PĀGI were fortified places in the neighbourhood of Rome, to which
the country-people might retreat in case of a hostile inroad. Each
of the country tribes is said to have been divided by Numa into a
certain number of pagi; which name was given to the country adjoining
the fortified village, as well as to the village itself. There was
a magistrate at the head of each pagus, who kept a register of the
names and of the property of all persons in the pagus, raised the
taxes, and summoned the people, when necessary, to war. Each pagus
had its own sacred rites, and an annual festival called _Paganalia_.
The _pagani_, or inhabitants of the pagi, had their regular meetings,
at which they passed resolutions. The division of the country-people
into pagi continued to the latest times of the Roman empire. The term
Pagani is often used in opposition to milites, and is applied to all
who were not soldiers, even though they did not live in the country.
The Christian writers gave the name of pagani to those persons who
adhered to the old Roman religion, because the latter continued to be
generally believed by the country-people, after Christianity became
the prevailing religion of the inhabitants of the towns.
PĂLAESTRA (παλαίστρα), properly means a place for wrestling
(παλαίειν, πάλη), and appears to have originally formed a part of
the gymnasium. At Athens, however, there was a considerable number
of palaestrae, quite distinct from the gymnasia. It appears most
probable that the palaestrae were chiefly appropriated to the
exercises of wrestling and of the pancratium, and were principally
intended for the athletae, who, it must be recollected, were persons
that contended in the public games, and therefore needed special
training. The Romans had originally no places corresponding to the
Greek gymnasia and palaestrae; and when towards the close of the
republic wealthy Romans, in imitation of the Greeks, began to build
places for exercise in their villas, they called them indifferently
gymnasia and palaestrae.
PĂLĪLIA, a festival celebrated at Rome every year on the 21st of
April, in honour of Pales, the tutelary divinity of shepherds. The
21st of April was the day on which, according to the early traditions
of Rome, Romulus had commenced the building of the city, so that
the festival was at the same time solemnised as the dies natalitius
of Rome. It was originally a shepherd-festival, and continued to
be so among country people till the latest times, but in the city
it lost its original character, and was only regarded as the dies
natalitius of Rome. The first part of the solemnities was a public
purification by fire and smoke. The things burnt in order to produce
this purifying smoke were the blood of the _October-horse_, the ashes
of the calves sacrificed at the festival of Ceres, and the shells of
beans. The people were also sprinkled with water, they washed their
hands in spring-water, and drank milk mixed with must. As regards the
_October-horse_ (_equus October_) it must be observed that in early
times no bloody sacrifice was allowed to be offered at the palilia,
and the blood of the October-horse mentioned above, was the blood
which had dropped from the tail of the horse sacrificed in the month
of October to Mars in the Campus Martius. This blood was preserved by
the vestal virgins in the temple of Vesta for the purpose of being
used at the palilia. The sacrifices consisted of cakes, millet, milk,
and other kinds of eatables. The shepherds then offered a prayer to
Pales. After these solemn rites were over, the cheerful part of the
festival began: bonfires were made of heaps of hay and straw, and
the festival was concluded by a feast in the open air, at which the
people sat or lay upon benches of turf, and drank plentifully.
PALLĬUM, _dim._ PALLIŎLUM, _poet._ PALLA (ἱμάτιον, _dim._ ἱματίδιον;
_Ion._ and _poet._ φᾶρος), an outer garment. The English _cloak_,
though commonly adopted as the translation of these terms, conveys
no accurate conception of the form, material, or use of that which
they denoted. The article designated by them was always a rectangular
piece of cloth, exactly, or at least nearly square. It was indeed
used in the very form in which it was taken from the loom, being made
entirely by the weaver, without any aid from the tailor, except to
repair the injuries which it sustained by time. Whatever additional
richness and beauty it received from the art of the dyer, was
bestowed upon it before its materials were woven into cloth or even
spun into thread. Most commonly it was used without having undergone
any process of this kind. The raw material, such as wool, flax, or
cotton, was manufactured in its natural state, and hence pallia were
commonly white, although from the same cause brown, drab, and grey
were also prevailing colours. As the pallium was the most common
outer garment, we find it continually mentioned in conjunction with
the tunica, which constituted the indutus. Such phrases as “coat and
waistcoat,” or “shoes and stockings,” are not more common with us
than the following expressions, which constantly occur in ancient
authors: _tunica palliumque_, ἱμάτιον καὶ χιτών, τὸ ἱμάτιον καὶ ὁ
χιτωνίσκος, φᾶρος ἠδὲ χιτών, &c. To wear the pallium without the
underclothing indicated poverty or severity of manners, as in the
case of Socrates. One of the most common modes of wearing the pallium
was to fasten it with a brooch over the right shoulder, leaving the
right arm at liberty, and to pass the middle of it either under the
left arm so as to leave that arm at liberty also, or over the left
shoulder so as to cover the left arm. The figure in the preceding cut
is attired in the last-mentioned fashion.
[Illustration: Pallium. (Museo Pio-Clement., vol. i. tav. 48.)]