Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/226

Rh 214 PETROCORIUS. as legatus of Porapey, to whom the provinces of the two Spains had been granted. On the breaking out of the civil war in B. c. 49, Afranius and Petreius were in Nearer Spain at the head of so powerful an army, that Caesar, after obtaining possession of Italy, hastened to Spain to reduce those provinces. Afranius and Petreius, on the approach of Caesar, united their forces, and took up a strong position near the town of Ilerda (Lerida in Catalonia), on the right bank of the Sicoris (Segre). At first they were very successful, and Caesar was placed in great difficulties ; but these he quickly surmounted, and soon reduced the enemy to such straits, that Afranius and Petreius were obliged to surrender. They were dismissed uninjured by Caesar, part of their troops disbanded, and the remainder incor- porated in the conqueror's army. Petreius joined Pompey in Greece, and after the loss of the battle of Pharsalia in B. c, 48, he first fled to Patrae in Achaia, and subsequently passed over to Africa. He took an active part in the campaign in Africa in B. c. 46. At the battle of Ruspina, fought at the beginning of January in this year, he was severely wounded ; and he was also present at the battle of Thapsus in the month of April, by which Caesar completely destroyed all the hopes of the Pompeian party in Africa. After the loss of the battle Petreius fled with Juba to Zama, and as the inhabitants of that town would not admit them within its walls, they retired to a country house of Juba's, where despairing of safety they fell by each other's hands. The exact manner of their death is somewhat differently related by different writers. According to some accounts Juba des- patched Petreius first and then killed himself, while the contrary is stated by others. (Cic. ad Att. viii. 2 ; Caes. B. C. i. 38, 63—86 ; Hirt. B. Afr. 18, 19, 91, 94 ; Dion Cass. xli. 20, xlii. 13, xliii. 2,. 8 ; Appian, B. C. ii. 42, 43, 95, 100 ; Lucan, iv. 4, &c. ; Veil. Pat. ii. 48, 50 ; Suet. Caes. 34, 75 ; Liv. Epit. 110, 114.) 3. M. Petreius, a centurion in Caesar's army in the Gallic war, who died fighting bravely at Gergovia, b. c. 52. (Caes. B. G. vii. 50.) PE'TRICHUS {U^rpixos), the author of a Greek poem on venomous serpents, 'OcpiaKci, who lived in or before the first century after Christ. His poem, which is no longer extant, is quoted by Pliny (H. N. xx. 96, xxii. 40) and the scholiast on Nicander's Theriaca (pp. 47, 50, ed. Aid.). [ W. A. G.] PETRO, T. FLA'VIUS, the ancestor of the emperor Vespasian, was a native of the municipium of Reate, and served as a centurion in Pompey 's army at the battle of Pharsalia, b. c. 48. (Suet. Vesp. 1.) [Vespasianus.] PETROCO'RIUS or PETRICO'RDIUS (PAULINUS). Among the various Paulini who flourished in the Western Empire in the fifth cen- tury, was Paulinus, called in the MSS. Petricordius, which modem critics correct to Petrocorius, and suppose to be given him from the place of his birth, inferred to be Petrocorii, the modern Perigueux. Some moderns have erroneously given to him the praenomen Benedictus ; an error which has arisen from their having regarded as a name the epithet who have confounded him with his more celebrated namesake, Paulinus of Nola [Paulinus, p. 144]. Sidonius ApoUinaris (Epistol. viii. 11) mentions a Paulinus, an eminent rhetorician of PETROCORIUS. Perigueux, whom Sirmond supposed to be the subject of the present article, but whom the authors of the Histoire Littiraire de la France consider, but with little reason, to be his father. Our Paulinus was intimate with Perpetuus, who was bishop of Tours from a. d. 461 to 491, and whom he calls his patron. It was at the desire of Perpetuus that he put into verse the life of St. Martin of Tours ; and in an epistle addressed to that prelate, he humbly tells him, with an amusing reference to the history of Balaam, that, in giving him confidence to speak, he had repeated the miracle of opening the mouth of the ass. He afterwards supplied, at the desire of the bishop, some verses to be inscribed on the walls of the new church which Perpetuus finished about A. D. 473 (or according to Oudin, a. d. 482), and to which the body of St. Martin was transferred. He sent with them some verses De Visitatione Ne- potuli sui, on occasion of the cure, supposed to be miraculous, which his grandson and the young lady to whom he was married or betrothed, had expe- rienced through the efficacy of a document, ap- parently the account of the miracles of St. Martin, written by the hand of the bishop. We gather that this poem was written when the author was old, from the circumstance of his having a grandson of marriageable age. Of the death of Paulinus we have no account. The works of Paulinus Petrocorius are : — 1. De Vita S. Martini, a, Tpoem in hexameter verse, divided into six books. It has little poetical or other merit. The first three books are little else than a versified abridgement of the De Beati Martini Vita Liber of Sulpicius Severus ; and the fourth and fifth comprehend the incidents mentioned in the Dialogi II. et III. de Virtutibus Beati Martini of the same author. The sixth book comprises a description of the miracles which had been wrought at the tomb of St. Martin, under the eyes of Perpetuus, who had sent an account of them to Paulinus. 2. De Visitatione Nepotuli sui, a description of the mira- culous cure of his grandson already mentioned ; also written in hexameter verse. 3. De Orafitibus (an inappropriate title, which should rather be Orantibus simply, or Ad Oranies), apparently a portion of the hexameter verses designed to be in- scribed on the walls of the new church built by Perpetuus. 4. Perpetuo Episcopo Epistola. This letter was sent to Perpetuus, with the verses De Visitatione and De Orantibus. The works of Paulinus Petrocorius were first printed by Fran- ciscus Juretus, Paris, 1 585. Some writers ha-.'e spoken, but without foundation, of an earlier edition printed at Dijon : Juretus ascribed the works to Paulinus of Nola, an error which is as ancient as the time of Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus of Poictiers, by whom it was shared. After the first publication of the works they were inserted in several collections of the Christian poets, and in some editions (e. g. Paris, 1575, 1589, and Cologne, 1618) of the Bibliotheca Patrum, generally, how- ever, under the name of Paulinus of Nola. In the Lyon edition of the Bibliotfieca Patrum, fol. 1677, vol. vi. p. 297, &c., they are ascribed to their right author. They were again published by Christianus Daumius, 8vo. Leipzig, 1686, with ample notes of Juretus, Barthius, Gronovius, and Daumius. To the works of our Paulinus were subjoined in this edition, the EucJiaristicon of Paulinus the Penitent, or Paulinus of Pella [Paulinus], and the poem on Jonah and the Ninevites, ascribed to TeP-
 * ' benedictus," " blessed," given to him by some