PĒRO (ἀρβύλη), a low boot of untanned hide worn by ploughmen
(_peronatus arator_), shepherds, and others employed in rural
occupations. The term ἀρβύλη is applied to an appendage to the Greek
chariot. It seems to have been a shoe fastened to the bottom of the
chariot, into which the driver inserted his foot, to assist him in
driving, and to prevent him from being thrown out.
[Illustration: Masks. (From a Tomb at Sidyma in Lycia.)]
PERSŌNA (_larva_, πρόσωπον or προσωπεῖον), a mask. Masks were worn
by Greek and Roman actors in nearly all dramatic representations.
This custom arose undoubtedly from the practice of smearing the
face with certain juices and colours, and of appearing in disguise,
at the festivals of Dionysus. [DIONYSIA.] Now, as the Greek drama
arose out of these festivals, it is highly probable that some mode
of disguising the face was as old as the drama itself. Choerilus
of Samos, however, (about B.C. 500) is said to have been the first
who introduced regular masks. Other writers attribute the invention
of masks to Thespis or Aeschylus, though the latter had probably
only the merit of perfecting and completing the whole theatrical
apparatus and costume. Some masks covered, like the masks of modern
times, only the face, but they appear more generally to have covered
the whole head down to the shoulders, for we always find the hair
belonging to a mask described as being a part of it; and this must
have been the case in tragedy more especially, as it was necessary
to make the head correspond to the stature of an actor, which was
heightened by the cothurnus.
[Illustration: Comic Mask. (Statue of Davus in British Museum.)]
PES (ποῦς), a foot, the standard measure of length among the Greeks
and Romans, as well as among nearly all other nations, both ancient
and modern. The Romans applied the uncial division [AS] to the foot,
which thus contained 12 _unciae_, whence our _inches_; and many of
the words used to express certain numbers of unciae are applied
to the parts of the foot. It was also divided into 16 _digiti_
(finger-breadths): this mode of division was used especially by
architects and land-surveyors, and is found on all the foot-measures
that have come down to us. From the analogy of the as, we have
also _dupondium_ for 2 feet, and _pes sestertius_ for 2½ feet. The
probable value of the Roman foot is 11.6496 inches English. (See
Tables at the end.)