such rapid strides towards tyranny, is said to have | have been different if they had all seen through the taken down his arms, and laid them in the street be- artifice. Pisistratus, restored to power, nominally fore his door, as a sign that he had made his last ef- performed his part of the compact by marrying the fort in the cause of liberty and the laws. Lycurgus daughter of Megacles; but it was soon discovered that and his party seem to have submitted quietly for a he had no intention of really uniting his blood with a time to the authority of Pisistratus, waiting, as the family which was commonly thought to be struck with event showed, for a more favourable opportunity of an everlasting curse, and that he treated his young overthrowing him. The usurper was satisfied with wife as one only in name. The Alcmæonide were the substance of power, and endeavoured as much as indignant at the affront, and at the breach of faith, and possible to prevent his dominion from being seen and once more determined to make common cause with felt. He made no visible changes in the constitution, the party of Lycurgus. Once more the balance inbut suffered the ordinary magistrates to be appointed clined against Pisistratus, and, unable to resist the in the usual manner, the tribunals to retain their au- combined force of his adversaries, he retired into exile thority, and the laws to hold their course. In his own to Eretria in Euboea. Here he deliberated with his person he affected the demeanour of a private citizen, sons Hippias, Hipparchus, and Thessalus, the offspring and displayed his submission to the laws by appearing of a previous marriage, whether he should not abanbefore the Areopagus to answer a charge of murder, don all thoughts of returning to Attica. They appear which, however, the accuser did not think fit to pros- to have been divided in their wishes or opinions; but ecute. He continued to show honour to Solon, to Hippias, the eldest, prevailed on his father again to court his friendship, and ask his advice, which Solon make head against his enemies. He possessed lands did not think himself bound to withhold where it might on the river Strymon in Thrace, which yielded a large be useful to his country, lest he should appear to sanc- revenue, and his interest was strong in several Greek tion the usurpation which he had denounced. He cities, especially at Thebes and Argos. He now exprobably looked upon the government of Pisistratus, erted it to the utmost to gather contributions towards though at variance with the principles of his constitu- his projected enterprise, and by the end of ten years tion, as a less evil than would have ensued from the he had completed his preparations; a body of mercesuccess of either of the other parties; and even as naries was brought to him from Argos, the Thebans good, so far as it prevented them from acquiring a distinguished themselves by the liberality of their subsimilar preponderance. Solon died the year following sidies, and Lygdamis, one of the most powerful men that in which the revolution took place (B.C. 559), and in the island of Naxos, came to his aid with all the Pisistratus soon after lost the power which he bad troops and money he could raise. In the eleventh or usurped, the rival factions of Lycurgus and Megacles twelfth year after his last expulsion, he set sail from having united to overthrow him. But no sooner had Eretria, and landed on the plain of Marathon, to rethese two parties accomplished their object, than they cover his sovereignty by open force. The governquarrelled among themselves, and, at the end of five ment of his opponents was not popular, and Pisistrayears, Megacles, finding himself the weaker, made tus had many friends in the country and in Athens, overtures of reconciliation to Pisistratus, and offered who, on his arrival, flocked to his camp. The result to bestow on him the hand of his daughter, and to as proved a fortunate one. The leaders of the hostile sist him in recovering the station he had lost. The factions found themselves deserted eventually by all contract being concluded, the two leaders concerted but their most zealous adherents, who, with them, a plan for executing the main condition, the restoration abandoned the city, and left Pisistratus undisputed of Pisistratus. For this purpose Herodotus supposes master of Athens. What he had so hardly won, he them to have devised an artifice, which excites his as-prepared to hold henceforth with a firmer grasp. He tonishment at the simplicity of the people on whom it no longer relied on the affections of the common peowas practised, and which appears to him to degrade ple, but took a body of foreign mercenaries into conthe national character of the Greeks, who, he observes, stant pay; and seizing the children of some of the had of old been distinguished from the barbarians by principal citizens, who had not made their escape, their superior sagacity. Yet, in itself, the incident and whom he suspected of being ill-disposed towards seems neither very extraordinary, nor a proof that the him, he sent them to Naxos, which he had reduced contrivers reckoned on an enormous measure of credu- under the power of his friend Lygdamis, to be kept as lity in their countrymen. In one of the Attic villages hostages. Pisistratus appears to have maintained a they found a woman, Phya by name, of unusually high considerable naval force, and to have extended the stature, and comely form and features. Having ar- Athenian power abroad; while at home he still prerayed her in a complete suit of armour, and instructed served the forms of Solon's institutions, and courted her to maintain a carriage becoming the part she was popularity by munificent largesses, and by throwing to assume, they placed her in a chariot, and sent her- open his gardens to the poorer citizens. (Athenæus, alds before her to the city, who proclaimed that Mi-12, p. 532.) At the same time he tightened the reins nerva herself was bringing back Pisistratus to her own of government, and he appears to have made use of citadel, and exhorted the Athenians to receive the fa- the authority of the Areopagus to maintain a rigorous vourite of the goddess. Pisistratus rode by the wom- police. He enforced Solon's law, which required evIan's side. When they reached the city, the Atheni-ery citizen to give an account of his means of gaining ans, according to Herodotus, believing that they saw a subsistence, and punished idleness; and hence by the goddess in person, adored her and received Pisis- some he was supposed to have been the author of it. tratus. This story would indeed be singular if we It afforded him a pretext for removing from the city a consider the expedient in the light of a stratagem, on great number of the poorer sort, who had no regular which the confederates relied for overcoming the re-employment, and for compelling them to engage in sistance which they might otherwise have expected rural occupations, in which, however, he assisted the from their adversaries. But it seems quite as proba-indigent with his purse. The same policy prompted ble that the pageant was only designed to add extra-him, no less, perhaps, than his love for the arts, to adorn ordinary solemnity to the entrance of Pisistratus, and Athens with many useful or magnificent works. to suggest the reflection that it was by the especial Among the latter was a temple of Apollo, and one favour of Heaven he had been so unexpectedly re-dedicated to the Olympian Jove, of which he only lived stored. The new coalition must have rendered all re-to complete the substructions, and which remained sistance hopeless. As the procession passed, the pop- unfinished for 700 years, exciting the wonder, and ulace no doubt gazed, some in awe, all in wonder; sometimes the despair, of posterity by the vastness of but there is no reason to think that the result would the design, in which it surpassed every other that the

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ancient world ever raised in honour of the father of the believed, by his wife Hostilia. (Liv., 39, 6.—Id., 39, 8 gods. Among the monuments in which splendour and et 21.-Id., 39, 30, seq.—Id., 40, 35.-Id., 40, 37.)— usefulness were equally combined, were the Lyceum, III. L. Calpurnius Piso, surnamed Frugi, was tribune a garden at a short distance from Athens, sacred to the of the commons B.C. 149, and afterward twice consul Lycian Apollo, where stately buildings, destined for (135 and 133 B.C.). Piso was one of the most rethe exercises of the Athenian youth, rose amid shady markable men of the Roman state, from the union of groves, which became one of the most celebrated talents and virtues that marked his character. An able haunts of philosophy; and the fountain of Callirrhoë, speaker, a learned lawyer, a sound statesman, and a which, from the new channels in which Pisistratus dis-wise and valiant commander, he distinguished himself tributed its waters, was afterward called the fountain still more by his purity of morals, and by a frugality of the Nine Springs ('Evveákpovvos). To defray the and old-Roman plainness of life which obtained for him expense of these and his other undertakings, he laid a the surname of Frugi. He quieted the troubles to tithe on the produce of the land: an impost which which the revolt of the slaves had given rise in Sicily, seems to have excited great discontent in the class af- and signalized his valour against the insurgents. Piso fected by it, and, so far as it was applied to the pub-wrote memoirs or annals of his time, which, according lic buildings, was, in fact, a tax on the rich for the em- to Cicero (Brut., 27), were composed in a very dry ployment of the poor; but which, if we might trust a and lifeless manner, although Aulus Gellius (11, 14) late and obscure writer, was only revived by Pisistra-speaks of their "simplicissima suavitas." (Cic., de tus after the example of the ancient kings of Attica. Orat., 2, 29.-Id., pro Font., 24.—Id., in Verr., 5, (Diog. Laert., 1, 53.) He is also believed to have 69.-Val. Max., 2, 7.-Id., 4, 3. —Le Clerc, Jourbeen the author of a wise and beneficent law, whichnaux chez les Romains, p. 26, 150.)-IV. L. CalpurSolon, however, is said to have suggested, for support- nius Piso, son of the preceding, inherited, if not the ing citizens disabled in war at the public expense. talents, at least the virtues, of his father. He was sent According to a tradition once very generally received, prætor into Spain, where he died soon after. (Cic., in posterity has been indebted to him for a benefit greater Verr., 1, 35.-Id. ib., 3, 85, &c.)-V. C. Calpurnius than any which he conferred on his contemporaries, in Piso, was consul with Acilius Glabrio, 67 B.C., and the preservation of the Homeric poems, which till signalized his magistracy by warmly defending the now had been scattered in unconnected rhapsodies. prerogatives of the consular office against the attacks After every abatement that can be required in this of the commons and their tribunes. He was also the story for misunderstanding and exaggeration, we can- author of a law against bribery at elections. (Cic., not doubt that Pisistratus at least made a collection of pro Flacc., 75.-Val. Max., 3, 8.)—VI. A young Rothe poet's works, superior in extent and accuracy to man, whom indigence (the result of profligate habits) all that had preceded it, and thus certainly diffused the and a turbulent disposition induced to take part in knowledge of them more widely among his country- the conspiracy of Catiline. The leading men at Rome, men, perhaps preserved something that might have anxious to get rid of a troublesome and dangerous inbeen lost to future generations. In either case he | dividual, caused him to be sent as quæstor, with prætorimight claim the same merit as a lover of literature: an powers, into Hither Spain. He was not long after and this was not a taste which derived any part of its assassinated in his province, (Sall., Cat., 18, seq.)— gratification from the vanity of exclusive possession. VII. C. Calpurnius Frugi, a descendant of the individHe is said to have been the first person in Greece who ual mentioned above (No. III.), and son-in-law of Cicollected a library, and to have earned a still higher cero. He was the first husband of Tullia, and is highpraise by the genuine liberality with which he im-ly praised by Cicero for his virtues and his oratorical parted its contents to the public. On the whole, abilities. Piso exerted himself strenuously for the rethough we cannot approve of the steps by which he call of his father-in-law, but died a short time before mounted to power, we must own that he made a this took place. (Cic., ad Q. post red., 3.-Id., Ep. princely use of it; and may believe that, though un-ad Fam., 14, 1.-Id., Brut., 78, &c.)-VIII. L. Cal der his dynasty Athens could never have risen to the purnius Piso, father-in-law of Cæsar, and consul B.C. greatness she afterward attained, she was indebted to 58. Before attaining to this office he had been ac his rule for a season of repose, during which she gain-cused of extortion, and only escaped condemnation ed much of that strength which she finally unfolded. Pisistratus retained his sovereignty to the end of his life, and died at an advanced age, thirty-three years after his first usurpation, B.C. 527. He was succeeded by his sons, Hippias, Hipparchus, and Thessalus. (Thirlwall's Greece, vol. 2, p. 55, seqq.)

through the influence of his son-in-law. Cicero was allied to Piso by marriage, and the latter had given him many marks of friendship and confidence; but Clodius eventually gained Piso over to his views, by promising to obtain for him the province of Macedonia, and he accordingly joined the demagogue in his efforts to Piso, the name of a celebrated family at Rome, a procure the banishment of Cicero, which event took branch of the Calpurnian gens, which house claimed place in Piso's consulship. Having obtained the redescent from Calpus, the son of Numa Pompilius. The ward of his perfidy, he set out for his province; but family of the Pisones had both a patrician and plebeian his whole conduct there was marked by debauchery, side. The principal individuals of the name were: I. rapine, and cruelty. The senate recalled him, chiefly C. Calpurnius Piso, city prætor in 212 B.C., and who through the exertions of Cicero, who in this way avenhad the command of the Capitol and citadel when Han- ged himself on Piso for his previous conduct. On nibal marched out against Rome. He was afterward Piso's return, he had the hardihood to attack Cicero sent into Etruria as commander of the Roman forces, in open senate, and complain of the treatment he had and at a subsequent period had charge of Capua in received at his hands. He reproached him also with Campania, after which his command in Etruria was the disgrace of exile, with excessive vanity, and other renewed. (Liv., 25, 41.-Id., 26, 10, 15, et 28.-Id., weaknesses. Cicero replied, on the spot, in an invec27, 6, &c.)—II. C. Calpurnius Piso, was prætor B.C. tive speech, the severest, perhaps, that ever fell from 187. He obtained Farther Spain for his province, the lips of any man, in which the whole life and conwhere he signalized his valour, and, in conjunction duct of Piso are portrayed in the darkest colours, with L. Quintius Crispinus, prætor of Hither Spain, and which must hand him down as a detestable chargained a decisive victory over the revolted Spaniards. acter to all posterity. Notwithstanding this, howMore than thirty thousand of the enemy fell in the bat-ever, Piso was afterward censor along with Appius tle. On his return to Rome he obtained a triumph. He subsequently attained to the consulship (B.C. 180), in which office he died, having been poisoned, as was

Claudius (A.U.C. 702); and we find him, at a subsequent period, appointed one of the three commissioners who were sent by the senate to treat with An

tony. Piso, in his outward deportment, if we believe | after raised the siege. (Ovid, Fast., 6, 377, seqq.the picture drawn of him by Cicero, affected the mien Lactant., 1, 20.) and garb of a philosopher; but this garb of rigid vir- PISTORIA, a town of Etruria, northeast of Luca, tue covered a most lewd and vicious mind. (Cic. in and at the foot of the Apennines. Pliny calls it Pis.-Middleton's Life of Cicero )-IX. L. Calpurni-Pistorium (3, 5), but Ptolemy (p. 64) and others give

it the appellation of Pistoria. The modern name is Pistoia. This town is memorable in the history of Rome as having witnessed in its vicinity the close of Catiline's desperate but short career. (Sall, Cat., 62.) The spot on which the action was fought is too imperfectly marked by the concise narrative of Sallust to be now recognised. We may conjecture that it was to the north of Pistoia, and near the modern road from that place to Modena. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 177.)

makes mention of it, and Strabo gives it two harbours. (Scylax, Peripl., p. 37.-Strab., 614.) The small river Evenus flowed near its walls. Herodotus names this place among the eleven cities of Æolis. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 3, p. 398.)

PITHECUSA. Vid. Enaria.

PITHOLEON, a foolish poet, the author of some silly epigrams, in which Greek and Latin expressions were intermingled together. (Schol. ad Hor., Sat., 1, 10, 22.) Bentley thinks that the individual to whom Horace refers was the same of whom Suetonius (Vit. Jul., 75) makes mention, under the name of Pitholaus, as having been the author of some defamatory verses against Julius Cæsar, and that Horace styles him Pitholeon, because Pitholaus would have been unmanageable in hexameter verse. (Bentl. ad Horat, L. c.)

us Piso, son of the preceding, inherited many of the vices of his father, but redeemed them, in some degree, by his talents. He was at first one of the warmest opponents of the party of Cæsar, and took an active part in the war in Africa. (Hirt., Bell. Af.) After the death of Cæsar, he followed the fortunes of Brutus and Cassius, until the overthrow of the republican forces. Being at length restored to his country, he refused all public offices, until Augustus prevailed upon him to accept the consulship. This was in A.U.C. 731, Augustus himself being his colleague. He was PITANE, a town of Eolis, in Asia Minor, to the afterward named governor of Pamphylia, and conduct-northwest of the mouth of the river Caïcus. Scylax ed himself with great ability in his province. Having subsequently received orders to pass into Europe, in order to oppose the Bessi, a Thracian tribe, he gained a complete victory over them. He was appointed, after this, prefect of the city by Tiberius, whose favour he is said to have gained by drinking with him for two days and two nights in succession. (Plin., 14, 28.) Piso appears to have been a man of pleasure, who passed his evenings at table, and slept till noon; but he possessed such capacity for business, that the remainder of the day sufficed for the despatch of those important affairs with which he was successively intrusted by Augustus and Tiberius. It was to this individual and his two sons that the epistle of Horace, commonly called the "Art of Poetry," was addressed. (Sueton., Vit. Tib., 42.-Senec., Ep., 83.-Vell. Paterc., 2, 92.)-X. Cn. Calpurnius Piso, son of the preceding, was a man of violent passions, impatient of control, and possessing much of the haughty spirit of his sire. To the pride derived from such a father he united the insolence of wealth, acquired by his marriage with Plancina, who, besides her high descent, possessed immoderate riches. Tiberius appointed him governor of Syria, and was said to have given him secret instructions to thwart the movements of Germani-a man of uncommon size and strength, challenged cus. Plancina, in like manner, had her lesson from Livia, with full instructions to mortify, in every possible way, the pride of Agrippina. These machinations proved but too successful. Germanicus was cut off, and Piso, accused of having poisoned him by both his widow Agrippina and the public voice, and finding himself deserted by all, even by the emperor, put an end to his existence, A D. 20. (Tacit.. Ann., 2, 43.Id. 2, 55.-Id., 2, 69, seqq.)—XI. C. Calpurnius Piso, leader of the celebrated conspiracy against Nero. His eloquence and his amiable qualities had conciliated to such a degree the public esteem, that the majority of the conspirators intended him as the successor of the emperor. The plot was discovered on the very morn-(Aristot., Polit., 3, 15.-Diog. Laert., in Vit.) Among ing of the day intended for its execution, and Piso, instead of at once adopting energetic measures, and attempting to seize upon the throne by open force, as his friends advised him to do, shut himself up in his mansion and opened his veins. (Tacit., Ann.,15, 48, seqq -XII. C. Piso Licinianus, adopted son of the Emperor Galba, made himself universally esteemed by his integrity, his disinterestedness, and by an austerity of manners that recalled the earlier days of Rome. He was put to death, by order of Otho, after the fall of Galba, at the age of 31 years. (Tacit., Hist., 1, 14. -Id. ib., 3, 68.-Id. ib., 4, 11, 40.)

PITTACUS, a native of Mytilene in Lesbos, and one of the so-called wise men of Greece, was born about 650 B.C. Having obtained popularity among his countrymen by successfully opposing the tyrant Melanchrus, he was intrusted with the command of a fleet, in a war with the Athenians concerning some territory which they had seized in the island. In the course of this war, the Athenian commander Phryno,

him to single combat. Providing himself with a Det, which he concealed under his buckler, he took the first opportunity to throw it over the head of his antago nist, and by this means gained an easy victory. (Drog. Laert., Vit. Pit.—Polyæn., 1, 25) According to Strabo's account, Pittacus came into the field armed with a casting-net, a trident, and a dagger (Strab., 599), and it is said that from this stratagem of the Mytilenean was borrowed the mode of fighting practised by the Roman gladiators called Retiarii. (Polyan, 1. c.-Festus, s. v. Retiarius.) From this time Pittacus was held in high esteem among the Mytileneans, and was intrusted with the supreme power in the state.

other valuable presents, his countrymen offered him as much of the lands which had been recovered from the Athenians as he chose; but he only accepted of so much as he could measure by a single cast of a javelin: and one half of this small portion he afterward dedicated to Apollo, saying, concerning the remainder, that the half was better than the whole. (Plut, de Herod. Malign., p. 857.- Op., ed. Reiske, vol. 9, p. 265. —— Hes., Op. et. D., 40.) Cornelius Nepos says, that the Mytileneans offered him many thousand acres, but that he took only a hundred. (Vit. Thrasyb., 4, 11.) Pittacus displayed great moderation in his treatment PISTOR (Baker), a surname given to Jupiter by the of his enemies, among whom one of the most violent Romans, because, when their city was taken by the was the poet Alcæus, who frequently made him the Gauls, the god was believed to have inspired them object of his satire. Finding it necessary to lay sewith the idea of throwing down loaves from the Tar-vere restrictions upon drunkenness, to which the Lespeian Hill where they were besieged, that the enemy bians were particularly addicted, Pittacus passed a might suppose that they were not in want of provisions, law which subjected offenders of this class to double though, in reality, they were near surrendering through punishment for any crime committed in a state of infamine. This deceived the Gauls, and they soon toxication. When he had established such regulations

commonly at the court of the latter, and was present when Rome was first invested by the arms of Alaric, being then about twenty years of age. Placidia became a hostage in the hands of the victor, according to some a captive, and her personal attractions won for her the hand of Ataulphus or Adolphus, the brotherin-law of Alaric, and king of the Visigoths. After the death of Ataulphus, she married Constantius, and became the mother of Valentinian III. Having lost her second husband, she acted as guardian for her son, and reigned twenty-five years in his name, and the charac

in the island as promised to secure its peace and | prosperity, he voluntarily resigned his power, which he had held for ten years, and retired to private life. -The following maxims and precepts are ascribed to him. The first office of prudence is to foresee threatening misfortunes, and prevent them. Power discovers the man. Never talk of your schemes before they are executed, lest, if you fail to accomplish them, you be exposed to the double mortification of disappointment and ridicule. Whatever you do, do it well. Do not that to your neighbour which you would take ill from him. Be watchful of opportunities. (Diog.ter of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced Laert., in Vit.-Plut., Conviv. Sap.-Larcher, ad Herod., 1, 27.-Enfield, Hist. Phil., vol. 1, p. 144.) PITTHEUS, a king of Trazene in Argolis, son of Pelops and Hippodamia. He gave his daughter Æthra in marriage to geus, king of Athens, and brought up Theseus at his court. (Vid. Theseus) He also reared Hippolytus, the son of Theseus. (Eurip., Hip-mans. pol., 11.-Schol., ad loc.) Pittheus was famed for his wisdom, and Pausanias ascribes to him a work on the art of speaking, given to the world by a native of Epidaurus, and which he says he himself saw. He also states, that Pittheus taught this same art in a temple of the Muses at Trazene. The same writer likewise mentions the tomb of Pittheus, which was still seen PLANASIA, a small island between Corsica and Ilva, in his day, and on which were three thrones or seats now Pianosa. Tacitus relates, that Augustus was of white stone, on which the monarch and two assist-persuaded by Livia to banish his nephew Agrippa ants were accustomed to sit when dispensing justice. Posthumus hither. (Ann., 1, 3 —Ibid., 2, 39.) This The whole story of this monarch, however, appears to island is also noticed by Strabo (123) and Ptolemy be mythical in its character. (Pausan., 2, 31.—Plut., | (p. 67). Vit. Thes.)

PITYONESUS, a small island off the coast of Argolis. It lay opposite to Epidaurus, and was situate six miles from the coast, and seventeen from Ægina. (Plin., 4, 11.)

the suspicion, that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute education, and studiously diverted his attention from every manly and honourable pursuit. Amid the decay of military spirit, her armies were commanded by two generals, Aëtius and Boniface, who may be deservedly named as the last of the RoPlacidia died at Rome, A.D. 450. She was buried at Ravenna, where her sepulchre, and even her corpse, seated in a chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. (Ducange, Fam. Byzant., p. 72.Tillemont, Hist. des Emp., vol. 5, p. 260, 386, &c.— Id. ib.,, vol. 6, p. 240.-Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 31, 33, 35.)

PLANCINA, granddaughter of L. Munatius Plancus, and wife of Piso, governor of Syria in the reign of Tiberius. (Vid. Piso X.) She was supposed to have been an accomplice with her husband in shortening the days of Germanicus, but was saved by the inPITYUSA, a small island off the coast of Argolis, fluence of Livia, her protectress. As long as Piso, near Aristera. The modern name is Tulea. (Plin., who had been put to his trial, had any hope of ac4, 12.) quittal, her language was that of a woman willing to PITYUSA, a group of small islands in the Mediter- share all changes with her husband, and, if he was ranean, off the coast of Spain, and lying to the south-doomed to fall, determined to perish with him. But, west of the Baleares. They derived their name from the number of pine-trees (πíruç, a pine) which grew in them. The largest is Ebusus or Ivica, and next to it is Ophiusa or las Columbretes. (Mela, 2, 7.Plin., 3, 5.)

when she had obtained safety for herself, she left him to his fate. At a later period, however, she was about being proceeded against for her criminal conduct, when, in despair, she laid violent hands on herself, and suffered at last the slow but just reward of a flagitious life. (Tacit., Ann., 2, 43, 55, 75; 3, 9, 15; 6, 26.)

PLACENTIA, a city of Gallia Cisalpina, at the confluence of the Trebia and Padus. It is now Piacenza. PLANCUS, I. T. Bursa, a tribune of the commons, This place was colonized by the Romans, with Cre- 52 B.C. He took part in the troubles excited by the mona, A.U.C. 535, to serve as a bulwark against the death of Clodius, and, on the expiration of his office, Gauls, and to oppose the threatened approach of was accused and condemned, notwithstanding the inHannibal. (Polyb., 3, 40.-Liv., 21, 25.-Vell. Pa-terest made by Pompey in his behalf. (Cic., Ep. ad terc, 1, 14.) Its utility in this latter respect was fully proved, by its affording a secure retreat to the Roman general after the battle of Ticinus, and more especially after the disaster of Trebia. (Polyb., 3, 66.—Liv., 21, 56.) Placentia withstood all the efforts of the victorious Hannibal, and also, eleven years after, the attempts which his brother Hasdrubal made to obtain possession of it. The resistance which it offered to the latter caused a delay that led to his overthrow, and thus eventually, perhaps, saved the empire. After the termination of the second Punic war, it was, however, taken and burned by the Gauls, headed by Hamilcar the Carthaginian (Liv., 31, 10), but soon after was restored by the consul Valerius, 557 A.U.C. (Liv., 34, 21) Placentia had acquired the rights of a municipal city in Cicero's time. (Or. in Pis., 1.) Strabo speaks of it as a celebrated town (216), and Tacitus extols it as a powerful and opulent colony. (Hist., 2, 17, seqq.) Its theatre, situate without the walls, was burned in the civil war between Otho and Vitellius. (Suet., Oth., 9.-Plin., 3, 15.-Cramer's Anc. Italy, Voi., p. 79, seqq.),

PLACIDIA, a daughter of Theodosius the Great, and sister to Arcadius and Honorius. She resided most

Fam., 2, 9.)-II. L. Munatius, a native of Tibur, was in early life a pupil of Cicero's, and obtained considerable eminence in the oratorical art. He afterward commanded a legion under Cæsar in Gaul. On the assassination of that individual, Plancus acted at first a very equivocal part, and frequently changed sides, attaching himself successively to each party according as it became powerful. Thus we find him, after the victory at Mutina, affecting the utmost zeal for the cause of Brutus and freedom; and subsequently, when he saw Antony re-established in power, he went over to him with four legions which he had at the time under his command. He obtained upon this the consulship along with Lepidus, B.C. 42. Tired at last of Antony, he sided with Octavius, who received him with the utmost cordiality. It was Plancus who proposed in the senate that the title of Augustus should be bestowed on Octavius. The ancient writers reproach him, besides his political versatility, with a total forgetfulness on one occasion of all dignity and self-respect. This was at the court of Cleopatra, in Alexandrea, when he appeared on the public stage in the character of a sea-god, having his person painted green, and in a state of almost complete nudity; wearing a crown

of reeds on his head, and with the tail of a fish attached | the war, a large Peloponnesian force, under Archidato his body behind. Plancus, however, appears to have been a man of literary tastes, and we have an ode addressed to him by Horace on one occasion, when he had become suspected of disaffection by Augustus, and was meditating his departure from Italy. (Plut., Vit. Ant.-Vell. Paterc., 2, 63.-Horat., Od., 1, 7, &c.)

mus, king of Sparta, arrived under the walls of Platea, and, having summoned the inhabitants to abandon their alliance with Athens, proceeded, on their refusal, to lay siege to the town. The narrative of these operations, and the heroic defence of the Plateans, the circumvallation and blockade of the city by the enemy, with the daring and successful escape of a PLANUDES, Maximus, a Greek monk, commonly part of the garrison, are given with the greatest detail designated "of Constantinople," probably by reason by Thucydides, and certainly form one of the most inof his having long resided there; for he was, in fact, a teresting portions of his history. (Thucyd., 2, 71, native of Nicomedia. He was a man of great learn- seqq.-Id., 3, 20, seqq.) Worn out at length by huning and various acquirements, and flourished in the ger and fatigue, those Platæans who remained in the fourteenth century. In 1327, the Emperor Androni- town were compelled to yield to their persevering and cus Palæologus sent him as ambassador to the Vene- relentless foes, who, instigated by the implacable retian republic. He is said to have been the first Greek sentment of the Thebans, caused all who surrendered that made use of the Arabic numerals, as they are to be put to death, and razed the town to the ground, called. Planudes has given us, 1. A collection of with the exception of one building, constructed out of Æsopic fables, together with a very absurd life of the the ruins of the city, which they consecrated to Juno, ancient fabulist himself; 2. An Anthology, selected and employed as a house of reception for travellers. from that of Constantine Cephalas; 3. A poetical From Pausanias we learn, that Platea was again reEloge on Claudius Ptolemæus; 4. Some grammatical stored after the peace of Antalcidas; but when the works; 5. A Greek translation of Cæsar's Commen-Spartans seized on the Cadmean citadel, the Thebans, taries of the Gallic war; 6. A prose translation of the suspecting that the Platæans were privy to the enter Metamorphoses and Heroïdes of Ovid; 7. A transla-prise, took possession of the town by stratagem, and tion of the Disticha o Cato into Greek verse; 8. Various unedited works. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 1, p. 252.)

once more levelled its foundations to the ground (9. 1). Though it seems to have been the intention of Philip, and also of Alexander, to restore Platea (ArPLATEA (gen. -) and PLATE (gen. -arum), a rian, 1, 9.— Plut., Vit. Alex., c. 34), this was not town of Boeotia, of very ancient date, situate at the foot carried into effect till the reign of Cassauder, who is of Mount Citharon, and near the river Asopus, which said to have rebuilt both Thebes and Platea at the divided its territory from that of Thebes. (Strabo, saine time. (Pausan., 9, 3.) Dicæarchus, who lived 412.) Homer writes the name in the singular (Ad- about that period, represents the town as still existing, Tala), but the historians use the plural (IIλaraiai). when he says, "The inhabitants of Platea have noThe Plateans, animated by a spirit of independence, thing to say for themselves, except that they are col had early separated themselves from the Baotian con- onists of Athens, and that the battle between the Perfederacy, conceiving the objects of this political union sians and the Greeks took place near their town.” to be hostile to their real interests; and had, in con- (Stat., Græc., p. 14.)-The ruins of Platea, accordsequence of the enmity of the latter city, been induced ing to Dr. Clarke, are situated upon a promontory to place themselves under the protection of Athens. projecting from the base of Citharon.-The place has (Herod, 6, 108.) Grateful for the services which now the usual appellation bestowed upon the ruins of they received on this occasion from that power, they Grecian citadels; it is called Palæo Castro. The testified their zeal in its behalf by sending a thousand walls are of the earliest kind of military structure, soldiers to Marathon, who thus shared the glory of consisting of very considerable masses, evenly hewn, that memorable day. (Herod., l. c.) The Platæ ans and well built. (Clarke's Travels, vol. 7, p. 106, also manned some of the Athenian vessels at Artemi- Lond. ed.)- The walls of Platæa, according to Sir sium, and fought in several battles which took place. W. Gell, may be traced near the little village of off that promontory; though not at Salamis, as they Kockla in their circuit. The whole forms a triangle, had returned to their homes after the Greeks withdrew having a citadel of the same form in the southern anfrom the Euripus, in order to place their families and gle, with a gate towards the mountain at the point. valuables in safety, and could not, therefore, arrive in The northwestern angle seems to have been the portime. (Herod., 8, 45.) They also fought most brave- tion which was restored after the destruction of the ly in the great battle which took place near their city city. The north side is about 1025 yards in length, against Mardonius the Persian general, and earned the the west 1154, and the east 1120. It is about six gethanks of Pausanias and the confederate Greek com-ographical miles from the Cadmeia of Thebes. (Itin, manders for their gallant conduct on this as well as p. 111.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 212, seqq.) other occasions. (Herod., 9, 23.—Thucyd., 3, 53,As the battle of Platea, between the Greeks and seqq.) But it is asserted by Demosthenes that they afterward incurred the hatred of the Lacedæmonians, and more especially of their kings, for having caused the inscription set up by Pausanias, in commemoration of the victory over the Persians, to be altered. (In Næer., p. 1378.) Platea, which was afterward burned by the army of Xerxes (Herod., 8, 50), was soon restored with the assistance of Athens, and the alliance between the two cities was cemented more closely than before. The attack made upon Platea by a party of Thebans at night was the first act of aggression committed on the Peloponnesian side in the war which took place not long after. The enterprise failed. (Thucyd., 2, 1, seqq.) The natural enmity of Thebes against this little republic was now raised to its height by this defeat, and pressing solicitations were made to the Spartan government to assist in taking signal vengeance on the Plateans for their adherence to the Athenian interests. Accordingly, in the third year of

Persians, forms so important a feature in their history, some account of it may be here appended.-Mardonius, being informed by the Argives, who were secretly in his interest, that the Lacedæmonians were in motion, withdrew his army into Boeotia, for the sake of engaging near the friendly city of Thebes, and in a more level country, and, therefore, more favourable to his cavalry. Before leaving Athens he burned and demolished what remained of the city. The Athenians crossed from Salamis, and the confederate army being assembled at Eleusis, advanced to Erythræ, on the border of Baotia, where it took up a position on the roots of Mount Citharon. The heavy-armed troops of the Grecian army amounted to 38,700, of whom the Lacedæmonians contributed 10,000. Of these 5000 were Spartans, from the city, each of whom was attended by seven light-armed Helots. In the rest of the army it is computed that to each heavy-armed soldier there was one light-armed attendant. Besides, there were