Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/392

Rh 8S0 PIXODAllUS. Of the proverbial maxims of practical wisdom, which were current imder the names of the seven wise men of Greece, two were ascribed to Pittacus, namely, Xaeir6v eaQKov c^juevat, and Kaipov yycodi. The former furnishes the subject of an ode of Simonides, of which Plato has a very ingenious, though sophistical discussion, in his Protagoras (p. 338, e. ; Bergk, Pott. Lyr. Graec. p. 747). Others of his celebrated sayings are recorded by Diogenes (i.77,78). Pittacus was very celebrated as an elegiac poet. According to Diogenes (i. 79), he composed as many as six hundred elegiac verses, forming a col- lection of didactic statements concerning the laws, addressed to his fellow-citizens. The only extant fragment of his poetry is the few lines preserved by Diogenes (i. 78), who says that they were the most celebrated of his verses : — "Exovra Set ro^ov (or tJ|o) /cat lodoKov ([>apeTpav TTiarbv yap ovSev yXwaaa 5ia a-rofiaTos AoAet Slxo/jlvBou exovcra Kapdin yoruxa. (Schneidewin, Deled. Poes. Graec. p. 260 ; Bergk, Pott. Lyr. Graec. p. 568.) [P. S.] PITTHEUS (ntT0eys), a son of Pelops and Dia, was king of Troezene, father of Aethra, and grandfather and instructor of Theseus. (Schol. ad Pind. 01. i. 144, Eurip. Hippol. 11, Med. 683 ; Pans. ii. 30. § 8, i. 27. § 8 ; Apollod. iii. 15. § 7 ; Strab. viii. p. 374.) When Theseus married Phaedra, Pittheus took Hippolytus into his house. (Pans. i. 22. § 2.) His tomb and the chair on which he had sat in judgment were shown at Troezene down to a late time. (Pans. ii. 31. § 3.) He is said to have taught the art of speaking, and even to have written a book upon it. (ii. 31. § 4 ; comp. Theseus.) Aethra as his daughter is called Pittheis. (Ov. Heroid. X. 31.) PITYREUS (niTupeus), a descendant of Ion and father of Procles, was the last king in Pelo- ponnesus before the invasion of the Dorians. (Pans, ii. 26. § 2, vii. 4. § 3.) [L. S.] PITYS (n^Tus), a nymph beloved by Pan, was changed into a fir tree. (Lucian, Dial. Dear. 22. 4 ; Virg. Eclog. vii. 24, with Voss's note.) [L. S.] PIUS, a surname of several Romans. 1. Of the emperor Antoninus [AiNTONiNus]. 2. Of a senator Aurelius, who lived at the commencement of the reign of Tiberius (Tac. Ann. i, 75). 3. Of L. Cestius [Cestius]. 4. Of Q. Metellus, consul B. c. 80, by whom it was handed down to his adopted son Metellus Scipio. [Metellus, Nos. 19,22.] PIXO'DARUS (nt|w8apos). 1. SonofMaus- solus, a Carian of the city of Cindys, who was married to the daughter of Syennesis, king of Cilicia. Having taken part in tlie great revolt of his countrymen and the lonians against the Persian king (b. c. 490), he advised the Carians boldly to cross the Maeander, and engage the Per- sian general Daurises with that river in their rear : but this counsel, though regarded by Herodotus as the best that could be given, was not followed, and the Carians were defeated in two successive battles. (Herod. V. 118.) 2. Prince or king of Caria, was the youngest of the three sons of Hecatomnus, all of whom succes- sively held the sovereignty of their native coun- PLACITUS. try. Pixodarus obtained possession of the thronn b}'^ the expulsion of his sister Ada, the widow and successor of her brother I DRiE us, and held it with- out opposition for a period of five years, b. c. 340 — 335. He cultivated the friendship of Persia, gave his daughter in marriage to a Persian named Orontobates, whom he even seems to have admitted to some share in the sovereign power during his own lifetime. But he did not neglect to court the alliance of other powers also, and endeavoured to secure the powerful friendship of Philip king of Macedonia, by offering the hand of his eldest daughter in marriage to Arrhidaeus, the bastard son of the Macedonian monarch. The discontent of the young Alexander at this period led him to offer himself as a suitor for the Carian princess instead of his natural brother — an overture which was eagerly embraced by Pixodarus, but the in- dignant interference of Philip put an end to the whole scheme. Pixodarus died — apparently a natural death — some time before the landing of Alexander in Asia, B.C. 334: and was succeeded by his son-in-law Orontobates. (Diod. xvi. 74 ; Arr. Anab. i. 23. § 10 ; Strab. xiv. pp. QbG, 657 ; Plut. ^^e^. 10.) The name is very variously written in the MSS. and editions of Arrian and Plutarch : the latter, for the most part, have Tl-q^oZoopos (Sintenis, ad Plut. I. c. ; Ellendt, ac^ Arr. I. c. ), but the correct- ness of the form liildZapos is attested both by his coins, which resemble those of his predecessors Maussolus and Idrieus in their type and general design, and by a fragment of the contemporary comic poet Epigenes {ap. Athen. xi. p. 472 f.), from Avhich Ave learn that the penultima is short. It would appear from this fragment, that Pixodarus had been sent on an embassy to Athens during the lifetime of his father Hecatomnus. [E. H. B.] COIN OF PIXODARUS. PLACI'DIA, GALLA. [Galla, No. 3.J PLACl'DIUS VALENTINIA'NUS. [Va- LENTINIANUS.] PLA'CIDUS, one of the generals of Vespasianj in the war against the Jews, frequently mentioned] by Josephus. ( Vit. 43, 74, D. J. iii. 7."'§§ 3, 34, iv^ 1. § 8, &c.) PLA'CIDUS, JU'LIUS, the tribune of cohort of Vespasian's array, who dragged VitelliusJ out of the lurking-place in which he had concealed! himself. (Tac. Hist. iii. 85 ; comp. Dion Cass,] Ixv. 20 ; Suet. Vitell. 1 6.) PLA'CITUS, SEX., the author of a short] Latin work, entitled " De Medicina (or Medi' camentis) ex Animalibus," consisting of thirty- four chapters, each of which treats of some anima whose body was supposed to possess certainl medical properties. As might be expected, it] contains numerous absurdities, and is of little otj no value or interest. The author has been some-| times confounded with other persons of the nam»^ oi Scjctus (see Fabric. Bibl, Gr. vol. xii. p. 6ir