the parts of generation in the sexes. He was son of Venus by Mercury
or Adonis, or, according to the more received opinion, by Bacchus.
The goddess of beauty, who was enamoured of Bacchus, went to meet
him as he returned victorious from his Indian expedition, and by him
she had Priapus, who was born at Lampsacus. Priapus was so deformed
in all his limbs, particularly the genitals, by means of Juno, who
had assisted at the delivery of Venus, that the mother, ashamed to
have given birth to such a monster, ordered him to be exposed on the
mountains. His life, however, was preserved by the shepherds, and he
received the name of Priapus _propter deformitatem & membri virilis
magnitudinem_. He soon became a favourite of the people of Lampsacus,
but he was expelled by the inhabitants on account of the freedom
which he took with their wives. This violence was punished by the
son of Venus, and when the Lampsacenians had been afflicted with a
disease in the genitals, Priapus was recalled, and temples erected to
his honour. Festivals were also celebrated, and the people, naturally
idle and indolent, gave themselves up to every lasciviousness and
impurity during the celebration. His worship was also introduced
in Rome; but the Romans revered him more as a god of orchards and
gardens, than as the patron of licentiousness. A crown painted with
different colours was offered to him in the spring, and in the summer
a garland of ears of corn. An ass was generally sacrificed to him,
because that animal, by its braying, awoke the nymph Lotis, to whom
Priapus was going to offer violence. He is generally represented with
a human face and the ears of a goat; he holds a stick in his hand,
with which he terrifies birds, as also a club to drive away thieves,
and a scythe to prune the trees and cut down corn. He was crowned
with the leaves of the vine, and sometimes with laurel or rocket.
The last of these plants was sacred to him, as it is said to raise
the passions and excite love. Priapus is often distinguished by
the epithet of _phallus_, _fascinus_, _Ictyphallus_, or _ruber_, or
_rubicundus_, which are all expressive of his deformity. _Catullus_,
poems 19 & 20.――_Columella_, bk. 2, _de Res Rustica_.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 1.――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 1, li. 18.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 415; bk. 6, li. 319.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7, li. 33;
_Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 111.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Hyginus_,
fable 190.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――――A town of Asia Minor near Lampsacus,
now _Caraboa_. Priapus was the chief deity of the place, and from him
the town received its name, because he had taken refuge there when
banished from Lampsacus. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――An island near Ephesus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.
=Priēne=, a maritime town of Asia Minor, at the foot of mount Mycale,
one of the 12 independent cities of Ionia. It gave birth to Bias,
one of the seven wise men of Greece. It had been built by an Athenian
colony. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2; bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Prima=, a daughter of Romulus and Hersilia.
=Prion=, a place at Carthage.
=Prisciānus=, a celebrated grammarian at Athens, in the age of the
emperor Justinian.
=Priscilla=, a woman praised for her conjugal affection by Statius,
bk. 5, _Sylvæ_, poem 1.
=Priscus Servilius=, a dictator at Rome who defeated the Veientes and
the Fidenates.――――A surname of the elder Tarquin king of Rome. _See:_
Tarquinius.――――A governor of Syria, brother to the emperor Philip.
He proclaimed himself emperor in Macedonia when he was informed of
his brother’s death, but he was soon after conquered and put to death
by Decius, Philip’s murderer.――――A friend of the emperor Severus.
――――A friend of the emperor Julian, almost murdered by the populace.
――――Helvidius, a questor in Achaia during the reign of Nero,
remarkable for his independent spirit. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4,
ch. 6.――_Juvenal._――――An officer under Vitellius.――――One of the
emperor Adrian’s friends.――――A friend of Domitian.――――An orator,
whose dissipated and luxurious manners Horace ridicules, bk. 1,
satire 7, li. 9.
=Pristis=, the name of one of the ships that engaged in the naval
combat which was exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of his
father’s death. She was commanded by Mnestheus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 116.
=Privernus=, a Rutulian killed by Capys in the wars between Æneas and
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 576.
=Privernum=, now _Piperno Vecchio_, a town of the Volsci in Italy,
whose inhabitants were called _Privernates_. It became a Roman colony.
_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 540.――_Cicero_,
bk. 1, _De Divinatione_, ch. 43.
=Proba=, the wife of the emperor Probus.――――A woman who opened the
gates of Rome to the Goths.
=Probus Marcus Aurelius Severus=, a native of Sirmium in Pannonia. His
father was originally a gardener, who, by entering the army, rose
to the rank of a military tribune. His son obtained the same office
in the 22nd year of his age, and he distinguished himself so much by
his probity, his valour, his intrepidity, moderation, and clemency,
that, at the death of the emperor Tacitus, he was invested with
the imperial purple by the voluntary and uninfluenced choice of
his soldiers. His election was universally approved by the Roman
senate and the people; and Probus, strengthened on his throne by the
affection and attachment of his subjects, marched against the enemies
of Rome, in Gaul and Germany. Several battles were fought, and after
he had left 400,000 barbarians dead in the field, Probus turned
his arms against the Sarmatians. The same success attended him, and
after he had quelled and terrified to peace the numerous barbarians
of the north, he marched through Syria against the Blemmyes
in the neighbourhood of Egypt. The Blemmyes were defeated with
great slaughter, and the military character of the emperor was so
well established, that the king of Persia sued for peace by his
ambassadors, and attempted to buy the conqueror’s favour with the
most splendid presents. Probus was then feasting upon the most common
food when the ambassadors were introduced; but without even casting
his eyes upon them, he said, that if their master did not give proper
satisfaction to the Romans, he would lay his territories desolate,
and as naked as the crown of his head. As he spoke, the emperor took
off his cap, and showed the baldness of his head to the ambassadors.
The conditions were gladly accepted by the Persian monarch, and
Probus retired to Rome to convince his subjects of the greatness
of his conquests, and to claim from them the applause which their
ancestors had given to the conqueror of Macedonia or the destroyer of
Carthage, as he passed along the streets of Rome. His triumph lasted
several days, and the Roman populace were long entertained with
shows and combats. But the Roman empire, delivered from its foreign
enemies, was torn by civil discord; and peace was not re-established
till three usurpers had been severally defeated. While his
subjects enjoyed tranquillity, Probus encouraged the liberal
arts; he permitted the inhabitants of Gaul and Illyricum to plant
vines in their territories, and he himself repaired 70 cities in
different parts of the empire which had been reduced to ruins.
He also attempted to drain the waters which were stagnated in the
neighbourhood of Sirmium, by conveying them to the sea by artificial
canals. His armies were employed in this laborious undertaking; but
as they were unaccustomed to such toils, they soon mutinied, and
fell upon the emperor as he was passing into one of the towns of
Illyricum. He fled into an iron tower which he himself had built to
observe the marshes, but as he was alone, and without arms, he was
soon overpowered and murdered, in the 50th year of his age, after a
reign of six years and four months, on the second of November, after
Christ 282. The news of his death was received with the greatest
consternation; not only his friends, but his very enemies, deplored
his fate, and even the army, which had been concerned in his fall,
erected a monument over his body, and placed upon it this inscription:
_Hic Probus imperator, verè probus, situs est, victor omnium gentium
barbararum, victor etiam tyrannorum_. He was then preparing in a
few days to march against the Persians that had revolted, and his
victories there might have been as great as those he obtained in the
two other quarters of the globe. He was succeeded by Carus, and his
family, who had shared his greatness, immediately retired from Rome,
not to become objects either of private or public malice. _Zosimus._
――_Probus._――_Saturninus._――――Æmilius, a grammarian in the age of
Theodosius. The lives of excellent commanders, written by Cornelius
Nepos, have been falsely attributed to him by some authors.――――An
oppressive prefect of the pretorian guards, in the reign of
Valentinian.
=Procas=, a king of Alba after his father Aventinus. He was father of
Amulius and Numitor. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, li. 622.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 767.
=Prochy̆ta=, an island of Campania in the bay of Puteoli, now _Procida_.
It was situated near Inarima, from which it was said that it had
been separated by an earthquake. It received its name, according to
Dionysius, from the nurse of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 715.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.
=Procilius=, a Latin historian in the age of Pompey the Great. _Varro._
=Procilla Julia=, a woman of uncommon virtue, killed by the soldiers of
Otho. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_, ch. 4.
=Caius Valerius Procillus=, a prince of Gaul, intimate with Cæsar.
=Proclēa=, a daughter of Clitius, who married Cycnus, a son of Neptune.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.
=Procles=, a son of Aristodemus and Argia, born at the same birth
as Eurysthenes. There were continual dissensions between the two
brothers, who both sat on the Spartan throne, _See:_ Eurysthenes and
Lacedæmon.――――A native of Andros in the Ægean sea, who was crowned
at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 14.――――A man who headed
the Ionians when they took Samos. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――――A
Carthaginian writer, son of Eucrates. He wrote some historical
treatises, of which Pausanias has preserved some fragments.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35.――――A tyrant of Epidaurus, put to death
and thrown into the sea. _Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_.――――A
general of the Naxians in Sicily, who betrayed his country to
Dionysius the tyrant for a sum of money.
=Proclidæ=, the descendants of Procles, who sat on the throne of Sparta,
together with the Eurysthenidæ. _See:_ Lacedæmon and Eurysthenes.
=Procne.= _See:_ Progne.
=Proconnēsus=, now _Marmora_, an island of the Propontis, at the
north-east of Cyzicus; also called _Elaphonnesus_ and _Neuris_. It
was famous for its fine marble. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Strabo_,
bk. 13.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Procopius=, a celebrated officer of a noble family in Cilicia, related
to the emperor Julian, with whom he lived in great intimacy. He
was universally admired for his integrity, but he was not destitute
of ambition or pride. After he had signalized himself under Julian
and his successor, he retired from the Roman provinces among the
barbarians in the Thracian Chersonesus, and some time after he
suddenly made his appearance at Constantinople, when the emperor
Valens had marched into the east, and he proclaimed himself master
of the eastern empire. His usurpation was universally acknowledged,
and his victories were so rapid, that Valens would have resigned
the imperial purple, had not his friends intervened. But now fortune
changed; Procopius was defeated in Phrygia, and abandoned by his army.
His head was cut off, and carried to Valentinian in Gaul, A.D. 366.
Procopius was slain in the 42nd year of his age, and he had usurped
the title of emperor for above eight months. _Ammianus Marcellinus_,
bks. 25 & 26.――――A Greek historian of Cæsarea in Palestine, secretary
to the celebrated Belisarius, A.D. 534. He wrote the history of
the reign of Justinian, and greatly celebrated the hero, whose
favours and patronage he enjoyed. This history is divided into eight
books, two of which give an account of the Persian war, two of the
Vandals, and four of the Goths, to the year 553, which was afterwards
continued in five books by Agathias till 559. Of this performance the
character is great, though perhaps the historian is often too severe
on the emperor. The works of Procopius were edited in 2 vols., folio,
Paris, 1662.
=Procris=, a daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. She married
Cephalus. _See:_ Cephalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 445.――――A
daughter of Thestius.
=Procrustes=, a famous robber of Attica, killed by Theseus near the
Cephisus. He tied travellers on a bed, and if their length exceeded
that of the bed, he used to cut it off, but if they were shorter,
he had them stretched to make their length equal to it. He is called
by some Damastes and Polypemon. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2, li. 69;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 43.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Procŭla=, a prostitute in Juvenal’s age, satire 2, li. 68.
=Procūleius=, a Roman knight, very intimate with Augustus. He is
celebrated for his humanity and paternal kindness to his brothers
Muræna and Scipio, with whom he divided his possessions, after they
had forfeited their estates, and incurred the displeasure of Augustus
for siding with young Pompey. He was sent by Augustus to Cleopatra,
to endeavour to bring her alive into his presence, but to no purpose.
He destroyed himself when labouring under a heavy disease. _Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 2.――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 24.――――A
debauchee in Nero’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 40.
=Procŭlus Julius=, a Roman who, after the death of Romulus, declared
that he had seen him in his appearance more than human, and that
he had ordered him to bid the Romans to offer him sacrifices under
the name of Quirinus, and to rest assured that Rome was destined by
the gods to become the capital of the world. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――Geganius, a Roman consul.――――Placitius,
a Roman who conquered the Hernici.――――A friend of Vitellius.――――A
consul under Nerva.――――A man accused of extortion.――――An African in
the age of Aurelius. He published a book entitled _de regionibus_,
or _religionibus_, on foreign countries, &c.――――An officer who
proclaimed himself emperor in Gaul, in the reign of Probus. He was
soon after defeated, and exposed on a gibbet. He was very debauched
and licentious in his manners, and had acquired riches by piratical
excursions.
=Procyon=, a star near Sirius, or the dog-star, before which it
generally rises in July. Cicero calls it _Anticanis_, which is of the
same signification (προ κυων). _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 44.
=Prodĭcus=, a sophist and rhetorician of Cos, about 396 years before
Christ. He was sent as ambassador by his countrymen to Athens, where
he publicly taught, and had among his pupils Euripides, Socrates,
Theramenes, and Isocrates. He travelled from town to town in Greece,
to procure admirers and get money. He made his auditors pay to hear
him harangue, which has given occasion to some of the ancients to
speak of the orations of Prodicus for 50 drachmas. In his writings,
which were numerous, he composed a beautiful episode, in which virtue
and pleasure were introduced, as attempting to make Hercules one of
their votaries. The hero at last yielded to the charms of virtue and
rejected pleasure. This has been imitated by Lucian. Prodicus was at
last put to death by the Athenians on pretence that he corrupted the
morals of their youth. _Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_.
=Proerna=, a town of Phthiotis. _Livy_, bk. 63, ch. 14.
=Prœrosia=, a surname of Ceres. Her festivals, celebrated at Athens and
Eleusis before the sowing of corn, bore the same name. _Meursius_,
_Eleusinia_.
=Prœtĭdes=, the daughters of Prœtus king of Argolis, were three
in number, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa. They became insane
for neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to others,
for preferring themselves to Juno, and they ran about the fields,
believing themselves to be cows, and flying away not to be harnessed
to the plough or to the chariot. Prœtus applied to Melampus to cure
his daughters of their insanity, but he refused to employ him when he
demanded the third part of his kingdom as a reward. This neglect of
Prœtus was punished, the insanity became contagious, and the monarch
at last promised Melampus two parts of his kingdom and one of his
daughters, if he would restore them and the Argian women to their
senses. Melampus consented, and after he had wrought the cure, he
married the most beautiful of the Prœtides. Some have called them
Lysippe, Ipponoe, and Cyrianassa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li. 48.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15.――_Lactantius [Placidus]_ on _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bks. 1 & 3.
=Prœtus=, a king of Argos, son of Abas and Ocalea. He was twin brother
to Acrisius, with whom he quarrelled even before their birth. This
dissension between the two brothers increased with their years. After
their father’s death, they both tried to obtain the kingdom of Argos;
but the claims of Acrisius prevailed, and Prœtus left Peloponnesus
and retired to the court of Jobates king of Lycia, where he married
Stenobœa, called by some Antea or Antiope. He afterwards returned to
Argolis, and by means of his father-in-law he made himself master of
Tirynthus. Stenobœa had accompanied her husband to Greece, and she
became by him mother of the Prœtides, and of a son called Megapenthes,
who after his father’s death succeeded on the throne of Tirynthus.
_See:_ Stenobœa. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 160.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Progne=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens by Zeuxippe. She married
Tereus king of Thrace, by whom she had a son called Itylus or Itys.
_See:_ Philomela.
=Prolăus=, a native of Elis, father to Philanthus and Lampus by Lysippe.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 2.
=Promăchus=, one of the Epigoni, son of Parthenopæus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 20.――――A son of Psophis daughter of Eryx king of Sicily.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 34.――――An athlete of Pallene.――――A son of
Æson, killed by Pelias. _Apollodorus._
=Promathĭdas=, an historian of Heraclea.
=Promathion=, a man who wrote a history of Italy. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Promĕdon=, a native of the island of Naxos, &c.
=Promenæa=, one of the priestesses of the temple of Dodona. It was from
her that Herodotus received the tradition that two doves had flown
from Thebes in Egypt, one to Dodona, and the other to the temple of
Jupiter Ammon, where they gave oracles.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 55.
=Promethei jugum= and =antrum=, a place on the top of mount Caucasus,
in Albania.
=Promētheus=, a son of Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was
brother to Atlas, Menœtius, and Epimetheus, and surpassed all mankind
in cunning and fraud. He ridiculed the gods, and deceived Jupiter
himself. He sacrificed two bulls, and filled their skins, one with
the flesh and the other with the bones, and asked the father of the
gods which of the two he preferred as an offering. Jupiter became
the dupe of his artifice, and chose the bones, and from that time
the priests of the temples were ever after ordered to burn the whole
victims on the altars, the flesh and the bones altogether. To punish
Prometheus and the rest of mankind, Jupiter took fire away from the
earth, but the son of Iapetus outwitted the father of the gods. He
climbed the heavens by the assistance of Minerva, and stole fire from
the chariot of the sun, which he brought down upon the earth at the
end of a ferula. This provoked Jupiter the more; he ordered Vulcan
to make a woman of clay, and after he had given her life, he sent her
to Prometheus, with a box of the richest and most valuable presents
which she had received from the gods. _See:_ Pandora. Prometheus, who
suspected Jupiter, took no notice of Pandora or her box, but he made
his brother Epimetheus marry her, and the god, now more irritated,
ordered Mercury, or Vulcan, according to Æschylus, to carry this
artful mortal to mount Caucasus, and there tie him to a rock, where
for 30,000 years a vulture was to feed upon his liver, which was
never diminished, though continually devoured. He was delivered from
this painful confinement about 30 years afterwards by Hercules, who
killed the bird of prey. The vulture, or, according to others, the
eagle which devoured the liver of Prometheus, was born from Typhon
and Echidna. According to Apollodorus, Prometheus made the first man
and woman that ever were upon the earth with clay, which he animated
by means of the fire which he had stolen from heaven. On this account,
therefore, the Athenians raised him an altar in the grove of Academus,
where they yearly celebrated games to his honour. During these games
there was a race, and he who carried a burning torch in his hand
without extinguishing it obtained the prize. Prometheus, as it is
universally credited, had received the gift of prophecy; and all the
gods, and even Jupiter himself, consulted him as a most infallible
oracle. To him mankind are indebted for the invention of many of the
useful arts; he taught them the use of plants, with their physical
power, and from him they received the knowledge of taming horses
and different animals, either to cultivate the ground, or for
the purposes of luxury. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, lis. 510 & 550.
――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30; bk. 5,
ch. 11.――_Hyginus_, fable 144.――_Aeschylus_, _Prometheus Bound_.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 82.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 3.――_Seneca_, _Medea_, li. 823.
=Promēthis= and =Promethīdes=, a patronymic applied to the children
of Prometheus, as to Deucalion, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10,
li. 390.
=Promethus= and =Damasichthon=, two sons of Codrus, who conducted
colonies into Asia Minor. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Promŭlus=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 574.
=Pronapĭdes=, an ancient Greek poet of Athens, who was, according to
some, preceptor to Homer. It is said that he first taught the Greeks
how to write from the left to the right, contrary to the custom of
writing from the right to the left, which is still observed by some
of the eastern nations. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Pronax=, a brother of Adrastus king of Argos, son of Talaus and
Lysimache. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Pronoe=, a daughter of Phorbas, mother of Pleuron and Calydon by Æolus.
=Pronŏmus=, a Theban who played so skilfully on the lute, that
the invention of that musical instrument is attributed to him.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Athenæus_, bk. 14, ch. 7.
=Pronous=, a son of Phlegeas, killed by the sons of Alcmæon.
=Pronŭba=, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriages.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 166.
=Propertius Sextus Aurelius=, a Latin poet born at Mevania, in Umbria.
His father was a Roman knight, whom Augustus proscribed, because
he had followed the interest of Antony. He came to Rome, where his
genius and poetical talents soon recommended him to the notice of the
great and powerful. Mecænas, Gallus, and Virgil became his friends,
and Augustus his patron. Mecænas wished him to attempt an epic poem,
of which he proposed the emperor for hero; but Propertius refused,
observing that his abilities were unequal to the task. He died
about 19 years before Christ, in the 40th year of his age. His works
consist of four books of elegies, which are written with so much
spirit, vivacity, and energy, that many authors call him the prince
of the elegiac poets among the Latins. His poetry, though elegant,
is not free from faults, and the many lascivious expressions which
he uses deservedly expose him to censure. Cynthia, who is the heroine
of all his elegies, was a Roman lady, whose real name was Hostia, or
Hostilia, of whom the poet was deeply enamoured. Though Mevania is
more generally supposed to be the place of his birth, yet four other
cities of Umbria have disputed the honour of it; Hespillus, Ameria,
Perusia, and Assisium. The best edition is that of Santenius, 4to,
Utrecht, 1780; and when published together with Catullus and Tibullus,
those of Grævius, 8vo, Utrecht, 1680, and of Vulpius, 4 vols.,
Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755, and the edition of Barbou, 12mo, Paris,
1754. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 465; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 55;
_De Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 333.――_Martial_, bk. 8, ltr. 73; bk. 14,
ltr. 189.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, _Letters_;
bk. 9, ltr. 22.