The glory of succeeding
poets, the severity of the most refined criticism, the
spread of sceptic philosophy no way impaired it; it
was not obscured by the literary darkness of his coun-
try; it was not overpowered by the literary brightness
of rival states.
poets, the severity of the most refined criticism, the
spread of sceptic philosophy no way impaired it; it
was not obscured by the literary darkness of his coun-
try; it was not overpowered by the literary brightness
of rival states.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
2, p.
405.
)
Phyllis, I. daughter of Silhon, king of Threcc, and
betrothed to Demophoon, son of Theseus, who, on his
return from Troy, had stopped on the Thracian coast,
tnd there became acquainted with and enamoured of
me princess. A dsy having been fixed for their union,
Demophoon set sail for Athens, in order to arrange
affairs at home, promising to return at an appointed
time. He did not come, however, at the expiration
of the period which he had fixed, and Phyllis, fancying
herself deserted, put an end to her existence. The
trees that sprang up around her tomb were said at a
-ertain season to mourn her untimely fate, by their
leaves withering and falling to the ground. (Hygin. ,
fab. , 59. ) According to another account, Phyllis was
changed after death into an almond-tree, destitute of
leaves; and Demophoon having returned a few days
mbsequently, and having clasped the tree in his cm-
brace, it put forth leaves, as if conscious of the pres-
ence of a once-beloved object. Hence, says the fable,
? eaves were called (jiv'A/a in Greek, from the name of
fhyllis (ivXXtc). (Sen. ad Virg. , Eel. , 5, 10. )
Ovid has made the absence of Demophoon from Thrace
? he subject of one of his heroic epistles. --It is said
. . hat Phyllis, when watching for the return of Demo-
phoon, made nine journeys to the Thracian coast,
jvhence the spot was called Ennea-Hodoi ('Evvia
'OcW) or "the Nine Ways. " (Hygin, I. c. ) The
(rue reason of the name, however, was the meeting
here of as many roads from different parts of Thrace
andMacedon. (Walpole's Collect, vol. 2,p. 510. )-Txet-
ies gives a somewhat different account of the affair,
especially as regards Demophoon, whom he calls Aca-
anas, and whom he makes to have been thrown from
his horse when hurrying back to Phyllis, and to have
? ? been transfixed by his own sword. (Tzelz. ad Ly-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? IK
PIN
ir. g <1 noted a i an of their territory to the raising of
grain. (Adelurig, Mithradatcs, vol. 2, p. 96. )
Pictones, a people of Aquitanic Gaul, a short dis-
tance below the Ligeris or Loire. Their territory
correspouds to the modern Pntou. Ptolemy assigns
them two capitals, Augustoritum and Limonum, but
the former in stnelness belonged to the Lemovices.
The cie of Limoi'jm, the true capital, answers to the
modern Poitiers. Strabo gives the name of this peo-
ple with the short penult, Ptolemy with the long one.
The short quantity is followed by Lucan (1, 436).
Ammianus Marcellinus uses the form Pictavi. (. lmm.
Marceli, 15, 11. )
Picumnus and Pi him n vs. two deities of the Latins,
presiding over nuptial auspices. (Non. , c. 12, n. 36.
--Varro, ap. Non. , I. c) The new-born child, too,
was placed by the midwife on the ground, and the fa-
vour of these deities was propitiated for it. Pilum-
nus was also one of the three deities who kept otf Sil-
vanus from lying-in women at night. (Varro, frag. ,
p. 231. ) The other two were Intercido and Deverra.
Three men went by night round the house, to signify
that these deities were watchful: they first struck the
threshold with an axe, then with a pestle (pilum), aud
finally swept (deverrere) with brooms; because trees
are not cut (caduntur) and pruned without an axe,
corn bruised without a pestle, or heaped up without
brooms. Hence the names of the deities, who pre-
vented the wood-god Silvanus from molesting partu-
rient females. (Keightley'sMythology, p. 537. ) Ser-
vius in place of Picumnus, uses the name Pithumnus,
and makes this deity to have been the brother of Pi-
lumnus, and to have discovered the art of manuring
land; hence he was also called Stercutius and Ster-
auilinus, from stercus, "manure. " The same au-
thority makes Pilumnus to have invented the art of
pounding corn in a mortar (pilum), whence his name.
(Serv. ad Virg. , JEn. , 9, 4. --Compare Pin,. , 3, 18. )
Some of the ancient grammarians regarded these two
deities as identical with Castor and Pollux, than which
nothing can be more erroneous. Piso, one of this
-. lass of writers, deduced the name Pilumnus from
pclto, " to drive away" or "avert," because he avert-
ti the evils that are incident to infancy, "quia peliit
mala infantia. " (Spangenberg, Vet. Lat. kelig. Do-
mtst. , p. 65. )
Picus, a fabulous king of Latium, son of Satum,
and celebrated for his beauty and his love of steeds.
He married Canens, tho daughter of Janus and Venil-
ia, renowned for the sweetness and power of her
voice. One day Picus went forth to the chase clad
in a purple cloak, bound round his neck with gold.
He entered the wood where Circe happened to be at
that time gathering magic herbs. She was instantly
struck with love, and implored the prince to respond
to her passion. Picus, faithful to his belotfed Canens,
indignantly spumed her advances, and Circe, in re-
venge, struck him with her wand, and instantly he
was changed into a bird with purple plumage and a
yellow ring around its neck. This bird was called by
his name Picus, " the woodpecker. " (Ovid, Met. , 14,
820, seqq. --Plut. , Quicst. Rom. , 21. ) Scrvius says
that Picus was married to Pomona (ad Mn. , 7, 190).
--This legend seems to have been devised to give an
origin for the woodpecker after the manner of the
Oreeks. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 538. --Compare
Spangenberg, Vet. Lat. Rel. Dom. , p. 62. )
? ? PierIa, I. a region of Macedonia, directly north of
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PINDARUS.
PINDARUS.
nd be thus belongs to lhat period of the Greek nation
rhen its great qualities were first distinctly unfolded,
ind when it exhibited an energy of action and a spirit
if enterprise never afterward surpassed, together with
a love nt poetry, art, and philosophy, which produced
much, and promised to produce more. His native
place was Cynocephalse, a village in the territory of
Thebes, and the family of the poet seems to have been
? tilled in music: since we learn from the ancient bi-
ographies of him, that his father or his uncle was a
flute-player. But Pindar, very early in life, soared far
'beyond the sphere of a flute-player at festivals, or even
a lyric poet of merely local celebrity. Although, in his
time, the voices of Pierian bards, and of epic poets of
the Hesiodean school, had long been mute in Boeotia,
yet there was still much love for music and poetry,
which had taken the prevailing form of lyric and cho-
ral compositions. That these arts were widely culti-
vated in Bceotia is proved by the fact that two females,
Myrtis and Corinna, had attained celebrity in them
during the youth of Pindar. Both were competitors
with him in poetry. Myrtis strove with the bard for a
prize at public games; and although Corinna said,
"It is not meet that the clear-toned Myrtis, a woman
born, should enter the lists with Pindar," yet she is
? aid (perhaps from jealousy of his rising fame) to have
often contended against him in the agones, and five
times to have gained the victory. (JEtian, V. H. , 13,
24. ) Corinna also assisted the young poet with her
advice; an<'. it is related of her, that she recommend-
ed him to ornament his productions with mythical nar-
rations; but that, when he had composed a hymn, in
the first six verses of which (still extant) almost the
whole of the Theban mythology was introduced, she
? miled and said, " We should sow with the hand, not
with the whole sack. " -- Pindar placed himself under
the tuition of Lasus of Hermione, a distinguished poet,
but probably better versed in the theory than the prac-
tice of poetry and musi*. Since Pindar made these
arts the whole business of his life, and was nothing but
a poet and musician, he soon extended the boundaries
of his art to the whole Greek nation, and composed
poems of the choral lyric kind for persons in all parts of
Greece. At the age of twenty he composed a song of
victory in honour of a Thessalian youth belonging to the
family of the Aleuadaa (Pyth. 10, composed in Olym-
piad 69. 3, B. C. 502). We find him employed soon af-
terward for the Sicilian rulers, Hiero of Syracuse and
Theron of Agrigentum ; for Arcesilaus, king of Cyrene,
and Amyntas, king of Macedonia, as well as for the
free cities of Greece. . He made no distinction ac-
cording t) the race of the persons whom he celebra-
ted: he was honoured and loved by the Ionian states
for himself as well as for his art: the Athenians made
him their public guest (rrndfrvor); and the inhabitants
of Ceos employed him to compose a processional song
(trpoaoSiov), although they had their own poets, Si-
monides and Bacchylides. Pindar, however, was not
a common mercenary poet, always ready to sing the
praises of him whose bread he ate. He received, in-
deed, money and presents for his poems, according to
the general usage previously introduced by Simoni-
des; yet his poems are the genuine expression of his
thoughts and feelings. In his praises of virtue and
good fortune, the colours which he employs are not
too vivid: nor does he avoid the darker shades of bis
? abject; he often suggests topics of consolation for
? ? past and present evil, and sometimes warns and ex-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PINDARUS.
PINDARUS.
tea with the merry and boisterous revel called by the
Greeks xufioc- At this sacred and, at the same time,
,oyous solemnity (a mingled character frequent among
the Greeks), appeared the chorus, trained by the poet
or some other skilled person, for the purpose of reci-
ting the triumphal hymn, which was considered the
fairest ornament of the festival. It was during either
the procession or the banquet that the hymn was reci-
ted, as it was not properly a religious hymn, which
could be combined with the sacrifice. The form of
the poem must, to a certain extent, hare been deter-
mined by the occasion on which it was to be recited.
From expressions which occur in several epinikian
odes, it is probable that all odes consisting of strophes
v ''. hout epodes were sung during a procession to a
temple or to the house of the victor; although there
are others which contain expressions denoting move-
ment, and which yet have epodes. It is possible that
the epodes in the latter odes may have been sung at
certain intervals when the procession was not ad-
vancing; for an epode, according to the statements of
the ancients, always required that the chorus should be
at rest. But by far the greater number of the odes of
Pindar were sung at the Comus, at the jovial termi-
nation of the feast: and hence Pindar himself more
frequently names his odes from the Comus than from
the victory. The occasion of the epinikian ode--a
victory in the sacred games--and its end--the enno-
bling of a solemnity connected with the worship of the
gods--required that it should be composed in a lofty
and dignified style. But, on the other hand, the bois-
terous mirth of the feast did not admit the severity of
the antique poetic style, like that of the hymns and
nomes; it demanded a free and lively expression of
feeling, in harmony with the occasion of the festival,
and suggesting the noblest ideas connected with the
victor Pindar, however, gives no detailed descrip-
tion of the victory, as this would have been only a
repetition of the spectacle which had already been be-
held with enthusiasm by the assembled Greeks; nav,
We ofter. bestows only a few words on the victory, re-
? yudizg its place, and the sort of contest in which it
w<<3 won. On the other hand, wo often find a precise
enumeration of all the victories, not only of the actual
victor, but of his entire family: this must evidently
have been required of the poet. Nevertheless, he does
not (as many writers have supposed) treat the victory
as a merely secondary object; which he despatches
quickly, in order to pass on to objects of greater inter-
est. The victory, in truth, is always the point upon
which the whole of the ode turns; only he regards it,
not simply as an incident, but as connected with the
whole life of the victor. Pindar establishes this con-
nexion by forming a high conception of the fortunes
and character of the victor, and by representing the
victory as the result of them. And as the Greeks
were less accustomed to consider a man in his indi-
vidual capacity than as a member of his state and his
family, so Pindar considers the renown of the victor
in connexion with the past and the present condition
of the race and state to which he belongs. Even,
however, when the skill of the victor is put in the fore-
ground, Pindar, in general, does not content himself
with celebrating this bodily prowess alone, but he usu-
ally adds some moral virtue which the victor has
shown, or which he recommends and extols. This
virtue is sometimes moderation, sometimos wisdom,
? ? sometimes filial love, sometimes piety to the gods.
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PINDAROS.
PfR
tti, and mai/. cd by rarer dialectic forms. Lastly,
there aie the Lydian odes, the number of which ia
inconsiderable: their metre ia mostly trochaic, and
of a particularly soft character, agreeing with the
tone of the poetry. Pindar appears 10 have preferred
the Lydian rhythms for odea which were destined to
he sung during a procession to a temple or at the al-
tar, and in which the favour of the deity was implored
in an humble apirit. {Midler, Gr. Lit. , p. S16, seqq. )
--The scholar comes to the study of Pindar, as to that
e( one whom fable and history, poetry and criticism,
have alike delighted to honour. The writers of Greece
speak of him as the man whose birth was celebrated
by the songs and dances of the deities themselves, in
joyous anticipation of those immortal hymns which he
was to frame in their praise; to whom in after life
the God of Poetry himself devoted a share of the of-
ferings brought to his shrine, and conceded a chair of
honour in his most favoured temple. These were in-
deed fables, but fables that evinced the truth: the
reputation which they testified went on increasing in
magnitude and splendour.
The glory of succeeding
poets, the severity of the most refined criticism, the
spread of sceptic philosophy no way impaired it; it
was not obscured by the literary darkness of his coun-
try; it was not overpowered by the literary brightness
of rival states. The fastidious Athenian was proud of
the compliment paid to his city by a Boeotian; the el-
egant Rhodian inscribed his verses in letters of gold
within the temple of his guardian deity; and, in a la-
ter age, Alexander, the son of Philip, " bade spare the
house of Pindarus," when Thebes fell in ruins beneath
his hand. Pindar has not improperly been called the
Sacerdotal Poet of Greece; and that he must have
been of high consideration with the priesthood will be
easily believed, lie stood forth the champion of the
"graceful religion of Greece;" and he seems to have
laboured, on the one hand, to defend it from the sneers
tnd profaneness of the philosophers; and, on the oth-
er, to spiritualize it, and to prevent its degenerating
intj the mere image-worship of the vulgar. His dei-
ties, therefore, are neither like those of Homer, nor
the insulted Olympians of ^Eschylus; they come in
visions of tho night; they stand in a moment before
the eyes of the mortal who prays to them, and whom
V '. hey deign to favour; they see and hear all things;
they flit in an instant from land to land, and the ele-
ments yield, and are innoxuous to their impassible
forms. But these forms are not minutely described;
the fables respecting them are rejected in the whole
as untrue, or better versions of them are given. With
Pindar the deity is not the capricious, jealous being,
whose evil eye the fortunate man has reason to trem-
ble at; but just, benignant, the author and wise ruler
of all things', whom it is dreadful to slander, and with
whom it is idle to contend: he moulds everything to
his will; he bows the spirit of the high-minded, and
crowns with glory the moderate and humble; he is the
guardian of princes, and if he deign not to be a guide
to the ruler of the city, it is hard indeed to restore the
people to order and peace. Nor is this all. Pindar
is not merely a devout*, but he is also an eminently
moral poet. Plato observes of him, in the Menon, that
ho maintained the immortality of the aoul; and he lays
down, with remarkable diatinctness, the doctrine of
future happiness or misery. On principles such as
these, it is no wonder that Pindar's poetry should
? ? abound with maxims of the highest morality in every
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PIR
PIR. EUS
earlier name of the town was Acryphas. (Strabo,
127. )
Pir^euh, a small fortress of Corinthia, on the Sinus
Corinlhiacus, and not far from the promontory of 01-
nun:. It was taken on one occasion by Agesilaus.
(Xen. , Hist. Gr. , 4,5, 5. --Id. , Vit. Ages. , 2,18. ) We
. nust not confound this place with the Corinthian har-
bour of Pineus, on the Sinus Saronicus, near the con-
fines of Argolis. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 3,
p. 34. )
Pi h *:vs (Ileipaioc), or Pir/brus (tieipatevc), a cel-
ebrated and capacious harbour of Athens, at some dis-
tanco from it, but joined to it by long walls, called
fizicou rtixri. The southern wall was built by The-
mistocles, and was 35 stadia long and 40 cubits high;
this height was but half of what Themistocles design-
ed. The northern was built by Pericles; its height
the same as the former, its length 40 stadia. Both of
these walls were sufficiently broad on the top to admit
of two wagons passing each other. The stones were
of an enormous size, joined together without any ce-
ment, but with clamps of iron and lead, which, with
their own weight, easily sufficed to unite walls even
of so great a height as 40 cubits (GO feet). Upon both
of the walls a great number of turrots were erected,
which were turned into dwelling-houses when the
Athenians became so numerous that the city was not
large enough to contain them. The wall which en-
compassed the Munychia, and joined it to the Pirajus,
was 60 stadia, and the exterior wall on the other side
of the city was 43 stadia, in length. Athens had three
harbours, of which the Piraus was by far the largest.
East of it was the second one, called Munvchia; and,
still farther east, the third, called Phalerus, the least
frequented of the three. The entrance of the Pineus
was narrow, being contracted by two projecting prom-
ontories. Within, however, it was very capacious,
and contained three large basins or ports, named Can-
Iharus, Aphrodisus, and Zea. The first was called af-
ter an ancient hero, the second after Venus, the third
from the term fta, signifying bread-corn. The Pirsus
is said to have been capable of containing 300 ships.
The walls which joined it to Athens, with all its for-
tificatijns, were totally demolished when Lysander put
an end to the Peloponnesian war by the reduction of
Attica. They were rebuilt by Oonon with the money
supplied by the Persian commander Pharnabazua, after
the defeat of the Lacedaemonians, in the battle off the
Arginusss Insulea. In after days the Pineus suffered
greatly from Sylla, who demolished the walls, and set
fire to the armory and arsenals. It must not he ima-
gined, however, that the Piraus was a mere harbour.
It was, in fact, a city of itself, abounding with temples,
porticoes, and other magnificent structures. Strabo
compares the maritime part of Athens to the city of
the Khodians, since it was thickly inhabited, and en-
closed with a wall, comprehending within its circuit
the Piraus and the other ports. Little, however, re-
mains of the former splendour of tho Piraus. Ac-
cording to Hobhouse, nothing now is left to lead one
to suppose that it was ever a large and flourishing port.
(Journey, vol. 1, p. 299. ) The ancient Zea is a marsh,
ind Cantharus of but little depth. Tho deepest wa-
. er is at the mouth of the ancient Aphrodisus. He
adds, that the ships of the ancients must have been ex-
tremely small, if 300 could be contained within the
Piraus, since he saw an Hydriote merchant-vessel, of
? ? about 200 tons, at anchor in the port, which appeared
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PIR
PIS
telligent people essential to commercial operations
The system of banking pursued at Athens gave occa-
sion to a new kind of money, constructed upon the
credit of individuals or of companies, and acting as a
substitute for the legal currency. In the time of De-
mosthenes (vol. 2, p. 1236, cii. Reiske), and even at
an earlier period, bankers appear to have been numer-
ous, not only in Pirseus, but also in the upper city;
and i; was principally by their moans that capital,
which would otherwise have been unemployed, was
distributed and made productive. Athenian bankers
irere, in many instances, manufacturers or specula-
tors in land, conducting the different branches of their
business by means of partners or confidential servants,
and acquiring a sufficient profit to remunerate them-
selves, and to pay a small rate of interest for the cap-
ital intrusted to them. But this was not the only ben-
efit they imparted to the operations of commerce.
Their legers were books of transfer, and the entries
made in them, although they cannot properly be called
a part of the circulation, acted in all other respects as
bills of exchange. In this particular their banks bore
a strong resemblance to modern banks of deposite A
depositor desired his banker to transfer to some other
name a portion of the credit assigned to him in the
books of the bank (Demosth , xpos KaXXur. --vol. 2, p.
1236, ed. Reiske); and by this method, aided, as it
probably was, by a general understanding among the
bankers (or, in the modem phrase, a clearing house),
credit was easily and constantly converted into money
in ancient Athens. "If you do not know," says De-
mosthenes, "that credit is the readiest capital for ac-
ouiring wealth, you know positively nothing. " (Ei
ai rovro uyvoeic, on iricmr atpoppr; rCtv naouv kari
uzyioTTi 7cpoe xpnfiiTiop. ov, iruv uv uyvoqoetac. --vol.
t, p. 958, ed. Reiske. ) The spirit of refinement may
ho traced one step farther. Orders were certainly is-
sued by the government in anticipation of future re-
ceipts, a~. i may fairly be considered as having had the
force and operation of exchequer bills. They were
known oy the name of dvopohoyrjfiaTa. We learn,
for instance, from, the inscription of the Choiseul mar-
ble (BockX Corp. Inscript. , vol. 1, p. 219), written
near the close of the Peloponnesian war, that bills of
tnis description were drawn at that time by the gov-
ernment at Athens on the receiver-general at Samos,
and made payable, in one instance, to the paymaster
at Athens; in another, to the general of division at
Santos. ? These bills were doubtless employed as mon-
ey, on the credit of the in-cotning taxes, and entered
probably, together with others of the same kind, into
the circulation of the period. (Cardwcll's Lectures
on the Coinage of the Greeks and Romans, p. 20,
seqq. )
Pirenk, a fountain near Corinth, on the route from
the city to the harbour of Lcchseum. According to
the statement of Pausanias (2, 3), the fountain was of
white marble, and the water issued from various arti-
ficial caverns into one open basin. This fountain is
celebrated by the ancient poets as being sacred to the
Muses, and here Bellerophon is said to have seized
the winged horse Pegasus, preparatory to his enter-
jrise against the Chiinaera. (Pind. , Olymp , 13, 85.
'--Eurip. ,Med. , 67. --Id. , Troad. ,205. --Soph. , Elec-
v. , 475, &c ) The fountain was fabled to have de-
ived its name from the nymph Pirene. who was said
>> have dissolved in tears at the death of her son Cen-
? ? ilreas, sccidentally slain by Diana. (Pausan. , I. c. )
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PIS
nut to tr. is injury on the part of their more powerful
neighbours, and, having procured the assistance of
Phidon, tyrant of Argos, recovered Olympia, where, in
the eighth Olympiad, they again celebrated the festi-
val; but the Eleans, in their turn, obtaining succour
fr ;in Sparta, defeated Phidon, and once more expelled
Ita PisatiB from Olympia. (Ephor. , ap. Strab. , 358.
--Pausan. , 6, 22. ) These, during the 34th Olym-
niad, being at that time under the authority of Panta-
leoa, who had possessed himself of the sovereign pow-
er, made another effort to regain their ancient prerog-
ative, and, having succeeded in vanquishing their op-
ponents, retained possession of the disputed ground
for several years. The final struggle took place in the
forty-eighth Olympiad, when the people of Pisa, as
Pausanias affirms, supported by the Triphyliaus, and
other neighbouring towns which had revolted from
Elis, made war upon that stale. The Eleans, how-
ever, aided by Sparta, proved victorious, and put an
end for ever to this contest by the destruction of Pisa
ind the other confederate towns. (Pausan*, 6, 22. --
Strabo, 355. ) According to the scholiast on Pindar,
the city of Pisa was distant only six stadia from Olym-
pia, in which case we might fix Us site neai that of
Miracca, a little to the east of the celebrated spot now
called Antilalla; but Pausanias evidently leads us to
suppose it stood on the opposite bank of the river.
(Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 93, scqq. )
1'is. k (or Pisa, as it is sometimes written), a city of
Etruria, on the river Arnus or Arno, about a league
from its mouth. We learn from Strabo (222), that
formerly it stood at the junction of the Ausar (Serchio)
and Arnus, but now they both Mow into the sea by
aeparate channels. The origin of Piss is lost amid
the fables to which the Trojan war gave rise, and which
are common to ao many Italian cities. If we are to
believe a tradition recorded by Strabo (/. c), it owed
its foundation to some of the followers of Nestor, in
iheir wanderings after the fall of Troy. The poets
ia7a not failed to adopt this idea. (Virg. , Mn. , 10,
179. --Until. , Itin. , 1, 565. ) Lycophron says it was
taken byTyrrhenus from the Ligurians (v. 1241). Ser-
vius reports, that Cato had not been able to discov-
er who occupied Pises before the Tyriheni under Tar-
cho, with the exception of tho Tcutones, from which
account it might be inferred that the most ancient
possessors of PissB were of northern origin. (Sen.
ad. Mn. , 10,179. ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus names
it among the towns occupied by the Pelasgi in the
territory of the Siculi. The earliest mention we have
of this city in Roman history is in Polybius (2, 16, and
27), from whom we collect, as well as from Livy (21,
39), that its harbour was much frequented by the Ro-
mans, in their communication with Sardinia, Gaul, and
Spain. It was here that Scipio landed his army when
returning from the mouths of the Rhone to oppose
Hannibal in Italy. It became a colony 572 A. U. C.
(Liv. , 41, 43. ) Strabo speaks of it as having been
formerly an important naval station: in his day it was
still a very flourishing commercial town, from the sup-
plies of timber which it furnirhed to the fleets, and the
eosly marbles which the neighbouring quarries af-
forded for the splendid palaces and villas of Rome.
(Consult Plin. , 3, b. --Piol. , p. 64. ) Ita territory
produced wine, and the species of wheat called siligo.
(Plin. , 14, 3-- Id. , 18, 9. ) The Portus Pisanus was
at the mouth of the river, and is described by Rutilius.
(Itin. , 1, 531. -- Cramer, Anc. It, vol. 1, p. 173. ) The
? ? modern Pisa occupies the site of the ancient city.
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust.
Phyllis, I. daughter of Silhon, king of Threcc, and
betrothed to Demophoon, son of Theseus, who, on his
return from Troy, had stopped on the Thracian coast,
tnd there became acquainted with and enamoured of
me princess. A dsy having been fixed for their union,
Demophoon set sail for Athens, in order to arrange
affairs at home, promising to return at an appointed
time. He did not come, however, at the expiration
of the period which he had fixed, and Phyllis, fancying
herself deserted, put an end to her existence. The
trees that sprang up around her tomb were said at a
-ertain season to mourn her untimely fate, by their
leaves withering and falling to the ground. (Hygin. ,
fab. , 59. ) According to another account, Phyllis was
changed after death into an almond-tree, destitute of
leaves; and Demophoon having returned a few days
mbsequently, and having clasped the tree in his cm-
brace, it put forth leaves, as if conscious of the pres-
ence of a once-beloved object. Hence, says the fable,
? eaves were called (jiv'A/a in Greek, from the name of
fhyllis (ivXXtc). (Sen. ad Virg. , Eel. , 5, 10. )
Ovid has made the absence of Demophoon from Thrace
? he subject of one of his heroic epistles. --It is said
. . hat Phyllis, when watching for the return of Demo-
phoon, made nine journeys to the Thracian coast,
jvhence the spot was called Ennea-Hodoi ('Evvia
'OcW) or "the Nine Ways. " (Hygin, I. c. ) The
(rue reason of the name, however, was the meeting
here of as many roads from different parts of Thrace
andMacedon. (Walpole's Collect, vol. 2,p. 510. )-Txet-
ies gives a somewhat different account of the affair,
especially as regards Demophoon, whom he calls Aca-
anas, and whom he makes to have been thrown from
his horse when hurrying back to Phyllis, and to have
? ? been transfixed by his own sword. (Tzelz. ad Ly-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? IK
PIN
ir. g <1 noted a i an of their territory to the raising of
grain. (Adelurig, Mithradatcs, vol. 2, p. 96. )
Pictones, a people of Aquitanic Gaul, a short dis-
tance below the Ligeris or Loire. Their territory
correspouds to the modern Pntou. Ptolemy assigns
them two capitals, Augustoritum and Limonum, but
the former in stnelness belonged to the Lemovices.
The cie of Limoi'jm, the true capital, answers to the
modern Poitiers. Strabo gives the name of this peo-
ple with the short penult, Ptolemy with the long one.
The short quantity is followed by Lucan (1, 436).
Ammianus Marcellinus uses the form Pictavi. (. lmm.
Marceli, 15, 11. )
Picumnus and Pi him n vs. two deities of the Latins,
presiding over nuptial auspices. (Non. , c. 12, n. 36.
--Varro, ap. Non. , I. c) The new-born child, too,
was placed by the midwife on the ground, and the fa-
vour of these deities was propitiated for it. Pilum-
nus was also one of the three deities who kept otf Sil-
vanus from lying-in women at night. (Varro, frag. ,
p. 231. ) The other two were Intercido and Deverra.
Three men went by night round the house, to signify
that these deities were watchful: they first struck the
threshold with an axe, then with a pestle (pilum), aud
finally swept (deverrere) with brooms; because trees
are not cut (caduntur) and pruned without an axe,
corn bruised without a pestle, or heaped up without
brooms. Hence the names of the deities, who pre-
vented the wood-god Silvanus from molesting partu-
rient females. (Keightley'sMythology, p. 537. ) Ser-
vius in place of Picumnus, uses the name Pithumnus,
and makes this deity to have been the brother of Pi-
lumnus, and to have discovered the art of manuring
land; hence he was also called Stercutius and Ster-
auilinus, from stercus, "manure. " The same au-
thority makes Pilumnus to have invented the art of
pounding corn in a mortar (pilum), whence his name.
(Serv. ad Virg. , JEn. , 9, 4. --Compare Pin,. , 3, 18. )
Some of the ancient grammarians regarded these two
deities as identical with Castor and Pollux, than which
nothing can be more erroneous. Piso, one of this
-. lass of writers, deduced the name Pilumnus from
pclto, " to drive away" or "avert," because he avert-
ti the evils that are incident to infancy, "quia peliit
mala infantia. " (Spangenberg, Vet. Lat. kelig. Do-
mtst. , p. 65. )
Picus, a fabulous king of Latium, son of Satum,
and celebrated for his beauty and his love of steeds.
He married Canens, tho daughter of Janus and Venil-
ia, renowned for the sweetness and power of her
voice. One day Picus went forth to the chase clad
in a purple cloak, bound round his neck with gold.
He entered the wood where Circe happened to be at
that time gathering magic herbs. She was instantly
struck with love, and implored the prince to respond
to her passion. Picus, faithful to his belotfed Canens,
indignantly spumed her advances, and Circe, in re-
venge, struck him with her wand, and instantly he
was changed into a bird with purple plumage and a
yellow ring around its neck. This bird was called by
his name Picus, " the woodpecker. " (Ovid, Met. , 14,
820, seqq. --Plut. , Quicst. Rom. , 21. ) Scrvius says
that Picus was married to Pomona (ad Mn. , 7, 190).
--This legend seems to have been devised to give an
origin for the woodpecker after the manner of the
Oreeks. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 538. --Compare
Spangenberg, Vet. Lat. Rel. Dom. , p. 62. )
? ? PierIa, I. a region of Macedonia, directly north of
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PINDARUS.
PINDARUS.
nd be thus belongs to lhat period of the Greek nation
rhen its great qualities were first distinctly unfolded,
ind when it exhibited an energy of action and a spirit
if enterprise never afterward surpassed, together with
a love nt poetry, art, and philosophy, which produced
much, and promised to produce more. His native
place was Cynocephalse, a village in the territory of
Thebes, and the family of the poet seems to have been
? tilled in music: since we learn from the ancient bi-
ographies of him, that his father or his uncle was a
flute-player. But Pindar, very early in life, soared far
'beyond the sphere of a flute-player at festivals, or even
a lyric poet of merely local celebrity. Although, in his
time, the voices of Pierian bards, and of epic poets of
the Hesiodean school, had long been mute in Boeotia,
yet there was still much love for music and poetry,
which had taken the prevailing form of lyric and cho-
ral compositions. That these arts were widely culti-
vated in Bceotia is proved by the fact that two females,
Myrtis and Corinna, had attained celebrity in them
during the youth of Pindar. Both were competitors
with him in poetry. Myrtis strove with the bard for a
prize at public games; and although Corinna said,
"It is not meet that the clear-toned Myrtis, a woman
born, should enter the lists with Pindar," yet she is
? aid (perhaps from jealousy of his rising fame) to have
often contended against him in the agones, and five
times to have gained the victory. (JEtian, V. H. , 13,
24. ) Corinna also assisted the young poet with her
advice; an<'. it is related of her, that she recommend-
ed him to ornament his productions with mythical nar-
rations; but that, when he had composed a hymn, in
the first six verses of which (still extant) almost the
whole of the Theban mythology was introduced, she
? miled and said, " We should sow with the hand, not
with the whole sack. " -- Pindar placed himself under
the tuition of Lasus of Hermione, a distinguished poet,
but probably better versed in the theory than the prac-
tice of poetry and musi*. Since Pindar made these
arts the whole business of his life, and was nothing but
a poet and musician, he soon extended the boundaries
of his art to the whole Greek nation, and composed
poems of the choral lyric kind for persons in all parts of
Greece. At the age of twenty he composed a song of
victory in honour of a Thessalian youth belonging to the
family of the Aleuadaa (Pyth. 10, composed in Olym-
piad 69. 3, B. C. 502). We find him employed soon af-
terward for the Sicilian rulers, Hiero of Syracuse and
Theron of Agrigentum ; for Arcesilaus, king of Cyrene,
and Amyntas, king of Macedonia, as well as for the
free cities of Greece. . He made no distinction ac-
cording t) the race of the persons whom he celebra-
ted: he was honoured and loved by the Ionian states
for himself as well as for his art: the Athenians made
him their public guest (rrndfrvor); and the inhabitants
of Ceos employed him to compose a processional song
(trpoaoSiov), although they had their own poets, Si-
monides and Bacchylides. Pindar, however, was not
a common mercenary poet, always ready to sing the
praises of him whose bread he ate. He received, in-
deed, money and presents for his poems, according to
the general usage previously introduced by Simoni-
des; yet his poems are the genuine expression of his
thoughts and feelings. In his praises of virtue and
good fortune, the colours which he employs are not
too vivid: nor does he avoid the darker shades of bis
? abject; he often suggests topics of consolation for
? ? past and present evil, and sometimes warns and ex-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PINDARUS.
PINDARUS.
tea with the merry and boisterous revel called by the
Greeks xufioc- At this sacred and, at the same time,
,oyous solemnity (a mingled character frequent among
the Greeks), appeared the chorus, trained by the poet
or some other skilled person, for the purpose of reci-
ting the triumphal hymn, which was considered the
fairest ornament of the festival. It was during either
the procession or the banquet that the hymn was reci-
ted, as it was not properly a religious hymn, which
could be combined with the sacrifice. The form of
the poem must, to a certain extent, hare been deter-
mined by the occasion on which it was to be recited.
From expressions which occur in several epinikian
odes, it is probable that all odes consisting of strophes
v ''. hout epodes were sung during a procession to a
temple or to the house of the victor; although there
are others which contain expressions denoting move-
ment, and which yet have epodes. It is possible that
the epodes in the latter odes may have been sung at
certain intervals when the procession was not ad-
vancing; for an epode, according to the statements of
the ancients, always required that the chorus should be
at rest. But by far the greater number of the odes of
Pindar were sung at the Comus, at the jovial termi-
nation of the feast: and hence Pindar himself more
frequently names his odes from the Comus than from
the victory. The occasion of the epinikian ode--a
victory in the sacred games--and its end--the enno-
bling of a solemnity connected with the worship of the
gods--required that it should be composed in a lofty
and dignified style. But, on the other hand, the bois-
terous mirth of the feast did not admit the severity of
the antique poetic style, like that of the hymns and
nomes; it demanded a free and lively expression of
feeling, in harmony with the occasion of the festival,
and suggesting the noblest ideas connected with the
victor Pindar, however, gives no detailed descrip-
tion of the victory, as this would have been only a
repetition of the spectacle which had already been be-
held with enthusiasm by the assembled Greeks; nav,
We ofter. bestows only a few words on the victory, re-
? yudizg its place, and the sort of contest in which it
w<<3 won. On the other hand, wo often find a precise
enumeration of all the victories, not only of the actual
victor, but of his entire family: this must evidently
have been required of the poet. Nevertheless, he does
not (as many writers have supposed) treat the victory
as a merely secondary object; which he despatches
quickly, in order to pass on to objects of greater inter-
est. The victory, in truth, is always the point upon
which the whole of the ode turns; only he regards it,
not simply as an incident, but as connected with the
whole life of the victor. Pindar establishes this con-
nexion by forming a high conception of the fortunes
and character of the victor, and by representing the
victory as the result of them. And as the Greeks
were less accustomed to consider a man in his indi-
vidual capacity than as a member of his state and his
family, so Pindar considers the renown of the victor
in connexion with the past and the present condition
of the race and state to which he belongs. Even,
however, when the skill of the victor is put in the fore-
ground, Pindar, in general, does not content himself
with celebrating this bodily prowess alone, but he usu-
ally adds some moral virtue which the victor has
shown, or which he recommends and extols. This
virtue is sometimes moderation, sometimos wisdom,
? ? sometimes filial love, sometimes piety to the gods.
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PINDAROS.
PfR
tti, and mai/. cd by rarer dialectic forms. Lastly,
there aie the Lydian odes, the number of which ia
inconsiderable: their metre ia mostly trochaic, and
of a particularly soft character, agreeing with the
tone of the poetry. Pindar appears 10 have preferred
the Lydian rhythms for odea which were destined to
he sung during a procession to a temple or at the al-
tar, and in which the favour of the deity was implored
in an humble apirit. {Midler, Gr. Lit. , p. S16, seqq. )
--The scholar comes to the study of Pindar, as to that
e( one whom fable and history, poetry and criticism,
have alike delighted to honour. The writers of Greece
speak of him as the man whose birth was celebrated
by the songs and dances of the deities themselves, in
joyous anticipation of those immortal hymns which he
was to frame in their praise; to whom in after life
the God of Poetry himself devoted a share of the of-
ferings brought to his shrine, and conceded a chair of
honour in his most favoured temple. These were in-
deed fables, but fables that evinced the truth: the
reputation which they testified went on increasing in
magnitude and splendour.
The glory of succeeding
poets, the severity of the most refined criticism, the
spread of sceptic philosophy no way impaired it; it
was not obscured by the literary darkness of his coun-
try; it was not overpowered by the literary brightness
of rival states. The fastidious Athenian was proud of
the compliment paid to his city by a Boeotian; the el-
egant Rhodian inscribed his verses in letters of gold
within the temple of his guardian deity; and, in a la-
ter age, Alexander, the son of Philip, " bade spare the
house of Pindarus," when Thebes fell in ruins beneath
his hand. Pindar has not improperly been called the
Sacerdotal Poet of Greece; and that he must have
been of high consideration with the priesthood will be
easily believed, lie stood forth the champion of the
"graceful religion of Greece;" and he seems to have
laboured, on the one hand, to defend it from the sneers
tnd profaneness of the philosophers; and, on the oth-
er, to spiritualize it, and to prevent its degenerating
intj the mere image-worship of the vulgar. His dei-
ties, therefore, are neither like those of Homer, nor
the insulted Olympians of ^Eschylus; they come in
visions of tho night; they stand in a moment before
the eyes of the mortal who prays to them, and whom
V '. hey deign to favour; they see and hear all things;
they flit in an instant from land to land, and the ele-
ments yield, and are innoxuous to their impassible
forms. But these forms are not minutely described;
the fables respecting them are rejected in the whole
as untrue, or better versions of them are given. With
Pindar the deity is not the capricious, jealous being,
whose evil eye the fortunate man has reason to trem-
ble at; but just, benignant, the author and wise ruler
of all things', whom it is dreadful to slander, and with
whom it is idle to contend: he moulds everything to
his will; he bows the spirit of the high-minded, and
crowns with glory the moderate and humble; he is the
guardian of princes, and if he deign not to be a guide
to the ruler of the city, it is hard indeed to restore the
people to order and peace. Nor is this all. Pindar
is not merely a devout*, but he is also an eminently
moral poet. Plato observes of him, in the Menon, that
ho maintained the immortality of the aoul; and he lays
down, with remarkable diatinctness, the doctrine of
future happiness or misery. On principles such as
these, it is no wonder that Pindar's poetry should
? ? abound with maxims of the highest morality in every
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PIR
PIR. EUS
earlier name of the town was Acryphas. (Strabo,
127. )
Pir^euh, a small fortress of Corinthia, on the Sinus
Corinlhiacus, and not far from the promontory of 01-
nun:. It was taken on one occasion by Agesilaus.
(Xen. , Hist. Gr. , 4,5, 5. --Id. , Vit. Ages. , 2,18. ) We
. nust not confound this place with the Corinthian har-
bour of Pineus, on the Sinus Saronicus, near the con-
fines of Argolis. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 3,
p. 34. )
Pi h *:vs (Ileipaioc), or Pir/brus (tieipatevc), a cel-
ebrated and capacious harbour of Athens, at some dis-
tanco from it, but joined to it by long walls, called
fizicou rtixri. The southern wall was built by The-
mistocles, and was 35 stadia long and 40 cubits high;
this height was but half of what Themistocles design-
ed. The northern was built by Pericles; its height
the same as the former, its length 40 stadia. Both of
these walls were sufficiently broad on the top to admit
of two wagons passing each other. The stones were
of an enormous size, joined together without any ce-
ment, but with clamps of iron and lead, which, with
their own weight, easily sufficed to unite walls even
of so great a height as 40 cubits (GO feet). Upon both
of the walls a great number of turrots were erected,
which were turned into dwelling-houses when the
Athenians became so numerous that the city was not
large enough to contain them. The wall which en-
compassed the Munychia, and joined it to the Pirajus,
was 60 stadia, and the exterior wall on the other side
of the city was 43 stadia, in length. Athens had three
harbours, of which the Piraus was by far the largest.
East of it was the second one, called Munvchia; and,
still farther east, the third, called Phalerus, the least
frequented of the three. The entrance of the Pineus
was narrow, being contracted by two projecting prom-
ontories. Within, however, it was very capacious,
and contained three large basins or ports, named Can-
Iharus, Aphrodisus, and Zea. The first was called af-
ter an ancient hero, the second after Venus, the third
from the term fta, signifying bread-corn. The Pirsus
is said to have been capable of containing 300 ships.
The walls which joined it to Athens, with all its for-
tificatijns, were totally demolished when Lysander put
an end to the Peloponnesian war by the reduction of
Attica. They were rebuilt by Oonon with the money
supplied by the Persian commander Pharnabazua, after
the defeat of the Lacedaemonians, in the battle off the
Arginusss Insulea. In after days the Pineus suffered
greatly from Sylla, who demolished the walls, and set
fire to the armory and arsenals. It must not he ima-
gined, however, that the Piraus was a mere harbour.
It was, in fact, a city of itself, abounding with temples,
porticoes, and other magnificent structures. Strabo
compares the maritime part of Athens to the city of
the Khodians, since it was thickly inhabited, and en-
closed with a wall, comprehending within its circuit
the Piraus and the other ports. Little, however, re-
mains of the former splendour of tho Piraus. Ac-
cording to Hobhouse, nothing now is left to lead one
to suppose that it was ever a large and flourishing port.
(Journey, vol. 1, p. 299. ) The ancient Zea is a marsh,
ind Cantharus of but little depth. Tho deepest wa-
. er is at the mouth of the ancient Aphrodisus. He
adds, that the ships of the ancients must have been ex-
tremely small, if 300 could be contained within the
Piraus, since he saw an Hydriote merchant-vessel, of
? ? about 200 tons, at anchor in the port, which appeared
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PIR
PIS
telligent people essential to commercial operations
The system of banking pursued at Athens gave occa-
sion to a new kind of money, constructed upon the
credit of individuals or of companies, and acting as a
substitute for the legal currency. In the time of De-
mosthenes (vol. 2, p. 1236, cii. Reiske), and even at
an earlier period, bankers appear to have been numer-
ous, not only in Pirseus, but also in the upper city;
and i; was principally by their moans that capital,
which would otherwise have been unemployed, was
distributed and made productive. Athenian bankers
irere, in many instances, manufacturers or specula-
tors in land, conducting the different branches of their
business by means of partners or confidential servants,
and acquiring a sufficient profit to remunerate them-
selves, and to pay a small rate of interest for the cap-
ital intrusted to them. But this was not the only ben-
efit they imparted to the operations of commerce.
Their legers were books of transfer, and the entries
made in them, although they cannot properly be called
a part of the circulation, acted in all other respects as
bills of exchange. In this particular their banks bore
a strong resemblance to modern banks of deposite A
depositor desired his banker to transfer to some other
name a portion of the credit assigned to him in the
books of the bank (Demosth , xpos KaXXur. --vol. 2, p.
1236, ed. Reiske); and by this method, aided, as it
probably was, by a general understanding among the
bankers (or, in the modem phrase, a clearing house),
credit was easily and constantly converted into money
in ancient Athens. "If you do not know," says De-
mosthenes, "that credit is the readiest capital for ac-
ouiring wealth, you know positively nothing. " (Ei
ai rovro uyvoeic, on iricmr atpoppr; rCtv naouv kari
uzyioTTi 7cpoe xpnfiiTiop. ov, iruv uv uyvoqoetac. --vol.
t, p. 958, ed. Reiske. ) The spirit of refinement may
ho traced one step farther. Orders were certainly is-
sued by the government in anticipation of future re-
ceipts, a~. i may fairly be considered as having had the
force and operation of exchequer bills. They were
known oy the name of dvopohoyrjfiaTa. We learn,
for instance, from, the inscription of the Choiseul mar-
ble (BockX Corp. Inscript. , vol. 1, p. 219), written
near the close of the Peloponnesian war, that bills of
tnis description were drawn at that time by the gov-
ernment at Athens on the receiver-general at Samos,
and made payable, in one instance, to the paymaster
at Athens; in another, to the general of division at
Santos. ? These bills were doubtless employed as mon-
ey, on the credit of the in-cotning taxes, and entered
probably, together with others of the same kind, into
the circulation of the period. (Cardwcll's Lectures
on the Coinage of the Greeks and Romans, p. 20,
seqq. )
Pirenk, a fountain near Corinth, on the route from
the city to the harbour of Lcchseum. According to
the statement of Pausanias (2, 3), the fountain was of
white marble, and the water issued from various arti-
ficial caverns into one open basin. This fountain is
celebrated by the ancient poets as being sacred to the
Muses, and here Bellerophon is said to have seized
the winged horse Pegasus, preparatory to his enter-
jrise against the Chiinaera. (Pind. , Olymp , 13, 85.
'--Eurip. ,Med. , 67. --Id. , Troad. ,205. --Soph. , Elec-
v. , 475, &c ) The fountain was fabled to have de-
ived its name from the nymph Pirene. who was said
>> have dissolved in tears at the death of her son Cen-
? ? ilreas, sccidentally slain by Diana. (Pausan. , I. c. )
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PIS
nut to tr. is injury on the part of their more powerful
neighbours, and, having procured the assistance of
Phidon, tyrant of Argos, recovered Olympia, where, in
the eighth Olympiad, they again celebrated the festi-
val; but the Eleans, in their turn, obtaining succour
fr ;in Sparta, defeated Phidon, and once more expelled
Ita PisatiB from Olympia. (Ephor. , ap. Strab. , 358.
--Pausan. , 6, 22. ) These, during the 34th Olym-
niad, being at that time under the authority of Panta-
leoa, who had possessed himself of the sovereign pow-
er, made another effort to regain their ancient prerog-
ative, and, having succeeded in vanquishing their op-
ponents, retained possession of the disputed ground
for several years. The final struggle took place in the
forty-eighth Olympiad, when the people of Pisa, as
Pausanias affirms, supported by the Triphyliaus, and
other neighbouring towns which had revolted from
Elis, made war upon that stale. The Eleans, how-
ever, aided by Sparta, proved victorious, and put an
end for ever to this contest by the destruction of Pisa
ind the other confederate towns. (Pausan*, 6, 22. --
Strabo, 355. ) According to the scholiast on Pindar,
the city of Pisa was distant only six stadia from Olym-
pia, in which case we might fix Us site neai that of
Miracca, a little to the east of the celebrated spot now
called Antilalla; but Pausanias evidently leads us to
suppose it stood on the opposite bank of the river.
(Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 93, scqq. )
1'is. k (or Pisa, as it is sometimes written), a city of
Etruria, on the river Arnus or Arno, about a league
from its mouth. We learn from Strabo (222), that
formerly it stood at the junction of the Ausar (Serchio)
and Arnus, but now they both Mow into the sea by
aeparate channels. The origin of Piss is lost amid
the fables to which the Trojan war gave rise, and which
are common to ao many Italian cities. If we are to
believe a tradition recorded by Strabo (/. c), it owed
its foundation to some of the followers of Nestor, in
iheir wanderings after the fall of Troy. The poets
ia7a not failed to adopt this idea. (Virg. , Mn. , 10,
179. --Until. , Itin. , 1, 565. ) Lycophron says it was
taken byTyrrhenus from the Ligurians (v. 1241). Ser-
vius reports, that Cato had not been able to discov-
er who occupied Pises before the Tyriheni under Tar-
cho, with the exception of tho Tcutones, from which
account it might be inferred that the most ancient
possessors of PissB were of northern origin. (Sen.
ad. Mn. , 10,179. ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus names
it among the towns occupied by the Pelasgi in the
territory of the Siculi. The earliest mention we have
of this city in Roman history is in Polybius (2, 16, and
27), from whom we collect, as well as from Livy (21,
39), that its harbour was much frequented by the Ro-
mans, in their communication with Sardinia, Gaul, and
Spain. It was here that Scipio landed his army when
returning from the mouths of the Rhone to oppose
Hannibal in Italy. It became a colony 572 A. U. C.
(Liv. , 41, 43. ) Strabo speaks of it as having been
formerly an important naval station: in his day it was
still a very flourishing commercial town, from the sup-
plies of timber which it furnirhed to the fleets, and the
eosly marbles which the neighbouring quarries af-
forded for the splendid palaces and villas of Rome.
(Consult Plin. , 3, b. --Piol. , p. 64. ) Ita territory
produced wine, and the species of wheat called siligo.
(Plin. , 14, 3-- Id. , 18, 9. ) The Portus Pisanus was
at the mouth of the river, and is described by Rutilius.
(Itin. , 1, 531. -- Cramer, Anc. It, vol. 1, p. 173. ) The
? ? modern Pisa occupies the site of the ancient city.
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:15 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust.
