province of the same name. It is surrounded by walls and ditches, and is
fortified by bastions. Patavium was founded by the Trojan chief Antenor,
and according to Strabo, it could send an army of 120,000 men into the
field. The Patavians were constantly at war with, and successfully
withstood, the Cisalpine Gauls; and in 301 B.C. they also defeated
Cleonymus the Lacedæmonian, who had unexpectedly landed at the mouth of
the _Medoacus_ (the modern Brenta), and attacked them. Patavium fell
eventually under the power of Rome, though it seems to have retained a
semblance of independence. In 452 its prosperity came suddenly to an
end, when it was taken and destroyed by Attila; and in 601 it was again
taken and burnt to the ground by Agilulf, king of the Longobards. It
rose, however, from its ashes, and in the 10th century it had already
become, as it has continued, one of the most important cities of Upper
Italy. In 1164 Padua formed, with Verona, Vicenza, and Treviso, a league
for the protection of their liberties against Frederick I. (Barbarossa);
in 1167 it joined the great Lombard League; and by the peace of
Constance in 1183 had at length its liberties acknowledged. In 1239,
Eccelino da Romano made himself master of it, and after having practiced
unheard-of cruelties, in 1256 he was driven out and defeated by a
crusade formed against him by most of the towns in Upper Italy. After a
period of stormy independence, Padua in 1337 fell under the sway of the
house of Carrara, who held it till the year 1405, when it was taken by
the republic of Venice, with which, in 1797, it passed into the hands of
Austria, by the treaty of Campo Formio. In 1866 it was ceded to
Napoleon III., and by him transferred to the kingdom of Italy.
=Pæones.= A powerful Thracian people, who in early times were spread
over a great part of Macedonia and Thrace. Their country was called
Pæonia. The Pæonian tribes on the lower course of the Strymon were
subdued by the Persians, 513 B.C.; but the tribes in the north of the
country maintained their independence. They frequently invaded and
plundered the territories of the Macedonian monarchs; but they were
eventually subdued by Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. After
the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans, 168, the part of Pæonia east of
the Axius formed the second, and the part of Pæonia west of the Axius
formed the third of the four districts into which Macedonia was divided
by the Romans.
=Pæstum= (anc. _Posidonia_, It. _Pesto_). Anciently a Greek city of
Lucania, in the present Neapolitan province of Principato Citeriore, on
the _Sinus Pæstanus_, now the Gulf of Salerno. It was founded by the
Trœzenians and the Sybarites some time between 650 and 610 B.C. It was
subdued by the Samnites of Lucania, who named it Pæstum, and slowly
declined in prosperity after it fell into the hands of the Romans, who
established a colony here about 273 B.C. In 210 B.C. it furnished ships
to the squadron with which D. Quintus repaired to the siege of Tarentum;
and in the following year it was among the eighteen colonies which still
professed readiness to furnish supplies to the Roman armies. In the 10th
century it was burnt by the Saracens, and the site is now occupied by
the modern village of Pesto.
=Pageant.= In ancient military history, a triumphal car, chariot, or
arch, variously adorned with colors, flags, etc., carried about in
public shows, processions, etc. Also gorgeous show or spectacle.
=Pagræ= (now _Pagras_, _Bagras_, _Bargas_). A city of Syria, on the
eastern side of Mount Amanus, at the foot of the pass called by Ptolemy
the Syrian Gates, on the road from Antioch to Alexandria, the scene of
the battle between Alexander Balas and Demetrius Nicator, 145 B.C.
=Pah.= The name of the stockaded intrenchments of the New Zealanders.
=Pah-Ute Indians.= A tribe of aborigines of Shoshone stock, who, to the
number of 2000, reside on two reservations in Nevada. (See INDIANS AND
THEIR AGENCIES.) They are a peaceable race, but are low down in the
scale of civilization.
=Pailler= (_Fr._). An ancient body of French militia. The soldiers
belonging to it were probably so called either from the circumstance of
their wearing straw in their helmets, in order to know one another in
action, or because they were accustomed to set fire to the habitations
of their enemies with bundles of straw, which they always carried with
them for that purpose.
=Paladin= (_Fr._). A name given to those ancient knights who were
either what the French call _comtes du palais_, “counts of the palace,”
or princes lineally descended from Charlemagne and other old kings.
=Paladin.= A term originally derived from the counts Palatine, or of the
palace, who were the highest dignitaries in the Byzantine court, and
thence used generally for a lord or chieftain, and by the Italian
romantic poets for a knight-errant.
=Palæsta= (now _Palasa_). A town of Epirus, on the coast of Chaonia, and
a little south of the Acroceraunian Mountains. Here Cæsar landed his
forces when he crossed over to Greece to carry on the war against
Pompey.
=Palæstra.= In Grecian antiquity, a public building where the youth
exercised themselves in the military art, wrestling, running, etc.
=Palais Royal.= A heterogeneous mass of buildings on the eastern side of
the Rue Richelieu, in Paris, composed of a palace, theatres, public
gardens, shops, cafés, etc. The old palace was built between 1624 and
1636 on the site of the Hôtel Rambouillet by Cardinal Richelieu, who, at
his death, bequeathed it to Louis XIII. It was taken possession of by
the republican government, and used for the sittings of the tribunes
during the Reign of Terror. The palace was sacked by the mob during the
revolution of 1848.
=Palanka.= A species of permanent intrenched camp attached to Turkish
frontier fortresses, in which the ramparts are revetted with large
beams, rising 7 or 8 feet above the earthwork, so as to form a strong
palisade above.
=Palanquin= (Hind. _palki_). A vehicle commonly used in Hindostan,
China, Japan, and other Asiatic countries by travelers. The palanquin in
use in Hindostan is a wooden box, about 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4
feet high, with wooden shutters, which can be opened or shut at
pleasure, and constructed like Venetian blinds for the purpose of
admitting fresh air, while, at the same time, they exclude the scorching
rays of the sun and the heavy showers of rain so common in that country.
At each end of the palanquin, on the outside, two iron rings are fixed,
and the _hammals_, or palanquin-bearers, of whom there are four, two at
each end, support the palanquin by a pole passing through these rings.
Traveling in this mode is continued both by day and night, and the
palanquin is accompanied by a train of attendants, who carry the
traveler’s clothes and whatever articles he may not immediately need.
Similar modes of traveling have been at various times in use in Western
Europe, but only for short distances. The Roman _lectica_ (“litter”),
the French _chaise à porteurs_, and the English sedan-chair were the
forms of vehicles most in use, and the two latter were in general use in
towns till they were superseded by coaches, etc. The Roman litter was
one of the criteria of its owner’s wealth, the rich man generally
exhibiting the prosperous condition of his affairs by the multitude of
the bearers and other attendants accompanying him.
=Palatinate, The= (Ger. _Pfalz_). A name applied to two German states,
which were united previously to the year 1620. They were distinguished
as the Upper and Lower Palatinate. The Upper now forms apart of the
kingdom of Bavaria, and the Lower a part of Rhenish Prussia, situated on
both sides of the Rhine, between Worms and Carlsruhe. By the peace of
Lunéville (1801), the Duke Maximilian of Zweibrücken was compelled to
cede a portion of the Rhenish Palatinate to France, a part to Baden, a
part to Hesse-Darmstadt, and a part to Nassau. Treaties of Paris of 1814
and 1815 re-assigned the Palatinate lands beyond the Rhine to Germany,
Bavaria receiving the largest share, and the remainder being divided
between Hesse-Darmstadt and Prussia.
=Palatine.= A town of Montgomery Co., N. Y., on the north side of the
Mohawk River. Near here, at Stone Arabia, an engagement took place
October 18, 1780, between the Tories under Johnson and the Continental
militia under Col. John Brown, in which the latter were defeated and
their leader slain.
=Pale.= In heraldry, one of the figures known as ordinaries, consisting
of a horizontal band in the middle of the shield, of which it is said to
occupy one-third. Several charges of any kind are said to be “in pale”
when they stand over each other horizontally, as do the three lions of
England. A shield divided through the middle by a horizontal line is
said to be “parted per pale.” The pallet is the diminutive of the pale,
and is most generally not borne singly. Three pallets gules were the
arms of Raymond, count of Provence. When the field is divided into an
even number of parts by perpendicular lines, it is called “paly of” so
many pieces. When divided by lines perpendicular and bendways crossing,
it is called “paly bendy.” An endorse is a further diminutive of the
pallet, and a pale placed between two endorses is said to be endorsed.
=Pale.= In Irish history, means that portion of the kingdom over which
the English rule and English law were acknowledged. There is so much
vagueness in the meaning of the term, that a few words of explanation
appear necessary. The vagueness arises from the great fluctuations which
the English authority underwent in Ireland at various periods, and from
the consequent fluctuation of the actual territorial limits of the Pale.
The designation dates from the reign of John, who distributed the
portion of Ireland then nominally subject to England into twelve
counties palatine, Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny,
Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, and Limerick. To this entire
district, in a general way, was afterwards given the designation of the
Pale. But as it may be said that the term is commonly applied by the
writers of each age to the actual English territory of the period, and
as this varied much, care must be taken to allude to the age of which
the name Pale is used. Thus at the close of the reign of Edward III.,
the English law extended only to the four counties of Dublin, Carlow,
Meath, and Louth. In the reign of Henry VI., the limits were still
further restricted. In a general way, however, the Pale may be
considered as comprising the counties of Dublin, Meath, Carlow,
Kilkenny, and Louth. This, although not quite exact, will be sufficient
for most purposes.
=Paleagas.= See POLYGARS.
=Palembang.= A Dutch province in the island of Sumatra, comprehending
the former kingdom of that name. In 1811 the Dutch had merely a
commercial factory at Palembang, when the sultan began hostilities
against them; and in order to insure their entire destruction, under
pretense of conveying them safely to Batavia, sunk during the night the
ships in which they had embarked by means of holes previously made. The
Dutch regained Palembang in 1816. The Dutch factory was cannonaded by
the sultan’s forces in 1818, and the country remained in rebellion until
1821, when it was entirely conquered by the Dutch. The sultan still
retains his title, but the supreme power is exercised by a Dutch regent,
who resides at Palembang, the capital.
=Palermo= (anc. _Panormus_). A fortified city of Sicily, situated on the
north side of the island. Palermo is of Phœnician origin, and is first
brought into notice in 480 B.C., when the Carthaginians under Hamilcar
made it their headquarters against Himera. How it came into their hands
we have no means of knowing; but it continued for a long time to be
their principal naval station, and the capital of their possessions in
Sicily. With the exception of a short time, about 276 B.C., when it was
taken by the Greeks, it continued to be the headquarters of the
Carthaginians, until it was taken by the Romans during the first Punic
war (254 B.C.). When Sicily was conquered by the Goths, Palermo, along
with the rest of the island, fell into their hands; but it was recovered
by Belisarius, and the Byzantine empire retained possession of it till
855 A.D., when it was taken by the Saracens, and made the capital of
their Sicilian possessions. The Vandals and afterwards the Arabs made it
the capital of the island, and after the Norman conquest it continued to
be the seat of the king of Sicily. It still remained the royal residence
under the Aragonese kings; but the court was removed (1269) after Sicily
became united to the kingdom of Naples. In 1860 the inhabitants flocked
to the standard of Garibaldi, and in the same year the city was annexed
to the new kingdom of Italy.
=Palestine=, or =Holy Land=. A country of Asia, lying along the east
coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and occupying the southwestern part of
Syria, which is included within the limits of the Turkish empire. It now
forms the modern pashalic of Beirut or Beyrout, and part of the pashalic
of Damascus. This is the country in which the principal events recorded
in Scripture took place. When it was conquered by the Israelites, Joshua
divided this and a portion of the country to the east of the Jordan
among the twelve tribes. It was conquered, however, by the kings of
Assyria, who carried captive, first Israel and then Judah, into the
eastern provinces of their empire. After the conquest of Babylon by
Cyrus, the Jews were allowed to return to their country, to rebuild
their temple, and re-establish their ecclesiastical constitution. Judæa
thus continued a province of Persia until Asia was invaded by Alexander
the Great, to whom it submitted without resistance. The Jews were again
exposed to oppression from some of the Ptolemies, who attempted to
enforce the adoption of the idolatrous worship of the Greeks on the
Jewish people. The Jews, however, under the guidance of the Maccabees,
offered a most determined resistance to the Egyptian monarch who sought
to deprive them of the exercise of their own religion, and Judæa once
more became an independent country. It subsequently fell under the
dominion of Rome, which established the Herods as tributary kings. It
was at this crisis that Judæa became the theatre of those great events
which form the foundation of the Christian faith. The Jews, however,
having repeatedly rebelled against the authority of the Romans, Titus
entered Judæa with a large force in 70, and after a long siege, during
which the Jews endured terrible hardships and privations, he took
Jerusalem, and razed it to the ground. The temple which had been twice
rebuilt, after having been burnt by Nebuchadnezzar and plundered by
Antiochus, was again destroyed. More than 1,100,000 Jews perished in the
siege and destruction of the city, and about sixty-five years after the
Jewish people were banished from Judæa by a decree of the emperor
Hadrian. The country continued to form a part of the Roman empire until
it was divided into the Eastern and Western empires, when Palestine
became a province of the former. Although it was frequently invaded by
the Parthians, Persians, and Saracens, it was held by the emperors of
Constantinople until it was wrested from them by the last-named people
in 638. It then fell under the sway of the Mohammedans, in whose power
the land remained until 1099, when the Holy Land was recovered by the
Crusaders, and erected into a Latin kingdom under Godfrey de Bouillon.
This kingdom lasted till 1187, when it was conquered by Saladin, on the
decline of whose kingdom it passed through various hands, till, in 1517,
it was finally swallowed up in the Turkish empire.
=Palestrina= (anc. _Præneste_). An episcopal city of the present kingdom
of Italy, built upon the site of one of the most ancient as well as
powerful cities of Latium. We first hear of Præneste as member of the
Latin League; but in 499 B.C. it quitted the confederacy and joined the
cause of the Romans. In 380 B.C. the Prænestines, having rejoined their
ancient allies, waged war against Rome; but were completely routed on
the Allia by T. Quintus Cincinnatus, and beaten back to their own gates.
They took a prominent part in the famous Latin war, 340 B.C. Having
given shelter to the younger Marius in the year 82 B.C., this city was
besieged by the forces of Sulla, and on its being taken, all the
inhabitants were put to the sword. A military colony was then
established in their place, and soon the city began to flourish anew.
The town became the stronghold of the family of Colonna in the Middle
Ages; but was given to the Barberini family by Urban VIII.
=Palestro.= A village of Piedmont, 12 miles southwest from Novara. It is
famous as the scene of a battle between the Sardinians and Austrians in
May, 1859. On May 30 the Piedmontese drove the Austrians from this
village, and on May 31 defended it with great bravery against an
Austrian attack. The Piedmontese in the battle of May 31 were assisted
by 3000 French Zouaves, and on that occasion the Austrians lost 2100 men
killed and wounded, 950 prisoners, and 6 pieces of cannon. On July 1 the
allies entered Novara.
=Palgaut.= A city of India, in the south of Hindostan, captured by the
British in 1790.
=Palisade.= To surround, inclose, or fortify with stakes or posts.
=Palisades.= Are strong palings 6 or 7 inches broad on each side, having
about one foot of their summits sharpened in a pyramidal form. They are
frequently placed at the foot of slopes as an obstacle to the enemy. A
large beam or lintel, sunk about 2 or 3 feet, is often used to unite
them more firmly. Their tops should be a foot above the crest of the
parapet behind which they stand, and in field fortifications they form a
very good obstruction, if protected from artillery. An expeditious mode
of planting them is to sink a small ditch, about 2 feet 6 inches deep
and the same breadth, and to nail the ends of the palisades to a piece
of timber, or the trunk of a tree laid on the bottom of it, and then
fill in the earth, and ram it well. The palisades should be 9 or 10 feet
long, so that when finished, the ends shall be at least 7 feet above the
ground. They may be made out of the stems of young trees of 6 or 8
inches diameter; but stout rails, gates with the ends knocked off,
planks split in half, cart-shafts, ladders, and a variety of such things
will come into play, where more regular palisades are not to be had. If
the materials are weak, a cross-piece must be nailed to them near the
top, to prevent their being broken down, and they must not be placed so
close together as to cover an enemy.
=Palliser Gun.= See ORDNANCE, CONSTRUCTION OF.
=Palmyra.= The name given by the Greeks to an ancient city of Upper
Syria. It occupied a fertile oasis, 140 miles east-northeast from
Damascus. Palmyra was, in the time of Solomon, a bulwark of the Hebrew
kingdom against the wandering hordes of Bedouins. After the fall of
Seleucia, it became a great commercial centre, and greatly increased
both in wealth and magnificence after the time of Trajan, who subjected
the whole country to the Roman empire. In the 3d century, Odonathus, a
Syrian, founded here an empire, which, after his murder, rose to great
prosperity under his wife, Zenobia, and included both Syria and
Mesopotamia; but this was not of long duration, for the Roman emperor
Aurelian conquered it in the year 275, and the city was soon after
almost entirely destroyed in revenge for the slaughter of a Roman
garrison. It never recovered from this blow, although Justinian
fortified it anew. The Saracens destroyed it in 774, and in 1400 it was
plundered by Tamerlane. A village called Tedmor, inhabited by a few Arab
families, now occupies its site.
=Palo Alto.= A noted battle-field, situated near the southern extremity
of Texas, between Point Isabel and Matamoras, about 9 miles northeast of
the latter. Here, on May 8, 1846, the Americans, numbering 2111, under
Gen. Taylor, defeated 6000 Mexicans, commanded by Gen. Arista. The loss
of the former was 32 killed (among whom was the brave Maj. Ringgold),
and 47 wounded; that of the latter, 252 killed.
=Paludamentum.= Was a garment worn by the Romans, and differing little,
if at all, from the chlamys. It was worn by the officers and principal
men in time of war, who were therefore called _paludati_, and this
distinguished them from the common soldiers, who, because they wore the
_sagum_, were called the _sagati_. The _paludamentum_, which was
generally white or red, came down to the knees, or lower, was open in
front, hung loosely over the shoulders, and was fastened across the
chest by a clasp.
=Paly.= In heraldry, divided into four or more equal parts by
perpendicular lines, and of two different tinctures disposed
alternately.
=Pamphylia.= An ancient district on the south coast of Asia Minor, with
Cilicia on the east and Lycia on the west. It was originally bounded on
the inland or northern side by Mount Taurus, but was afterwards
enlarged, so as to reach the confines of Phrygia. The inhabitants--a
mixed race of aborigines, Cilicians and Greek colonists--spoke a
language the basis of which was probably Greek, but which was disfigured
and corrupted by the infusion of barbaric elements. Along with Phrygia
and Lycia, it fell to the share of Antigonus on the partition of the
Macedonian empire. It afterwards passed successively into the hands of
the Græco-Syrian princes, the kings of Pergamus, and the Romans.
=Pamplona=, or =Pampeluna=. A fortified town of Spain, the capital of
the province of Navarre, on the Arga, 39 miles southeast from St.
Sebastian. Pamplona was called by the ancients _Pompeiopolis_, from the
circumstance of its having been rebuilt by the sons of Pompey in 68 B.C.
It was taken by Euric the Goth in 466, by the Franks under Childebert in
542, and again under Charlemagne in 778, who dismantled it. It was
subsequently for a time in possession of the Moors, who corrupted the
name Pompeiopolis into Bambilonah, whence the modern Pamplona. In the
11th century the three districts of the town were separately fortified.
The continual intestine contests of these three fortresses caused Carlos
III., in the beginning of the 15th century, to destroy the interior
walls and strengthen the common bulwarks; he also erected a citadel, in
the defense of which, against André de Foix, in 1521, St. Ignacio was
wounded. It was taken by a stratagem by the French under D’Armagnac, and
remained in their power until recaptured after a blockade by Wellington
in 1813. In the civil war that followed the death of Ferdinand VII.,
Pamplona was the strong place of the liberals. The citadel was seized
and held for a short time by O’Donnell in September, 1841.
=Pan.= That part of the lock of a musket, pistol, etc., which holds the
priming powder, the necessity of which is superseded by the use of
percussion-caps.
=Pan.= The distance which is comprised between the angle of the epaul
and the flanked angle in a fortification.
=Pan.= A name well known among the shepherds of antiquity, and
frequently used by modern writers in their rural fictions. In military
history it signifies a man who was lieutenant-general to Bacchus and his
Indian expedition. He is recorded to have been the first author of a
general shout, which the Grecians practiced in the beginning of their
onsets in battle.
=Pan Coupé.= The short length of parapet by which the salient angle of a
work is sometimes cut off.
=Panache= (_Fr._). A plume worn upon the crest of an ancient helmet;
military plume or feather.
=Pancarte= (_Fr._). An ancient exercise or tournament, which was
performed in the Roman amphitheatre, when strong athletic men were
opposed to all sorts of enraged animals.
=Pandoor.= See PANDOUR.
=Pandosia= (now _Castel Franco_). A town in Bruttium (which see) near
the frontiers of Lucania. Lævinus, the Roman consul, was defeated at
Pandosia by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, 280 B.C.