and accomplishments. Achilles became enamoured of her, and solicited
her hand, and their marriage would have been consummated, had not
Hector her brother opposed it. Polyxena, according to some authors,
accompanied her father when he went to the tent of Achilles to redeem
the body of his son Hector. Some time after, the Grecian hero came
into the temple of Apollo to obtain a sight of the Trojan princess,
but he was murdered there by Paris; and Polyxena, who had returned
his affection, was so afflicted at his death, that she went and
sacrificed herself on his tomb. Some, however, suppose that that
sacrifice was not voluntary, but that the manes of Achilles appeared
to the Greeks as they were going to embark, and demanded of them
the sacrifice of Polyxena. The princess, who was in the number of
the captives, was upon this dragged to her lover’s tomb, and there
immolated by Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, fable 5, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bks. 3 & 5.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 321.――_Catullus_, poem 65.――_Hyginus_, fable 90.
=Polyxenĭdas=, a Syrian general, who flourished B.C. 192.
=Polyxĕnus=, one of the Greek princes during the Trojan war. His
father’s name was Agasthenes. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.――――A son of Medea by Jason.――――A young Athenian who
became blind, &c. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A general of
Dionysius, from whom he revolted.
=Polyxo=, a priestess of Apollo’s temple in Lemnos. She was also nurse
to queen Hypsipyle. It was by her advice that the Lemnian women
murdered all their husbands. _Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2.
――_Hyginus_, fable 15.――――One of the Atlantides.――――A native of Argos,
who married Tlepolemus son of Hercules. She followed him to Rhodes,
after the murder of his uncle Licymnius, and when he departed for
the Trojan war with the rest of the Greek princes, she became the
sole mistress of the kingdom. After the Trojan war, Helen fled from
Peloponnesus to Rhodes, where Polyxo reigned. Polyxo detained her,
and to punish her as being the cause of a war, in which Tlepolemus
had perished, she ordered her to be hanged on a tree by her
female servants, disguised in the habit of Furies. _See:_ Helena.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 19.――――The wife of Nycteus.――――One of the
wives of Danaus.
=Polyzēlus=, a Greek poet of Rhodes. He had written a poem on the
origin and birth of Bacchus, Venus, the Muses, &c. Some of his verses
are quoted by Athenæus. _Hyginus_, _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.――――An Athenian archon.
=Pomaxæthres=, a Parthian soldier, who killed Crassus, according to
some. _Plutarch._
=Pometia=, =Pometii=, =Pometia Suessa=, a town of the Volsci in Latium,
totally destroyed by the Romans, because it had revolted. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Pometīna=, one of the tribes of the people at Rome.
=Pomōna=, a nymph at Rome, who was supposed to preside over gardens and
to be the goddess of all sorts of fruit trees. She had a temple at
Rome, and a regular priest called _Flamen Pomonalis_, who offered
sacrifices to her divinity, for the preservation of fruit. She was
generally represented as sitting on a basket full of flowers and
fruit, and holding a bough in one hand and apples in the other.
Pomona was particularly delighted with the cultivation of the earth;
she disdained the toils of the field, and the fatigues of hunting.
Many of the gods of the country endeavoured to gain her affection,
but she received their addresses with coldness. Vertumnus was the
only one who, by assuming different shapes, and introducing himself
into her company, under the form of an old woman, prevailed upon
her to break her vow of celibacy and to marry him. This deity was
unknown among the Greeks. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 628,
&c.――_Festus_, _Lexicon of Festus_.
=Pompeia=, a daughter of Sextus Pompey by Scribonia. She was promised
to Marcellus, as a means of procuring a reconciliation between her
father and the triumvirs, but she married Scribonius Libo.――――A
daughter of Pompey the Great, Julius Cæsar’s third wife. She was
accused of incontinence, because Clodius had introduced himself in
women’s clothes into the room where she was celebrating the mysteries
of Cybele. Cæsar repudiated her upon this accusation. _Plutarch._
――――The wife of Annæus Seneca, was the daughter of Pompeius Paulinus.
――――There was a portico at Rome, called _Pompeia_, much frequented
by all orders of people. _Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, li. 67.――_Martial_,
bk. 11, ltr. 48.
=Pompeia lex=, by Pompey the Great, _de ambitu_, A.U.C. 701. It
ordained that whatever person had been convicted of the crime
of _ambitus_, should be pardoned, provided he could impeach two
others of the same crime, and occasion the condemnation of one of
them.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 701, which forbade the use
of _laudatores_ in trials, or persons who gave a good character of
the prisoner then impeached.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 683.
It restored to the tribunes their original power and authority, of
which they had been deprived by the Cornelian law.――――Another by
the same, A.U.C. 701. It shortened the forms of trials, and enacted
that the three first days of a trial should be employed in examining
witnesses, and it allowed only one day to the parties to make their
accusation and defence. The plaintiff was confined to two hours, and
the defendant to three. This law had for its object the riots, which
happened from the quarrels of Clodius and Milo.――――Another by the
same, A.U.C. 698. It required that the judges should be the richest
of every century, contrary to the usual form. It was, however,
requisite that they should be such as the Aurelian law prescribed.
――――Another of the same, A.U.C. 701. Pompey was by this empowered to
continue in the government of Spain five years longer.
=Pompeiānus Jupiter=, a large statue of Jupiter, near Pompey’s theatre,
whence it received its name. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 7.
=Pompeiānus=, a Roman knight of Antioch, raised to offices of the
greatest trust, under the emperor Aurelius, whose daughter Lucilla
he married. He lived in great popularity at Rome, and retired from
the court when Commodus succeeded to the imperial crown. He ought,
according to Julian’s opinion, to have been chosen and adopted as
successor by Marcus Aurelius.――――A general of Maxentius, killed by
Constantine.――――A Roman put to death by Caracalla.
=Pompeii=, or =Pompeium=, a town of Campania, built, as some suppose,
by Hercules, and so called because the hero there exhibited the long
procession (_pompa_) of the herds of Geryon, which he had obtained
by conquest. It was partly demolished by an earthquake, A.D. 63,
and afterwards rebuilt. Sixteen years after it was swallowed up by
another earthquake, which accompanied one of the eruptions of mount
Vesuvius. Herculaneum, in its neighbourhood, shared the same fate.
The people of the town were then assembled in a theatre, where
public spectacles were exhibited. _See:_ Herculaneum. _Livy_, bk. 9,
ch. 38.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones Naturales_, bk. 4.
――_Solinus_, bk. 8.
=Pompeiopŏlis=, a town of Cilicia, formerly called _Soli_. _Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 13.――――Another in Paphlagonia, originally called
_Eupatoria_, which name was exchanged when Pompey conquered
Mithridates.