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latter believed, that Orpheus and Homer had both learned wisdom on the banks of the Nile; and that the Erebus of Greece, and all its parts, personages, and usages, were but transcripts of the mode of burial in Egypt. Here the corpse was, on payment of a piece of money, conveyed by a ferryman (named Charon in the language of Egypt) over the Acherusian lake, after it had received its sentence from the judges appointed for that purpose. Oceanus was but the Egyptian name for the Nile; the Gates of the Sun were merely those of Heliopolis; and Hermes, the conductor of souls, was familiar to the Egyptians; and thus they boldly and falsely appropriated to themselves all the mythic ideas of Greece !—It is worthy of notice, with what unanimity the early races of men placed the abode of departed souls either beneath the earth or in the remote regions of the West. The former notion owes its origin, in all probability, to the simple circumstance of the mortal remains of man being deposited by most nations in the bosom of the earth; and the habits of thinking and speaking which thence aroзo, led to the notion of the soul also being placed in a region within the earth. The calmness and stillness of evening succeeding the toils of the day, the majesty of the sun sinking, as it were, to rest amid the glories of the western sky, exert a powerful influence over the human mind, and lead us almost insensibly to picture the West as a region of bliss and tranquillity. The idea of its being the abode of the departed good was therefore an obvious one. Finally, the analogy of the conclusion of the day and the setting of the sun with the close of life, may have led the Greeks, or, it may be, the Phoenicians, to place the dwelling of the dead in general in the dark land on the western shore of Ocean.-Hades, we are told by Homer, possessed a helmet which rendered its wearer invisible; it was forged for him by Vulcan, the later writers say, in the time of the war against the Titans. Minerva wore it when aiding Diomede against Mars (Il., 5, 845). When Perseus went on his expedition against the Gorgons, the helm of invisibility covered his brow. (Apollod., 1, 6, 2.)-By artists the god of the lower world was represented similar to his brothers, but he was distinguished from them by his gloomy and rigid mien. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 89, seqq.) Pluto had a temple at Rome under the title of Summanus,

plant which bears her name. (Schol. ad Nicand., Al- | lity of the Greeks. For the former asserted, and the ex, 374. — Oppian, Hal., 3, 486. — Ovid, Met., 10, 730.)-Pluto, Homer tells us, was once wounded in the shoulder by the arrows of Hercules; but, from the ambiguity of the phrase used by the poet (v rúk, Il., 5, 395), it is difficult to determine the scene of the conflict. Some say that it was at the gate of the nether world, when the hero was sent to drag the dog of Hades to the realms of day. (Schol. ad Il., l. c.— Heyne ad Il., 1. c.-Schol. ad Od, 11, 605) Others maintain that it was in Pylos, where the god was aiding his worshippers against the son of Jupiter. (Apollod, 2, 7, 3.-Pausan., 6, 25.-Pind., Ol., 9, 50.Schol. ad Pind., l. c.) Heyne, Müller, and Buttmann are in favour of this sense of the phrase.-The region over which Pluto presided is represented in the Iliad and in the Theogony as being within the earth. (I., 3, 278.-Ib., 9, 568.-Ib., 20, 61.-Ib., 23, 100.Theog., 455, 767.) In the Odyssey it is placed in the dark region beyond the stream of Ocean. (Od., 10, 508.—Ib., 11, 1.) Its name is Erebus, with which the appellation Hades became afterward synonymous. The poets everywhere describe it as dreary, dark, and cheerless. The dead, without distinction of good or evil, age or rank, wander there, conversing about their former state on earth: they are unhappy, and they feel their wretched state acutely. They have no strength, or power of mind or body. Some few, enemies of the gods, such as Sisyphus, Tityus, Tantalus, are punished for their crimes, but not apart from the rest of the dead. Nothing can be more gloomy and comfortless than the whole aspect of the realm of Hades as pictured by Homer. - In process of time, when communication with Egypt and Asia had enlarged the sphere of the ideas of the Greeks, the nether world underwent a total change. It was now divided into two separate regions: Tartarus, which, in the time of Homer and Hesiod, was thought to lie far beneath it, and to be the prison of the Titans, became one of these regions, and the place of punishment for wicked men; and Elysium, which lay on the shore of the stream of Ocean, the retreat of the children and relatives of the king of the gods, was moved down thither to form the place of reward for good men. A stream encompassed the domains of Hades, over which the dead, on paying their passage-money (vauλov), were ferried by Charon. The three-headed dog Cerberus guarded the entrance; and the three judges, Mi-dedicated to him during the war with Pyrrhus. (Ovid, nos, acus, and Rhadamanthus, allotted his place of bliss or of pain to each of the dead who was brought before their tribunal. This idea is probably founded on the passage in the Odyssey (11, 568) where the hero says he saw Minos judging in Erebus; but, according to the earlier belief, he only judged there as Orion hunted; in other words, he pursued the same occupation as on earth. According to the fine myth PLUTUS, son of Jasion or Iasius, by Ceres, the godin Plato (Gorgias, p. 523), acus and Rhadaman- dess of corn, has been confounded by many of the thus sit at the point in the mead where the path branch-mythologists with Pluto, though plainly distinguished es off to the Islands of the Blessed and to Tartarus (compare Virg., En., 6, 540); the former judging the dead from Europe, the latter those from Asia. If any case proves too difficult for them, it is reserved for the decision of Minos.-The River of Oblivion (ó rns Anons отaμós) was added to those of Homer's transOceanic region (Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, and Cocytus), and the dead were led to drink of its waters previous to their returning to animate other bodies on earth. In the sixth book of Virgil's Eneid will be found the richest and fullest description of the newmodified under-world, and for those who love to trace the progress and change of ideas, it will not be an uninteresting employment to compare it with that in the seventh book of Homer's Odyssey.-In reading the "portentous falsehoods" (Lobeck, Aglaoph., p. 811) of the Egyptian priests on this subject, one is at a loss which most to wonder at, their audacity, or the credu

Fast., 6, 731.) The cypress, the narcissus, the adianthus, and the thighs of victims, were sacred to him; black animals were sacrificed to him, such as black oxen and sheep. (Tibull., 3, 5, 33.) His title Summanus was given to him as being summus manium; but Ovid questions whether this deity was the same as Pluto. (Fuss, Rom. Ant., p. 360.)

from him as being the god of riches. He was brought up by the goddess of peace, and, on that account, Pax was represented at Athens as holding the god of wealth in her lap. The ancients represented him as blind, and bestowing his favours indiscriminately on the good and bad. He appears as an actor in the comedy of Aristophanes called after his name, and also bears a part in the Timon of Lucian. The Greek form 112ovToç means "wealth." The popular belief among the ancients assigned him a dwelling-place in the subterranean regions of Spain, a country famed for its precious metals. Phædrus relates, in one of his fables, that when Hercules was received into heaven, and was saluting the gods who thronged around with their congratulations, he turned away his look when Plutus drew near, assigning as a reason for this to Jupiter, who inquired the cause of his strange conduct, that he hated Plutus because he was the friend of the bad,

and, besides, corrupted both good and bad with his gifts. The fable is borrowed, with some slight alteration, from the Greek (Phædr., fab., 4, 12.)

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horses of Achilles by the wind Zephyrus. (Hom., Il., 16, 150.-Consult Heyne, Excurs., ad loc.) The name implies swiftness of feet (from πous, a foot," PLUVIUS, a surname of Jupiter, as god of rain. He and ápyós, “swift.") was invoked by that name among the Romans, when- PAS, the father of Philoctetes. The son is hence ever the earth was parched up by continual heat, and called "Pœantia proles" by Ovid. (Met., 13, 45.) was in want of refreshing showers. (Tibull., 1, 8, 26.) PICILE, a celebrated portico at Athens, which rePNYX, the place of public assembly at Athens, es-ceived its name from the paintings with which it was pecially during elections, so called from the crowds ac-adorned (oikin σroú, from Tokios, “diversified”). customed to assemble therein (drò Tоυ πεжVкνάolai). its more ancient name is said to have been PeisianacThe Pnyx was situate on a low hill, sloping down to the north, at the western verge of the city, and at a quarter of a mile to the west of the Acropolis. It was a large semicircular area, of which the southern side, or diameter, was formed by a long line of limestone rock, hewn so as to present the appearance of a vertical wall, in the centre of which, and projecting from it, was a solid pedestal, carved out of the living rock, ascended by steps, and based upon seats of the same material. This was the celebrated Bema, from which the orators addressed the people. The lowest or most northern part of the semicircular curve was supported by a terrace wall of polygonal blocks. (Wordsworth's Greece, p. 150.-Aristoph., Acharn., 20.-Jul. Poll., 8, 10.)

PODALIRIUS, Son of Esculapius and Epione, and a celebrated physician of antiquity. Xenophon calls him and his brother Machaon pupils of Chiron the centaur (Cyneget., 1, 14), an assertion which Aristides takes the unnecessary trouble of refuting. (Orat. in Asclepiad., vol. 1, p. 76, ed. Cant.) The two brothers were also distinguished for eloquence, and for their acquaintance with the military art. (Xen., L. c.) According to Quintus Calaber, Machaon was the elder, and also instructed Podalirius. (Paralipom., Hom., 8, 60.) They were both present at the siege of Troy, and made themselves so conspicuous by the valour, that Homer ranks them among the first of the Grecian heroes. Their skill in the healing art was also bighly serviceable to the wounded, and they were at last excused from the night, end from all the fatigues of war, in order to have more time to attend to those who were injured. Or his return from Troy, Podaírius was driven by a tempest to the coast of Caria, where he cither settled in, or founded, the city of Syrna, called by come Syrus. (Pausan, 3, 26.—Siebeas, ad loc.) The more common account is in favour of his having founded the place, and he is said to have alled it after Syrna, the daughter of Damætas, king of the country. He had cured her, it seems, of the ffects of a fall from the roof of a mansion, by bleeding her in both arms at the moment when her life was despaired of; and he received her in marriage, together with the sovereignty of the Carian Chersonese. (Steph. Byz., s. v. Eúpva.) This story furnishes the first instance of a physician's having practised bleeding, at least among the Greeks. (Sprengel, Hist. de la Med., vol. 1, p. 131.) Another account makes Podalirius to have been assassinated on the coast of Ausonia, in the territory of the Daunians, in Italy, and to have been worshipped after death under the name of voowv ȧKEσTýs, "healer of diseases." (Lycophr., 1046, seqq.) Strabo, moreover, says, that the tomb of Podalirius was to be seen at the distance of 100 stadia from the sea, in the country of the Daunians. (Strab., 436.)

PODARCES, I. the first name of Priam. When Troy was taken by Hercules, he was redeemed from slavery by his sister Hesione, and thence received the name of Priam. (Vid. Priamus.)-II. The son of Iphiclus, of Thessaly, and brother of Protesilaus. He went with twenty ships to the Trojan war, and, after his brother's death, commanded both divisions, amounting to forty vessels. (Hom., Il. 2, 698, seqq.-Eustath., ad loc.-Muncker, ad Hygin, fab., 97.)

PODARGE, one of the Harpies, mother of two of the

us. (Diog. Laert., Vit. Zen-Plin., Vit. Cim.) The pictures were by Polygnotus, Micon, and Pamphilus, and represented the battle between Theseus and the Amazons, the contest at Marathon, and other achievements of the Athenians. (Pausan., 1, 15.Diog. Laert., l. c.-Plin., 35, 9-Elian, Hist. An., 7, 28.) Here were suspended also the shields of the Scioneans of Thrace, and those of the Lacedæmonians taken in the island of Sphacteria. (Pausan., 1, 15.) It was in this portico that Zeno first opened his school, which was hence denominated the "Stoic." (The "school of the porch," from oroά.) No less than 1500 citizens of Athens are said to have been destroyed by the thirty tyrants in the Pacile. (Diog. Laert, l. c. —Isocr., Areop.—Eschin., de Fals. Leg.) Colonel Leake supposes that some walls, which are still to be seen at the church of Panaghia Fanaromeni, are the remains of this celebrated portico. (Topography of Athens, p. 118.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 318.)

PONI, a name common to both the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. (Consult remarks under the article Phoenicia, page 1049, col. 2, near the end.)

POGON, a name given to the harbour of Trazene from its shape, being formed by a curved strip of land which resembled a beard (wywv): hence arose the proverbial joke, nλɛvσɛiaç ɛiç Tpova, which was addressed to those whose chins were but scantily provided. (Adag. Grac. Zenob.) This port was formerly so capacious as to contain a large fleet. We are told by Herodotus that the Greek ships were ordered to assemble there prior to the battle of Salamis (§ 42.-Strab., 273). At present it is shallow, obstructed by sand, and accessible only to small boats. (Dodwell, vol. 2, p. 268.-Chandler, vol. 2, p. 263.— Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 266.)

POLA, a town of Istria, on the western coast, near the southern extremity, or Promontorium Polaticum. It still preserves its name unchanged. Tradition reported it to have been founded by the Colchians, whom Eetes had sent in pursuit of the Argonauts. It became afterward a Roman colony, and took the name of Pietas Julia. (Pliny, 3, 19.—Mela, 2, 4.-Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 136.)

POLEMARCHUS. Vid. Archon.

POLEMON, I. an Athenian of good family, who in his youth was addicted to infamous pleasures. The manner in which he was reclaimed from his licentious course of life, and brought under the discipline of philosophy, affords a memorable example of the power of eloquence when it is employed in the cause of virtue. As he was one morning, about the rising of the sun, returning home from the revels of the night, clad in a loose robe, crowned with a garland, strongly perfumed and intoxicated with wine, he passed by the school of Xenocrates, and saw him surrounded by his disciples. Unable to resist so fortunate an opportunity of indulging his sportive humour, he rushed, without ceremony, into the school, and took his place among the philosophers. The whole assembly was astonished at this rude and indecent intrusion, and all but Xenocrates discovered signs of resentment. The philosopher, however, preserved the perfect command of his countenance; and, with great presence of mind, turned his discourse from the subject on which he was lecturing to the topics of temperance and modesty, which he recommended with

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Niebuhr.) The little that we possess of the writings
of Polemon neither authorizes us to adhere to this
opinion nor to contradict it. It is true, however, that
the two declamations which have reached us are writ-
ten in a vigorous style, but are devoid of elegance. It
was principally, too, for his strength and vehemence
that the ancients held Polemon in esteem, and called
him "the Trumpet of Olympus" (Záhrлiу§ 'Ohvμпiα-
ký). St. Gregory Nazianzen studied and imitated
him. The best edition of the two declamations of
Polemon is that of Orellius, Lips., 1819, 8vo. (Schöll,
Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 4, p. 226, seq.)-V. Surnamed
Periegetes, lived during the reign of Ptolemy Epipha-
nes, about 200 B.C. He was a pupil of the Stoic
Panætius, and wrote a History of Greece" (Aóyos
'E22nvikóç) in eleven books, wherein he carefully ob-
served chronology. This work is lost. Athenæus
cites many other productions of Polemon, "On the
Acropolis of Athens," "On the Paintings to be seen
at Sicyon" (Plutarch has borrowed from the latter an
anecdote, which he gives in his Life of Aratus), “On
Inscriptions," &c. Polemon appears also as a geo-
graphical writer. He composed a “ Description of
the Earth" (Kooμiêǹ Пepińynois), whence he obtained
the surname of Periegetes (epinynths). He wrote
also a Description of Ilium” (Περιήγησις Ιλίου),
and, under the title of Kriosis, a work on the origin
of the cities of Phocis, Pontus, &c. All these are
lost, Strabo and the scholiasts cite another work of
Polemon's, written against Eratosthenes, in which the
latter was accused of never having seen Athens.
(Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 3, p. 223. — Id. ib., vol.
3, p. 390.-Id. ib., vol. 4, p. 53.)-VI. A writer on
Physiognomy, supposed to be the same with the pupil of
Xenocrates mentioned above (No. I.). He composed
a "Manual of Physiognomy," entitled vozovkov,
or voiyvoμikov 'Eyxεipídiov. It was published
by Peruscus at the end of his Elian, Rom., 1545,
4to, and is also contained in the collection of Franz,
Scriptores Physiognomia Veteres," Allenb., 1780,
8vo.

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so much strength of argument and energy of an- | pleasing than instructive. (Front, Relig., p. 50, ed. guage, that Polemon was constrained to yield to the force of conviction. Instead of turning Xenocrates and his doctrine to ridicule, he became sensible of the folly of his former conduct, was heartily ashamed of the contemptible figure which he made in so respectable an assembly, took his garland from his head, concealed his naked arm under his cloak, assumed a sedate and thoughtful aspect, and, in short, resolved from that hour to relinquish his licentious pleasures, and to devote himself to the pursuit of wisdom. Thus was this young man, by the powerful energy of truth and eloquence, converted from an infamous libertine to a respectable philosopher. In such a sudden change of character, it is difficult to avoid passing from one extreme to another. Polemon, after his ref. ormation, in order to brace up his mind to the tone of rigid virtue, constantly practised the severest austerity and most hardy fortitude. From the thirtieth year of his age to his death he drank nothing but water. When he suffered violent pain, he showed no external sign of anguish. In order to preserve his mind undisturbed by passion, he habituated himself to speak in a uniform tone of voice, without elevation or depression. The austerity of his manners, however, was tempered with urbanity and generosity. He was fond of solitude, and passed much of his time in a garden near his school. He died at an advanced age, of consumption. Of the tenets of Polemon little is said by the ancients, because he strictly adhered to the doctrine of Plato. The direction of the Academy devolved upon him after the death of Xenocrates. He is said to have taught that the world is God; but this was, doubtless, according to the Platonic system, which made the soul of the world an inferior divinity. (Diog. Laert., 4, 16.—Suid., s. v.-Val. Max, 6, 9. -Cic., de Fin., 4, 6. — Athenæus, 2, p. 44. Stob., Eclog. Phys., 1, 3. — Enfield's Hist. of Philos., vol. 1, p. 247. seq.)-II. A son of Zeno of Apamea, made king of Pontus by Antony, after the latter had deposed Darius, son of Pharnaces. (Appian, Bell. Civ., 5, 75.) This person, who had the art to ingratiate himself alike with Antony, Augustus, and Agrippa, was made king of that eastern part of Pontus, named Polemoniacus after him. He was killed in an expedition against some barbarians of Sindice, near the Palus Mæotis; but his widow, Pythodoris, was reigning in his stead at the time that Strabo wrote his Geography. (Strab., 556, 578.—Dio Cass., 53, 25.— Id., 54, 24.)-III. Son and successor of the preceding, was placed on the throne by Caligula, and had his dominions afterward enlarged by Claudius with a portion of Cilicia. Nero eventually converted Pontus into a Roman province. (Suet., Vit. Ner., 18. -Crusius, ad loc.)-IV. Antonius, a celebrated sophist and public speaker, in the second century of our era. He was a native of Laodicea on the Lycus, and of a consular family, and was held in high esteem by Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. Polemon spent the greater part of his life in Smyrna, where he opened a school of rhetoric, and was sent on several occasions as ambassador to Hadrian. He accumulated a large fortune by his oratorical talents, but made many enemies by his excessive haughtiness. He became a great sufferer by the gout, and at the age of fifty-six years, having become disgusted with life on account of the tortures to which his complaint subjected him, he returned to his native city, entered the tomb of his family, which he caused to be closed upon him, and there ended his existence. We have remaining of his works only two declamations or oratorical exercises, entitled" Funeral Discourses" ('Emiтápio λóyoi). They are discourses feigned to have been delivered in honour of those who fell at Marathon, by their own fathers. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in a letter to Fronto, describes him as a writer of ability, but less

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POLEMONIUM, a city of Asia Minor, on the coast of Pontus, situate, according to Pliny (6, 4), one hundred and twenty miles from Amisus. It derived its name from Polemon, the son of Zeno, its founder. This place is not mentioned by Strabo, and therefore was probably founded after his tine; but it is noticed by Ptolemy; and in the Table Itinerary it is marked as a place of consequence. Mannert is inclined to think that Polemonium was built on the site of an earlier place called Side. The modern name is said to be Vatisa or Fatsa, which reminds us of the ancient fortress of Phatisane, that once stood about ten stadia to the west. (Arrian, Peripl. Mar. Eux., p. 17.- Peripl. Anon., p. 4.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 439.)

POLIAS (Пoλtás), a surname of Minerva, as the protectress of cities. This name was particularly applied to her in Athens, and indicated the original Minerva of Athens, the Minerva who had contested the soil of Attica with Neptune, and had triumphed in the contest. She was, therefore, the original protectress of the Acropolis and the city; to her the embroidered Peplus at the festival of the Panathenæa was dedicated; it was to her temple that Orestes came as a suppliant from Delphi, when he fled from the Eumenides, before her statue burned the golden lamp, both night and day, which was fed with oil only once a year; the sacred serpent, the guardian of the Acropolis, dwelt here; here was the silver-footed throne, on which Xerxes sat when he viewed the battle of Salamis; and here, too, was the sword of Mardonius, the Persian general at Platea.-The temple of Minerva Polias was under the same roof with the Erechtheum, the two forming an entire building, of which the eastern divis

POLIORCĒTES (Пohopкητns), "the besieger of cittes," a surname given to Demetrius, son of Antigonus. (Vid. Demetrius I.)

POLITES, I. a son of Priam and Hecuba, killed by Pyrrhus in his father's presence. (Virg., En., 2, 526.)-II. His son, who bore the same name, followed Æneas into Italy, and was one of the friends of young Ascanius. (Virg., 5, 564.)

POLLA ARGENTARIA, the wife of the poet Lucan. (Vid. Lucanus.)

In

ion was consecrated to the worship of the goddess; | protestations was evinced almost as soon as the letters and the western, including the northern and southern in which they were contained had reached the capital; porticoes, was sacred to the deified daughter of Ce- for his old fellow-soldier, Antony, having retreated into crops, the nymph Pandrosus. On the same site had Gaul after his defeat at Modena, Pollio joined hima previously stood the temple of Erechtheus; and from from Spain with all the troops he commanded. He this circumstance, as well as from the fact that his farther contrived to disunite the fickle Plancus from altar still remained, the entire building retained the his colleague Decimus Brutus, and to bring him over, name of the Erechtheum. Within the sacred enclo- with his army, to the enemies of the republic. By oure were preserved the holiest objects of Athenian these measures he contributed more, perhaps, than veneration, among which the most precious were the any other of his contemporaries, to extinguish all hopes live of Minerva and the fountain of Neptune, both of the restoration of the commonwealth, and to throw of which sprung up at the bidding of those divinities, the whole power of the state into the hands of the triwhen there was contention among the gods concerning umvirate. Having thus been chiefly instrumental in the guardianship of Athens. Here, too, was the old ruining the cause of liberty, that proud spirit of freedom est and most deeply-venerated of the statues of the or ferocia, as Tacitus calls it, which he afterward asAthenian goddess; a figure carved in olive-wood, but sumed, and the restoration of the Atrium libertatis, of which the legend affirmed that it had fallen from which stood on the Aventine Hill, must have been heaven. (Wordsworth's Greece, p. 144. Stuart's looked on as a farce by his fellow-citizens, and has beer. Antiquities of Athens, p. 37, Lond., 1827, 12mo.) considered by posterity as little better than imposture. Müller has written an interesting work on the Temple Pollio was present at the formation of the triumvirate and Worship of Minerva Polias, under the following which took place in a small island of the Reno, a title: "Minerva Poliadis Sacra et Edem in arce stream that passes near Bologna. Amid other sacriAthenarum illustravit C. O. Muller," Götting., 1820, fices of friends and relatives then made by the heads 4to. of political parties, Pollio gave up his own father-inlaw to the resentment of his new associates. He is said, however, to have repressed by his authority many disorders of the times, and to have mitigated, so far as was in his power, the cruelty of the triumvirs. the year 713, which was that of his first consulship, a quarrel having arisen between Augustus and Lucius Antonius, the brother of the triumvir, concerning the settlement of the veterans in the lands allotted them, Pollio occupied the north of Italy for the Antonian party. His spirit and valour had acquired him such POLLENTIA, a town of Liguria, southeast of Alba reputation among the soldiery, that, while his friend Pompeia. It was a municipium, and is chiefly cel-Munatius Plancus, though of higher birth and rank, abrated for its wool. (Plin., 8, 48.- Colum., 7, 2. -Sil. Ital., 8, 599.) A battle was fought in its vitinity between Stilico and the Goths, the success of which appears to have been very doubtful. (Oros., 3, 37.) But Claudian speaks of it as the greatest triamph of his hero. (De Bell. Get., 605.) The modcrn village of Polenza stands near the site of the anent city. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 28.) POLLIO, I. C. Asinius, a Roman consul in the time of Augustus, who, though of humble birth, was one of the most remarkable men and most distinguished patrons of literature during the age in which he lived; and when we consider the brilliant part which he acted as a military commander, politician, and man of letters, it is singular we have so few remains of his writings, and such brief records of his actions. Pollio was born in the 675th year of the city, and he had, consequently, reached the age of thirty before the liberties of his country were subverted. During the times of the republic, he so well performed the parts of a citizen and patriot, that in one of Cicero's letters he is classed with Cato for his love of liberty and virtue. But in pursuing this line of conduct he offended some of the partisans of Pompey, and was forced, as he afterward alleged, to espouse the part of Cæsar, in order to shield himself from their resentment. (Cic., Ep. ad Fam., 10, 31.) He became a favourite officer of Julius Cæsar, whom he served with inviolable fidelity, and ever entertained for him the most devoted attachment. A short while before the dictator's death, he was sent to Spain at the head of a considerable army, to crush the party which Sextus Pompey had recently formed in that province; but he was not very successful in his prosecution of this warfare. (Dio Cass., 45) After the assassination of Cæsar, he of fered his army and services to the senate; and, in his letters to Cicero, made the strongest professions of love of liberty and zeal for the commonwealth, declaring that he would neither desert nor survive the republic. Cic., Ep. ad Fam., 10, 33) The hypocrisy of these

was deserted by his troops, Pollio was enabled to make head against Agrippa and Augustus with not less than seven legions, and to retain the whole of the Venetian territory in the interests of Antony. In order to subsist his forces, he laid heavy contributions on the towns, and exacted them with the utmost rigour. The Paduans, in particular, who had been al ways attached to the cause of liberty and the republic, smarted severely under his displeasure and avarice. He stripped their city of everything valuable, whether public or private, and proclaimed a reward to the slave who should discover the concealment of his master. The contest between Lucius Antonius and Augustus was followed by the treaty of Brundisium, by which a new division of the empire was made among the triumvirs; and, according to this distribution, the province of Dalmatia was included in the department of the empire allotted to Marc Antony. This rugged country, not yet completely subdued by the Romans, had been constantly in the view of Pollio while he commanded on the northeast coast of Italy. A massacre committed by the natives on a Roman colony formed a pretext for its invasion. With the consent of Antony, if not by his express orders, Pollio led the army, which he had now commanded for five years, to quell the insurrection. He quickly dispersed the tumultuary bodies of natives which had assembled to oppose him; took their capital, Salona (now Spalatro), and returned triumphant to Rome. This triumph closed his military and political career. The cause of Antony, which Pollio had supported both by his able conduct and the reputation of his name, had now sunk so low in Italy, that it could no longer be maintained against his rival with any regard to safety. interest, or character. He declined however, to follow Augustus to the battle of Actium; and to the solicitations which were used with the view of inducing him actually to espouse his interests, Pollio is said to have replied, "Mea in Antonium majora merita sunt, illius in me beneficia notiora; itaque discrimine ves

of Horace show the familiarity which subsisted between the poet and his patron; the former ventures to give the latter advice concerning the history of the civil wars, on which he was then engaged; and to warn him of the danger to which he might be exposed by treating such a subject. Timagenes, the rhetorician and historian, spent his old age in the house of Pollio; though he had incurred the displeasure of Au

tro me subtraham, et ero præda victoris " Vell. Pa- | Pollio; and in the fourth of the number he has beauterc., 2,86.) From this period till his death which hap-tifully testified his gratitude for the friendship and propened at his Tusculan villa in 755 U.C., when he had tection which had been extended to him. The odes reached the age of eighty) Pollio withdrew almost entirely from public affairs. He was naturally of a bold, assuming, and overbearing temper; he affected a stern predilection for the forms and manners of the ancient republic; and, having amassed an enormous fortune during the proscriptions, he never sought to ingratiate himself with Augustus. Accordingly, though he was respected and esteemed, he was not beloved by the emperor. During the contest with Lucius Antonius, several sting-gustus by some bitter raillery and sarcasms directed ing epigrams were directed against him by Augustus. against the imperial family. But, while Pollio proPollio was well able to retort, but he did not choose, tected learned men, he seems to have been a severe, as he himself expressed it, "in eum scribere qui potest and, according to some, a capricious critic, on the wriproscribere." (Macrob., Saturn., 2, 4.) His neutral-tings both of his own contemporaries and of authors ity during the war with Antony and Cleopatra, though who had immediately preceded him. He was envious permitted by Augustus, would little tend to conciliate of the reputation of Cicero, and expressed himself with his favour; and that prince saw around him so many severity on the blemishes of his style (Seneca, Suas., able ministers who had uniformly supported his inter- 6.-Quint., Inst. Orat., 12, 1): he called in question ests, that he had no occasion to require the assistance the accuracy of the facts related in Cæsar's Commenor counsel of Pollio. With the exception, therefore, of taries (Sueton., de Illust. Grammat.); and he discov occasionally pleading in the Forum, Pollio devoted all ered provincial expressions in the noble history of his time to literary composition and the protection of Livy. (Quint.. Inst. Orat., 1, 5.) His jealous love literary men. No Roman of that period was more ca- of praise and spirit of competition led him to intropable of enjoying retirement with dignity, or relishing it duce one custom which probably proved injurious to with taste. He possessed everything which could ren- poetry: the fashion of an author reading his producder his retreat delightful: an excellent education, distin- tions at private meetings of the most learned and reguished talents, a knowledge of mankind, and a splen- fined of his contemporaries. These recitations, as did fortune. To all the strength and solidity of under- they were called, led to the desire of writing for the standing requisite to give him weight in the serious or sake of effect, and were less calculated to improve the important affairs of life, he united the most lively and purity of taste than to engender ostentatious display. agreeable vein of wit and pleasantry. His genius and (Dunlop's Roman Literature, vol. 3, p. 45, seqq.)— acquirements enabled him likewise to shine in the II. Vedius. (Vid. Pausilypus.) noblest branches of polite literature: poetry, eloquence, and history, in which last department Seneca prefers his style to that of Livy. He had, no doubt, effectually improved the opportunities which the times afforded, of enriching himself at the cost of others; and no one had profited more by the forfeited estates during the period of the proscriptions; but it should not be forgotten, that whatever fortune he amassed was converted to the most laudable purposes: the formation of a public library, the collection of the most eminent productions of art, and the encouragement of learning and literary men. Pliny, in his Natural History, informs us, that Pollio was the first person who erected a public library at Rome. It was placed in the vicinity of the Atrium Libertatis, which he had constructed on the Aventine Hill; and the expense of the establishment was defrayed from the spoils of conquered enemies (7, 30; 35, 2). From the same author we have an account of his fine collection of statues by Praxiteles and other masters (34, 5), which he was extremely desirous should be publicly seen and commended. Among the labours of Praxiteles are mentioned a Silenus, an Apollo, a Neptune, and a Ve

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POLLUX, I. (in Greek Hoλvdεúkns) a son of Jupiter by Leda, the wife of Tyndarus. He was brother to Castor. (Vid. Castor.)-II. (or 1102vdeúknç) Julius, a native of Naucratis, in Egypt, who flourished about 175 A.D., and died in the reign of the Emperor Commodus. He followed, it would seem, the profession of sophist at Athens, and acquired so much reputation there, that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius intrusted him with the education of his son; but the instructions of the preceptor were unable to correct the vicious propensities of the pupil. It has been supposed that Lucian intended to ridicule Pollux in his Lexiphanes and Rhetorum Præceptor ('Próρwv didáσkahos), but Hemsterhusius has undertaken to disprove this, in the preface to his edition of the Onomasticon. strongest argument adduced by him against this supposition, which rests on the testimony of one of the scholiasts, is that such a satire would be unjust. The principal work of Pollux, and the only one that remains to us, is entitled 'Ovouagrikov ("Onomasticon"). The following is the explanation which Hem sterhusius gives of this title. Onomasticorum mu nus est commoda rebus nomina imponere, et docere quibus verbis uberiore quadam et florente elegantia rem unam designare possimus: non enim in Onomasticis unquam proprio quodam loco de vocum difficillimorum interpretatione agebatur, sed quo pacto propriis res quævis et pluribus insigniri posset verbis.'

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The specimens of the works of other artists exhibited the Centaurs carrying off the Nymphs, by Archesitas; Jupiter, surnamed Hospitalis, by Pamphilus, a scholar of Praxiteles; a sitting Vesta; and, finally, Zethus, Amphion, and Dirce, fastened by a cord to the bull, all formed out of one stone, and brought from Pollux does not, like other lexicographers, follow Rhodes by the direction of Pollio. Still more useful the alphabetical arrangement; he has divided his work and praiseworthy was the patronage which he extended into nine books, according to the matters of which he to men of genius. In youth, his character and con- treats, or, rather, he has united nine separate works versational talents had rendered him a favourite with under the general title of "Onomasticon." These the master-spirits of Rome: Cæsar, Calvus, and Ca-nine productions would seem to have been published tullus, who shone in his earlier years; and in more advanced life, he in turn favoured and protected Virgil and Horace, whose eulogies are still the basis of his fame. Pollio commanded in the district where the farm of Virgil lay; and at the division of lands among the soldiery, was of service to him in procuring the restoration of his property. That distinguished poet composed his eclogues, it is said, by the advice of

originally in a separate and consecutive order, from the circumstance of their each having a preface or dedication, addressed to the Emperor Commodus. The subjects of the nine books are as follows: 1. Of Gods, Kings, Swiftness and Slowness, Dyeing, Commerce and the Mechanic Arts, Fertility and Sterility, Seasons, Houses, Ships, things relating to War, Horses, Agriculture, the component parts of a Plough, those of

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