again exciting them against him, he was a second time disgraced. The unsettled state of the Athenians from this time, was doubtless, greatly against them, but what perhaps gave the decisive turn of the scale in favour of the Spartans, was the assistance of the Persians ; see page 367.

After a series of successes, Lysander besieged Athens, B. C. 405, which surrendered the next year upon the following terms; that the fortifications of the Athenian harbours should be demolished, together with the long walls that joined them to the city; that all their ships, except twelve, should be surrendered to the Spartans; that they should restore all their exiles, make a league offensive and defensive with the Spartans, and serve them in all their expeditions both by sea and land; and finally, submit to have their constitution framed by their conquerors. Thus ended the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 404.

PERGAMUS, a city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, and the capital of a kingdom founded by Philetarus, an officer of Lysimachus, who had been confidentially entrusted with the city in which he had deposited his treasures, and from whom Philetærus revolted, under the protection of Seleucus, and became first king of Pergamus, B. C. 283, Tab. IX. His successors were Eumenes, Attalus, Eumenes II. who carried on a war with Prusias, king of Bithynia, B. C. 184, Attalus II., (surnamed Philadelphus,) Attalus III. (surnamed Philopater) who at his death left his kingdom to the Romans, B. C. 132, Tab. X. It was, however, seized by Aristonicus, brother of Attalus, and was not finally secured to the Romans till after a four years war Aristonicus was defeated by Perpenna, and finally conquered and led captive to Rome by Aquilius, B. C. 130.

PERSIA, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the north by Media; west, by Susiana; south, by the Persian Gulf; and east, by Carmania; see p. 359, 369.

PHARSALIA, the battle of, fought in an extensive plain near Pharsalus, in Thessaly, and gained by Julius Cæsar over Pompey the Great, B. C. 48, Tab. X.

PHILIPPI, the battles of, fought near the town of that name in Macedonia, and gained by Octavius and Antony over Brutus and Cassius, B. C. 42, Tab. X.

PLATEA, the battle of, fought near a town of that name in Bœotia, and gained by Pausanias, the Lacedemonian general, over the Persian army under Mardonius, B. C. 479, Tab. VIII.

PONTIFICES, the eighth class of priests established at Rome by Numa Pompilius, (see p. 392); their office was to give judgment in all cases relating to religion; to enquire into the lives and manners of the inferior priests; to prescribe rules for public worship; to regulate feasts, sacrifices, and all other sacred institutions. Their president had the title of Pontifex Maximus.

PONTUS, a kingdom of Asia Minor, bounded on the east by Colchis, west, by the river Halys; north, by the Euxine Sea; and south, by part of Armenia. Its first king was Artabazus, one of the nobles

who conspired against the usurper Smerdis, and placed Darius Hystaspes on the throne of Persia, B. C. 521, Tab. VIII. His successors made no great figure in history till the time of Mithridates VII. surnamed the Great, who carried on the celebrated war with the Romans, called the Mithridatic war, beginning B. C. 89, (Tab. X.), and lasting twenty-six years; (see Mithridatic war). Pontus was reduced to a Roman province by Julius Cæsar, who conquered Pharnaces, son of Mithridates the Great; see p. 416.

PRÆTOR, a chief magistrate at Rome, instituted B. C. 365, (Tab. VIII.) He executed the functions of the consuls in their absence: and judged all causes, both civil and criminal. The prætors were attended by six lictors with their fasces, and in court by scribes, or notaries, to enter things in writing, and by bailiffs, to summon the people together. They wore the toga prætexta, or white robe, with purple border, sat in curule chairs, and had a sword and spear placed by them in the court. At first, there was but one prætor; a second was created about 100 years after the first, to administer justice to foreigners; the first, was called Prætor Urbanus, or Major; the second, Prætor Peregrinus, or Minor. In aftertimes, the number was increased to sixteen.

PRYTANES, magistrates at Corinth, who were placed at the head of the aristocracy after the abolition of the regal state, B. C. 779, (Tab. VI.) There were, also, magistrates at Athens who bore the same title they principally presided over the senate.

PUNIC WARS, between the Romans and Carthaginians, the origin of which may be ascribed to the mutual emulations of their respective republics, and the desire of both nations to get possession of the island of Sicily. The ostensible cause, however, was the seizure of Messina, B. C. 289, (Tab. IX.) by the Mamertine mercenaries who had been employed in the service of Agathocles, king of Syracuse. A similar outrage was soon after committed by some Campanian mercenaries upon Rhegium, B. C. 283, which town they had been sent by the Romans to protect from the attempts of Pyrrhus. The Mamertines and Campanians then entered into a confederacy to support each other in their respective usurpations. The Campanians, however, were soon afterwards subdued and put to death by the Romans, and the Mamertines dreading a similar retribution from the Syracusans, some of them applied for protection to Carthage, while others implored that of Rome. The two republics perceived that nothing less than the whole of Sicily was the stake which must now be lost or won by them; and this being too considerable a point to give up, the Carthaginians sent an army to Messina, and the Romans sent another to oppose them, and so the war began, B. C. 264. After a hard struggle both by sea and land for twenty-three years, the first Punic war was finished in favour of the Romans, B. C. 241, who forced the Carthaginians to sue for peace; see the Articles, p. 405. Such disgraceful conditions were only submitted to from necessity; Amilcar secretly meditated a deliverance from them, and revenge for the dis

honour of his country; and though he lived not to carry his schemes of vengeance into execution, he left them as an inheritance to his son Hannibal, whom from his very infancy he had trained up in an inveterate hatred of the Roman name, and at the age of nine years had solemnly bound him with an oath never to be in friendship with that state. From this time the youthful Hannibal accompanied his father in his campaigns in Spain, where, after his death, and that of Asdrubal, he was appointed to the command of the Carthaginian armies at the age of eighteen, and after a series of successes ventured to attack Saguntum, a town under the protection of the Romans. This gave rise to the second Punic war, B. C. 218, which after a desperate struggle of seventeen years, was terminated by the decisive battle of Zama, when the Carthaginians again sued for peace, B. C. 201, (see p. 406). The third Punic war was brought on by the countenance unjustifiably afforded by the Romans, to Masinissa, king of Numidia, who taking advantage of the lowered fortunes of the Carthaginians, harassed them by a predatory war, which at length provoked them to take up arms against him in their own defence. This was considered as a breach of the treaty; and notwithstanding the most submissive concessions of the Carthaginiar.s, nothing short of the destruction of their city would satisfy the Romans. The Carthaginians resolved rather to perish than to quit their birth place, once the scene of their flourishing independence. After a desperate struggle and siege of three years, Carthage was taken and burnt by Scipio Africanus II., B. C. 146.

PYDNA, the battle of, fought near a town of that name in Macedonia, and gained by Paulus Æmilius, the Roman consul, over Perseus, last king of Macedon, which extinguished that empire, B. C. 168, Tab. IX.

PYTHIAN GAMES, celebrated near the temple of Delphi in honour of Apollo, in commemoration of the victory he obtained over the serpent Python. They were instituted by Adrastus, king of Argos, B. C. 1263, (Tab. IV.) or as some suppose, by Apollo himself. Dr. Hales remarks, that the poet Ovid represents the serpent Python as being of an unknown species, produced by the earth after the Deluge, which was a terror to the new race of mankind, until Apollo destroyed it, pierced through with a thousand arrows, almost exhausting his quiver. In this caricature we may easily trace the distorted features of the grand prophecy after the fall, that the blessed "seed of the woman "should crush the serpent's head. And CHRIST is often represented in Scripture as an archer. Deut. xxxii. 23; Ps. xlv. 5; ixxvii. 17; Rev. vi. 2; and his victory over the serpent was probably symbolized in the primitive Chaldean sphere, by the signs Sagittarius, and Scorpio ; see page 343, note.

QUESTORS, two officers at Rome introduced by Valerius Poplicola to take care of the public money. The Quæstorship was the first step in the magisterial offices. The Quæstors had the charge of the military ensigns in the treasury, the selling of plunder and

booty, and the lodging of ambassadors. Their number was increased in the time of Julius Cæsar to forty, of whom some were used in the city, some in the army, and some in the provinces.

RAGES, the battle of, fought in the plains of Rages, or Ragau in Media, and gained by Nabuchodonosor, king of Assyria, over Phraortes, (or according to some, Dejoces), king of Media, B. C. 641, Tab. VII.

RAPHIA, the battle of, fought near a town of that name between Rhinocorura and Gaza, in Palestine, and gained by Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt, over Antiochus the Great, B. C. 217, (Tab. IX.)

ROME, a celebrated city in Italy, on the Tiber, the capital of the Roman Empire, built B. C. 753; see page 386-420.

SACRED WARS, about the temple of Delphi, the first, began B. C. 448, (Tab. VIII.), when the Phocians having seized the temple, the Lacedemonians took it from them and restored it to the people of Delphi, upon which the Athenians interfered to re-instate the Phocians.

The second SACRED WAR began B. C. 357, when the Phocians having ploughed a piece of land belonging to the temple, their neighbours exclaimed against it as sacrilege, and the case being referred to the Amphictyonic council, the Phocians were adjudged to pay a heavy fine, which they refusing, war was declared against them. The whole of Greece was engaged in this war; Athens, Sparta, and some of the Peloponnesian states declared for the Phocians. The Thebans, Thessalians, Locrians, and other neighbouring states against them. The war was finished by Philip of Macedon, who took and destroyed all the cities of the Phocians, B. C. 348.

SALAMIS, the naval battle of, fought off an island of that name on the southern coast of Attica, and gained by the Greeks under Themistocles over the fleet of Xerxes, king of Persia, B. C. 480, Tab. VIII.

SALII, the sixth class of priests established at Rome by Numa Pompilius; their office was to take care of the Ancilia, or sacred shields.

SAMNITE WAR, between the Romans and Samnites, began B. C. 343, (Tab. VIII.) and lasted seventy-one years; see p. 400-402.

SAMOS, an island in the Ægean sea, with a capital of the same name, built B. C. 986, Tab. VI. It was in its most flourishing state under Polycrates, celebrated for the continual flow of good fortune that attended him, which was terminated by Orætes, governor of Sardis, by whom he was treacherously put to death, B. C. 522, Tab. VIII. The Samians were reduced under the Athenians by Pericles, B. C. 441.

SARDIS, the battle of, fought between Antiochus Soter, king of Syria, and Eumenes, king of Pergamus, and gained by the latter, B. C. 262, Tab. IX.

SELEUCIDA, descendants of Seleucus Nicator, who succeeded him upon the throne of Syria, see Syria; the æra of the Seleucidæ, is

dated from the taking of Babylon by Seleucus, March 13, B. C. 312, Tab. IX.

SELLASIA, the battle of, fought near a town of that name in Laconia, and gained by the Achæans over Cleomenes, king of Sparta, B. C. 222, Tab. IX.

SERVILE WARS, so called, because carried on by the Romans with their slaves. One in Sicily, under Eunus, began B. C. 135, Tab. X.; and another under Spartacus, the Gladiator, B. C. 73.

SIBYLLINE ORACLES, prophecies of the Sibyls preserved with great care at Rome. They were introduced there in the reign of Tarquin II., by an unknown woman pretending to come from a far country, who offered the king nine volumes of them at the price of 300 pieces of gold; which being refuserl, she burnt three, and then offered the remainder at the same price; being again rejected, she burnt three more, and still asked the same price for the other three; upon which Tarquin faneying something mysterious in the transaction, consulted with the Augurs, and by their advice purchased the books, the woman charging him to preserve them carefully as containing oracles relating to the future state of Rome. Tarquin deposited them in the temple of Jupiter in the capitol, and appointed two of the principal nobility (see Duumviri) to keep them in safe and secret custody. The Commonwealth continued the same regard to these books, and made them an engine of the state for quieting the people in all disturbances; for if any misfortune befel them, or any accident occasioned disorder among them, the books were ordered to be consulted, and their guardians always produced from them an answer to serve the purpose. The original oracles were burnt with the capitol during the civil wars of Marius and Sylla: but the senate unwilling to lose the advantages above-mentioned, caused a selection to be made from the writings of other Sibyls, to replace them; and which remained in use while the Roman Empire continued in a heathen state, but were destroyed about A. D. 331, when Constantine the Great ordered all the heathen temples to be demolished.

SICILY, the largest island in the Mediterranean. It was anciently called Sicania, from the Sicani, its first inhabitants, and Trinacria and Triquetra, from its triangular form. The Sicani were expelled by the Siculi, a people of Italy, who gave it the name of Sicily, B. C. 1284, Tab. IV. Its capital city, Syracuse, was built by a colony of Corinthians, under Archias, B. C. 732, Tab. VII. The other principal cities of Sicily were Messana, where the Messenians settled after their expulsion from Peloponnesus, B. C. 671, Tab. VII. Leontium, whose inhabitants applied to the Athenians for assistance against the Syracusans during the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 427, (Tab. VIII.); Libybæum, celebrated for the sieges it maintained against the Carthaginians, and particularly for one of ten years against the Romans in the first Punic war, B. C. 251, (Tab. IX.) Agrigentum, Gela, and Drepanum. These were all built on the coast, and occasionally maintained their own independance; but the history of Syracuse may be considered as that of Sicily, B. C. 491. Syracuse was usurped by