Chapter 41

Pedum, Shepherd’s Crook. (From a Painting found at Civita Vecchia.)

PEGMA (πῆγμα), a pageant,i.e.an edifice of wood, consisting of two or more stages (tabulata), which were raised or depressed at pleasure by means of balance weights. These great machines were used in the Roman amphitheatres, the gladiators who fought upon them being calledpegmares. They were supported upon wheels so as to be drawn into the circus, glittering with silver and a profusion of wealth. When Vespasian and Titus celebrated their triumph over the Jews, the procession included pageants of extraordinary magnitude and splendour, consisting of three or four stages above one another, hung with rich tapestry, and inlaid with ivory and gold. By the aid of various contrivances they represented battles and their numerous incidents, and the attack and defence of the cities of Judaea. The pegma was also used in sacrifices. A bull having been slain in one of the stages, the high priest placed himself below in a cavern, so as to receive the blood upon his person and his garments, and in this state he was produced by the flamines before the worshippers.

PĔLĂTAE (πελάται), were free labourers working for hire, like thethetes, in contra-distinction to the helots and penestae, who were bondsmen or serfs. In the later Greek writers, such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch, the word is used for the Latin cliens, though the relations expressed by the two terms are by no means similar.

PELTA (πέλτη), a small shield. Iphicrates, observing that the ancientClipeuswas cumbrous and inconvenient, introduced among the Greeks a much smaller and lightershield, from which those who bore it took the name ofpeltastae. It consisted principally of a frame of wood or wicker-work, covered with skin or leather.

PĔNESTAE (πενέσται), a class of serfs in Thessaly, who stood in nearly the same relation to their Thessalian lords as the helots of Laconia did to the Dorian Spartans, although their condition seems to have been on the whole superior. They were the descendants of the old Pelasgic or Aeolian inhabitants of Thessaly Proper. They occupied an intermediate position between freemen and purchased slaves, and they cultivated the land for their masters, paying by way of rent a portion of the produce of it. The Penestae sometimes accompanied their masters to battle, and fought on horseback as their vassals: a circumstance which need not excite surprise, as Thessaly was so famous for cavalry. There were Penestae among the Macedonians also.

PĔNĔTRĀLE. [Templum.]

PĒNĬCILLUS. [Pictura,p. 295a.]

PENTĂCOSĬŎMĔDIMNI. [Census.]

PENTATHLON (πένταθλον,quinquertium), was next to the pancratium the most beautiful of all athletic performances. The persons engaged in it were calledPentathli(πένταθλοι). The pentathlon consisted of five distinct kinds of games, viz. leaping (ἅλμα), the foot-race (δρόμος), the throwing of the discus (δίσκος), the throwing of the spear (σίγυννοςorἀκόντιον), and wrestling (πάλη), which were all performed in one day and in a certain order, one after the other, by the same athletae. The pentathlon was introduced in the Olympic games in Ol. 18.

PENTĒCOSTĒ (πεντηκοστή), a duty of two per cent, levied upon all exports and imports at Athens. The money was collected by persons calledπεντηκοστολόγοι. The merchant who paid the duty was saidπεντηκοντεύεσθαι. All the customs appear to have been let to farm, and probably from year to year. They were let to the highest bidders by the tenPoletae, acting under the authority of the senate. The farmers were calledτελῶναι, and were saidὠνεῖσθαι τὴν πεντηκοστήν.

PEPLUM or PEPLUS (πέπλος), an outer garment or shawl, strictly worn by females, and thus corresponding to the himation or pallium, the outer garment worn by men. Like all other pieces of cloth used for theAmictus, it was often fastened by means of a brooch. It was, however, frequently worn without a brooch. The shawl was also often worn so as to cover the head while it enveloped the body, and more especially on occasion of a funeral or of a marriage, when a very splendid shawl (παστός) was worn by the bride. The following woodcut may be supposed to represent the moment when the bride, so veiled, is delivered to her husband at the door of the nuptial chamber. He wears thePalliumonly; she has a long shift beneath her shawl, and is supported by the pronuba. Of all the productions of the loom, pepli were those on which the greatest skill and labour were bestowed. So various and tasteful were the subjects which they represented, that poets delighted to describe them. The art of weaving them was entirely oriental; and those of the most splendid dyes and curious workmanship were imported from Tyre and Sidon. They often constituted a very important part of the treasures of a temple, having been presented to the divinity by suppliants and devotees.

Peplum. (Bartoli, ‘Admir. Rom. Ant.,’ pl. 57.)

PĒRA (πήρα), a wallet, made of leather, worn suspended at the side by rustics and by travellers to carry their provisions, and adopted in imitation of them by the Cynic philosophers.

PERDŬELLĬO was in the ancient times of the republic nearly the same as theMajestasof the later times. [Majestas.]Perduellisoriginally signifiedhostis, and thus the offence was equivalent to making war on the Roman state. Offenders were tried by two judges calledPerduellionis Duumviri. In the time of the kings the duumviri perduellionis and the quaestores parricidii appear to have been the same persons; but after the establishment of the republic, the offices were distinct, for the quaestores were appointed regularly every year, whereas the duumviri were appointed very rarely, as had been the case during the kingly period. Livy represents the duumviri perduellionis as being appointed by the kings, but they were really proposed by the king and appointed by the populus. During the early part of the republic they were appointed by the comitia curiata, and afterwards by the comitia centuriata, on the proposal of the consuls. In the case of Rabirius (B.C.63), however, this custom was violated, as the duumviri were appointed by the praetor instead of by the comitia centuriata. The punishment for those who were found guilty of perduellio was death; they were either hanged on thearbor infelix, or thrown from the Tarpeian rock. But when the duumviri found a person guilty, he might appeal to the people (in early times the populus, afterwards the comitia centuriata), as was done in the first case which is on record, that of Horatius, and in the last, which is that of Rabirius, whom Cicero defended before the people in the oration still extant.

PĔRĔGRĪNUS, a stranger or foreigner. In ancient times the wordperegrinuswas used as synonymous withhostis; but in the times of which we have historical records, a peregrinus was any person who was not a Roman citizen. InB.C.247, a second praetor (praetor peregrinus) was appointed for the purpose of administering justice in matters between Romans and peregrini, and in matters between such peregrini as had taken up their abode at Rome. [Praetor.] The number of peregrini who lived in the city of Rome appears to have had an injurious influence upon the poorer classes of Roman citizens, whence on some occasions they were driven out of the city. The first example of this kind was set inB.C.127, by the tribune M. Junius Pennus. They were expelled a second time by the tribune C. Papius, inB.C.66. During the last period of the republic and the first centuries of the empire, all the free inhabitants of the Roman world were, in regard to their political rights, either Roman citizens, or Latins, or peregrini, and the latter had, as before, neither commercium nor connubium with the Romans. They were either free provincials, or citizens who had forfeited their civitas, and were degraded to the rank of peregrini, or a certain class of freedmen, called peregrini dediticii.

PĔRĬOECI (περίοικοι). This word properly denotes the inhabitants of a district lying around some particular locality, but is generally used to describe a dependent population, living without the walls or in the country provinces of a dominant city, and although personally free, deprived of the enjoyment of citizenship, and the political rights conferred by it. A political condition such as that of theperioeciof Greece, and like the vassalage of the Germanic nations, could hardly have originated in anything else than foreign conquest, and theperioeciof Laconia furnish a striking illustration of this. Their origin dates from the Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus, when the old inhabitants of the country, the Achaeans, submitted to their conquerors on certain conditions, by which they were left in possession of their private rights of citizenship. They suffered indeed a partial deprivation of their lands, and were obliged to submit to a king of foreign race, but still they remained equal in law to their conquerors, and were eligible to all offices of state except the sovereignty. But this state of things did not last long: in the next generation after the conquest the relation between the two parties was changed. The Achaeans were reduced from citizens to vassals; they were made tributary to Sparta; their lands were subjected to a tax; and they lost their rights of citizenship, the right of voting in the general assembly, and their eligibility to important offices in the state, such as that of a senator, &c. It does not, however, appear that theperioeciwere generally an oppressed people, though kept in a state of political inferiority to their conquerors. On the contrary, the most distinguished among them were admitted to offices of trust, and they sometimes served as heavy-armed soldiers; as, for instance, at the battle of Plataea. The Norman conquest of England presents a striking parallel to the Dorian conquest of Laconia, both in its achievement and consequences. The Saxons, like the old Achaeans, were deprived of their lands, excluded from all offices of trust and dignity, and reduced, though personally free, to a state of political slavery.The Normans, on the contrary, of whatever rank in their own country, were all nobles and warriors, compared with the conquered Saxons, and for a long time enjoyed exclusively the civil and ecclesiastical administration of the land.

PĔRISCĔLIS (περισκελίς), an anklet or bangle, worn by the Orientals, the Greeks, and the Roman ladies also. It decorated the leg in the same manner as the bracelet adorns the wrist and the necklace the throat. The word, however, is sometimes used in the same sense as the Latinfeminalia, that is, drawers reaching from the navel to the knees.

Periscelis, Anklet, worn by a Nereid. (Museo Borbonico, vol.VI. tav. 34.)

PĔRISTRŌMA, a coverlet large enough to hang round the sides of the bed or couch.

PĔRISTȲLĬUM. [Domus.]

PĒRO (ἀρβύλη), a low boot of untanned hide worn by ploughmen (peronatus arator), shepherds, and others employed in rural occupations. The termἀρβύληis applied to an appendage to the Greek chariot. It seems to have been a shoe fastened to the bottom of the chariot, into which the driver inserted his foot, to assist him in driving, and to prevent him from being thrown out.

Masks. (From a Tomb at Sidyma in Lycia.)

PERSŌNA (larva,πρόσωπονorπροσωπεῖον), a mask. Masks were worn by Greek and Roman actors in nearly all dramatic representations. This custom arose undoubtedly from the practice of smearing the face with certain juices and colours, and of appearing in disguise, at the festivals of Dionysus. [Dionysia.] Now, as the Greek drama arose out of these festivals, it is highly probable that some mode of disguising the face was as old as the drama itself. Choerilus of Samos, however, (aboutB.C.500) is said to have been the first who introduced regular masks. Other writers attribute the invention of masks to Thespis or Aeschylus, though the latter had probably only the merit of perfecting and completing the whole theatrical apparatus and costume. Some masks covered,like the masks of modern times, only the face, but they appear more generally to have covered the whole head down to the shoulders, for we always find the hair belonging to a mask described as being a part of it; and this must have been the case in tragedy more especially, as it was necessary to make the head correspond to the stature of an actor, which was heightened by the cothurnus.

Comic Mask. (Statue of Davus in British Museum.)

PES (ποῦς), a foot, the standard measure of length among the Greeks and Romans, as well as among nearly all other nations, both ancient and modern. The Romans applied the uncial division [As] to the foot, which thus contained 12unciae, whence ourinches; and many of the words used to express certain numbers of unciae are applied to the parts of the foot. It was also divided into 16digiti(finger-breadths): this mode of division was used especially by architects and land-surveyors, and is found on all the foot-measures that have come down to us. From the analogy of the as, we have alsodupondiumfor 2 feet, andpes sestertiusfor 2½ feet. The probable value of the Roman foot is 11.6496 inches English. (SeeTablesat the end.)

PESSI. [Latrunculi.]

PESSŬLUS. [Janua.]

PĔTĂLISMUS. [Exsilium.]

PĔTĂSUS. [Pileus.]

PĔTĪTOR. [Actor.]

PĔTAURISTAE. [Petaurum.]

PĔTAURUM (πέταυρον,πέτευρον), used in the Roman games, seems to have been a board moving up and down, with a person at each end, and supported in the middle, something like our see-saw; only it appears to have been much longer, and consequently went to a greater height than is common amongst us. The persons who took part in this game, were calledPetauristaeorPetauristarii.

PĔTORRĬTUM, a four-wheeled carriage, which, like theEssedum, was adopted by the Romans in imitation of the Gauls. It differed from theHarmamaxain being uncovered. Its name is compounded ofpetor, four, andrit, a wheel.

PHĂLANX. [Exercitus.]

PHĂLĂRĬCA. [Hasta.]

PHĂLĔRAE (φάλαρον), a boss, disc, or crescent of metal, in many cases of gold, and beautifully wrought so as to be highly prized. They were usually worn in pairs; and we most commonly read of them as ornaments attached to the harness of horses, especially about the head, and often worn as pendants (pensilia), so as to produce a terrific effect when shaken by the rapid motions of the horse. These ornaments were often bestowed upon horsemen by the Roman generals, in the same manner as theArmilla, theTorques, the hasta pura [Hasta], and the crown of gold [Corona], in order to make a public and permanent acknowledgment of bravery and merit.

PHĂRETRA (φαρέτρα), a quiver, was principally made of hide or leather, and was adorned with gold, painting, and braiding. It had a lid (πῶμα), and was suspended from the right shoulder by a belt passing over the breast and behind the back. Its most common position was on the left hip, and is so seen in the annexed figures, the right-hand one representing an Amazon, and the left-hand an Asiatic archer.

Pharetrae, Quivers. (Left-hand figure from the Aeginetan Marbles;right-hand figure from a Greek Vase.)

PHARMĂCŌN GRĂPHĒ (φαρμάκωνorφαρμακείας γραφή), an indictment at Athens against one who caused the death of another by poison, whether given with intent to kill or to obtain undue influence. It was tried by the court of Areiopagus.

PHĂROS or PHĂRUS (φάρος), a light-house. The most celebrated light-house of antiquity was that situated at the entrance to the port of Alexandria, on an island which bore the name of Pharos. It contained many stories, and the upper stories had windows looking seawards, and torches or fires were kept burning in them by night in order to guide vessels into the harbour. The name of Pharos was given to other light-houses, inallusion to that at Alexandria, which was the model for their construction.

PHĂSĒLUS (φάσηλος), a vessel rather long and narrow, apparently so called from its resemblance to the shape of a phaselus or kidney-bean. It was chiefly used by the Egyptians, and was of various sizes, from a mere boat to a vessel adapted for long voyages. The phaselus was built for speed, to which more attention seems to have been paid than to its strength: whence the epithetfragilisis given to it by Horace. These vessels were sometimes made of clay, to which the epithet of Horace may perhaps also refer.

PHASIS (φάσις, fromφαίνω), one of the various methods by which public offenders at Athens might be prosecuted; but the word is often used to denote any kind of information; and we do not know in what respects thePhasiswas distinguished from other methods of prosecution. The wordsycophantes(συκοφάντης) is derived from the practice of laying information against those who exported figs. [Sycophantes.]

PHORMINX. [Lyra.]

PHRATRĬA. [Tribus.]

PHỸLARCHI (φύλαρχοι) were at Athens after the age of Cleisthenes ten officers, one for each of the tribes, and were specially charged with the command and superintendence of the cavalry. There can be but little doubt that each of the phylarchs commanded the cavalry of his own tribe, and they were themselves collectively and individually under the control of the two hipparchs, just as the taxiarchs were subject to the two strategi. Herodotus informs us that when Cleisthenes increased the number of the tribes from four to ten, he also made ten phylarchs instead of four. It has been thought, however, that the historian should have said ten phylarchs in the place of the old phylobasileis, who were four in number, one for each of the old tribes.

PHỸLŎBĂSĬLEIS (φυλοβασιλεῖς) were four in number, representing each one of the four ancient Athenian tribes, and probably elected (but not for life) from and by them. They were nominated from the Eupatridae, and during the continuance of royalty at Athens these “kings of the tribes” were the constant assessors of the sovereign, and rather as his colleagues than counsellors. Though they were originally connected with the four ancient tribes, still they were not abolished by Cleisthenes when he increased the number of tribes, probably because their duties were mainly of a religious character. They appear to have existed even after his time, and acted as judges, but in unimportant or merely formal matters.

PICTŪRA (γραφή,γραφική,ζωγραφία), painting. I.History of the Art.It is singular that the poems of Homer do not contain any mention of painting as an imitative art. This is the more remarkable, since Homer speaks of rich and elaborate embroidery as a thing not uncommon. This embroidery is actual painting in principle, and is a species of painting in practice, and it was considered such by the Romans, who termed it “pictura textilis.” The various allusions also to other arts, similar in nature to painting, are sufficient to prove that painting must have existed in some degree in Homer’s time, although the only kind of painting he notices is the “red-cheeked” and “purple-cheeked ships,” and an ivory ornament for the faces of horses, which a Maeonian or Carian woman colours with purple. Painting seems to have made considerable progress in Asia Minor while it was still in its infancy in Greece, for Candaules, king of Lydia (B.C.716), is said to have purchased at a high price a painting of Bularchus, which represented a battle of the Magnetes. The old Ionic painting probably flourished at the same time with the Ionian architecture, and continued as an independent school until the sixth centuryB.C., when the Ionians lost their liberty, and with their liberty their art. Herodotus (i. 164) mentions that when Harpagus besieged the town of Phocaea (B.C.544), the inhabitants collected all their valuables, their statues and votive offerings from the temples, leaving only theirpaintings, and such works in metal or of stone as could not easily be removed, and fled with them to the island of Chios; from which we may conclude that paintings were not only valued by the Phocaeans, but also common among them. Herodotus (iv. 88) also informs us that Mandrocles of Samos, who constructed for Darius Hystaspis the bridge of boats across the Bosporus (B.C.508), had a picture painted, representing the passage of Darius’s army, and the king seated on a throne reviewing the troops as they passed, which he dedicated in the temple of Hera at Samos. After the conquest of Ionia, Samos became the seat of the arts. The Heraeum at Samos, in which the picture of Mandrocles was placed, was a general depository for works of art, and in the time of Strabo appears to have been particularly rich in paintings, for he terms it a “picture-gallery” (πινακοθήκη). The first painter in Greece itself, whose name is recorded, is Cimon of Cleonae. His exact period is uncertain, but he was probably a contemporary of Solon, and lived at least a century before Polygnotus. It was with Polygnotus of Thasosthat painting reached its full development (aboutB.C.463). Previous to this time the only cities that had paid any considerable attention to painting were Aegina, Sicyon, Corinth, and Athens. Sicyon and Corinth had long been famous for their paintings upon vases and upon articles of furniture; the school of Athens had attained no celebrity whatever until the arrival of Polygnotus from Thasos raised it to that pre-eminence which it continued to maintain for more than two centuries, although very few of the great painters of Greece were natives of Athens. The principal contemporaries of Polygnotus were Dionysius of Colophon, Plistaenetus and Panaenus of Athens, brothers (or the latter perhaps a nephew) of Phidias, and Micon, also of Athens. The works of Polygnotus and his contemporaries were conspicuous for expression, character, and design; the more minute discriminations of tone and local colour, united with dramatic composition and effect, were accomplished in the succeeding generation, about 420B.C., through the efforts of Apollodorus of Athens and Zeuxis of Heraclea. The contemporaries of Apollodorus and Zeuxis, and those who carried out their principles, were Parrhasius of Ephesus, Eupompus of Sicyon, and Timanthes of Cythnus, all painters of the greatest fame. Athens and Sicyon were the principal seats of the art at this period. Eupompus of Sicyon was the founder of the celebrated Sicyonian school of painting which was afterwards established by Pamphilus. The Alexandrian period was the last of progression or acquisition; but it only added variety of effect to the tones it could not improve, and was principally characterised by the diversity of the styles of so many contemporary artists. The most eminent painters of this period were Protogenes, Pamphilus, Melanthius, Antiphilus, Theon of Samos, Apelles, Euphranor, Pausias, Nicias, Nicomachus, and his brother Aristides. Of all these Apelles was the greatest. The quality in which he surpassed all other painters will scarcely bear a definition; it has been termed grace, elegance, beauty,χάρις,venustas. His greatest work was perhaps his Venus Anadyomene, Venus rising out of the waters. He excelled in portrait, and indeed all his works appear to have been portraits in an extended sense; for his pictures, both historical and allegorical, consisted nearly all of single figures. He enjoyed the exclusive privilege of painting the portraits of Alexander.—The works of Greek art brought from Sicily by Marcellus were the first to inspire the Romans with the desire of adorning their public edifices with statues and paintings, which taste was converted into a passion when they became acquainted with the great treasures and almost inexhaustible resources of Greece, and their rapacity knew no bounds. Mummius, after the destruction of Corinth,B.C.146, carried off or destroyed more works of art than all his predecessors put together. Scaurus, in his aedileship,B.C.58, had all the public pictures still remaining in Sicyon transported to Rome, on account of the debts of the former city, and he adorned the great temporary theatre which he erected upon that occasion with 3000 bronze statues. Verres ransacked Asia and Achaia, and plundered almost every temple and public edifice in Sicily of whatever was valuable in it. Amongst the numerous robberies of Verres, Cicero mentions particularly twenty-seven beautiful pictures taken from the temple of Minerva at Syracuse, consisting of portraits of the kings and tyrants of Sicily. Yet Rome was, about the end of the republic, full of painters, who appear, however, to have been chiefly occupied in portrait, or decorative and arabesque painting. Among the Romans the earliest painter mentioned is a member of the noble house of the Fabii, who received the surname of Pictor through some paintings which he executed in the temple of Salus at Rome,B.C.304, which lasted till the time of the emperor Claudius, when they were destroyed by the fire that consumed that temple. Pacuvius also, the tragic poet, and nephew of Ennius, distinguished himself by some paintings in the temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium, about 180B.C.But generally speaking the artists at Rome were Greeks. Julius Caesar, Agrippa, and Augustus were among the earliest great patrons of artists. Caesar expended great sums in the purchase of pictures by the old masters. He gave as much as 80 talents for two pictures by his contemporary Timomachus of Byzantium, one an Ajax, and the other a Medea meditating the murder of her children. These pictures, which were painted in encaustic, were very celebrated works; they are alluded to by Ovid (Trist.ii. 525), and are mentioned by many other ancient writers.—There are three distinct periods observable in the history of painting in Rome. The first or great period of Graeco-Roman art may be dated from the conquest of Greece until the time of Augustus, when the artists were chiefly Greeks. The second, from the time of Augustus to the so-called Thirty Tyrants and Diocletian, or from the beginning of the Christian era until about the latter end of the third century, during which time the great majority of Roman works of art were produced. The third comprehends the state of the arts during the exarchate, when Rome,in consequence of the foundation of Constantinople, and the changes it involved, suffered similar spoliations to those which it had previously inflicted upon Greece. This was the period of the total decay of the imitative arts amongst the ancients. About the beginning of the second period is the earliest age in which we have any notice of portrait painters (imaginum pictores) as a distinct class. Portraits must have been exceedingly numerous amongst the Romans; Varro made a collection of the portraits of 700 eminent men. The portraits or statues of men who had performed any public service were placed in the temples and other public places; and several edicts were passed by the emperors of Rome respecting the placing of them. The portraits of authors also were placed in the public libraries; they were apparently fixed above the cases which contained their writings, below which chairs were placed for the convenience of readers. They were painted also at the beginning of manuscripts. Several of the most celebrated ancient artists were both sculptors and painters; Phidias and Euphranor were both; Zeuxis and Protogenes were both modellers; Polygnotus devoted some attention to statuary; and Lysippus consulted Eupompus upon style in sculpture. Moreover scene-painting shows that the Greeks were acquainted with perspective at a very early period; for when Aeschylus was exhibiting tragedies at Athens, Agatharchus made a scene, and left a treatise upon it.—II.Methods of Painting.There were two distinct classes of painting practised by the ancients—in water colours, and in wax, both of which were practised in various ways. Of the former the principal were fresco, al fresco; and the various kinds of distemper (a tempera), with glue, with the white of egg, or with gums (a guazzo); and with wax or resins when these were rendered by any means vehicles that could be worked with water. Of the latter the principal was through fire (διὰ πυρὸς), termed encaustic (ἐγκαυστική,encaustica). The painting in wax (κηρογραφία), or ship painting (inceramenta navium), was distinct from encaustic. It does not appear that the Greeks or Romans ever painted in oil; the only mention of oil in ancient writers in connection with painting is the small quantity which entered into the composition of encaustic varnish to temper it. They painted upon wood, clay, plaster, stone, parchment, and canvas. The use of canvas must have been of late introduction, as there is no mention of it having been employed by the Greek painters of the best periods. They generally painted upon panels or tablets (πίνακες,πινόκια,tabulae,tabellae), which when finished were fixed into frames of various descriptions and materials, and encased in walls. The style or cestrum used in drawing, and for spreading the wax colours, pointed at one end and broad and flat at the other, was termedγραφίςby the Greeks and cestrum by the Romans; it was generally made of metal. The hair pencil (penicillus,penicillum) was termedὑπογραφίς, and apparently alsoῥαβδίον. The ancients used also a palette very similar to that used by the moderns. Encaustic was a method very frequently practised by the Roman and later Greek painters; but it was in very little use by the earlier painters, and was not generally adopted until after the time of Alexander. Pliny defines the term thus: “ceris pingere ac picturam inurere,” to paint with wax or wax colours, and toburn inthe picture afterwards with the cauterium; it appears therefore to have been the simple addition of the process ofburning into the ordinary method of painting with wax colours. Cerae (waxes) was the ordinary term for painters’ colours amongst the Romans, but more especially encaustic colours, and they kept them in partitioned boxes, as painters do at present.—III.Polychromy.Ancient statues were often painted, and what is now termed polychrome sculpture was very common in Greece. The practice of colouring statues is undoubtedly as ancient as the art of statuary itself; although they were perhaps originally coloured more from a love of colour than from any design of improving the resemblance of the representation. The Jupiter of the Capitol, placed by Tarquinius Priscus, was coloured with minium. In later times the custom seems to have been reduced to a system, and was practised with more reserve. The practice also of colouring architecture seems to have been universal amongst the Greeks, and very general amongst the Romans.—IV.Vase Painting.The fictile-vase painting of the Greeks was an art of itself, and was practised by a distinct class of artists. The designs upon these vases (which the Greeks termedλήκυθοι) have been variously interpreted, but they have been generally considered to be in some way connected with the initiation into the Eleusinian and other mysteries. They were given as prizes to the victors at the Panathenaea and other games, and seem to have been always buried with their owners at their death, for they have been discovered only in tombs. Even in the time of the Roman empire painted vases were termed “operis antiqui,” and were then sought for in the ancient tombs of Campania and other parts of Magna Graecia. We may form some idea of their immense value fromthe statement of Pliny, that they were more valuable than the Murrhine vases. [Murrhina Vasa.] The paintings on the vases, considered as works of art, vary exceedingly in the detail of the execution, although in style of design they may be arranged in two principal classes, the black and the yellow; for those which do not come strictly under either of these heads are either too few or vary too slightly to require a distinct classification. The black are the most ancient, the yellow the most common.—V.Mosaic, orpictura de musivo,opus musivum, was very general in Rome in the time of the early emperors. It was also common in Greece and Asia Minor at an earlier period, but at the time of the Roman empire it began to a great extent even to supersede painting. It was used chiefly for floors, but walls and also ceilings were sometimes ornamented in the same way. There are still many great mosaics of the ancients extant. The most valuable is the one discovered in Pompeii a few years ago, which is supposed to represent the battle of Issus. The composition is simple, forcible, and beautiful, and the design exhibits in many respects merits of the highest order.

PĪLA (σφαῖρα), a ball. The game at ball (σφαιριστική) was one of the most favourite gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and Romans, from the earliest times to the fall of the Roman empire. It is mentioned in the Odyssey, where it is played by the Phaeacian damsels to the sound of music, and also by two celebrated performers at the court of Alcinous in a most artistic manner accompanied with dancing. The various movements of the body required in the game of ball gave elasticity and grace to the figure; whence it was highly esteemed by the Greeks. The Athenians set so high a value on it, that they conferred upon Aristonicus of Carystus the right of citizenship on account of his skill in this game. It was equally esteemed by the other states of Greece; the young Spartans, when they were leaving the condition of ephebi, were calledσφαιρεῖς, probably because their chief exercise was the game at ball. Every complete gymnasium had a room (σφαιριστήριον,σφαίριστρα) devoted to this exercise [Gymnasium], where a special teacher (σφαιριστικός) gave instruction in the art. Among the Romans the game at ball was generally played at by persons before taking the bath, in a room (sphaeristerium) attached to the baths for the purpose.Pilawas used in a general sense for any kind of ball: but the balls among the Romans seem to have been of three kinds; thepilain its narrower sense, a small ball; thefollis, a great ball filled with air; and thepaganica, of which we know scarcely anything, but which appears to have been smaller than the follis andlarger than the pila. TheHarpastum(fromἁρπάζω) seems to have been the name of a ball, which was thrown among the players, each of whom endeavoured to catch it.

Pila, Game at Ball. (From the Baths of Titus.)

PĪLĀNI. [Exercitus,p. 168b.]

PĪLENTUM, a splendid four-wheeled carriage, furnished with soft cushions, which conveyed the Roman matrons in sacred processions and in going to the Circensian and other games. The pilentum was probably very like theHarmamaxaandCarpentum, but open at the sides, so that those who sat in it might both see and be seen.

PĪLĔUS or PĪLĔUM (πϊλος,πίλημα,πιλωτόν), any piece of felt; more especially a skull-cap of felt, a hat. There seems no reason to doubt that felting is a more ancient invention than weaving [Tela], nor that both of these arts came into Europe from Asia. From the Greeks, who were acquainted with this article as early as the age of Homer, the use of felt passed together with its name to the Romans. Its principal use was to make coverings of the head for the male sex, and the most common one was a simple skull-cap.—Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaven, and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus. This change of attire took place in the temple of Feronia, who was the goddess of freedmen. Hence the phraseservos ad pileum vocareis a summons to liberty, by which slaves were frequently called upon to take up arms with a promise of liberty. The figure of Liberty on some of the coins of Antoninus Pius, struckA.D.145, holds this cap in the right hand. ThePetasus(πέτασος) differed from the pileus or simple skull-cap in having a wide brim: the etymology of the word, fromπετάννυμι, expresses the distinctive shape of these hats. It was preferred to the skull-cap as a protection from the sun.

Petasus, Cap, worn by a Greek Soldier. (From a Greek Vase.)

PĪLUM. [Hasta.]

PISCĪNA. [Balneum.]

PISTOR (ἀρτοποιός), a baker, frompinsere, to pound, since corn was pounded in mortars before the invention of mills. At Rome bread was originally made at home by the women of the house; and there were no persons at Rome who made baking a trade, or any slaves specially kept for this purpose in private houses, tillB.C.173. The name was also given to pastry-cooks and confectioners, in which case they were usually calledpistores dulciariiorcandidarii. Bread was often baked in moulds calledartoptae, and the loaves thus baked were termedartopticii. Bread was not generally made at home at Athens, but was sold in the market-place, chiefly by women, calledἀρτοπώλιδες. These women seem to have been what the fish-women of London are at present; they excelled in abuse.

PLĂGĬĀRĬUS. [Plagium.]

PLĂGĬUM, the offence of kidnapping, concealing, and selling freemen and other persons’ slaves was the subject of a Fabia Lex (B.C.183). The penalty of the lex was pecuniary; but this fell into disuse, and persons who offended against the lex were punished according to the nature of their offence; under the empire they were generally condemned to the mines. The wordPlagiumis said to come from the Greekπλάγιος, oblique, indirect, dolosus. He who committedplagiumwasplagiarius, a word which Martial applies to a person who falsely gave himself out as the author of a book; and in this sense the word has come into common use in our language.

PLAUSTRUM or PLOSTRUM (ἅμαξα), a cart or waggon. It had commonly two wheels, but sometimes four, and it was then called theplaustrum majus. Besides the wheels and axle the plaustrum consisted of a strong pole (temo), to the hinder part of which was fastened a table of wooden planks. The blocks of stone, or other things to be carried, were either laid upon this table without any other support, or an additional securitywas obtained by the use either of boards at the sides, or of a large wicker basket tied upon the cart. The annexed cut exhibits a cart, the body of which is supplied by a basket. The commonest kind of cart-wheel was that calledtympanum, “the drum,” from its resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name. It was nearly a foot in thickness, and was made either by sawing the trunk of a tree across in a horizontal direction, or by nailing together boards of the requisite shape and size. (See the cut.) These wheels advanced slowly, and made a loud creaking, which was heard to a great distance.

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