PHỸLARCHI (φύλαρχοι) were at Athens after the age of Cleisthenes ten
officers, one for each of the tribes, and were specially charged with
the command and superintendence of the cavalry. There can be but
little doubt that each of the phylarchs commanded the cavalry of his
own tribe, and they were themselves collectively and individually
under the control of the two hipparchs, just as the taxiarchs
were subject to the two strategi. Herodotus informs us that when
Cleisthenes increased the number of the tribes from four to ten,
he also made ten phylarchs instead of four. It has been thought,
however, that the historian should have said ten phylarchs in the
place of the old phylobasileis, who were four in number, one for each
of the old tribes.
PHỸLŎBĂSĬLEIS (φυλοβασιλεῖς) were four in number, representing
each one of the four ancient Athenian tribes, and probably elected
(but not for life) from and by them. They were nominated from the
Eupatridae, and during the continuance of royalty at Athens these
“kings of the tribes” were the constant assessors of the sovereign,
and rather as his colleagues than counsellors. Though they were
originally connected with the four ancient tribes, still they were
not abolished by Cleisthenes when he increased the number of tribes,
probably because their duties were mainly of a religious character.
They appear to have existed even after his time, and acted as judges,
but in unimportant or merely formal matters.
PICTŪRA (γραφή, γραφική, ζωγραφία), painting. I. _History of the
Art._ It is singular that the poems of Homer do not contain any
mention of painting as an imitative art. This is the more remarkable,
since Homer speaks of rich and elaborate embroidery as a thing not
uncommon. This embroidery is actual painting in principle, and is
a species of painting in practice, and it was considered such by
the Romans, who termed it “pictura textilis.” The various allusions
also to other arts, similar in nature to painting, are sufficient to
prove that painting must have existed in some degree in Homer’s time,
although the only kind of painting he notices is the “red-cheeked”
and “purple-cheeked ships,” and an ivory ornament for the faces
of horses, which a Maeonian or Carian woman colours with purple.
Painting seems to have made considerable progress in Asia Minor
while it was still in its infancy in Greece, for Candaules, king
of Lydia (B.C. 716), is said to have purchased at a high price a
painting of Bularchus, which represented a battle of the Magnetes.
The old Ionic painting probably flourished at the same time with the
Ionian architecture, and continued as an independent school until
the sixth century B.C., when the Ionians lost their liberty, and
with their liberty their art. Herodotus (i. 164) mentions that when
Harpagus besieged the town of Phocaea (B.C. 544), the inhabitants
collected all their valuables, their statues and votive offerings
from the temples, leaving only their _paintings_, and such works in
metal or of stone as could not easily be removed, and fled with them
to the island of Chios; from which we may conclude that paintings
were not only valued by the Phocaeans, but also common among them.
Herodotus (iv. 88) also informs us that Mandrocles of Samos, who
constructed for Darius Hystaspis the bridge of boats across the
Bosporus (B.C. 508), had a picture painted, representing the passage
of Darius’s army, and the king seated on a throne reviewing the
troops as they passed, which he dedicated in the temple of Hera at
Samos. After the conquest of Ionia, Samos became the seat of the
arts. The Heraeum at Samos, in which the picture of Mandrocles was
placed, was a general depository for works of art, and in the time
of Strabo appears to have been particularly rich in paintings, for
he terms it a “picture-gallery” (πινακοθήκη). The first painter in
Greece itself, whose name is recorded, is Cimon of Cleonae. His exact
period is uncertain, but he was probably a contemporary of Solon, and
lived at least a century before Polygnotus. It was with Polygnotus
of Thasos that painting reached its full development (about B.C.
463). Previous to this time the only cities that had paid any
considerable attention to painting were Aegina, Sicyon, Corinth, and
Athens. Sicyon and Corinth had long been famous for their paintings
upon vases and upon articles of furniture; the school of Athens had
attained no celebrity whatever until the arrival of Polygnotus from
Thasos raised it to that pre-eminence which it continued to maintain
for more than two centuries, although very few of the great painters
of Greece were natives of Athens. The principal contemporaries of
Polygnotus were Dionysius of Colophon, Plistaenetus and Panaenus of
Athens, brothers (or the latter perhaps a nephew) of Phidias, and
Micon, also of Athens. The works of Polygnotus and his contemporaries
were conspicuous for expression, character, and design; the more
minute discriminations of tone and local colour, united with
dramatic composition and effect, were accomplished in the succeeding
generation, about 420 B.C., through the efforts of Apollodorus of
Athens and Zeuxis of Heraclea. The contemporaries of Apollodorus and
Zeuxis, and those who carried out their principles, were Parrhasius
of Ephesus, Eupompus of Sicyon, and Timanthes of Cythnus, all
painters of the greatest fame. Athens and Sicyon were the principal
seats of the art at this period. Eupompus of Sicyon was the founder
of the celebrated Sicyonian school of painting which was afterwards
established by Pamphilus. The Alexandrian period was the last of
progression or acquisition; but it only added variety of effect to
the tones it could not improve, and was principally characterised
by the diversity of the styles of so many contemporary artists. The
most eminent painters of this period were Protogenes, Pamphilus,
Melanthius, Antiphilus, Theon of Samos, Apelles, Euphranor, Pausias,
Nicias, Nicomachus, and his brother Aristides. Of all these Apelles
was the greatest. The quality in which he surpassed all other
painters will scarcely bear a definition; it has been termed grace,
elegance, beauty, χάρις, _venustas_. His greatest work was perhaps
his Venus Anadyomene, Venus rising out of the waters. He excelled in
portrait, and indeed all his works appear to have been portraits in
an extended sense; for his pictures, both historical and allegorical,
consisted nearly all of single figures. He enjoyed the exclusive
privilege of painting the portraits of Alexander.--The works of Greek
art brought from Sicily by Marcellus were the first to inspire the
Romans with the desire of adorning their public edifices with statues
and paintings, which taste was converted into a passion when they
became acquainted with the great treasures and almost inexhaustible
resources of Greece, and their rapacity knew no bounds. Mummius,
after the destruction of Corinth, B.C. 146, carried off or destroyed
more works of art than all his predecessors put together. Scaurus, in
his aedileship, B.C. 58, had all the public pictures still remaining
in Sicyon transported to Rome, on account of the debts of the former
city, and he adorned the great temporary theatre which he erected
upon that occasion with 3000 bronze statues. Verres ransacked Asia
and Achaia, and plundered almost every temple and public edifice in
Sicily of whatever was valuable in it. Amongst the numerous robberies
of Verres, Cicero mentions particularly twenty-seven beautiful
pictures taken from the temple of Minerva at Syracuse, consisting of
portraits of the kings and tyrants of Sicily. Yet Rome was, about
the end of the republic, full of painters, who appear, however, to
have been chiefly occupied in portrait, or decorative and arabesque
painting. Among the Romans the earliest painter mentioned is a member
of the noble house of the Fabii, who received the surname of Pictor
through some paintings which he executed in the temple of Salus at
Rome, B.C. 304, which lasted till the time of the emperor Claudius,
when they were destroyed by the fire that consumed that temple.
Pacuvius also, the tragic poet, and nephew of Ennius, distinguished
himself by some paintings in the temple of Hercules in the Forum
Boarium, about 180 B.C. But generally speaking the artists at Rome
were Greeks. Julius Caesar, Agrippa, and Augustus were among the
earliest great patrons of artists. Caesar expended great sums in
the purchase of pictures by the old masters. He gave as much as 80
talents for two pictures by his contemporary Timomachus of Byzantium,
one an Ajax, and the other a Medea meditating the murder of her
children. These pictures, which were painted in encaustic, were very
celebrated works; they are alluded to by Ovid (_Trist._ ii. 525),
and are mentioned by many other ancient writers.--There are three
distinct periods observable in the history of painting in Rome. The
first or great period of Graeco-Roman art may be dated from the
conquest of Greece until the time of Augustus, when the artists
were chiefly Greeks. The second, from the time of Augustus to the
so-called Thirty Tyrants and Diocletian, or from the beginning of the
Christian era until about the latter end of the third century, during
which time the great majority of Roman works of art were produced.
The third comprehends the state of the arts during the exarchate,
when Rome, in consequence of the foundation of Constantinople, and
the changes it involved, suffered similar spoliations to those which
it had previously inflicted upon Greece. This was the period of the
total decay of the imitative arts amongst the ancients. About the
beginning of the second period is the earliest age in which we have
any notice of portrait painters (_imaginum pictores_) as a distinct
class. Portraits must have been exceedingly numerous amongst the
Romans; Varro made a collection of the portraits of 700 eminent
men. The portraits or statues of men who had performed any public
service were placed in the temples and other public places; and
several edicts were passed by the emperors of Rome respecting the
placing of them. The portraits of authors also were placed in the
public libraries; they were apparently fixed above the cases which
contained their writings, below which chairs were placed for the
convenience of readers. They were painted also at the beginning of
manuscripts. Several of the most celebrated ancient artists were both
sculptors and painters; Phidias and Euphranor were both; Zeuxis and
Protogenes were both modellers; Polygnotus devoted some attention to
statuary; and Lysippus consulted Eupompus upon style in sculpture.
Moreover scene-painting shows that the Greeks were acquainted with
perspective at a very early period; for when Aeschylus was exhibiting
tragedies at Athens, Agatharchus made a scene, and left a treatise
upon it.--II. _Methods of Painting._ There were two distinct classes
of painting practised by the ancients--in water colours, and in
wax, both of which were practised in various ways. Of the former
the principal were fresco, al fresco; and the various kinds of
distemper (a tempera), with glue, with the white of egg, or with gums
(a guazzo); and with wax or resins when these were rendered by any
means vehicles that could be worked with water. Of the latter the
principal was through fire (διὰ πυρὸς), termed encaustic (ἐγκαυστική,
_encaustica_). The painting in wax (κηρογραφία), or ship painting
(_inceramenta navium_), was distinct from encaustic. It does not
appear that the Greeks or Romans ever painted in oil; the only
mention of oil in ancient writers in connection with painting is
the small quantity which entered into the composition of encaustic
varnish to temper it. They painted upon wood, clay, plaster, stone,
parchment, and canvas. The use of canvas must have been of late
introduction, as there is no mention of it having been employed
by the Greek painters of the best periods. They generally painted
upon panels or tablets (πίνακες, πινόκια, _tabulae_, _tabellae_),
which when finished were fixed into frames of various descriptions
and materials, and encased in walls. The style or cestrum used in
drawing, and for spreading the wax colours, pointed at one end
and broad and flat at the other, was termed γραφίς by the Greeks
and cestrum by the Romans; it was generally made of metal. The
hair pencil (_penicillus_, _penicillum_) was termed ὑπογραφίς, and
apparently also ῥαβδίον. The ancients used also a palette very
similar to that used by the moderns. Encaustic was a method very
frequently practised by the Roman and later Greek painters; but it
was in very little use by the earlier painters, and was not generally
adopted until after the time of Alexander. Pliny defines the term
thus: “ceris pingere ac picturam inurere,” to paint with wax or wax
colours, and to _burn in_ the picture afterwards with the cauterium;
it appears therefore to have been the simple addition of the
process of _burning in_ to the ordinary method of painting with wax
colours. Cerae (waxes) was the ordinary term for painters’ colours
amongst the Romans, but more especially encaustic colours, and they
kept them in partitioned boxes, as painters do at present.--III.
_Polychromy._ Ancient statues were often painted, and what is now
termed polychrome sculpture was very common in Greece. The practice
of colouring statues is undoubtedly as ancient as the art of statuary
itself; although they were perhaps originally coloured more from a
love of colour than from any design of improving the resemblance
of the representation. The Jupiter of the Capitol, placed by
Tarquinius Priscus, was coloured with minium. In later times the
custom seems to have been reduced to a system, and was practised
with more reserve. The practice also of colouring architecture
seems to have been universal amongst the Greeks, and very general
amongst the Romans.--IV. _Vase Painting._ The fictile-vase painting
of the Greeks was an art of itself, and was practised by a distinct
class of artists. The designs upon these vases (which the Greeks
termed λήκυθοι) have been variously interpreted, but they have been
generally considered to be in some way connected with the initiation
into the Eleusinian and other mysteries. They were given as prizes
to the victors at the Panathenaea and other games, and seem to have
been always buried with their owners at their death, for they have
been discovered only in tombs. Even in the time of the Roman empire
painted vases were termed “operis antiqui,” and were then sought for
in the ancient tombs of Campania and other parts of Magna Graecia.
We may form some idea of their immense value from the statement
of Pliny, that they were more valuable than the Murrhine vases.
[MURRHINA VASA.] The paintings on the vases, considered as works of
art, vary exceedingly in the detail of the execution, although in
style of design they may be arranged in two principal classes, the
black and the yellow; for those which do not come strictly under
either of these heads are either too few or vary too slightly to
require a distinct classification. The black are the most ancient,
the yellow the most common.--V. _Mosaic_, or _pictura de musivo_,
_opus musivum_, was very general in Rome in the time of the early
emperors. It was also common in Greece and Asia Minor at an earlier
period, but at the time of the Roman empire it began to a great
extent even to supersede painting. It was used chiefly for floors,
but walls and also ceilings were sometimes ornamented in the same
way. There are still many great mosaics of the ancients extant. The
most valuable is the one discovered in Pompeii a few years ago,
which is supposed to represent the battle of Issus. The composition
is simple, forcible, and beautiful, and the design exhibits in many
respects merits of the highest order.
PĪLA (σφαῖρα), a ball. The game at ball (σφαιριστική) was one of the
most favourite gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and Romans, from
the earliest times to the fall of the Roman empire. It is mentioned
in the Odyssey, where it is played by the Phaeacian damsels to the
sound of music, and also by two celebrated performers at the court
of Alcinous in a most artistic manner accompanied with dancing. The
various movements of the body required in the game of ball gave
elasticity and grace to the figure; whence it was highly esteemed
by the Greeks. The Athenians set so high a value on it, that they
conferred upon Aristonicus of Carystus the right of citizenship on
account of his skill in this game. It was equally esteemed by the
other states of Greece; the young Spartans, when they were leaving
the condition of ephebi, were called σφαιρεῖς, probably because
their chief exercise was the game at ball. Every complete gymnasium
had a room (σφαιριστήριον, σφαίριστρα) devoted to this exercise
[GYMNASIUM], where a special teacher (σφαιριστικός) gave instruction
in the art. Among the Romans the game at ball was generally played
at by persons before taking the bath, in a room (_sphaeristerium_)
attached to the baths for the purpose. _Pila_ was used in a general
sense for any kind of ball: but the balls among the Romans seem to
have been of three kinds; the _pila_ in its narrower sense, a small
ball; the _follis_, a great ball filled with air; and the _paganica_,
of which we know scarcely anything, but which appears to have been
smaller than the follis and larger than the pila. The _Harpastum_
(from ἁρπάζω) seems to have been the name of a ball, which was thrown
among the players, each of whom endeavoured to catch it.
[Illustration: Pila, Game at Ball. (From the Baths of Titus.)]