PENTATHLON (πένταθλον, _quinquertium_), was next to the pancratium
the most beautiful of all athletic performances. The persons engaged
in it were called _Pentathli_ (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 (σίγυννος or ἀκόντιον), 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
called πεντηκοστολόγοι. The merchant who paid the duty was said
πεντηκοντεύεσθαι. 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 ten _Poletae_, acting under the authority of the senate. The
farmers were called τελῶναι, and were said ὠνεῖσθαι 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
the AMICTUS, 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
the PALLIUM only; 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.
[Illustration: 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 the _Majestas_ of the later times. [MAJESTAS.] _Perduellis_
originally signified _hostis_, and thus the offence was equivalent
to making war on the Roman state. Offenders were tried by two
judges called _Perduellionis 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 the _arbor 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 word
_peregrinus_ was used as synonymous with _hostis_; but in the times
of which we have historical records, a peregrinus was any person who
was not a Roman citizen. In B.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 in B.C. 127, by the tribune M. Junius Pennus.
They were expelled a second time by the tribune C. Papius, in B.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 the
_perioeci_ of Greece, and like the vassalage of the Germanic nations,
could hardly have originated in anything else than foreign conquest,
and the _perioeci_ of 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 the _perioeci_ were 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
Latin _feminalia_, that is, drawers reaching from the navel to the
knees.
[Illustration: 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.