This country was
probably
the Isle of
.
.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
nd it was at last agreed that Physcon should marry the
queen, and that her son should succeed on the throne
at his death. The nuptials were accordingly cele-
brated, but on that very day the tyrant murdered Cle-
opatra's son in her arms. He ordered himself to be
called Euergetu, but the Alexandreans refused to do
it, and stigmatized him with the appellation of Kaktr-
fctcs, or Evil-doer, a surname which he deserved by
his tyranny and oppression. A aeries of barbarities
rendered him odious; but, as no one attempted to rid
Egypt of her tyrant, the Alexandreans abandoned their
habitations, and fled from a place which continually
streamed with the blood of their massacred fcllow-
citizens. If their migration proved fatal to the com-
merce and prosperity of Alexandres, it was of the most
essential service to the countries where they retired;
and the numbers of Egyptians that sought a safe asy-
lum in Greece and Asia, introduced among the inhab-
itants of those countries the different professions that
were practised with success in the capital of Egypt.
Physcon endeavoured to repeople the city which his
cruelty had laid desolate; but the fear of sharing the
fate of its former inhabitants prevailed more than the
promise of riches, rights, and immunities. The king,
at last, disgusted with Cleopatra, repudiated her, and
married her daughter by Phitomelor, called also Cleo-
patra. He still continued to exercise the greatest cru-
elty upon his subjects; but the prudence and vigilance
of his ministers kept the people in tranquillity, till all
Egypt revolted when the king had basely murdered all
the young men of Alexandrea. Without friends or
support it: Egypt, he fled to Cyprus, and Cleopatra,
the divorced queen, ascended the throne. In his ban-
ishment Physcon dreaded lest the Alexandreans should
also place the crown on the head of his son, by his sis-
ter Cleopatra, who was the governor of Gyrene; and
under these apprehensions he sent for the young
prince, called Memphitis, to Cyprus, and murdered him
as soon as he reached the shore. To make the bar-
barity more complete, he sent the limbs of Memphitis
to Cleopatra, and they were received as the queen was
going to celebrate her birthday. Soon after this he
invaded Egypt with an army, and obtained a victory
over the forces of Cleopatra, who, being left without
friends or assistance, (led to her eldest daughter Cleo-
patra, who had married Demetrius, king of Syria.
This decisive blow restored Physcon to his throne,
where he continued to reign for some time, hated by
his subjects and feared by his enemies. He died at
Alexandrea in the 67th year of his age, after a reign
of 29 years, about 116 years before Christ. This
prince, notwithstanding his cruel disposition, was a
lover of learning, and received from some the appella-
tion of Philologist. Aristarchus was his preceptor, and
be is said also to have made important additions to the
Alexandrean library, as well in original manuscripts
as in copies. --VIII. The eighth, surnamed Soter II,
succeeded his father Physcon as king of Egypt. He
had no sooner ascended the throne than his mother
Cleopatra, who reigned conjointly with him, expelled
him to Cyprus, and placed the crown on the head of
his brother Ptolemy Alexander, her favourite son.
Soter, banished from Egypt, became king of Cyprus;
and soon after he appeared at the head of a large army,
to make war against Alexander Jannteus, king of Ju-
dasa, through whose assistance and intrigue he had
been expelled by Cleopatra. The Jewish monarch
? ? was conquered, and 50,000 of his men were left on the
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? PTOLE. NLLUS.
JTOLEJLEUS.
>he elder of Lia daughters, and to ascend with her the
vacant throne. As these children wore young, the
dying monarch recommended them to the protection
and paternal care of the Romans; and accordingly
Pompey the Great was appointed by the senate to be
their patron and their guardian. Their reign was as
turbulent as that of their predecessors, and it is re-
markable for no uncommon events; only we may ob-
serve that the young queen was the Cleopatra who
*oon after became so celebrated. --XIII. The thir-
teenth, ascended the throne of Egypt conjointly with
his sister Cleopatra, whom he had married according to
the directions of his father Auletes. (Vid. Cleopatra
VII. )--XIV. Apion, king of Cyrene, was the illegiti-
mate son of Ptolemy Physcon. After a reign of twenty
years he died; and, as he had no children, he made the
Romans heirs of his dominions. The Romans pre-
sented his subjects with their independence. --XV.
Ceraunus, a son of Ptolemy Soter by Eurydice, the
daughter of Antipater. Unable to succeed to the
throne of Egypt, Ceraunus fled to the court of Seleu-
cus, where he was received with friendly marks of at-
tention. Seleucus was then king of Macedonia, an
empiro which he had lately acquired by the death of
Lysimachus in a battle in Phrygia; but his reign was
short; and Ceraunus perfidiously murdered him, and
ascended his throne 280 B. C. The murderer, how-
ever, could not be firmly established in Macedonia as
long as Arsinoe the widow, and the children of I. vsim-
achus, were alive, and entitled to claim his kingdom
as the lawful possession of their father. To rernove
tl. tse obstacles, Ceraunus made offers of marriage to
Arisnoe, who was his own sister. The queen at first
refused, but the protestations and solemn promises of
the usurper at last prevailed upon her to consent.
The nuptials, however, were no sooner celebrated than
Ceraunus murdered the two young princes, and con-
firmed his usurpation by rapine and cruelty. But now
three powerful princes claimed the kingdom of Mace-
donia as their own: Antiochus, the son of Seleucus;
Antigonus, the son of Demetrius; and Pyrrhus, the
king of Epirus. These enemies, however, were soon
removed; Ceraunus conquered Antigonus in the field
of battle, and stopped the hostilities of his two other
rivals by promises and money. He did not long re-
main inactive: a barbarian army of Gauls claimed a
tribute from him, and the monarch immediately march-
ed to meet them in the field. The battle was long and
bloody. The Macedonians might have obtained the
victory if Ceraunus had shown more prudence. He
was thrown down from his elephant, and taken prison-
er by the enemy, who immediately tore his body to
pieces. Ptolemy had been king of Macedonia only
eighteen months. {Justin, 24, ice. -- Pausan. , 10,
10. --XVI. An illegitimate son of Ptolemy Soter II. ,
or Lathyrus, king of Cyprus, of which he was tyran-
nically dispossessed by the Romans. Cato was at the
head of the forces which were sent against Ptolemy by
the senate, and the Roman general proposed to the
monarch to retire from the throne, and to pass the rest
of his days in the obscure office of high-priest in the
temple of Venus at Paphos. This offer was rejected
with the indignation which it merited, and the monarch
poisoned himself at the approach of the enemy. The
treasures found in the island amounted to the enor-
mous sum of ? 1,356,250 sterling, which were carried
to Rome by the cocquerors. --XVII. A son of Pyr-
? ? rhus, king of Epirus, by Antigone, the daughter of
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? PTOLEM. EUS
PTOLEMY US.
exists a <<. hc >>iin of Olympiodorus (m I'hira , Plot. --
Bouilland, Ttstimonia dc Ptolcmao, p. 205. ), which in-
forms us ihat Ptolemy passed 40 years of his life iv
irrtooto tov K. avu6ov (** in the wings of Canobus"),
occupied with astronomical observations, and that he
placed columns there on which he caused to be cut the
theorems of which he bad been the author. An in-
scription has come down to us which illustrates this
remark of Olympiodorus: Otui Xurf/pt KXavdwc 0ro/? -
? uaioc dfifdc kcu vito8ioti? fiaOiifiariKac, k. t. A. ,
? ' Claudius Ptolemy dedicates to the God, the Preserver,
bis mathematical principles and theses," &c. Combi-
ning this dedication with the scholium of Olympiodorus,
the Abbe Halma states, that he would be inclined to
believe the deity alluded to in the inscription to be Ca-
nobus, if the inscription did not expressly declare, far-
ther on, that the monument containing it was placed
. n the city of Canobus (iv Kai'uCu), whence he infers
hat the protecting deity is SerapiB, and that Ptolemy
made his observations in the side-buildings connected
with the temple of this god. He thinks that this posi-
tion is not in contradiction with the passage in which
Ptolemy informs us that he made them under the par-
allel of Alexandres; for, according to Halma, the city
of Alexandrea was gradually extended to Canopus,
which became a kind of suburbs to it, so that Ptole-
my, though residing at Canopus, may nevertheless be
? aid to have observed at Alexandrea, or that, observ-
ing at Canopus, he had no need of reducing his ob-
servations to the parallel of Alexandrea, by reason of
the trifling difference of latitude. A difficulty here
presents itself, of which the Abbe Halma is aware, and
which he proposes to remedy by an alteration of the
text. If Ptolemy had made his observations in the
temple of Serapis at Canopus, Olympiodorus, in place
of saying kv Trrepoic tov KavuCov, "in the wings of
(the temple of) Canobus," would have had hi irrepoic
Tijc KavuSov, "the side-buildings of (the city of) Ca-
nobus. " Halma therefore proposes to substitute the
latter reading for the former, or else to regard Canobus
a. >> the same divinity with Serapis, and to suppose that
Ptolemy observed in the temple of Canobus at Cano-
pus. This reasoning of Halma's has been attacked
by Lctronne, and ably refuted. The latter shows,
that Canopus, situate at the distance of 120 stadia, or
more than two and a half geographical miles, northeast
of Alexandrea, never made part of that capital, since
there were several places, such as Nicopolis and Ta-
posiris Parva, between the two cities; that, conse-
quently, the Scrapeum, in which Ptolemy observed,
could not have belonged to Canopus; and, finally, that
Ptolemy knew the difference in latitude between Ca-
nopus and Alexandrea, and could not confound them
together in one point. It is more probable, as Lelronne
remarks (Journal des Savans, 1818, p. 202), that
Olympiodorus was mistaken as to the place where
Ptolemy observed. It is ascertained that there was a
temple of Serapis at Canopus as well as at Alexan-
drea. (Straio, 801. ) Olympiodorus, therefore, must
have supposed that the word Scrapeum, in the author
from whom he copied his remark, belonged exclusive-
ly to the first of these cities, when it referred, in fact,
in this particular instance, to Alexandrea the capital.
Tjc error of Olympiodorus, moreover, is the easier to
lj! explained, from the circumstance of the Scrapeum
at Canopus having become at one time a celebrated
teat of the New-Platonists, and having acquired great
? ? distinction on this account among the last apostles of
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? PTOI. EM EUS.
FfOLEM. CTJS.
reisluu into Latin. Another translation was made
Irom the Arabic text into Latin by Gerard of Cremo-
na, an astronomer of the twelfth century, who estab-
lished himself for some time at Toledo, in order to
learn the Arabic language. He did not understand it
perfectly, and was therefore unable to translate cer-
tain technical terms, which he was consequently com-
pelled to leave in the original language. His classical
arudition could not have been very profound, since he
was unacquainted with Hipparchus, whom he every-
where calls Abrachir, as the Arabic translator had
iloae. --It was not until the fifteenth century that a
manuscript of the original Greek was discovered, from
which the astronomer, John Miiller, better known by
the name of Regiomontanus, made his Latin abridg-
ment. About the same period, George of Trebisond
made a Latin translation from this original, but a very
unfaithful one. --The Alexandreans called the work of
Ptolemy which we have just been considering the
Great Astronomer, Meyac aarpovd/ioc, in contradis-
tinction to another collection which they called the
Little Astronomer, Mt/tooc aarpovopoc, and which was
composed of the works of Theodosius of Tripolis; the
Data, Optics, Catoptrics, 67c, of Euclid; the works
of Autolycus. Aristarchus of Samos, Hypsiclcs, &c. --
The best and most useful edition of the Almagest is
that of Halma, Paris, 1813-1828, 2 vols. 4to. It
contains a new French version, and notes by Delam-
bre. --2. The second work of Ptolemy, as we have
arranged it, is the Xlpoxtipoi Kavdvrc. This is a col-
lection of Manual Tables intended for makers of al-
manacs, to facilitate their calculations, and which
are often only extracts from the Almagest. Halma
gave the editio princeps of this work in the first vol-
ume of his edition of Theon's Commentary, which he
published in 1822. --3. TerpiCibTioc, ij 2vvra! ;ic pad-
tlfiarinq (" Telrahiblus, or Mathematical Syntaxis"),
in four books, consisting of astronomical predictions.
It is commonly cited under the title of Quadripartitum.
Some critics consider this work as unworthy of Ptole-
ny, and supposititious. Proclus hjs made a para-
phrase of it. The latest edition is that of Melancthon,
Basil, 1553, 8vo. --4. Kapizoc ("Fruit"), that is, one.
Hundred astrological propositions collected from the
works of Ptolemy. It is usually cited under the title
->( Centum Dicta. It is published with the Quadn-
yarlilum. --5. Quaete dn/. avioi' aaripuv Kai ovvayuyij
ixion/taotC/v ("Appearances of the fixed stars, and a
rollection of the things indicated by them1'). This is a
? sficcies of almanac, giving the rising and setting of
the stars, the prognostics of the principal changes of
temperature, &c. The work is intended for all cli-
mates; and, to make it answer this end. and prove
jseful to all the Greeks spread over the surface of the
globe, Ptolemy gives the appearance of the stars for
rive parallels at once, namely, Syene, Lower Egypt,
Rhodes, the Hellespont, and the Pontus Euxinus.
The best edition is that of Halma, Paris, 1820, 4lo.
It was preceded by the edition of Ideler, Bcrol. , 1819.
--6. Ilfpi''KvaXijpiiaroc (" Of the Analemma"). The
Analemma was a species of sundial, and in this work
we have at: exposition of the whole gnomonic theory
of the Greeks--7. Tiro6V<<f ruv nXavu/itvuv ("Hy-
pothesis of the Planets"). The latest edition is that
of Halma, Paris, 1820, 4to. -- 8. 'KnXuaic iiuciavciar
a^aipac (" Planisphere"). This work exists only in
in Arabic version, by Moslem, and a Latin translation
? ? made from this. It is a treatise on what is called ste-
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? PTOLEM. EUS.
PTOLEM. EUS
calculation, ISO degrees; and in this way be believed
he had discovered the extent of one half of tho globe.
The fact, however, is, that be was acquainted with
only 125 degrees. His error, consequently, is nearly a
third, namely, ono sixth by reason of the mistake hr
commits relative to the measurement of a degree ss
above mentioned, and about a sixth as the result of
euHs in geometric distances. With regard to lati-
tudes, a large number of whicr were based on astro-
comical determinations, the errors committed by Ptol-
tmy are very unimportant; and the latitude, for exam-
ple, which he gives to the southern point of Spain is
so exact, as to lead us to imagine that observations
had been made in this quarter by some of his prede-
cessors. --Strabo bad limited to 42 degrees the lati-
tude of the known part of the earth (situate between
the I2ih and 54th degree of north latitude). Ptole-
my, on the other hand, makes SO degrees, from 16?
south latitude to 63? north; and yet he believed that
he knew only about a quarter more than the earlier
geographers, because these allowed 700 stadia to a
degree, which makes nearly 30,000 stadia altogether;
whereas Ptolemy, admitting only 500 stadia, found
the sum total to be 40,000. --Marinus and Ptolemy
darived some information respecting the easternmost
parts of Asia from the Itineraries of a Macedonian
trader, who had sent his factors on overland journeys
from Mesopotamia, along Mount Taurus, through In-
dia, and even to the distant capital of the Seres.
These journeys must have been prosecuted very soon
after the time of Alexander the Great, under the first
two monarchs of the dynasty of the Seleucidse; since
it is not probablo '. hat, after the defection of the Bac-
trians and Parthians, a route remained open through
these countries to the traffic of the Greeks. Ptolemy
thus could hardly have gained much information re-
specting these lands from the narratives of overland
travellers. The communication by sea, however, be-
tween Egypt and India, became frequent in the time
of the Ptolemies. Strabo speaks of fleets that sailed
for India, and, in the time of Pliny, the coast of the
country this side of the Ganges was perfectly well
known. The navigators of the West, however, did
not go beyond this stream. It was supposed that
from this point the shore of Asia bent directly to the
north, and joined the eastern extremity of Taurus.
At a later period navigators went beyond the mouths
of the Ganges, and, to lluir great astonishment, found
that the land redescended towards the south, and
formed a large gulf (Bay of Bengal--Sinus Gangcti-
cus). They pushed their adventurous career still far-
ther: taking their departure from the southern part
of the western peninsula of India, they crossed the
gulf in a straight line, and reached the coast of Siam
and the peninsula of Malacca; this last they called
the Golden Chersonese, a proof of the profitable trade
which was there carried on by them. Having doubled
'. he extremity of this second peninsula, they entered
on a new gulf (that of Siam -Magnus Sinus). From
the eastern coast of the Golden Chersonese they
passed in a southern direction, and reached a large
continent, on the shore of which was situate the city
of Katligara.
This country was probably the Isle of
. Borneo. The discoverer of this country was called
Alexander. (Ptol. , Geogr. , 2, 14. ) Ptolemy, who,
as well as this adventurer, believed that the coast was
a prolongation of that which formed the Gulf of Siam
? ? (the coast of Cambodia), founded thereon his hypoth-
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? PTOLEM-fEUS.
PUB
lea. The translation of Angeb was reprinted, with
corrections made from a manuscript of the Greek text,
by Calderitio, Roma>, 1478, fot. Twenty-seven maps
accompany this edition, which appears to hare been
printed by Arnold Pannartz. This is the second work,
with a dale, that is accompanied with engravings on
copper. In 1482, Donis, a German monk, and a good
astronomer for his time, gave a new edition to the world,
printed by Hull, al Ulin, in folio. It has fewer mis-
takes in the figures than those which preceded it, but
just as many in the names. Several editions followed,
but all swarming with errors. The celebrated Pico
de Mirandola sent to Essler, at Strasbourg, a Greek
manuscript of Ptolemy's work, by the aid of which
that scholar gave a new edition, not in the translation
of Angelo, but in another, very literal and somewhat
barbarous, by Philesius. Essler made many changes
in this version, and, to justify himself, generally added
the Greek term to the Latin He placed in it 46
maps cut on wood. Brunei calls this edition one of
little value; in this he is mistaken. The edition we
have just spoken of was reprinted at Strasbourg in
1520, and also in 1522. A new translation, made by
the celebrated Piraltheymer, appeared in 1525, from
the Strasbourg press, fol. It contains fifty maps
cut on wood--The first Greek edition was that of
Erasmus, printed from a manuscript which Theobald
Fcttich, a physician, had sent him, and which issued
from the press of Froben, at Bale. 1633, in 4to. The
manuscript was a very good one, but, through the fault
of the printer, a great number of errors were allowed
to creep in among the figures. Not having a suffi-
cient quantity of the peculiar type or mark which in-
dicated i. he employed in its place the letter r, which
signifies J. He made use, also, of the same letter
on many occasions to designate f ? The fraction j
is marked by yo, but the manuscript often places the o
above the y, and in a smaller character. The compos-
itor, not attending to this, contented himself with put-
ting in its place y alone, which is equivalent to j.
The confusion resulting from such a course is appa-
rent, and the only mode to remedy the evil is to have
recourse to the Latin editions which appeared pre-
vious to 1533. The Bale edition was reprinted by
Wechel, at Paris. 1546, 4lo. --Michael Servetus (Vil-
Innovanus) retouched the translation of Pirckheymer, af-
ter a manuscript, and published it, with fifty maps cut on
-vood, al Lyons, in 1530, and again, with corrections
ind additions, in the same city, in 1541. These two
:diiions of Ptolemy play a conspicuous part in the
nistory of religious fanaticism; Calvin derived from
them one of his grounds of accusation against Serve-
tus. He was charged with having added to the de-
scription that accompanies the map of Palestine, a
passage which contradicts what Moses says respecting
the fertility of that country. The interpolated pas-
sage docs actually exist, but it was added by Phrisius,
who took charge of the edition of 1522 --The last im-
pression of the Greek text was in 1618 and 1619, in
S vols. 4to, from the Amsterdam press, by Bertius.
Many faults of the previous editions are corrected in
this one, by the aid of a Heidelberg manuscript, but the
same errors in the figures si ill remain, and, to aug-
ment the confusion, the editor has placed beside them
those of the Latin editions, which often differ widely.
The only recent edition of the mathematical part of
Ptolemy's Geography is that of Halma. containing
? ? only ihe first I }ok and the latter part of the seventh,
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? PUB
PUP
protecting the rights or the people (ptpulum and colo,
Poplicola, Publicola). Niebuhr dissents from this ety-
mology in the following remarks: "We cannot agree
with the Greek Dionysius and Plutarch in translating
Publicola as a compound term by dn/iOKnd^, 'tho
protoctorof the people;' but we must recognise there-
in the old Latin form of the adjective with a superflu-
ous termination, which is sometimes mistaken for a
diminutive, sometimes for a compound. It is equiva-
lent lo Pubttcus, in the sense of dii/iortKoc. Thus
Septula is not the diminutive, but synonymous with
Sctrvus. and jEquicolus is nothing but JZi/uus or
JEquicus; Votsculns nothing but Volscus. " {Roman
History, vol. 1, p. 360, Waller's trans. )
Pubi. ii. Ia Lf. x, I. a law proposed by Publilius the
Dictator, A. U. C. 414, ordaining that, before the peo-
ple gave their votes, the senate should authorize what-
ever they might determine. (Liny, 8, 13. )--II. A
law ordaining that the plebeian magistrates should be
created at the comitia tributa. (Lis. , 2, 56 )
Publius Syrus, a celebrated composer and actor of
mimes. He was a native of Syria, and was brought
from Asia to Italy in early youth in the same vessel
with his countryman and kinsman Manlius Antiochus,
the professor of astrology, and Suliurius Kros, the
grammarian, who all, by some desert in learning, rose
above their original fortune. He received a good ed-
ucation and liberty from his master, in reward for his
witticisms and his facetious disposition. He first rep-
resented his mimes in the provincial towns of Italy,
whence, his fame having spread to Koine, he was sum-
moned to the capital, to assist in those public specta-
cles which Cassar offered his countrymen in exchange
for their freedom. (Macrob. . Sat. . 2, 7. ) On one oc-
casion he challenged all persons of his own profession
to contend with him on the stage; and in this compe-
titi in he successfully overcame every one of his rivals.
By his success in the representation of these popular
entertainments, he amassed considerable wealth, and
lived with such luxury that he never gave a great sup-
per without having . sow's udder at table, a dish which
was prohibited by the censors as being too great a
luxury even for the table of patricians. (Plin. , 8, SI. )
Nothing farther is known of his history, except that
he was still continuing to perform his mimes with ap-
plause at the period of trie death of Labenus, which
happened ten months after the assassination of Csesar.
(Chron. Euseb , ad Olymp, 184. ) We have not the
names of any of the mimes of Publlus, nor di we pre-
cisely know their nature or subject; all that la pre-
served from them being a number of detached senti-
ments or maxims, to the amount of 800 or 900, seldom
exceeding a single line, but containing reflections of
unrivalled force, truth, and beauty, on all the various
relations, situations, and feelings of human life. Boih
the writers and actors of mimes were probably careful
*. o have their memory stored with commonplaces and
precepts of morality, in order to introduce them appro-
priately in their extemporaneous performances. The
maxims o( Publius were interspersed through his
dramas; but, being the only portion of these produc-
tions now remaining, they have just the appearance of
thoughts or sentiments, like those of Rochefoucauld.
His mimes must either have been very numerous, or
vrry thickly loaded with these moral aphorisms. It is
also surprising that they seem raised far above the ordi-
nary tone even of regular comedy, and appear for the
? ? greater part lo be almost stoical maxims. Seneca has re-
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? vu t
P YG
Purpjr ar'i/E, U! ands oil tl:o coast of Mauritania, 90
i>>. itJ Irom tin-; manufacture of purple dye established
Hi them. They answer at the present day to Madeira
and the adjacent isles. (Plin. , 6, 32. )
Putkoli, a city of Campania, now Poxzuoli, on the
coast, and not far from the Lucrine Lake. Its Greek
name was Dicaarchia; but, when the Romans sent a
colony thither, they gave it the name of Puteoli, proba-
bly from the number of its walls, or perhaps from the
stench which was emitted by the sulphureous and alu-
minous springs in the neighbourhood. (Strabo, 245.
-~PUn. , 31, 2. ) Respecting the origin of this place,
we learn from Slrabo that it was at first the harbour of
Cumae. Hence we may fairly regurd it as a colony of*
that city, without calling in the Samians to assist in its
foundation, as Stephanus Byzantinus reports, and Hie-
runymus. [Eutel. , Chron. , 2. ) The Romans appear
to have first directed their attention to this spot in the
second Punic war, when Fabius the consul was order-
ed to fortify and garrison the town, which had only
been frequented hitherto for commercial purposes.
(Lib. , 24, 7. ) In the following year it was attacked
by Hannibal without success (Lie. , 24, 13), and about
this time became a naval station of considerable im-
portance: armies were sent to Puteoli from thence
(Liu. , 26, 17), and the embassy sent from Carthage,
which was to sue for peace at the close of the second
Punic war, disembarked here, and proceeded to Rome
by laud {Lin. , 30, 22), as did St. Paul about 250 years
afterward. The apostle remained seven days at Puteoli
before he set forward on his journey by the Appian
Way. (Act>>, xxviii. , 13. ) In the time of Strabo, this
city appears to have been a place of very great com-
merce, and particularly connected with Alexandres;
the imports from that city, which was then the empori-
um of the East, being much greater than the exports
ol Italy. (Slrabo, 793. --Snet. , Aug. , 98,-- Senec,
Ep. , 77. ) The harbour of Puteoli was spacious and
o( peculiar construction, being formed of vast piles of
mortar and sand, which, owing to the strongly cement-
ing properties of the latter material, became very solid
and compact masses; and these, being sunk in the sea,
afforded secure anchorage for any number of vessels.
(Slrab. , 245 ) Pliny (35, 13) has remarked this qual-
ity of the sand in the neighbourhood of Puteoli, which
now goes by the name of Pozzolana, The same wri-
ter informs us (36, 12), that this harbour possessed
also the advantage of a conspicuous lighthouse. The
remains which are yet to be seen in the harbour of
Puteoli are commonly, but erroneously, considered to
he the ruins of Caligula's bridge; whereas that em-
peror is said expressly to have used boats, anchored in
a double line, for the construction of the bridge which
he threw ovor from Puteoli to Baias; these were cov-
ered with earth, after the manner of Xerxes's famous
bridge across the Hellespont. Upon the completion
of the work, Caligula is described as appearing there
in great pomp, on horseback or in a chariot, for two
days, followed by the pranorian band and a splendid
retinue. It is evident, therefore, that this structure
was designed for a temporary purpose, and it is farther
mentioned that it was begun from the piles of Puteoli.
(? Sue/. , Caiig. , 19--Josephiu, Antiq. Jud. , 19, 1. )--
Puteoli became a Roman colony A. TJ. C. 558, was re-
colonized by Augustus, and again, for the third time,
by Nero. (Taeit. , Ann. , 14, 27 ) This place ap-
pears to have espoused the cause of Vespasian with
? ? great zeal, from which circumstance, according to an
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? PYO
PYL
(lined Antffiiis. and that he was suddenly awakened by
an attack which had been made upon bia body In an
army of these Liliputians, who professed to be the
avengers of Antasus, since they were his brethren,
and earthbora like himself. A simultaneous onset
was made upon his head, hands, and feet. Arrowa
were discharged at him, his hair was ignited, spadea
were thrust into his eyes, and coverings or doors (dv-
pai) were spplied to his mouth and nostrils to prevent
respiration. The hero awoke in the midst of the war-
fare, and was so much pleased with the courage dis-
played by his tiny foes, that he gathered them all into
his lion akin and brought them to Eurystheus. (Phi-
lostr. , Icon. , S, 28, p. 817, ed. Morell. j--The Pygmies
of antiquity, like those of more modem times, may be
safely regarded as mere creatures of the imagination.
We have nad them even placed, by popular belief, in
our own country. A number of small graves, two or
three feet in length, were found in tho West, contain-
ing fragments of evidently adult bones. The idea of
a pigmy race was immediately conceived ; but it was
unknown to the discoverers, that tho Indians, after dis-
interring their dead, buried them in graves just large
enough to hold the bones made up into a small bun-
dle for the convenience of transportation. (M'Cul-
lock. Researches on America, p. 616. )--With respect
to the Pygmies of ancient fable, it may be remarked,
that Homer places them merely in southern lands, with-
out specifying their particular locality; nor does he
say a word respecting their diminutive size. (Heyne,
ad Horn. , II. , 3,3. ) Aristotle, as we have already aaid,
assigns them a residence near the sources of the Nile
(Hist. An. , 8, 15), in which he is followed by ^Elian
(H. A. , 2, 1 ; 3, 15) and others. Some agree with
Ctesias in making India their native country. Pliny,
in one passage, places them also in India (7, 2), but in
another in Thrace (4, 2). Others, again, making the
cranes to wing their way from the northern regions
over the Pon'. us Euxinus, regard Scylhia and Thrace
as the Pygmy land. --Many have supposed that the fa-
ble of the Pygmies and cranea has a reference to the
country of Egypt. As the cranes make their appear-
ance there about the month of November, the time in
which the waters are subsided, and devour the corn
? own on the lands, the whole fable of the Pygmies may
be explained by supposing them to have been none
other than the Egyptians, and the term pygmy (rrvy-
fiatoc) not to refer to any diminutiveness of size, but
to the cubits (itvy/iai, mj^eif) of the Nile's rise. Some
scholars suppose the gcrme of the fable to be found in
the remarks of Strabo, respecting the fwtpoewtav tuv
tv Ki6vn eniopevuv. (Strabo, 820. ) Barrow, in his
Travels to the Cape of Good Hope (vol. 1, p. 239),
endeavours to identify the Bosjesmans of the Cape
and the Pygmies of the ancients, but with no great
success.
queen, and that her son should succeed on the throne
at his death. The nuptials were accordingly cele-
brated, but on that very day the tyrant murdered Cle-
opatra's son in her arms. He ordered himself to be
called Euergetu, but the Alexandreans refused to do
it, and stigmatized him with the appellation of Kaktr-
fctcs, or Evil-doer, a surname which he deserved by
his tyranny and oppression. A aeries of barbarities
rendered him odious; but, as no one attempted to rid
Egypt of her tyrant, the Alexandreans abandoned their
habitations, and fled from a place which continually
streamed with the blood of their massacred fcllow-
citizens. If their migration proved fatal to the com-
merce and prosperity of Alexandres, it was of the most
essential service to the countries where they retired;
and the numbers of Egyptians that sought a safe asy-
lum in Greece and Asia, introduced among the inhab-
itants of those countries the different professions that
were practised with success in the capital of Egypt.
Physcon endeavoured to repeople the city which his
cruelty had laid desolate; but the fear of sharing the
fate of its former inhabitants prevailed more than the
promise of riches, rights, and immunities. The king,
at last, disgusted with Cleopatra, repudiated her, and
married her daughter by Phitomelor, called also Cleo-
patra. He still continued to exercise the greatest cru-
elty upon his subjects; but the prudence and vigilance
of his ministers kept the people in tranquillity, till all
Egypt revolted when the king had basely murdered all
the young men of Alexandrea. Without friends or
support it: Egypt, he fled to Cyprus, and Cleopatra,
the divorced queen, ascended the throne. In his ban-
ishment Physcon dreaded lest the Alexandreans should
also place the crown on the head of his son, by his sis-
ter Cleopatra, who was the governor of Gyrene; and
under these apprehensions he sent for the young
prince, called Memphitis, to Cyprus, and murdered him
as soon as he reached the shore. To make the bar-
barity more complete, he sent the limbs of Memphitis
to Cleopatra, and they were received as the queen was
going to celebrate her birthday. Soon after this he
invaded Egypt with an army, and obtained a victory
over the forces of Cleopatra, who, being left without
friends or assistance, (led to her eldest daughter Cleo-
patra, who had married Demetrius, king of Syria.
This decisive blow restored Physcon to his throne,
where he continued to reign for some time, hated by
his subjects and feared by his enemies. He died at
Alexandrea in the 67th year of his age, after a reign
of 29 years, about 116 years before Christ. This
prince, notwithstanding his cruel disposition, was a
lover of learning, and received from some the appella-
tion of Philologist. Aristarchus was his preceptor, and
be is said also to have made important additions to the
Alexandrean library, as well in original manuscripts
as in copies. --VIII. The eighth, surnamed Soter II,
succeeded his father Physcon as king of Egypt. He
had no sooner ascended the throne than his mother
Cleopatra, who reigned conjointly with him, expelled
him to Cyprus, and placed the crown on the head of
his brother Ptolemy Alexander, her favourite son.
Soter, banished from Egypt, became king of Cyprus;
and soon after he appeared at the head of a large army,
to make war against Alexander Jannteus, king of Ju-
dasa, through whose assistance and intrigue he had
been expelled by Cleopatra. The Jewish monarch
? ? was conquered, and 50,000 of his men were left on the
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? PTOLE. NLLUS.
JTOLEJLEUS.
>he elder of Lia daughters, and to ascend with her the
vacant throne. As these children wore young, the
dying monarch recommended them to the protection
and paternal care of the Romans; and accordingly
Pompey the Great was appointed by the senate to be
their patron and their guardian. Their reign was as
turbulent as that of their predecessors, and it is re-
markable for no uncommon events; only we may ob-
serve that the young queen was the Cleopatra who
*oon after became so celebrated. --XIII. The thir-
teenth, ascended the throne of Egypt conjointly with
his sister Cleopatra, whom he had married according to
the directions of his father Auletes. (Vid. Cleopatra
VII. )--XIV. Apion, king of Cyrene, was the illegiti-
mate son of Ptolemy Physcon. After a reign of twenty
years he died; and, as he had no children, he made the
Romans heirs of his dominions. The Romans pre-
sented his subjects with their independence. --XV.
Ceraunus, a son of Ptolemy Soter by Eurydice, the
daughter of Antipater. Unable to succeed to the
throne of Egypt, Ceraunus fled to the court of Seleu-
cus, where he was received with friendly marks of at-
tention. Seleucus was then king of Macedonia, an
empiro which he had lately acquired by the death of
Lysimachus in a battle in Phrygia; but his reign was
short; and Ceraunus perfidiously murdered him, and
ascended his throne 280 B. C. The murderer, how-
ever, could not be firmly established in Macedonia as
long as Arsinoe the widow, and the children of I. vsim-
achus, were alive, and entitled to claim his kingdom
as the lawful possession of their father. To rernove
tl. tse obstacles, Ceraunus made offers of marriage to
Arisnoe, who was his own sister. The queen at first
refused, but the protestations and solemn promises of
the usurper at last prevailed upon her to consent.
The nuptials, however, were no sooner celebrated than
Ceraunus murdered the two young princes, and con-
firmed his usurpation by rapine and cruelty. But now
three powerful princes claimed the kingdom of Mace-
donia as their own: Antiochus, the son of Seleucus;
Antigonus, the son of Demetrius; and Pyrrhus, the
king of Epirus. These enemies, however, were soon
removed; Ceraunus conquered Antigonus in the field
of battle, and stopped the hostilities of his two other
rivals by promises and money. He did not long re-
main inactive: a barbarian army of Gauls claimed a
tribute from him, and the monarch immediately march-
ed to meet them in the field. The battle was long and
bloody. The Macedonians might have obtained the
victory if Ceraunus had shown more prudence. He
was thrown down from his elephant, and taken prison-
er by the enemy, who immediately tore his body to
pieces. Ptolemy had been king of Macedonia only
eighteen months. {Justin, 24, ice. -- Pausan. , 10,
10. --XVI. An illegitimate son of Ptolemy Soter II. ,
or Lathyrus, king of Cyprus, of which he was tyran-
nically dispossessed by the Romans. Cato was at the
head of the forces which were sent against Ptolemy by
the senate, and the Roman general proposed to the
monarch to retire from the throne, and to pass the rest
of his days in the obscure office of high-priest in the
temple of Venus at Paphos. This offer was rejected
with the indignation which it merited, and the monarch
poisoned himself at the approach of the enemy. The
treasures found in the island amounted to the enor-
mous sum of ? 1,356,250 sterling, which were carried
to Rome by the cocquerors. --XVII. A son of Pyr-
? ? rhus, king of Epirus, by Antigone, the daughter of
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? PTOLEM. EUS
PTOLEMY US.
exists a <<. hc >>iin of Olympiodorus (m I'hira , Plot. --
Bouilland, Ttstimonia dc Ptolcmao, p. 205. ), which in-
forms us ihat Ptolemy passed 40 years of his life iv
irrtooto tov K. avu6ov (** in the wings of Canobus"),
occupied with astronomical observations, and that he
placed columns there on which he caused to be cut the
theorems of which he bad been the author. An in-
scription has come down to us which illustrates this
remark of Olympiodorus: Otui Xurf/pt KXavdwc 0ro/? -
? uaioc dfifdc kcu vito8ioti? fiaOiifiariKac, k. t. A. ,
? ' Claudius Ptolemy dedicates to the God, the Preserver,
bis mathematical principles and theses," &c. Combi-
ning this dedication with the scholium of Olympiodorus,
the Abbe Halma states, that he would be inclined to
believe the deity alluded to in the inscription to be Ca-
nobus, if the inscription did not expressly declare, far-
ther on, that the monument containing it was placed
. n the city of Canobus (iv Kai'uCu), whence he infers
hat the protecting deity is SerapiB, and that Ptolemy
made his observations in the side-buildings connected
with the temple of this god. He thinks that this posi-
tion is not in contradiction with the passage in which
Ptolemy informs us that he made them under the par-
allel of Alexandres; for, according to Halma, the city
of Alexandrea was gradually extended to Canopus,
which became a kind of suburbs to it, so that Ptole-
my, though residing at Canopus, may nevertheless be
? aid to have observed at Alexandrea, or that, observ-
ing at Canopus, he had no need of reducing his ob-
servations to the parallel of Alexandrea, by reason of
the trifling difference of latitude. A difficulty here
presents itself, of which the Abbe Halma is aware, and
which he proposes to remedy by an alteration of the
text. If Ptolemy had made his observations in the
temple of Serapis at Canopus, Olympiodorus, in place
of saying kv Trrepoic tov KavuCov, "in the wings of
(the temple of) Canobus," would have had hi irrepoic
Tijc KavuSov, "the side-buildings of (the city of) Ca-
nobus. " Halma therefore proposes to substitute the
latter reading for the former, or else to regard Canobus
a. >> the same divinity with Serapis, and to suppose that
Ptolemy observed in the temple of Canobus at Cano-
pus. This reasoning of Halma's has been attacked
by Lctronne, and ably refuted. The latter shows,
that Canopus, situate at the distance of 120 stadia, or
more than two and a half geographical miles, northeast
of Alexandrea, never made part of that capital, since
there were several places, such as Nicopolis and Ta-
posiris Parva, between the two cities; that, conse-
quently, the Scrapeum, in which Ptolemy observed,
could not have belonged to Canopus; and, finally, that
Ptolemy knew the difference in latitude between Ca-
nopus and Alexandrea, and could not confound them
together in one point. It is more probable, as Lelronne
remarks (Journal des Savans, 1818, p. 202), that
Olympiodorus was mistaken as to the place where
Ptolemy observed. It is ascertained that there was a
temple of Serapis at Canopus as well as at Alexan-
drea. (Straio, 801. ) Olympiodorus, therefore, must
have supposed that the word Scrapeum, in the author
from whom he copied his remark, belonged exclusive-
ly to the first of these cities, when it referred, in fact,
in this particular instance, to Alexandrea the capital.
Tjc error of Olympiodorus, moreover, is the easier to
lj! explained, from the circumstance of the Scrapeum
at Canopus having become at one time a celebrated
teat of the New-Platonists, and having acquired great
? ? distinction on this account among the last apostles of
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? PTOI. EM EUS.
FfOLEM. CTJS.
reisluu into Latin. Another translation was made
Irom the Arabic text into Latin by Gerard of Cremo-
na, an astronomer of the twelfth century, who estab-
lished himself for some time at Toledo, in order to
learn the Arabic language. He did not understand it
perfectly, and was therefore unable to translate cer-
tain technical terms, which he was consequently com-
pelled to leave in the original language. His classical
arudition could not have been very profound, since he
was unacquainted with Hipparchus, whom he every-
where calls Abrachir, as the Arabic translator had
iloae. --It was not until the fifteenth century that a
manuscript of the original Greek was discovered, from
which the astronomer, John Miiller, better known by
the name of Regiomontanus, made his Latin abridg-
ment. About the same period, George of Trebisond
made a Latin translation from this original, but a very
unfaithful one. --The Alexandreans called the work of
Ptolemy which we have just been considering the
Great Astronomer, Meyac aarpovd/ioc, in contradis-
tinction to another collection which they called the
Little Astronomer, Mt/tooc aarpovopoc, and which was
composed of the works of Theodosius of Tripolis; the
Data, Optics, Catoptrics, 67c, of Euclid; the works
of Autolycus. Aristarchus of Samos, Hypsiclcs, &c. --
The best and most useful edition of the Almagest is
that of Halma, Paris, 1813-1828, 2 vols. 4to. It
contains a new French version, and notes by Delam-
bre. --2. The second work of Ptolemy, as we have
arranged it, is the Xlpoxtipoi Kavdvrc. This is a col-
lection of Manual Tables intended for makers of al-
manacs, to facilitate their calculations, and which
are often only extracts from the Almagest. Halma
gave the editio princeps of this work in the first vol-
ume of his edition of Theon's Commentary, which he
published in 1822. --3. TerpiCibTioc, ij 2vvra! ;ic pad-
tlfiarinq (" Telrahiblus, or Mathematical Syntaxis"),
in four books, consisting of astronomical predictions.
It is commonly cited under the title of Quadripartitum.
Some critics consider this work as unworthy of Ptole-
ny, and supposititious. Proclus hjs made a para-
phrase of it. The latest edition is that of Melancthon,
Basil, 1553, 8vo. --4. Kapizoc ("Fruit"), that is, one.
Hundred astrological propositions collected from the
works of Ptolemy. It is usually cited under the title
->( Centum Dicta. It is published with the Quadn-
yarlilum. --5. Quaete dn/. avioi' aaripuv Kai ovvayuyij
ixion/taotC/v ("Appearances of the fixed stars, and a
rollection of the things indicated by them1'). This is a
? sficcies of almanac, giving the rising and setting of
the stars, the prognostics of the principal changes of
temperature, &c. The work is intended for all cli-
mates; and, to make it answer this end. and prove
jseful to all the Greeks spread over the surface of the
globe, Ptolemy gives the appearance of the stars for
rive parallels at once, namely, Syene, Lower Egypt,
Rhodes, the Hellespont, and the Pontus Euxinus.
The best edition is that of Halma, Paris, 1820, 4lo.
It was preceded by the edition of Ideler, Bcrol. , 1819.
--6. Ilfpi''KvaXijpiiaroc (" Of the Analemma"). The
Analemma was a species of sundial, and in this work
we have at: exposition of the whole gnomonic theory
of the Greeks--7. Tiro6V<<f ruv nXavu/itvuv ("Hy-
pothesis of the Planets"). The latest edition is that
of Halma, Paris, 1820, 4to. -- 8. 'KnXuaic iiuciavciar
a^aipac (" Planisphere"). This work exists only in
in Arabic version, by Moslem, and a Latin translation
? ? made from this. It is a treatise on what is called ste-
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? PTOLEM. EUS.
PTOLEM. EUS
calculation, ISO degrees; and in this way be believed
he had discovered the extent of one half of tho globe.
The fact, however, is, that be was acquainted with
only 125 degrees. His error, consequently, is nearly a
third, namely, ono sixth by reason of the mistake hr
commits relative to the measurement of a degree ss
above mentioned, and about a sixth as the result of
euHs in geometric distances. With regard to lati-
tudes, a large number of whicr were based on astro-
comical determinations, the errors committed by Ptol-
tmy are very unimportant; and the latitude, for exam-
ple, which he gives to the southern point of Spain is
so exact, as to lead us to imagine that observations
had been made in this quarter by some of his prede-
cessors. --Strabo bad limited to 42 degrees the lati-
tude of the known part of the earth (situate between
the I2ih and 54th degree of north latitude). Ptole-
my, on the other hand, makes SO degrees, from 16?
south latitude to 63? north; and yet he believed that
he knew only about a quarter more than the earlier
geographers, because these allowed 700 stadia to a
degree, which makes nearly 30,000 stadia altogether;
whereas Ptolemy, admitting only 500 stadia, found
the sum total to be 40,000. --Marinus and Ptolemy
darived some information respecting the easternmost
parts of Asia from the Itineraries of a Macedonian
trader, who had sent his factors on overland journeys
from Mesopotamia, along Mount Taurus, through In-
dia, and even to the distant capital of the Seres.
These journeys must have been prosecuted very soon
after the time of Alexander the Great, under the first
two monarchs of the dynasty of the Seleucidse; since
it is not probablo '. hat, after the defection of the Bac-
trians and Parthians, a route remained open through
these countries to the traffic of the Greeks. Ptolemy
thus could hardly have gained much information re-
specting these lands from the narratives of overland
travellers. The communication by sea, however, be-
tween Egypt and India, became frequent in the time
of the Ptolemies. Strabo speaks of fleets that sailed
for India, and, in the time of Pliny, the coast of the
country this side of the Ganges was perfectly well
known. The navigators of the West, however, did
not go beyond this stream. It was supposed that
from this point the shore of Asia bent directly to the
north, and joined the eastern extremity of Taurus.
At a later period navigators went beyond the mouths
of the Ganges, and, to lluir great astonishment, found
that the land redescended towards the south, and
formed a large gulf (Bay of Bengal--Sinus Gangcti-
cus). They pushed their adventurous career still far-
ther: taking their departure from the southern part
of the western peninsula of India, they crossed the
gulf in a straight line, and reached the coast of Siam
and the peninsula of Malacca; this last they called
the Golden Chersonese, a proof of the profitable trade
which was there carried on by them. Having doubled
'. he extremity of this second peninsula, they entered
on a new gulf (that of Siam -Magnus Sinus). From
the eastern coast of the Golden Chersonese they
passed in a southern direction, and reached a large
continent, on the shore of which was situate the city
of Katligara.
This country was probably the Isle of
. Borneo. The discoverer of this country was called
Alexander. (Ptol. , Geogr. , 2, 14. ) Ptolemy, who,
as well as this adventurer, believed that the coast was
a prolongation of that which formed the Gulf of Siam
? ? (the coast of Cambodia), founded thereon his hypoth-
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? PTOLEM-fEUS.
PUB
lea. The translation of Angeb was reprinted, with
corrections made from a manuscript of the Greek text,
by Calderitio, Roma>, 1478, fot. Twenty-seven maps
accompany this edition, which appears to hare been
printed by Arnold Pannartz. This is the second work,
with a dale, that is accompanied with engravings on
copper. In 1482, Donis, a German monk, and a good
astronomer for his time, gave a new edition to the world,
printed by Hull, al Ulin, in folio. It has fewer mis-
takes in the figures than those which preceded it, but
just as many in the names. Several editions followed,
but all swarming with errors. The celebrated Pico
de Mirandola sent to Essler, at Strasbourg, a Greek
manuscript of Ptolemy's work, by the aid of which
that scholar gave a new edition, not in the translation
of Angelo, but in another, very literal and somewhat
barbarous, by Philesius. Essler made many changes
in this version, and, to justify himself, generally added
the Greek term to the Latin He placed in it 46
maps cut on wood. Brunei calls this edition one of
little value; in this he is mistaken. The edition we
have just spoken of was reprinted at Strasbourg in
1520, and also in 1522. A new translation, made by
the celebrated Piraltheymer, appeared in 1525, from
the Strasbourg press, fol. It contains fifty maps
cut on wood--The first Greek edition was that of
Erasmus, printed from a manuscript which Theobald
Fcttich, a physician, had sent him, and which issued
from the press of Froben, at Bale. 1633, in 4to. The
manuscript was a very good one, but, through the fault
of the printer, a great number of errors were allowed
to creep in among the figures. Not having a suffi-
cient quantity of the peculiar type or mark which in-
dicated i. he employed in its place the letter r, which
signifies J. He made use, also, of the same letter
on many occasions to designate f ? The fraction j
is marked by yo, but the manuscript often places the o
above the y, and in a smaller character. The compos-
itor, not attending to this, contented himself with put-
ting in its place y alone, which is equivalent to j.
The confusion resulting from such a course is appa-
rent, and the only mode to remedy the evil is to have
recourse to the Latin editions which appeared pre-
vious to 1533. The Bale edition was reprinted by
Wechel, at Paris. 1546, 4lo. --Michael Servetus (Vil-
Innovanus) retouched the translation of Pirckheymer, af-
ter a manuscript, and published it, with fifty maps cut on
-vood, al Lyons, in 1530, and again, with corrections
ind additions, in the same city, in 1541. These two
:diiions of Ptolemy play a conspicuous part in the
nistory of religious fanaticism; Calvin derived from
them one of his grounds of accusation against Serve-
tus. He was charged with having added to the de-
scription that accompanies the map of Palestine, a
passage which contradicts what Moses says respecting
the fertility of that country. The interpolated pas-
sage docs actually exist, but it was added by Phrisius,
who took charge of the edition of 1522 --The last im-
pression of the Greek text was in 1618 and 1619, in
S vols. 4to, from the Amsterdam press, by Bertius.
Many faults of the previous editions are corrected in
this one, by the aid of a Heidelberg manuscript, but the
same errors in the figures si ill remain, and, to aug-
ment the confusion, the editor has placed beside them
those of the Latin editions, which often differ widely.
The only recent edition of the mathematical part of
Ptolemy's Geography is that of Halma. containing
? ? only ihe first I }ok and the latter part of the seventh,
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? PUB
PUP
protecting the rights or the people (ptpulum and colo,
Poplicola, Publicola). Niebuhr dissents from this ety-
mology in the following remarks: "We cannot agree
with the Greek Dionysius and Plutarch in translating
Publicola as a compound term by dn/iOKnd^, 'tho
protoctorof the people;' but we must recognise there-
in the old Latin form of the adjective with a superflu-
ous termination, which is sometimes mistaken for a
diminutive, sometimes for a compound. It is equiva-
lent lo Pubttcus, in the sense of dii/iortKoc. Thus
Septula is not the diminutive, but synonymous with
Sctrvus. and jEquicolus is nothing but JZi/uus or
JEquicus; Votsculns nothing but Volscus. " {Roman
History, vol. 1, p. 360, Waller's trans. )
Pubi. ii. Ia Lf. x, I. a law proposed by Publilius the
Dictator, A. U. C. 414, ordaining that, before the peo-
ple gave their votes, the senate should authorize what-
ever they might determine. (Liny, 8, 13. )--II. A
law ordaining that the plebeian magistrates should be
created at the comitia tributa. (Lis. , 2, 56 )
Publius Syrus, a celebrated composer and actor of
mimes. He was a native of Syria, and was brought
from Asia to Italy in early youth in the same vessel
with his countryman and kinsman Manlius Antiochus,
the professor of astrology, and Suliurius Kros, the
grammarian, who all, by some desert in learning, rose
above their original fortune. He received a good ed-
ucation and liberty from his master, in reward for his
witticisms and his facetious disposition. He first rep-
resented his mimes in the provincial towns of Italy,
whence, his fame having spread to Koine, he was sum-
moned to the capital, to assist in those public specta-
cles which Cassar offered his countrymen in exchange
for their freedom. (Macrob. . Sat. . 2, 7. ) On one oc-
casion he challenged all persons of his own profession
to contend with him on the stage; and in this compe-
titi in he successfully overcame every one of his rivals.
By his success in the representation of these popular
entertainments, he amassed considerable wealth, and
lived with such luxury that he never gave a great sup-
per without having . sow's udder at table, a dish which
was prohibited by the censors as being too great a
luxury even for the table of patricians. (Plin. , 8, SI. )
Nothing farther is known of his history, except that
he was still continuing to perform his mimes with ap-
plause at the period of trie death of Labenus, which
happened ten months after the assassination of Csesar.
(Chron. Euseb , ad Olymp, 184. ) We have not the
names of any of the mimes of Publlus, nor di we pre-
cisely know their nature or subject; all that la pre-
served from them being a number of detached senti-
ments or maxims, to the amount of 800 or 900, seldom
exceeding a single line, but containing reflections of
unrivalled force, truth, and beauty, on all the various
relations, situations, and feelings of human life. Boih
the writers and actors of mimes were probably careful
*. o have their memory stored with commonplaces and
precepts of morality, in order to introduce them appro-
priately in their extemporaneous performances. The
maxims o( Publius were interspersed through his
dramas; but, being the only portion of these produc-
tions now remaining, they have just the appearance of
thoughts or sentiments, like those of Rochefoucauld.
His mimes must either have been very numerous, or
vrry thickly loaded with these moral aphorisms. It is
also surprising that they seem raised far above the ordi-
nary tone even of regular comedy, and appear for the
? ? greater part lo be almost stoical maxims. Seneca has re-
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? vu t
P YG
Purpjr ar'i/E, U! ands oil tl:o coast of Mauritania, 90
i>>. itJ Irom tin-; manufacture of purple dye established
Hi them. They answer at the present day to Madeira
and the adjacent isles. (Plin. , 6, 32. )
Putkoli, a city of Campania, now Poxzuoli, on the
coast, and not far from the Lucrine Lake. Its Greek
name was Dicaarchia; but, when the Romans sent a
colony thither, they gave it the name of Puteoli, proba-
bly from the number of its walls, or perhaps from the
stench which was emitted by the sulphureous and alu-
minous springs in the neighbourhood. (Strabo, 245.
-~PUn. , 31, 2. ) Respecting the origin of this place,
we learn from Slrabo that it was at first the harbour of
Cumae. Hence we may fairly regurd it as a colony of*
that city, without calling in the Samians to assist in its
foundation, as Stephanus Byzantinus reports, and Hie-
runymus. [Eutel. , Chron. , 2. ) The Romans appear
to have first directed their attention to this spot in the
second Punic war, when Fabius the consul was order-
ed to fortify and garrison the town, which had only
been frequented hitherto for commercial purposes.
(Lib. , 24, 7. ) In the following year it was attacked
by Hannibal without success (Lie. , 24, 13), and about
this time became a naval station of considerable im-
portance: armies were sent to Puteoli from thence
(Liu. , 26, 17), and the embassy sent from Carthage,
which was to sue for peace at the close of the second
Punic war, disembarked here, and proceeded to Rome
by laud {Lin. , 30, 22), as did St. Paul about 250 years
afterward. The apostle remained seven days at Puteoli
before he set forward on his journey by the Appian
Way. (Act>>, xxviii. , 13. ) In the time of Strabo, this
city appears to have been a place of very great com-
merce, and particularly connected with Alexandres;
the imports from that city, which was then the empori-
um of the East, being much greater than the exports
ol Italy. (Slrabo, 793. --Snet. , Aug. , 98,-- Senec,
Ep. , 77. ) The harbour of Puteoli was spacious and
o( peculiar construction, being formed of vast piles of
mortar and sand, which, owing to the strongly cement-
ing properties of the latter material, became very solid
and compact masses; and these, being sunk in the sea,
afforded secure anchorage for any number of vessels.
(Slrab. , 245 ) Pliny (35, 13) has remarked this qual-
ity of the sand in the neighbourhood of Puteoli, which
now goes by the name of Pozzolana, The same wri-
ter informs us (36, 12), that this harbour possessed
also the advantage of a conspicuous lighthouse. The
remains which are yet to be seen in the harbour of
Puteoli are commonly, but erroneously, considered to
he the ruins of Caligula's bridge; whereas that em-
peror is said expressly to have used boats, anchored in
a double line, for the construction of the bridge which
he threw ovor from Puteoli to Baias; these were cov-
ered with earth, after the manner of Xerxes's famous
bridge across the Hellespont. Upon the completion
of the work, Caligula is described as appearing there
in great pomp, on horseback or in a chariot, for two
days, followed by the pranorian band and a splendid
retinue. It is evident, therefore, that this structure
was designed for a temporary purpose, and it is farther
mentioned that it was begun from the piles of Puteoli.
(? Sue/. , Caiig. , 19--Josephiu, Antiq. Jud. , 19, 1. )--
Puteoli became a Roman colony A. TJ. C. 558, was re-
colonized by Augustus, and again, for the third time,
by Nero. (Taeit. , Ann. , 14, 27 ) This place ap-
pears to have espoused the cause of Vespasian with
? ? great zeal, from which circumstance, according to an
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? PYO
PYL
(lined Antffiiis. and that he was suddenly awakened by
an attack which had been made upon bia body In an
army of these Liliputians, who professed to be the
avengers of Antasus, since they were his brethren,
and earthbora like himself. A simultaneous onset
was made upon his head, hands, and feet. Arrowa
were discharged at him, his hair was ignited, spadea
were thrust into his eyes, and coverings or doors (dv-
pai) were spplied to his mouth and nostrils to prevent
respiration. The hero awoke in the midst of the war-
fare, and was so much pleased with the courage dis-
played by his tiny foes, that he gathered them all into
his lion akin and brought them to Eurystheus. (Phi-
lostr. , Icon. , S, 28, p. 817, ed. Morell. j--The Pygmies
of antiquity, like those of more modem times, may be
safely regarded as mere creatures of the imagination.
We have nad them even placed, by popular belief, in
our own country. A number of small graves, two or
three feet in length, were found in tho West, contain-
ing fragments of evidently adult bones. The idea of
a pigmy race was immediately conceived ; but it was
unknown to the discoverers, that tho Indians, after dis-
interring their dead, buried them in graves just large
enough to hold the bones made up into a small bun-
dle for the convenience of transportation. (M'Cul-
lock. Researches on America, p. 616. )--With respect
to the Pygmies of ancient fable, it may be remarked,
that Homer places them merely in southern lands, with-
out specifying their particular locality; nor does he
say a word respecting their diminutive size. (Heyne,
ad Horn. , II. , 3,3. ) Aristotle, as we have already aaid,
assigns them a residence near the sources of the Nile
(Hist. An. , 8, 15), in which he is followed by ^Elian
(H. A. , 2, 1 ; 3, 15) and others. Some agree with
Ctesias in making India their native country. Pliny,
in one passage, places them also in India (7, 2), but in
another in Thrace (4, 2). Others, again, making the
cranes to wing their way from the northern regions
over the Pon'. us Euxinus, regard Scylhia and Thrace
as the Pygmy land. --Many have supposed that the fa-
ble of the Pygmies and cranea has a reference to the
country of Egypt. As the cranes make their appear-
ance there about the month of November, the time in
which the waters are subsided, and devour the corn
? own on the lands, the whole fable of the Pygmies may
be explained by supposing them to have been none
other than the Egyptians, and the term pygmy (rrvy-
fiatoc) not to refer to any diminutiveness of size, but
to the cubits (itvy/iai, mj^eif) of the Nile's rise. Some
scholars suppose the gcrme of the fable to be found in
the remarks of Strabo, respecting the fwtpoewtav tuv
tv Ki6vn eniopevuv. (Strabo, 820. ) Barrow, in his
Travels to the Cape of Good Hope (vol. 1, p. 239),
endeavours to identify the Bosjesmans of the Cape
and the Pygmies of the ancients, but with no great
success.
