Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/201

Rh PERDICCAS. wife Eurydice. He was still very young when the assassination of his brother Alexander II., by Ptolemy of Alorus, caused the crown of Macedonia to devolve by hereditary right upon him. Ptolemy, however, assumed the government as regent during the minority of Perdiccas, with the concurrence of Eurydice. But the appearance of a new compe- titor for the throne, Pausanias, soon compelled both Eurydice and her two sons, Perdiccas and Philip, to have recourse to the assistance of the Athenian general Iphicrates, who drove out the usurper, and re-established Perdiccas upon the throne. Ptolemy seems to have been reinstated in his office of regent or guardian of the young king, under which name he virtually enjoyed the sovereign power, until at length Perdiccas caused him to be put to death, and took the government into his own hands, b. c. 364. (Justin, vii. 4, 5 ; Aesch. de Fals. Leg. §§ 28—31, ed. Bekk. ; Diod. xv. 77, xvi. 2 ; Syncell. p. 263 ; Flathe, Gesch. Macedon. vol. i. p. 39—40 ; Thirhvall's Greece, vol. v. p. 1 62—1 64.) Of the subsequent reign of Perdiccas we have verj'^ little information. We learn only that he was at one time engaged in hostilities with Athens on account of Amphipolis (Aesch. I. e. §§ 32 — 33), and that he was distinguished for his patronage of men of letters. Among these we are told that Euphraeus, a disciple of Plato, rose to so high a place in his favour, as completely to govern the young king, and exclude from his society all but philosophers and geometers. (Carystius, ap. Athen. xi. pp. 506, e. 508, d.) Perdiccas fell in battle against the Illyrians after a reign of five years, B.C. 359. (Diod. xvi. 2. The statement of Justin, vii. 5, that he was killed by Ptolemy of Alorus is clearly erroneous. See, however, Curt, vi- 11. § 26.) He left an infant son, Amyntas, who was, however, excluded from the throne bv his uncle Philip. [Amyntas, No. 3.] [E.H.B.] COIN OF PERDICCAS III. PERDICCAS (nep5i«:/cas), was protonotary of Ephesus. A poem written by him was inserted in a compilation of AUatius entitled 2uA*M"fTci, published at Amsterdam, in 1653, vol. i. pp. 65 — 78. The subject is the miraculous events connected with our Lord's history, principally those of which Jerusalem was the theatre. But besides Jerusalem, he visits Bethany, Bethpage, and Bethlehem. In this poem — which consists of 260 verses of that kind termed poliiici — he writes as if from personal inspection, but, if this was really the case, he is wanting in clearness and distinctness of delineation. While some of the details are curious, liis geograph}' is singularly inaccurate. Thus, he places Galilee on the northern skirts of the Mount of Olives. If we may trust a conjecture mentioned by Fabricius, he attended a synod held at Constantinople, A. D. 1 347, at which were present two of the same name, Theodorus and Georgius Perdiccas. (Allatius, I.C.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 663, vol. viii. p. 99.) [W.M.G.] PERENNIS. 189 PERDIX (ne'pSil), the sister of Daedalus, and mother of Talos, or according to others, the sister's son of Daedalus, figures in the mythological period of Greek art, as the inventor of various implements, chiefly for working in wood. Perdix is sometimes confounded with Talos or Calos, and it is best to regard the various legends respecting Perdix, Talos, and' Calos, as referring to one and the same person, namely, according to the mythographers, a nephew of Daedalus. The inventions ascribed to him. are : the saw, the idea of which is said to have been sug- gested to him by the back-bone of a fish, or the teeth of a serpent ; the chisel ; the compasses ; the potter's wheel. His skill excited the jealousy of Daedalus, who threw him headlong from the temple of Athena on the Acropolis, but the goddess caught him in his fall, and changed him into the bird which was named after him, perdijr:, the partridge. (Paus. i. 21. § 6, 26. § 5 ; Diod. iv. 76, and Wesseling's note ; Apollod. iii, 15. § 9 ; Ovid. Afet. viii. 241 ; Senec. J^pist. 90 ; Hygin. Fab. 39, 244 ; Serv. ad Virg. A en. vi. 14, Georg. i. 143 ; Suid. s. V. n4pSiKos Upov ; Daedalus.) [P. S.] PEREGRFNUS PRO'TKUS, a cynic philoso- pher, born at Parium, on the Hellespont, flourished in the reign of the Antonines. After a youth spent in debauchery and crimes, among which he is even charged with parricide, he visited Palestine, where he turned Christian, and by dint of hypo- crisy attained to some authority in the Church. Here, in order to gratify his morbid appetite for notoriety, he contrived to get thrown into prison ; but the Roman governor, perceiving his aim, dis- appointed him by setting him free. He now as- sumed the cynic garb, and returned to his native town, where, to obliterate the memory of his crimes, he divided his inheritance among the populace. He again set out on his travels, relying on the Christians for support ; but being discovered profaning the ceremony of the Lord's Supper, he was excommunicated. He then went to Egypt, where he made himself notorious by the open per- petration of the most disgusting obscenity. Thence he proceeded to Rome and endeavoured to attract attention by his ribaldry and abuse, for which he was expelled by the praefoctus urbis. His next visit was to Elis, where he tried to incite the people against the Romans. Having exhausted all the methods of making himself conspicuous, he at length resolved on publicly burning himself at the Olympic games ; and carried his resolution into effect in the 236th Olympiad, A. d. 165. The Pa- rians raised a statue to his memory, which was reputed to be oracular. (Anaxagoras, quoted by W lois. Ad Amm. MarcelL) Lucian, who knew Pe- regrinus in his youth, and who was present at his strange self-immolation, has perhaps overcharged the narrative of his life. Wioland was so strongly of this opinion that, being unable to refute Lucian from ancient authors, he wrote his romance of Peregrinus Proteus, as a sort of vindication of the philosopher. A. Gellius gives a much more fa- vourable account of him. (Lucian, de Morte Pero' grini; Amm. Marc. xxix. 1 ; Philostrat. Vit. Sophist. ii. 13; A. Gell. xii. 11.) [T.D.] PEREGRFNUS, L. ARME'NIUS, consul A..D. 244 with A. Fulvius Aemilianus, the year in which Philippus ascended the throne. PERENNIS, after the death of Patemus [Pa- TBRNUs] in A. D. 183, became sole praefect of the praetoriiuis, and Commodus being completely sunk