and subdued his hereditary province, put him to death | breaking out of a war with Philippous of Roum (Ma with his family, on the pretext of avenging the blood cedon), which, though at first unsuccessful, is stated of his father. The general facts, that Roustem, a to have terminated gloriously for the Persians; and powerful chief, slew Isfundeer, yet protected his son; Philip was glad to make peace, on the terms of giving that a civil contest attended the accession of Arde- his daughter to Darab, and becoming his tributary. cheer; and that it terminated in the massacre of Rous- This daughter is fabled to have been the mother of the tem and his family, so far accord with what the Greek Macedonian conqueror. Darab I. built Darabjird, a historians state respecting the character and fate of city about 150 miles east of Shiraz. (Malcolm, vol. Artabanus, as to leave little doubt that both stories re- 1, p. 69.)-The character of Ochus seems, howevlate to the same personages. Of the identity of Ar-er, to have been transferred by the Persians to the decheer with Artaxerxes Makpóxeup or Longimanus, unfortunate and noble-minded Darius, who is alleged there can be no doubt. His surname, Dirazdest to have been deformed in body and depraved in mind; ("Long arms") is a full proof of this. The author of as if, Sir John Malcolm remarks, "to reconcile the the Tarikh Tabree states, that under this monarch, to vanity of the nation to the tale of its subjugation." It whom he erroneously ascribes the overthrow of Bel- is nevertheless true, that the crimes of their monarchs, shazzar, the Jews had the privilege granted them of the mal-administration into which the affairs of the being governed by a ruler of their own nation; and the government had fallen, the assassinations and massafavours they experienced, it is added, were owing to cres occasioned by the repeated disputes for the sucthe express orders of Bahmen, whose favourite lady cession, and the slender bond which held together the was of the Jewish nation. Josephus expressly affirms, various provinces of so gigantic an empire, had prethat Artaxerxes Longimanus was the husband of Es-pared the way for its easy dissolution. The traditions ther; and the extraordinary favour which he showed which the Eastern writers have preserved of the Maceto the Jews strengthens this testimony. He would donian hero (whom they call Secunder and Iskandeer) seem, indeed, to have been the first monarch of Persia are very imperfect; and upon a few historical facts, who, strictly speaking, by the subjugation of Segistan, they have reared a superstructure of the most extrav"reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred agant fable. They agree, however, with the Greek and twenty-seven provinces." Persian historians as- writers in most of the leading facts; such as the invasign to this great monarch a reign of a hundred and sion of Persia, the defeat and subsequent death of Datwelve years, but the Greek writers limit it to forty, rius, the generosity of the conqueror, and the strong and his death is fixed in the year B.C. 424. He was impression which his noble and humane conduct made succeeded, according to the Persian annals, by his upon his dying enemy. They allude, too, to the allidaughter Homai, who, after a reign of thirty-two years, ance which Alexander established with Taxilis or resigned the crown to her son, Darab I., the Darius Omphis, to his battle with Porus, and his expedition Nothus of the Greeks. It is natural that no notice against the Scythians; but the circumstances in which should be taken of the ephemeral reigns of Xerxes II. these events are disguised are for the most part faband Sogdianus, which together occupied only eight ulous. "His great name," says Sir John Malcolm, months; and in Ptolemy's canon, Darius Nothus is "has been considered sufficient to obtain credit for made the immediate successor of Artaxerxes Longi- every story that imagination could invent; but this manus, his reign extending from 424 B.C. to 405. exaggeration is almost all praise. The Secunder of Homai appears to be the Parysatis whom the Greek the Persian page is a model of every virtue and of evwriters make to be the queen of her half-brother Da-ery great quality that can elevate a human being above rius, and to whom they attribute a very prominent part his species; while his power and magnificence are alin the transactions of his reign. Her son Arsaces is ways represented as far beyond what has ever been stated to have succeeded to the throne under the title attained by any other monarch in the world." The of Artaxerxes, to which the Greeks added the surname quarrel between the two monarchs originated, accordof Mnemon, on account of his extraordinary memory. ing to the author of the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh, in AlexNo sovereign, however, besides Longimanus or Di- ander's refusing to pay the tribute of golden eggs to razdest, is ever noticed by Oriental writers under the which his father had agreed, returning the laconic anname of Ardecheer; it is therefore highly probable, swer by the Persian envoy, that "the bird that laid the that Mnemon is the Darab I. of the Persian annals, eggs had flown to the other world." Upon this, anand that he succeeded his mother Homai or Parysa- other ambassador was despatched to the court of the tis, who might reign conjointly with Darius Nothus, Macedonian, bearing the present of a bat and a ball, in whether as her husband or her son. The banishment ridicule of Alexander's youth, and a bag of very small of Queen Parysatis to Babylon, in the reign of her son seed, called gunjud, as an emblem of the innumerable Artaxerxes, may answer to the abdication of Queen army with which he was threatened. Alexander, taHomai. This is a most obscure epoch in the native king the bat and ball in his hand, compared the one to annals. The Egyptian war which broke out in the his own power, and the other to the Persian's dominreign of Darius Nothus, the revolt of the Medes, and ions; and the fate which would await the invaders the part taken by Persia in the Peloponnesian war, are was intimated by giving the grain to a fowl. In renot referred to. Even the name of the younger Cyrus turn, he sent the Persian monarch the significant presis not noticed by any of the Oriental writers, nor is ent of a bitter melon. (Modern Traveller, pt. 37, p. the slightest allusion made to the celebrated expedi- 64, seqq.)-The native writers, as has been said, make tion which has given immortality to its commander. Alexander to have been the son of Darius and a daughThe pages of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon ter of Philip of Macedon! and they add that Darius leave little room, however, for regret that these events sent his wife home to her father, on account of her have not found an Oriental historian. With respect offensive breath; from which circumstance the war to the second Darab of the Persians, who is made the between the two monarchs arose! (Klaproth, Asia immediate successor of the first, his identity with the Polyglotta, p. 3.) The Persian writers give no detailDarius Codomanus of the Greeks is completely estab-ed account of the operations of Alexander in Persia, lished by the conquest of Persia during his reign by erroneously stating that Darius was killed in the first Alexander of Macedon. The intermediate reigns of action. Artaxerxes Ochus, the most barbarous and abandoned monarch of his race, and of his son Arses, both of whom were assassinated, appear to be passed over, or to be included in that of Darab I. The reign of this Darab is distinguished in the native annals by the

4. Parthian Dynasty.

Passing over the period of the Macedonian power in Asia, which is detailed in other parts of this volume, we come to the establishment of the Parthian kingdom,

the mention of which falls naturally under the present which the Parthian warrior took his unerring aim, article, from the circumstance of the Parthians being while his horse was carrying him from his enemy, may designated as Persians by many of the Roman writers, be viewed as a personification of the system of warfare particularly the poets, although they were, in fact, of by which his nation, during this era of its history, mainScythian rather than Persian origin.-Seleucus was tained its independence. The system was suited to succeeded in his Asiatic empire by his son Antiochus the soil, to the man, and to the fleet and robust animal Soter, who reigned nineteen years, and left his throne on which he was mounted; and its success was so to his son Antiochus Theos. In his reign (B.C. 250) certain, that the bravest veterans of Rome murmured a man of obscure origin, whom some, however, make when their leaders talked of a Parthian war.” (Malto have been a tributary prince or chief, and the native colm, vol. 1, p. 84, seqq.)-The blank which occurs in writers a descendant of one of the former kings of Per- the native annals may be accounted for, Sir John Mal sia, slew the viceroy of Parthia, and raised the standard colm thinks, by the neglect into which the rites of Zoof revolt. His name was Ashk, or Arsaces, as the roaster fell during the dynasty of the Arsacidæ, and Western historians write it. After having slain the the decay of letters consequent upon the depression of viceroy, he fixed his residence at Rhé, where he in- the priesthood. In that nation, as in others similarly vited all the chiefs of provinces to join him in a war circumstanced, the literati and the priesthood were syagainst the Seleucida; promising at the same time to nonymous terms; and as the priests alone cultivated exact from them no tribute, and to deem himself only letters, so they would be prompted to avenge thenthe head of a confederacy of princes, having for their selves on the enemies of their faith and order by con common object to maintain their separate independ-signing their race, so far as they had the power, to obence, and to free Persia from a foreign yoke. Such livion. The Arsacidæ, Gibbon affirms (but without was the commencement of that era of Persian history citing his authority), "practised, indeed, the worship which is termed by the Oriental writers the Moulouk of the magi, but they disgraced and polluted it with a ul Towâeif, or commonwealth of tribes, and which ex- various mixture of foreign idolatry."-According to tends over nearly five centuries. Pliny states that the the Western historians, it was under Mithradates I, Parthian (meaning the Persian) empire was divided the fourth in descent and the fifth in succession of the into eighteen kingdoms. The accounts of this period Arsacidæ, that the Parthian power was raised to its given by Porsian writers are vague and contradictory. highest pitch of greatness. That monarch, having "They have evidently," Sir John Malcolm remarks, subdued the Medes, the Elymeans, the Persians, and "no materials to form an authentic narrative; and it the Bactrians, extended his dominions to the Indus, is too near the date at which their real history com- and, having vanquished Demetrius, king of Syria, finalmences to admit of their indulging in fable. Their ly secured Babylonia and Mesopotamia also to his pretended history of the Ashkanians and Ashganians empire. (Prideaux, vol. 2, p. 404.)—Justin states is, consequently, little more than a mere catalogue of that this monarch, having conquered several nations, names; and even respecting these, and the dates they gathered from every one of them whatsoever he found assign to the different princes, hardly two authors are best in its constitution, and from the whole collection agreed. Ashk the First is said to have reigned fifteen framed a body of most wholesome laws for the gov years: Khondemir allows him only ten. Some au- ernment of his empire. If one half of this be true, thors ascribe the defeat and capture of Seleucus Cal- what is history, that it should have preserved no more linicus, king of Syria, to this monarch; and others to minute record of such a sovereign-The remainder his son, Ashk II. The latter prince was succeeded of the history of Parthia will be found under that by his brother Shahpoor (or Sapor), who, after a long article. contest with Antiochus the Great, in which he experienced several reverses, concluded a treaty of peace with that monarch, by which his right to Parthia and Hyrcania was recognised. From the death of this prince there appears to be a lapse of two centuries in the Persian_annals; for they inform us that his successor was Baharam Gudurz; and if this is the prince whom the Western writers term Gutarzes, as there is every reason to conclude it is, we know from authentic history that he was the third prince of the second dynasty of the Arsacidæ.-From the death of Alexander till the reign of Artaxerxes (Ardecheer Babigan) is nearly five centuries; and the whole of that remarkable era may be termed a blank in Eastern history. And yet, when we refer to the pages of Roman writers, we find this period abounds with events of which the vainest nation might be proud, and that Parthian monarchs, whose names cannot now be discovered in the history of their own country, were the only sovereigns upon whom the Roman army, when that nation was in the very zenith of its power, could make no impression. But this, no doubt, may be attributed to other causes than the skill and valour of the Persians. It was to the nature of their country, and their singular mode of warfare, that they owed those frequent advantages which they gained over the disciplined legions of Rome. The frontier which the kingdom of Parthia presented to the Roman empire extended from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. It consists of lofty and barren mountains, of rapid and broad streams, and of wide-spreading deserts. In whatever direction the legions of Rome advanced, the country was laid waste. The war was made, not against the army, but the supplies by which it was supported; and the mode in

5. Dynasty of the Sassanida.

Artaxerxes is said to have sprung from the illegiti mate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier. The tanner's name was Babec, the soldier's Sassan; from the former Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Babigan (son of Babec), from the latter all his descendants have been styled Sassanide. (Gibon, Decline and Fall, c. 8.)-The flattery of his adherents, however, represents him as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persia, though time and misfortune had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of private citizens. (D'Hertelos, Bibl. Orient., Ardecheer.)-The establishment of the dynasty of the Sassanidæ took place in the fourth year of the Emperor Severus, 226 years after the Christian era. One of the first acts of the new monarch was the re-establishment of the magi and of the creed of Zoroaster. A reign of fourteen years ensued, which formed a memorable era in the history of the East, and even in that of Rome. Having, after various alternations of victory and defeat, established his authority on a basis which even the Roman power could not shake, he left behind him a character marked by those bold and commanding features that generally distinguish the princes who conquer from those who inherit an empire. Till the last period of the Persian monarchy, his code of laws was respected as the groundwork of their civil and religious policy. Artaxerxes bequeathed his new empire, and his ambitious designs against the Romans, to Sapor, a son not unworthy of his great father; but those designs were too extensive for the power of Persia, and served only to involve both nations in a long series of destructive wars and

reciprocal calamities. (Gibbon, c. 8.)-The subsequent history of the dynasty of the Sassanide will be found detailed in part under the articles Sapor, Chosroes, &c.

6. Remarks on the Constitution of the Persian Empire in the time of Darius.

den was thus laid on a particular district, the rest of the province was not relieved, but the more heavily loaded. When the king granted the revenues of whole cities to a wife or a favourite, he did not give up any portion of his own dues; and the discharge of all these stated exactions did not secure his subjects from the arbitrary demands of the satraps and their officers. If the people suffered from the establishment of these mighty viceroys, their greatness was not less injurious to the strength of the state and the power of the soveach province was lodged in the hands of the satrap, he could wield it at his pleasure without any check from within; and if he were unwilling to resign it, it was not always easy to wrest it from him. The greater his distance from the court, the nearer he approached to the condition of an independent and absolute prince. He was seldom, indeed, tempted to throw off his nominal allegiance, which he found more useful than burdensome, or to withhold the tribute which he had only the task of collecting; but he might often safely refuse any other services, and defy or clude the king's commands with impunity and least of all was he subject to control in any acts of rapacity or oppression committed in his legitimate government. Xenophon, indeed, in his romance, represents the founder of the monarchy as having provided against this evil by a wise division of power. (Cyrop., 8, 6.)-Cyrus is there said to have appointed that the commanders of the fortresses and of the regular troops in each province should be independent of the satrap, and should receive their orders immediately from court; and a modern author finds traces of this system in the nar

:

Cyrus and Cambyses had conquered nations: Darius was the true founder of the Persian state. The dominions of his predecessors were a mass of countries only united by their subjection to the will of aereign. As the whole authority, civil and military, in common ruler, which expressed itself by arbitrary and irregular exactions. Darius first organized them into an empire, where every member felt its place and knew its functions. His realm stretched from the Egean to the Indus, from the steppes of Scythia to the cataracts of the Nile. He divided this vast tract into 20 satrapies or provinces, and appointed the tribute which each was to pay to the royal treasury, and the proportion in which they were to supply provisions for the army and for the king's household. A high road, on which distances were regularly marked, and spacious buildings were placed at convenient intervals to receive all who travelled in the king's name, connected the western coast with the seat of government: along this road, couriers trained to extraordinary speed successively transmitted the king's messages. The satraps were accountable for the imposts of their several provinces, and were furnished with forces sufficient to carry the king's pleasure into effect.-Compared with the rude government of his predecessors, the institutions of Darius were wise and vigorous; in themselves, however, unless they are considered as foundations laid for a structure that was never raised, as out-rative of Herodotus himself. (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 1, lines that were never filled up, they were weak and barbarous. He had done little more than cast a bridge across the chaos over which he ruled: he had introduced no real uniformity or subordination among its elements. The distribution of the provinces, indeed, may have been grounded on relations which we do not perceive, and may, therefore, have been less capricious than it seems. But it answered scarcely any higher end than that of conveying the wealth of Asia into the royal treasury, and the satraps, when they were most faithful and assiduous in their office, were really nothing more than farmers of the revenue. Their administration was only felt in the burdens they imposed: in every other respect the nations they governed retained their peculiar laws and constitution. The Persian empire included in it the dominions of several vassal kings, and the seats of fierce, independent hordes, who preyed on its more peaceful subjects with impunity. In this, however, there was much good and comparatively little mischief. The variety of institutions comprehended within the frame of the monarchy, though they were suffered to stand, not from any enlarged policy, but because it would have been difficult or dangerous to remove them, and there was nothing better to substitute for them, did not impair, but rather increased its strength; and the independence of a few wild tribes was more a symptom than a cause of weakThe worst evil arose from the constitution of the satrapies themselves. The provinces were taxed not only for the supply of the royal army and household, but also for the support of their governors, each of whom had a standing force in his pay, and of whom some kept up a court rivalling in magnificence that of the king himself. The province of Babylon, besides its regular tribute and the fixed revenue of its satrap, which was equal to that of a modern European prince of the first rank, defrayed the cost of a stud and a hunting equipage for his private use, such as no European prince was ever able to maintain. Four large villages were charged with the nourishment of his Indian dogs, and exempted from all other taxes. It must, however, be observed, that when an extraordinary bur

-ness.

pt. 1, p. 403.)-But it seems clear, that if the conqueror designed to establish such a balance of power, it was neglected by his successors, and that the satraps engrossed every branch of authority within their respective governments. Thus the huge frame of the Persian empire was disjointed and unwieldy; and the spirit that pervaded it was as feeble as its organization was imperfect. The Persians, when they overthrew the Medes, adopted their laws, religion, and manners; their own, though they may have resembled them in their principal features, were certainly more simple, and better fitted to a conquering people. The religion of the two nations was probably derived from a common source; but before the Persian conquest it appears to have undergone an important change in the reformation ascribed to Zoroaster. In what points his doctrine may have differed from those of the preceding period is an obscure question; but it seems certain that the code of sacred laws which he introduced, founded, or at least enlarged, the authority and influence of the Magian caste. Its members became the keepers and expounders of the holy books, the teachers and counsellors of the king, the oracles from whom he learned the divine will and the secrets of futurity, the mediators who obtained for him the favour of heaven, or propitiated its anger. How soon the tenets of their theology may have been introduced into Persia, is not clear: but, as they were a Median tribe, it is only with the union of the two nations under Cyrus that they can have begun to occupy the station which we find them filling at the Persian court. If the religion of Zoroaster was originally pure and sublime, it speedily degenerated, and allied itself to many very gross and hideous forms of superstition: and if we were to judge of its tendency by the practice of its votaries, we should be led to think of it more harshly or more lightly than it may probably have deserved. The court manners were equally marked by luxury and cruelty: by luxury refined till it had killed all natural enjoyment, and by cruelty carried to the most loathsome excesses that perverted ingenuity could suggest. It is above all the atrocious barbarity of the women

that fills the Persian chronicles with their most horrid | tilian and Martial, with some of the early Christian stories: and we learn from the same sources the dread-writers, bear a high testimony to his merits, as do likeful depravity of their character, and the vast extent of wise several modern critics. Others consider him not their influence. Cramped by the rigid forms of a worth reading. Gifford, who studied him thoroughly, pompous and wearisome ceremonial, surrounded by says, among many eulogies of him, “His life may be the ministers of their artificial wants, and guarded from contemplated with unabated pleasure; the virtue he every breath of truth and freedom, the successors of recommends he practised in the fullest extent; and, at Cyrus must have been more than men if they had not an age when few have acquired a determinate characbecome the slaves of their priests, their eunuchs, and ter, he left behind him an established reputation for their wives. The contagion of these vices undoubt-genius, learning, and worth.”—The works of Persius edly spread through the nation: the Persians were consist of six satires, with a prologue. The metre of most exposed to it, as they were in the immediate the latter is of the kind called Choliambic (lame Iamneighbourhood of the court. Yet there is no difficul- bic), being an Iambic trimeter, with a spondee in the ty in conceiving that, long after the people had lost sixth place instead of an iambus. The Satires contain the original purity and simplicity of their manners, the altogether only 650 hexameters; and in some manunoble youth of Persia may have been still educated in scripts they are given as one continuous work. Wheth the severe discipline of their ancestors, which is rep- er Persius wrote more than we now possess, as the resented as nearly resembling the Spartan. They may author of his life attributed to Suetonius affirms, we have been accustomed to spare diet and hard toil, and know not; but since Quintilian and Martial speak of trained to the use of horses and arms. These exer- his claims to distinction, though he left only one cises do not create and are not sufficient to keep alive book," we should conclude that no other production the warlike spirit of a nation, any more than rulers and of his was known in their time. The chief defect of precepts to form its moral character. The Persian Persius is an affected obscurity of style, which is so youth may still have been used to repeat the praises great and so general that there are few scholars who of truth and justice from their childhood, in the later read these performances for the first time, whose progperiod of their history, as they had when Cyrus up-ress is not arrested at almost every line by some diff braided the Greeks with their artifices and lies: and culty that presents itself. It has been conjectured, yet in their riper years they might surpass them, as at and not without some show of reason, that one of the Cunaxa, in falsehood and cunning, as much as they causes of the great obscurity of Persius is the caution were below them in skill and courage. Gradually, with which he constantly conceals his attacks upon however, the ancient discipline either became wholly Nero. The scholiast, moreover, expressly states, with obsolete or degenerated into empty forms; and the regard to several verses of the poet, that they were nation sank into that state of utter corruption and im- intended for the emperor. This may be a sufficient becility which Xenophon, or, rather, the author of the apology for Persius as far as Nero is concerned; but chapter that concludes his historical romance, has why allow the same obscurity to pervade the rest of painted, not from imagination, but from the very life. his poem? The Satires of Persius would, in fact, be -Thirlwall's Greece, vol. 2, p. 185, seqq.) absolutely unintelligible for us, if we had not the laPERSICUS SINUS, a part of the Indian Ocean, on the bours of an ancient scholiast, or, rather, a collection coast of Persia and Arabia, now called the Persian of extracts from several scholiasts, to guide us; and Gulf. even with this aid we are frequently unable to comprehend the meaning of the satirist. The conclusion seems irresistible, that much of this obscurity is owing to the peculiar character of the poet's mind, to his affected conciseness, and to the show of erudition which he is so fond of exhibiting. Some critics, who condemn the negligent style of Horace, give the prefer ence to Persius as a satirist on account of the greater harmony of his hexameters. Melody of diction, however, cannot compensate for the want of perspicuity; besides, the style of Horace, in his satires, is purposely made to approximate to that of familiar life. It must appear surprising that Persius is so reserved respecting the gross vices and immorality of the age in which he lived. The best way of accounting for this is to ascribe it to the retired life led by the youthful poet in the bosom of a virtuous family, and his conse quent want of experience in the excesses of the day. The best editions of Persius are, that of Isaac Casaubon, revised by his son Meric, Lond., 1647, 4to; Bond, Norib., 1631, 8vo; Koenig, Gött., 1803, 8vo, and also with Rupert's edition of Juvenal, Glasg., 1825.

PERSIS, OF PERSIA PROPER, the original province of the Persians. (Vid. Persia.)

PERSIUS, OF AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS, a Roman satirist, was born at Volaterræ, a town of Etruria, about the 20th year of the reign of Tiberius, A.D. 34. He was of equestrian rank. He lost his father at the age of six years, and his mother, Fulvia Sisenna, married a second time, but the stepfather whom she gave her son lived only a short period. Persius appears to have shown towards his mother the strongest filial affection. He was trained at Volaterræ till his twelfth year, and he then proceeded to Rome, where he studied grammar under Rhemnius Palæmon, and rhetoric under Virginius Flaccus. At the age of sixteen he became a pupil of Annæus Cornutus, a Stoic philosopher, who had come from Leptis in Africa to settle at Rome. Lucan, the poet, was his fellow-disciple in the school of Cornutus. Persius and Cornutus were bound to each other by feelings more like those of father and son, than such as usually subsist between preceptor and scholar. This friendship continued without interruption till the death of Persius, which took place in PERTINAX, Publius Helvius, a Roman emperor afhis 28th or 30th year. The poet bequeathed his books ter the death of Commodus, was born about A.D. 126, and a large sum of money to Cornutus, who, however, at Villa Martis, near Alba Pompeia, on the banks of declined to receive the latter, and gave it up to the the Tanarus, in the modern Piedmont. His father sisters of Persius. The materials for a life of Per- was a freedman, who dealt in charcoal, an important sius are scanty, but they are sufficient to show him article of fuel in Italy even at the present day. He in a very favourable light. Amid prevailing corrup-received from his parent a good education, and was tion, he maintained a high moral character. He con- placed by him under the tuition of Sulpicius Apollisistently applied his principles as a Stoic to the pur- naris, a celebrated grammarian, who is repeatedly menposes of self-discipline. His acquaintance with mentioned by Aulus Gellius. Pertinax became a proficient and things was the result of private study more than in the Greek and Roman languages; and, after the of actual converse with the world, so that, as his wri- death of his master, he taught grammar himself. But, tings testify, he viewed human life as he thought it being dissatisfied with the small profits of his professhould be, rather than as it really was. Different opin- sion, he entered the army; and, being assisted by the ions are formed of Persius as a satirical poet. Quin-interest of Lollianus Avitus, a man of consular fami

imposed by Commodus. Pertinax was cherished by the senate and people; but the turbulent prætorians, secretly encouraged by the traitor Lætus, conspired against the new emperor. After offering the empire to several persons, they went to the palace three hundred in number. The friends of Pertinax urged him to conceal himself until the storm had passed; but the emperor said that such conduct would be unworthy of his rank; and he appeared before the mutineers, and calmly remonstrated with them upon the guilt of their attempt. His words were making an impression upon them, when one of the soldiers, a German by birth, threw his spear at him, and wounded him in the breast. Pertinax then covered his face, and, praying the gods to avenge his murder, was slain by the other soldiers. Electus alone defended him as long as he could, and was killed with him. The soldiers cut off the head of Pertinax and carried it into their camp, and then put up the empire at auction, offering it to the highest bidder. It was purchased by Didius Julianus. Pertinax was 67 years of age, and had reigned 87 days. (Capitol., Vit. Pert.-Dio Cass., 73, 1.-Encycl. Useful Knowl., vol. 17, p. 509.)

ly, and his father's patronus, he was promoted to a command. He was sent to Syria at the head of a cohort, and served with distinction against the Parthians, under L. Verus, the colleague of Marcus Aurelius. He was afterward sent to Britain, where he remained for some time. He subsequently served in Masia, Germany, and Dacia, but, upon some suspicion of his fidelity, he was recalled by Marcus Aurelius. Having cleared himself, he was made prætor, and commander of the first legion, and obtained the rank of senator. Being sent to Rhætia and Noricum, he drove away the hostile German tribes. His next promotion was to the consulate, and he publicly received the praise of Marcus Aurelius, in the senate and in the camp, for his distinguished services. In Syria he assisted in repressing the revolt of Avitus Cassius. He was next removed to the command of the legions on the Danube, and was made governor of Masia and Dacia, and afterward returned to Syria as governor, where he remained until the death of Marcus. Capitolinus says, that his conduct was irreprehensible till the time of his Syrian government, when he enriched himself, and his conduct became the subject of popular censure. On his return to Rome, he was banished by Perennis, the PERUSIA, now Perugia, one of the most ancient and favourite of Commodus, to his native country, Ligu- distinguished cities of Etruria, situate at the southria. Here he adorned Villa Martis with sumptuous eastern extremity of Lacus Trasymenus, or Lago di buildings, in the midst of which, however, he left his Perugia. The era of its foundation long preceded humble, paternal cottage untouched. He remained that of Rome, though the precise period cannot be asthree years in Liguria. After the death of Perennis, certained with certainty. In conjunction with the Commodus commissioned him to proceed to Britain, other Etrurian states, it long resisted the Roman arms, where the licentiousness of the troops had degenerated but, when reduced, it became a powerful and wealthy into mutiny. On his arrival, the soldiers wished to sa- ally. It was a Roman colony about 709 A.U.C., lute him as emperor, and were with difficulty prevent- under the consulship of C. Vibius Pansa; and, some ed by Pertinax, who seems to have found the disci- years after, sustained a memorable siege, in which Anpline of the legions in a most deplorable state. One of tony held out against Octavius Cæsar, but was at last the legions revolted against him; and, in trying to re- forced by famine to surrender. On this occasion, press the revolt, he was wounded and left among the many of the Perusians were put to death, and the dead. On his recovery he punished the mutineers, city was accidentally burned; a madman having set and solicited the emperor for his recall, as his attempts fire to his own house, a general conflagration ensued. at restoring discipline had rendered him obnoxious to (Appian, Bell. Civ., 5, 49.-Compare Vell. Paterc., the army. He was then sent as proconsul to Africa, 2, 74.-Florus, 4, 5.-Suet., Vit. Aug., 96.) Peand was afterward made prefect of Rome, in which of rusia appears, however, to have risen again from its fice he showed much moderation and humanity. Af- ruins, according to Appian and Dio Cassius (48, 15); ter the murder of Commodus, two of the conspirators, and under the Emperor Justinian we find it mainLætus and Electus, went to Pertinax and offered him taining a successful siege against the Goths. (Cra the empire, which the latter at first refused, but after-mer's Ancient Italy, vol. 1, p. 219.) ward accepted, and was proclaimed emperor by the senate on the night previous to the first of January, A.D. 193. In the speech which Pertinax delivered on the occasion, he said something complimentary to Lætus, to whom he owed the empire, on which Q. Sosius Falco, one of the consuls, observed, that it was easy to foresee what kind of an emperor he would make, if he allowed the ministers of the atrocities of Commodus to retain their places. Pertinax mildly replied, "You are but a young consul, and do not yet know the necessity of forgiving. These men have obeyed the orders of their master Commodus, but they did it reluctantly, as they have shown whenever they had an opportunity." He then repaired to the imperial palace, where he gave a banquet to the magistrates and principal senators, according to ancient custom. The historian Dio Cassius was one of the guests. Pertinax recalled those who had been exiled for treason under Commodus, and cleared from obloquy the memory of those who had been unjustly put to death. But his attempts to restore discipline in the army alienated the affections of the soldiers, who had been accustomed to license during the reign of Commodus. As he found the treasury empty, he sold the statues, the plate, and all the valuable objects amassed by his predecessor. By this means he collected money to pay the prætorians, and to make the usual gifts to the people of Rome. He publicly declared that he would receive no legacies or inheritance from any one, and he abolished several taxes and tolls which had been

PESCENNIUS. Vid. Niger.

PESSINUS (gen. -untis; in Greek Пeooivous, gen. -ouvños), a city of Galatia, on the river Sangarius, and near the western confines, according to D'Anville's map. It was of very early origin, but chiefly famous on account of the worship of Cybele. Straho says, that Mount Dindymus (whence she was named Dindymene) rose above the town. So great was the fame of the shrine and statue of the goddess, that the Romans, enjoined, as it is said, by the Sibylline books, caused the latter to be conveyed to Rome, since the safety of the state was declared to depend on its removal to Italy. A special embassy was sent to King Attalus, to request his assistance on this occasion: this sovereign received the Roman deputies with great kindness and hospitality, and, having conveyed them to Pessinus, obtained for them permission to remove the statue of the mother of the gods, which was nothing else but a great stone. On its arrival at Rome, it was received with great pomp and ceremony by the Roman senate and people, headed by Scipio Nasica, who had been selected for this office by the national voice as the best citizen, according to the injunction of the Pythian oracle. This took place in the year 547 U.C., near the close of the second Punic war. (Liv., 29, 10, seqq.—Strab., 567.) Stephanus of Byzantium affirms, that Pessinus originally bore the name of Arabyza, when the district in which it stood belonged to the Caucones; but he does not mention from what author he derives this information. (Steph.