Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/393

Rh PLAETORIUS. ed. vet), and is generally distinguished from them by the additional name of Papyrieiisis or Papiensis. He appears from various parts of his work {e.g. c. 27) to have been a physician, but nothing else is known of his personal history. His date is uncertain, but he is supposed to have lived in the fourth century after Christ. He is said to have borrowed much from Pliny's Natural History, and to have been copied in turn by Con- stantinus Africanus. The work has several times been published, both separately, and in different medical collections. It first appeared in 1538, 4to. Norimberg., ed. Fr. Emericus ; and again in the same year, 8vo. Basil, ed. Alb. Torinus. It is inserted (after Oribasius) in the first volume of H. Stephani " Medicae Artis Principes," Paris, fol. 1567; in the thirteenth volume of the old edition of Fabricii Bibl. Graeca ; in Ackermann's " Parabilium Medicamentorum Scriptores An- tiqui," Norimb. 1788, 8vo. ; and elsewhere. (Choulant's Handh. der Biicherkunde fur die Ael- tere Medicin.) [W. A. G.] PLAETO'RIA GENS, plebeian, did not pro- duce any men of distinction, and none of its mem- bers obtained the consulship. On coins we find the surname Cesiianus : see below. PLAETO'RIUS. 1. C. Plaetorius, one of the three commissioners for founding a colony at Croton in southern Italy, B. c. 194. (Li v. xxxiv. 45.) 2. C. Plaetorius, perhaps the same as the preceding, a member of the embassy sent to Gen- tiiis, king of the Illyrians, B. c. 172. (Li v. xlii. 26.) 3. M. Plaetorius, slain by Sulla. ( Val. Max. ix. 2. §1.) 4. L. Plaetorius, a senator mentioned by Cicero in his oration for Cluentius (c. 36). 5. M. Plaetorius, was the accuser, in b. c. 69, of M. Fonteius, whom Cicero defended [FoN- TEius, No. 5]. About the same time he was curule sedile with C. Flaminius, and it was before these acdiles that Cicero defended D. Matrinius. In B. c. 67 he was praetor with the same colleague as he had in his aedileship. In b. c. 51 he was con- demned {incetidio Plaeioriuno, i. e. damnatione, Cic. ad Ait. V. 20. § 8), but we do not know for what offence. We find him a neighbour of Atticus in B. c. 44, and this is the last that we hear of him (Cic. pro Font. 12, pro Ciuent. 45, 53, ad Ait. xv. 17). The following coins, struck by M. Plaetorius, a curule aedile, probably refer to the above-mentioned Plaetorius, as we know of no other Plaetorius who held this office. From these we learn that he was the son of Marcus, and that he bore the cognomen Cestiaims. The first coin bears on the obverse a woman's head covered with a helmet, with the legend cestianvs s. c, and on the reverse an eagle standing on a thunderbolt, with the legend m. plaetorivs m. p. aed. cvr. The second coin represents on the obverse the head of Cybele, covered with a turreted coronet, with the legend cestianvs, and on the reverse a sella curulis, with the legend m. plaetorivs aed. cvr. ex s. c. The tliird coin has on the obverse the head of a youth- ful female, and on the reverse the bust of the god- dess Sors, with the legend M. plaetori. cest. s.c. ; but as it bears no reference to the aedileship of Plaetorius, it may belong to a different person. The eagle and the head of Cybele on the first and second coins have reference to the games sacred to PLANCIUS. 381 Jupiter and to Cybele, the exhibition of which be- longed to the aediles. coins of m. plaetorius. 6. C. Plaetorius, served as quaestor in Asia in B. c. 47, under Domitius Calvinus, and belonged to Caesar's party. (Hirt. B.Alex. 34.) 7. PLxi-ETORius RusTiANUS, a Pompcian, pe- rished, along with Metellus Scipio, when their little fleet was overpowered by P. Sittius at Hippo Regius, B. c. 46. {B. Afric. 96.) 8. L. Plaetorius L. f., is mentioned only on coins, from which we learn that he was quaestor. The obverse represents the head of Moneta, the reverse a man running, with the legend L. plaeto- rivs L. F. Q. s. c. COIN of l. plaetorius. 9. Plaetorius Nepos, a senator and a friend of Hadrian, whom this emperor thought at one time of appointing as his successor. (Spartian. Hadr. 4, 23.) PLAGULEIUS, one of the partizans of the tribune Clodius. (Cic. pro Dom. 33, comp. ad Ait. X. 8.) PLA'NCIUS, CN. 1. Defended by Cicero in an oration still extant, was descended from a respectable equestrian family at Atina, a prae- fectura not far from Arpinum in Latium. His father was a Roman eques, and one of the most important and influential farmers of the public revenue {publicani) ; he served under M, Crassus, who was consul B. c. 97, and he subsequently earned the hatred of the aristocracy by the energy with which he pressed for a reduction of the sura which the publicani had agreed to pay for the