Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/93

Rh PACULLA. nmnner speaks of Jerusalem having bfeen taken by the king Pacorus {Hid. v. 9) ; but the authority of Josephus on all matters relating to Jewish history is superior to that of these historians. 3. The son of Vonones II., king of Parthia, obtained the kingdom of Media on the death of his father, while his brother Vologeses I. suc- ceeded to the Parthian throne. [Arsaces XXIII. p.358,b.] 4. King of Parthia, succeeded his father Volo- geses I. [Arsaces XXIV.] 5. AuRELius Pacorus, a king of the Greater Armenia, was a contemporary of the Antonines, and is mentioned in a Greek inscription published by Gruter (p. 1091, No. 10). It appears by this inscription that Pacorus had purchased a burial- pl.ace for himself and his brother Aurelius Meri- dates, and that both brothers resided at Rome, where one of them died. Niebuhr supposes that a passage in Fronto has reference to this Pacorus, in which a Pacorus is said to have been deprived of his kingdom by L, Verus (Fronto, p. 70, ed. Niebuhr), and he further concludes from the name Aurelius that he was a client of the imperial family and a Roman citizen. He may be the same as the Pacorus who was placed as king over the Lazi, a people on the Caspian sea, by Antoninus Pius. (Capitol. Anton. Fins^ 9). PA'CTIUS. [Paccius.] PACTUMEIUS CLEMENS. [Clemens.] PACTUMEIUS MAGNUS, a man of con- sular rank, slain by Commodus (Lamprid. Commod. 7), occurs as one of the consules sufFecti in a. d. 183. He had a daughter Pactumeia Magna, who is mentioned in the Digest (28, tit. 5, s. 92), where we also read of a Pactumeius Androsthenes, who was no doubt a freedman of Magnus. PA'CTYAS (HaKTvas), a Lydian, who on the conquest of Sardis (b. c. 546), was charged by Cyrus with the collection of the revenues of the province. When Cyrus left Sardis on his return to Ecbatana, Pactyas induced the Lydians to revolt against Cyrus and the Persian governor Tabaius ; and, going down to the coast, employed the revenues which he had collected in hiring mercenaries and inducing those who lived on the coast to join his army. He then marched against Sardis, and besieged Tabaius in the citadel. Cyrus sent an army under the command of Mazares against the revolters ; and Pactyas, hearing of its approach, fled to Cume. Mazares sent a messenger to Cume to demand that he should be surrendered. The Cumaeans referred the matter to the oracle of Apollo at Branchidae. The oracle directed that he should be surrendered; and this direction was repeated when, at the sug- gestion of Aristodicus [Aristodicus] the oracle Avas consulted a second time. But the Cumaeans, not liking actually to surrender Pactyas, and yet being afraid to keep him, sent him to Mytilene. Hearing, however, that the Mytilenaeans were bargaining about his surrender, the Cumaeans sent a vessel to Mytilene, and conveyed him to Chios. The Chians surrendered him, and, ac- cording to stipulation, received possession of Ataineus as a recompense. The Persians, to whom Pactyas was surrendered, kept him in custody, intending to deliver him up to Cyrus. Of his subsequent fate we hear nothing. (Herod. i. 153—160 ; Paus. iv. 35. § 10.) [C. P. M.] PACULLA, A'NNIA or MI'NIA, a Campa- VOL, III. PACUVIUS. 81 nian woman, one of the chief agents in mtroducing the worship of Bacchus into Rome, B. c. 186. (Liv. xxxix. 13). PACU'VIl, a Campanian family, is first men- tioned in the time of the second Punic war, when we read of Pacuvius Calavius, who persuaded tho inhabitants of Capua to revolt to Hannibal [Cai.a- VJUS, No. 4]. Besides the poet Pacuvius, there were a few Romans of this name in the latest times of the republic and under the empire. M. PACU'VIUS, one of the most celebrated of the early Roman tragedians, was born about b. c. 220, since he was fifty years older than the poet Accius or Attius (Cic. Brut. 64), who was born in B. c. 170 [Accius]. This agrees with the state- ment of Jerome (in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 156. 3) that Pacuvius flourished about B.C. 154, since we know from various sources that Pacuvius attained a great age, and accordingly the time understood by the indefinite term flourished may properly be placed in B.C. 154, though Pacuvius was then about sixty-five years old. Jerome further relates that Pacuvius was almost ninety years of age at the time of his death, which would therefore fall about B. c. 1 30. Pacuvius was a native of Bruu- disium, and accordingly a countryman of Ennius, with whom he was connected by ties of blood, and whom he is also said to have buried. According to the accounts of most ancient writers he was the son of the sister of Ennius, and this is more pro- bable than the statement of Jerome, that he was the grandson of Ennius by his daughter, since Ennius was only nineteen years older than Pacuvius. Pa- cuvius appears to have been brought up at Brun- disium, but he afterwards repaired to Rome, though in what year is uncertain. Here he devoted himself to painting and poetry, and obtained so much distinction in the former art, that a paint- ing of his in the temple of Hercules, in the forum boarium, was regarded as only inferior to the cele- brated painting of Fabius Pictor (Plin. H. N, XXXV. 4. s. 7). After living many years at Rome, for he was still there in his eightieth year (Cic. Brut I. c), he at last returned to Brundisiara, on account of the failure of his health, and died in his native town, in the ninetieth year of his age, as has been already stated. We have no further par- ticulars of his life, save that his talents gained him the friendship of Laelius, and that he lived on the most intimate terms with his younger rival Accius, of whom he seems to have felt none of that jealousy which poets usually entertain towards one another. After his retirement toBrundisium Pacuvius invited his friend to his house, and there they spent some time together, discoursing upon their literary pur- suits. These notices, brief though they are, seem to show that Pacuvius was a man of an amiable character ; and this supposition is supported by the modest way in which he speaks of himself, in an epigram which he composed for his tombstone, and which, even if it be not genuine, as some modem writers have maintained, indicates at least the opinion which was entertained of him in antiquity. The epigram runs as follows (Gell. i. 24) :— " Adulescens, tametsi properas, te hoc saxum rogat, Uti sese aspicias, deinde, quod scriptum est, legas. Hie sunt poetae Pacuvi Marci sita Ossa. Hoc volebam, nescius ne esses. Vale." Pacuvius was universally allowed by the best