variously interpreted, but they have been generally considered to be in some way connected with the initiation into the Eleusinian and other mysteries. They were given as prizes to the victors at the Panathenaea and other games, and seem to have been always buried with their owners at their death, for they have been discovered only in tombs. Even in the time of the Roman empire painted vases were termed “operis antiqui,” and were then sought for in the ancient tombs of Campania and other parts of Magna Graecia. We may form some idea of their immense value from the statement of Pliny, that they were more valuable than the Murrhine vases. [MURRHINA VASA.] The paintings on the vases, considered as works of art, vary exceedingly in the detail of the execution, although in style of design they may be arranged in two principal classes, the black and the yellow; for those which do not come strictly under either of these heads are either too few or vary too slightly to require a distinct classification. The black are the most ancient, the yellow the most common.--V. _Mosaic_, or _pictura de musivo_, _opus musivum_, was very general in Rome in the time of the early emperors. It was also common in Greece and Asia Minor at an earlier period, but at the time of the Roman empire it began to a great extent even to supersede painting. It was used chiefly for floors, but walls and also ceilings were sometimes ornamented in the same way. There are still many great mosaics of the ancients extant. The most valuable is the one discovered in Pompeii a few years ago, which is supposed to represent the battle of Issus. The composition is simple, forcible, and beautiful, and the design exhibits in many respects merits of the highest order.

PĪLA (σφαῖρα), a ball. The game at ball (σφαιριστική) was one of the most favourite gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and Romans, from the earliest times to the fall of the Roman empire. It is mentioned in the Odyssey, where it is played by the Phaeacian damsels to the sound of music, and also by two celebrated performers at the court of Alcinous in a most artistic manner accompanied with dancing. The various movements of the body required in the game of ball gave elasticity and grace to the figure; whence it was highly esteemed by the Greeks. The Athenians set so high a value on it, that they conferred upon Aristonicus of Carystus the right of citizenship on account of his skill in this game. It was equally esteemed by the other states of Greece; the young Spartans, when they were leaving the condition of ephebi, were called σφαιρεῖς, probably because their chief exercise was the game at ball. Every complete gymnasium had a room (σφαιριστήριον, σφαίριστρα) devoted to this exercise [GYMNASIUM], where a special teacher (σφαιριστικός) gave instruction in the art. Among the Romans the game at ball was generally played at by persons before taking the bath, in a room (_sphaeristerium_) attached to the baths for the purpose. _Pila_ was used in a general sense for any kind of ball: but the balls among the Romans seem to have been of three kinds; the _pila_ in its narrower sense, a small ball; the _follis_, a great ball filled with air; and the _paganica_, of which we know scarcely anything, but which appears to have been smaller than the follis and larger than the pila. The _Harpastum_ (from ἁρπάζω) seems to have been the name of a ball, which was thrown among the players, each of whom endeavoured to catch it.

PĪLĀNI. [EXERCITUS, p. 168 _b_.]

PĪLENTUM, a splendid four-wheeled carriage, furnished with soft cushions, which conveyed the Roman matrons in sacred processions and in going to the Circensian and other games. The pilentum was probably very like the HARMAMAXA and CARPENTUM, but open at the sides, so that those who sat in it might both see and be seen.

PĪLĔUS or PĪLĔUM (πϊλος, πίλημα, πιλωτόν), any piece of felt; more especially a skull-cap of felt, a hat. There seems no reason to doubt that felting is a more ancient invention than weaving [TELA], nor that both of these arts came into Europe from Asia. From the Greeks, who were acquainted with this article as early as the age of Homer, the use of felt passed together with its name to the Romans. Its principal use was to make coverings of the head for the male sex, and the most common one was a simple skull-cap.--Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaven, and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus. This change of attire took place in the temple of Feronia, who was the goddess of freedmen. Hence the phrase _servos ad pileum vocare_ is a summons to liberty, by which slaves were frequently called upon to take up arms with a promise of liberty. The figure of Liberty on some of the coins of Antoninus Pius, struck A.D. 145, holds this cap in the right hand. The _Petasus_ (πέτασος) differed from the pileus or simple skull-cap in having a wide brim: the etymology of the word, from πετάννυμι, expresses the distinctive shape of these hats. It was preferred to the skull-cap as a protection from the sun.

PĪLUM. [HASTA.]

PISCĪNA. [BALNEUM.]

PISTOR (ἀρτοποιός), a baker, from _pinsere_, to pound, since corn was pounded in mortars before the invention of mills. At Rome bread was originally made at home by the women of the house; and there were no persons at Rome who made baking a trade, or any slaves specially kept for this purpose in private houses, till B.C. 173. The name was also given to pastry-cooks and confectioners, in which case they were usually called _pistores dulciarii_ or _candidarii_. Bread was often baked in moulds called _artoptae_, and the loaves thus baked were termed ARTOPTICII. Bread was not generally made at home at Athens, but was sold in the market-place, chiefly by women, called ἀρτοπώλιδες. These women seem to have been what the fish-women of London are at present; they excelled in abuse.

PLĂGĬĀRĬUS. [PLAGIUM.]

PLĂGĬUM, the offence of kidnapping, concealing, and selling freemen and other persons’ slaves was the subject of a Fabia Lex (B.C. 183). The penalty of the lex was pecuniary; but this fell into disuse, and persons who offended against the lex were punished according to the nature of their offence; under the empire they were generally condemned to the mines. The word _Plagium_ is said to come from the Greek πλάγιος, oblique, indirect, dolosus. He who committed _plagium_ was _plagiarius_, a word which Martial applies to a person who falsely gave himself out as the author of a book; and in this sense the word has come into common use in our language.

PLAUSTRUM or PLOSTRUM (ἅμαξα), a cart or waggon. It had commonly two wheels, but sometimes four, and it was then called the _plaustrum majus_. Besides the wheels and axle the plaustrum consisted of a strong pole (_temo_), to the hinder part of which was fastened a table of wooden planks. The blocks of stone, or other things to be carried, were either laid upon this table without any other support, or an additional security was obtained by the use either of boards at the sides, or of a large wicker basket tied upon the cart. The annexed cut exhibits a cart, the body of which is supplied by a basket. The commonest kind of cart-wheel was that called _tympanum_, “the drum,” from its resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name. It was nearly a foot in thickness, and was made either by sawing the trunk of a tree across in a horizontal direction, or by nailing together boards of the requisite shape and size. (See the cut.) These wheels advanced slowly, and made a loud creaking, which was heard to a great distance.

PLĒBES or PLEBS. PLĒBĒII. This word contains the same root as _im-pleo_, _com-pleo_, &c., and is therefore etymologically connected with πλῆθος, a term which was applied to the plebeians by the more correct Greek writers on Roman history, while others wrongly called them δῆμος or οἱ δημοτικοί. The plebeians were the body of commons or the commonalty of Rome, and thus constituted one of the two great elements of which the Roman nation consisted, and which has given to the earlier periods of Roman history its peculiar character and interest. The time when the plebeians first appear as a distinct class of Roman citizens in contradistinction to the patricians, is in the reign of Tullus Hostilius. Alba, the head of the Latin confederacy, was in his reign taken by the Romans and razed to the ground. The most distinguished of its inhabitants were transplanted to Rome and received among the patricians; but the great bulk of Alban citizens, who were likewise transferred to Rome, received settlements on the Caelian hill, and were kept in a state of submission to the populus Romanus or the patricians. This new population of Rome, which in number is said to have been equal to the old inhabitants of the city or the patricians, were the plebeians. They were Latins, and consequently of the same blood as the Ramnes, the noblest of the three patrician tribes. After the conquest of Alba, Rome, in the reign of Ancus Martius, acquired possession of a considerable extent of country, containing a number of dependent Latin towns, as Medullia, Fidenae, Politorium, Tellenae, and Ficana. Great numbers of the inhabitants of these towns were again transplanted to Rome, and incorporated with the plebeians already settled there, and the Aventine was assigned to them as their habitation. Some portions of the land which these new citizens had possessed were given back to them by the Romans, so that they remained free land-owners as much as the conquerors themselves, and thus were distinct from the clients.--The plebeians were citizens, but not _optimo jure_; they were perfectly distinct from the patricians, and were neither contained in the three tribes, nor in the curiae, nor in the patrician gentes. The only point of contact between the two estates was the army. The plebeians were obliged to fight and shed their blood in the defence of their new fellow-citizens, without being allowed to share any of their rights or privileges, and without even the right of intermarriage (_connubium_). In all judicial matters they were entirely at the mercy of the patricians, and had no right of appeal against any unjust sentence, though they were not, like the clients, bound to have a patronus. They continued to have their own sacra, which they had had before the conquest, but these were regulated by the patrician pontiffs. Lastly, they were free land-owners, and had their own gentes.--The population of the Roman state thus consisted of two opposite elements; a ruling class or an aristocracy, and the commonalty, which, though of the same stock as the noblest among the rulers, and exceeding them in numbers, yet enjoyed none of the rights which might enable them to take a part in the management of public affairs, religious or civil. Their citizenship resembled the relation of aliens to a state, in which they are merely tolerated on condition of performing certain services, and they are, in fact, sometimes called peregrini. That such a state of things could not last, is a truth which must have been felt by every one who was not blinded by his own selfishness and love of dominion. Tarquinius Priscus was the first who conceived the idea of placing the plebeians on a footing of equality with the old burghers, by dividing them into three tribes, which he intended to call after his own name and those of his friends. But this noble plan was frustrated by the opposition of the augur Attus Navius, who probably acted the part of a representative of the patricians. All that Tarquinius could do was to effect the admission of the noblest plebeian families into the three old tribes, who were distinguished from the old patrician families by the names of Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres secundi, and their gentes are sometimes distinguished by the epithet minores, as they entered into the same relation in which the Luceres had been to the first two tribes, before the time of Tarquinius. It was reserved to his successor, Servius Tullius, to give to the commonalty a regular internal organisation, and to determine their relations to the patricians. He first divided the city into four, and then the subject country around, which was inhabited by plebeians, into twenty-six regions or local tribes, and in these regions he assigned lots of land to those plebeians who were yet without landed property. [TRIBUS.] Each tribe had its praefect, called tribunus. The tribes had also their own sacra, festivals, and meetings (_comitia tributa_), which were convoked by their tribunes. This division into tribes with tribunes at their heads was no more than an internal organisation of the plebeians, analogous to the division of the patricians into thirty curiae, without conferring upon them the right to interfere in any way in the management of public affairs, or in the elections, which were left entirely to the senate and the curiae. These rights, however, they obtained by another regulation of Servius Tullius, which was made wholly independent of the thirty tribes. For this purpose he instituted a census, and divided the whole body of Roman citizens, plebeians as well as patricians, into five classes, according to the amount of their property. Taxation and the military duties were arranged according to these classes in such a manner, that the heavier burdens fell upon the wealthier classes. The whole body of citizens thus divided was formed into a great national assembly called comitiatus maximus, or comitia centuriata. [COMITIA.] In this assembly the plebeians now met the patricians apparently on a footing of equality, but the votes were distributed in such a way that it was always in the power of the wealthiest classes, to which the patricians naturally belonged, to decide a question before it was put to the vote of the poorer classes. A great number of such noble plebeian families, as after the subjugation of the Latin towns had not been admitted into the curies by Tarquinius Priscus, were now constituted by Servius into a number of equites, with twelve suffragia in the comitia centuriata. [EQUITES.] In this constitution, the plebeians, as such, did not obtain admission to the senate, nor to the highest magistracy, nor to any of the priestly offices. To all these offices the patricians alone thought themselves entitled by divine right. The plebeians also continued to be excluded from occupying any portion of the public land, which as yet was possessed only by the patricians, and they were only allowed to keep their cattle upon the common pasture.--In the early times of the republic there was a constant struggle between the two orders, the history of which belongs to a history of Rome, and cannot be given here. Eventually the plebeians gained access to all the civil and religious offices, until at last the two hostile elements became united into one great body of Roman citizens with equal rights, and a state of things arose, totally different from what had existed before. After the first secession, in B.C. 494, the plebeians gained several great advantages. First, a law was passed to prevent the patricians from taking usurious interest of money, which they frequently lent to impoverished plebeians; secondly, tribunes were appointed for the protection of the plebeians [TRIBUNI]; and lastly, plebeian aediles were appointed. [AEDILES.] Shortly after, they gained the right to summon before their own comitia tributa any one who had violated the rights of their order, and to make decrees (_plebiscita_), which, however, did not become binding upon the whole nation, free from the control of the curies, until the year B.C. 286. In B.C. 445, the tribune Canuleius established, by his rogations, the connubium between patricians and plebeians. He also attempted to divide the consulship between the two orders, but the patricians frustrated the realisation of this plan by the appointment of six military tribunes, who were to be elected from both orders. [TRIBUNI.] But that the plebeians might have no share in the censorial power, with which the consuls had been invested, the military tribunes did not obtain that power, and a new curule dignity, the censorship, was established, with which patricians alone were to be invested. [CENSOR.] In B.C. 421 the plebeians were admitted to the quaestorship, which opened to them the way into the senate, where henceforth their number continued to increase. [QUAESTOR; SENATUS.] In B.C. 367 the tribunes L. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius placed themselves at the head of the commonalty, and resumed the contest against the patricians. After a fierce struggle, which lasted for several years, they at length carried a rogation, according to which decemvirs were to be appointed for keeping the Sibylline books instead of duumvirs, of whom half were to be plebeians. The next great step was the restoration of the consulship, on condition that one consul should always be a plebeian. A third rogation of Licinius, which was only intended to afford momentary relief to the poor plebeians, regulated the rate of interest. From this time forward the plebeians also appear in the possession of the right to occupy parts of the ager publicus. In B.C. 366, L. Sextius Lateranus was the first plebeian consul. The patricians, however, who always contrived to yield no more than what it was absolutely impossible for them to retain, stripped the consulship of a considerable part of its power, and transferred it to two new curule offices, viz. that of praetor and of curule aedile. [AEDILES; PRAETOR.] But after such great advantages had been once gained by the plebeians, it was impossible to stop them in their progress towards a perfect equality of political rights with the patricians. In B.C. 356, C. Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian dictator; in B.C. 351 the censorship was thrown open to the plebeians, and in B.C. 336 the praetorship. The Ogulnian law, in B.C. 300, also opened to them the offices of pontifex and augur. These advantages were, as might be supposed, not gained without the fiercest opposition of the patricians, and even after they were gained and sanctioned by law, the patricians exerted every means to obstruct the operation of the law. Such fraudulent attempts led, in B.C. 286, to the last secession of the plebeians, after which, however, the dictator Q. Hortensius successfully and permanently reconciled the two orders, secured to the plebeians all the rights they had acquired until then, and procured for their plebiscita the full power of leges binding upon the whole nation. After the passing of the Hortensian law, the political distinction between patricians and plebeians ceased, and, with a few unimportant exceptions, both orders were placed on a footing of perfect equality. Henceforth the name populus is sometimes applied to the plebeians alone, and sometimes to the whole body of Roman citizens, as assembled in the comitia centuriata or tributa. The term plebs or plebecula, on the other hand, was applied, in a loose manner of speaking, to the multitude or populace, in opposition to the nobiles or the senatorial party.--A person who was born a plebeian could only be raised to the rank of a patrician by a lex curiata, as was sometimes done during the kingly period, and in the early times of the republic. It frequently occurs in the history of Rome that one and the same gens contains plebeian as well as patrician families. In the gens Cornelia, for instance, we find the plebeian families of the Balbi, Mammulae, Merulae, &c., along with the patrician Scipiones, Sullae, Lentuli, &c. The occurrence of this phenomenon may be accounted for in different ways. It may have been, that one branch of a plebeian family was made patrician while the others remained plebeians. It may also have happened that two families had the same nomen gentilicium without being actual members of the same gens. Again, a patrician family might go over to the plebeians, and as such a family continued to bear the name of its patrician gens, this gens apparently contained a plebeian family. When a peregrinus obtained the civitas through the influence of a patrician, or when a slave was emancipated by his patrician master, they generally adopted the nomen gentilicium of their benefactor, and thus appear to belong to the same gens with him.

PLĒBISCĪTUM, a name properly applied to a law passed at the comitia tributa on the rogation of a tribune. Originally, a plebiscitum required confirmation by the comitia curiata and the senate; but a Lex Hortensia was passed B.C. 286, to the effect that plebiscita should bind all the populus (_universus populus_), and this lex rendered confirmation unnecessary. The Lex Hortensia is always referred to as the lex which put plebiscita as to their binding force exactly on the same footing as leges. The principal plebiscita are mentioned under the article LEX.

PLECTRUM. [LYRA.]

PLETHRON (πλέθρον), the fundamental land measure in the Greek system, being the square of 100 feet, that is, 10,000 square feet. The later Greek writers use it as the translation of the Roman _jugerum_, probably because the latter was the standard land measure in the Roman system; but, in size, the _plethron_ answered more nearly to the Roman _actus_, or half-jugerum, which was the older unit of land measures. As frequently happened with the ancient land measures, the side of the _plethron_ was taken as a measure of length, with the same name. This _plethron_ was equal to 100 feet (or about 101 English feet) = 66⅔ πήχεις = 10 ἄκαιναι or κάλαμοι. It was also introduced into the system of itinerary measures, being 1-6th of the _stadium_.

PLŬTĔUS, was applied in military affairs to two different objects. (1) A kind of shed made of hurdles, and covered with raw hides, which could be moved forward by small wheels attached to it, and under which the besiegers of a town made their approaches. (2) Boards or planks placed on the vallum of a camp, on moveable towers or other military engines, as a kind of roof or covering for the protection of the soldiers.

PLYNTĒRĬA (πλυντήρια, from πλύνειν, to wash), a festival celebrated at Athens every year, on the 25th of Thargelion, in honour of Athena, surnamed Aglauros, whose temple stood on the Acropolis. The day of this festival was at Athens among the ἀποφράδες or _dies nefasti_; for the temple of the goddess was surrounded by a rope to preclude all communication with it; her statue was stripped of its garments and ornaments for the purpose of cleaning them, and was in the meanwhile covered over, to conceal it from the sight of man. The city was therefore, so to speak, on this day without its protecting divinity, and any undertaking commenced on it was believed to be necessarily unsuccessful.

PNYX. [ECCLESIA.]

PŌCŬLUM, any kind of drinking-cup, to be distinguished from the _Crater_ or vessel in which the wine was mixed [CRATER], and from the _Cyathus_, a kind of ladle or small cup, used to convey the wine from the Crater to the Poculum or drinking-cup.

PŎDĬUM. [AMPHITHEATRUM.]

POENA (ποινή), a general name for any punishment of any offence. Multa is the penalty of a particular offence. A Poena was only inflicted when it was imposed by some lex or some other legal authority (_quo alio jure_). When no poena was imposed, then a multa or penalty might be inflicted.

PŎLĔMARCHUS (πολέμαρχος). Respecting the polemarchus at Athens, see ARCHON. We read also of polemarchs at Sparta, and in various cities of Boeotia. As their name denotes, they were originally and properly connected with military affairs, being entrusted either with the command of armies abroad, or the superintendence of the war department at home; sometimes with both. The polemarchs of Sparta appear to have ranked next to the king, when on actual service abroad, and were generally of the royal kindred or house (γένος). They commanded single morae, so that they would appear to have been six in number, and sometimes whole armies. They also formed part of the king’s council in war, and of the royal escort called _damosia_. At Thebes there appear to have been two polemarchs, perhaps elected, annually; and in times of peace they seem to have been invested with the chief executive power of the state, and the command of the city, having its military force under their orders. They are not, however, to be confounded with the Boeotarchs.

PŌLĒTAE (πωλῆται), a board of ten officers, or magistrates, whose duty it was to grant leases of the public lands and mines, and also to let the revenues arising from the customs, taxes, confiscations, and forfeitures. Of such letting the word πωλεῖν (not μισθοῦν) was generally used, and also the correlative words ὠνεῖσθαι and πρίασθαι. One was chosen from each tribe. In the letting of the revenue they were assisted by the managers of the theoric fund (τὸ θεωρικόν), and they acted under the authority of the senate of Five Hundred, who exercised a general control over the financial department of the administration. Resident aliens, who did not pay their residence tax (μετοίκιον), were summoned before them, and, if found to have committed default, were sold.

POLLINCTŌRES. [FUNUS.]

PŌMOĒRĬUM. This word is compounded of _post_ and _moerium_ (_murus_), in the same manner as _pomeridiem_ of _post_ and _meridiem_, and thus signifies a line running by the walls of a town (_pone_ or _post muros_). But the walls of a town here spoken of are not its actual walls or fortifications, but symbolical walls, and the course of the pomoerium itself was marked by stone pillars, erected at certain intervals. The sacred line of the Roman pomoerium did not prevent the inhabitants from building upon or taking into use any place beyond it, but it was necessary to leave a certain space on each side of it unoccupied, so as not to unhallow it by profane use. Thus we find that the Aventine, although inhabited from early times, was for many centuries not included within the pomoerium. The pomoerium was not the same at all times; as the city increased the pomoerium also was extended; but this extension could, according to ancient usage, only be made by such men as had by their victories over foreign nations increased the boundaries of the empire, and neither could a pomoerium be formed nor altered without the augurs previously consulting the will of the gods by augury: hence the _jus pomoerii_ of the augurs.

POMPA (πομπή), a solemn procession, as on the occasion of a funeral, triumph, &c. It is, however, more particularly applied to the grand procession with which the games of the circus commenced (_Pompa Circensis_). [CIRCUS.]

PONS (γέφυρα), a bridge. As the rivers of Greece were small, and the use of the arch known to them only to a limited extent, it is probable that the Greek bridges were built entirely of wood, or, at best, were nothing more than a wooden platform supported upon stone piers at each extremity. Pliny mentions a bridge over the Acheron 1000 feet in length; we also know that the island Euboea was joined to Boeotia by a bridge; but the only existing specimen of a Greek bridge is the one over a tributary of the Eurotas. The Romans regularly applied the arch to the construction of bridges, by which they were enabled to erect structures of great beauty and solidity, as well as utility. The width of the passage-way in a Roman bridge was commonly narrow, as compared with modern structures of the same kind, and corresponded with the road (_via_) leading to and from it. It was divided into three parts. The centre one, for horses and carriages, was denominated _agger_ or _iter_; and the raised footpaths on each side _decursoria_, which were enclosed by parapet walls similar in use and appearance to the _pluteus_ in the basilica. There were eight bridges across the Tiber. I. Of these the most celebrated, as well as the most ancient, was the PONS SUBLICIUS, so called because it was built of wood; _sublices_, in the language of the Formiani, meaning wooden beams. It was built by Ancus Martius, when he united the Janiculum to the city, and was situated at the foot of the Aventine.--II. PONS PALATINUS formed the communication between the Palatine and its vicinities and the Janiculum.--III. IV. _Pons Fabricius_ and PONS CESTIUS were the two which connected the Insula Tiberina with the opposite sides of the river; the first with the city, and the latter with the Janiculum.

Both are still remaining. They are represented in the preceding woodcut: that on the right hand is the pons Fabricius, and that on the left the pons Cestius.--V. PONS JANICULENSIS, which led direct to the Janiculum.--VI. PONS VATICANUS, so called because it formed the communication between the Campus Martius and Campus Vaticanus.--

VII. PONS AELIUS, built by Hadrian, which led from the city to the mausoleum of that emperor, now the bridge and castle of St. Angelo.--VIII. PONS MILVIUS, on the Via Flaminia, now Ponte Molle, was built by Aemilius Scaurus the censor.--The Roman bridges without the city were too many to be enumerated here.

They formed one of the chief embellishments in all the public roads; and their frequent and stupendous remains, still existing in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, attest, even to the present day, the scale of grandeur with which the Roman works of national utility were always carried on.--When the comitia were held, the voters, in order to reach the enclosure called _septum_ and _ovile_, passed over a wooden platform, elevated above the ground, which was called _pons suffragiorum_, in order that they might be able to give their votes without confusion or collusion. [COMITIA.] _Pons_ is also used to signify the platform (ἐπιβάθρα, ἀποβάθρα), used for embarking in, or disembarking from, a ship.

PONTĬFEX (ἱεροδιδάσκαλος, ἱερονόμος, ἱεροφύλαξ, ἱεροφάντης). The origin of this word is explained in various ways; but it is probably formed from _pons_ and _facere_ (in the signification of the Greek ῥέζειν, to perform a sacrifice), and consequently signifies the priests who offered sacrifices upon the bridge. The ancient sacrifice to which the name thus alludes, is that of the Argei on the sacred or sublician bridge. [ARGEI.] The Roman pontiffs formed the most illustrious among the great colleges of priests. Their institution, like that of all important matters of religion, was ascribed to Numa. The number of pontiffs appointed by this king was four, and at their head was the pontifex maximus, who is generally not included when the number of pontiffs is mentioned. It is probable that the original number of four pontiffs (not including the pontifex maximus) had reference to the two earliest tribes of the Romans, the Ramnes and Tities, so that each tribe was represented by two pontiffs. In the year B.C. 300 the Ogulnian law raised the number of pontiffs to eight, or, including the pontifex maximus, to nine, and four of them were to be plebeians. The pontifex maximus, however, continued to be a patrician down to the year B.C. 254, when Tib. Coruncanius was the first plebeian who was invested with this dignity. This number of pontiffs remained for a long time unaltered, until in B.C. 81 the dictator Sulla increased it to fifteen, and J. Caesar to sixteen. In both these changes the pontifex maximus is included in the number. During the empire the number varied, though on the whole fifteen appears to have been the regular number. The mode of appointing the pontiffs was also different at different times. It appears that after their institution by Numa, the college had the right of co-optation, that is, if a member of the college died (for all the pontiffs held their office for life), the members met and elected a successor, who, after his election, was inaugurated by the augurs. This election was sometimes called _captio_. In B.C. 104 a Lex Domitia was passed, which transferred the right of electing the members of the great colleges of priests to the people (probably in the comitia tributa); that is, the people elected a candidate, who was then made a member of the college by the co-optatio of the priests themselves, so that the co-optatio, although still necessary, became a mere matter of form. The Lex Domitia was repealed by Sulla in a Lex Cornelia de Sacerdotiis (B.C. 81), which restored to the great priestly colleges their full right of co-optatio. In B.C. 63 the law of Sulla was abolished, and the Domitian law was restored, but not in its full extent; for it was now determined, that in case of a vacancy the college itself should nominate two candidates, and the people elect one of them. M. Antonius again restored the right of co-optatio to the college. The college of pontiffs had the supreme superintendence of all matters of religion, and of things and persons connected with public as well as private worship. They had the judicial decision in all matters of religion, whether private persons, magistrates, or priests were concerned, and in cases where the existing laws or customs were found defective or insufficient, they made new laws and regulations (_decreta pontificum_), in which they always followed their own judgment as to what was consistent with the existing customs and usages. The details of these duties and functions were contained in books called _libri pontificii_ or _pontificales_, _commentarii sacrorum_ or _sacrorum pontificalium_, which they were said to have received from Numa, and which were sanctioned by Ancus Martius. As to the rights and duties of the pontiffs, it must first of all be borne in mind, that the pontiffs were not priests of any particular divinity, but a college which stood above all other priests, and superintended the whole external worship of the gods. One of their principal duties was the regulation of the sacra, both publica and privata, and to watch that they were observed at the proper times (for which purpose the pontiffs had the whole regulation of the calendar, see CALENDARIUM), and in their proper form. In the management of the sacra publica they were in later times assisted in certain duties by the Triumviri Epulones. [EPULONES.] The pontiffs convoked the assembly of the curies (_comitia calata_ or _curiata_) in cases where priests were to be appointed, and flamines or a rex sacrorum were to be inaugurated; also when wills were to be received, and when a detestatio sacrorum and adoption by adrogatio took place. [ADOPTIO.] In most cases the sentence of the pontiffs only inflicted a fine upon the offenders; but the person fined had the right of appealing to the people, who might release him from the fine. In regard to the vestal virgins, and the persons who committed incest with them, the pontiffs had criminal jurisdiction, and might pronounce sentence of death. A man who had violated a vestal virgin was, according to an ancient law, scourged to death by the pontifex maximus in the comitium, and it appears that originally neither the vestal virgins nor the male offenders in such a case had any right of appeal. In later times we find that, even when the pontiffs had passed sentence upon vestal virgins, a tribune interfered, and induced the people to appoint a quaestor for the purpose of making a fresh inquiry into the case; and it sometimes happened that after this new trial the sentence of the pontiffs was modified or annulled. Such cases, however, seem to have been mere irregularities, founded upon an abuse of the tribunitian power. In the early times the pontiffs were in the exclusive possession of the civil as well as religious law, until the former was made public by Cn. Flavius. The regulations which served as a guide to the pontiffs in their judicial proceedings, formed a large collection of laws, which was called the _jus pontificium_, and formed part of the Libri Pontificii. The meetings of the college of pontiffs, to which in some instances the famines and the rex sacrorum were summoned, were held in the curia regia on the Via Sacra, to which was attached the residence of the pontifex maximus and of the rex sacrorum. As the chief pontiff was obliged to live in a domus publica, Augustus, when he assumed this dignity, changed part of his own house into a domus publica. All the pontiffs were in their appearance distinguished by the conic cap, called tutulus or galerus, with an apex upon it, and the toga praetexta. The pontifex maximus was the president of the college, and acted in its name, whence he alone is frequently mentioned in cases in which he must be considered only as the organ of the college. He was generally chosen from among the most distinguished persons, and such as had held a curule magistracy, or were already members of the college. Two of his especial duties were to appoint (_capere_) the vestal virgins and the flamines [VESTALES; FLAMEN], and to be present at every marriage by confarreatio. When festive games were vowed, or a dedication made, the chief pontiff had to repeat over, before the persons who made the vow or the dedication, the formula in which it was to be performed (_praeire verba_). During the period of the republic, when the people exercised sovereign power in every respect, we find that if the pontiff, on constitutional or religious grounds, refused to perform this solemnity, he might be compelled by the people. The pontifex maximus wrote down what occurred in his year on tablets, which were hung up in his dwelling for the information of the people, and called _Annales Maximi_. A pontifex might, like all the members of the great priestly colleges, hold any other military, civil, or priestly office, provided the different offices did not interfere with one another. Thus we find one and the same person being pontiff, augur, and decemvir sacrorum; instances of a pontifex maximus being at the same time consul are very numerous. But whatever might be the civil or military office which a pontifex maximus held beside his pontificate, he was not allowed originally to leave Italy. The college of pontiffs continued to exist until the overthrow of paganism. The emperors themselves were always chief pontiffs, and as such the presidents of the college; hence the title of pontifex maximus (P. M. or PON. M.) appears on several coins of the emperors. If there were several emperors at a time, only one bore the title of pontifex maximus; but in the year A.D. 238 we find that each of the two emperors Maximus and Balbinus assumed this dignity. From the time of Theodosius the emperors no longer appear with the dignity of pontiff; but at last the title was assumed by the Christian bishop of Rome.--There were other pontiffs at Rome, who were distinguished by the epithet _Minores_. They appear to have been originally only the secretaries of the pontiffs; and when the real pontiffs began to neglect their duties, and to leave the principal business to be done by their secretaries, it became customary to designate these scribes by the name of Pontifices Minores. The number of these secretaries is uncertain.

PŎPA. [SACRIFICIUM.]

PŎPĪNA. [CAUPONA.]

POPŬLĀRĬA. [AMPHITHEATRUM.]

PŎPŬLUS. [PATRICII.]

PŎPŬLĬFŬGĬA or POPLĬFŬGĬA, the day of the people’s flight, was celebrated on the nones of July, according to an ancient tradition, in commemoration of the flight of the people, when the inhabitants of Ficulae, Fidenae, and other places round about, appeared in arms against Rome shortly after the departure of the Gauls, and produced such a panic that the Romans suddenly fled before them. Other writers say that the Populifugia was celebrated in commemoration of the flight of the people before the Tuscans; while others again refer its origin to the flight of the people on the death of Romulus.

PŎRISTAE (πορισταί), magistrates at Athens, who probably levied the extraordinary supplies.