Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/550

534 of Leontini. It is a mere pool, being not more than 480 feet in circumference, but early attracted attention from the remarkable phenomena caused by two jets of volcanic gas, which rise under the water, causing a violent ebullition, and sometimes throwing up the water to a considerable height. On this account the spot was, from an early period, con- sidered sacred, and consecrated to the indigenous deities called the Palici, who had a temple on the spot. This enjoyed the privileges of an asylum for fugitive slaves, and was much resorted to also for determining controversies by oaths; an oath taken by the holy springs, or craters as they are called, being considered to possess peculiar sanctity, and its violation to be punished on the spot by the death of the offender. The remarkable phenomena of the locality are described in detail by Diodorus, as well as by several other writers, and notwithstanding some slight discrepancies, leave no doubt that the spot was the same now called the Lago di Naftia, from the naphtiia with which, as well as sulphur, the sources are strongly impregnated. It would, how- ever, seem that in ancient times there were two separate pools or craters, sometimes termed foun- tains (^KprfvoLi), and that they did not, as at the present day, form one more considerable pool or lake. Hence tiiey are alluded to by Ovid as " Stagna Pali- corum;" while Virgil notices only the s.anctuary or altar, " pitjguis et placabilis ara Palici." (Diod. xi. 89; Steph. Byz. s. v. UaAtK-f]; Pseud.- Arist. Mirab. .58; Macrob. '5(i«. V. 19; Strab. vi. p. 275; Ovid, Met. V. 406; Virg. Aen. ix. 585; Sil. Ital. xiv. 219; Nonn. Dionys. xiii. 311.) The sacred cha- racter of the spot as an asylum for fugitive slaves caused it to be selected for the place where the great servile insurrection of Sicily in B.C. 102 was first discussed and arranged; and for the same reason Salvius, the leader of the insurgents, made splendid offerings at the shrine of the Palici. (Diod. sxxvi. 3,7.) There was not in early times any other settlement besides the sanctuary and its appurtenances, adjoin- ing the lake of the Palici; but in n. c. 453, Duce- tius, the celebrated chief of the Sieuli, founded a city close to the lake, to which he gave the name of Palica (IlaAiKT/), and to which he transferred the inliabitants of Menaenum and other neighbouring towns. This city rose for a short time to consider- able prosperity; but was destroyed again shortly after the death of Ducetius, and never afterwards restored. (Diod. xi. 88, 90.) Hence the notices of it in Stephanus of Byzantium and other writers can only refer to this brief period of its existence. (Steph. B. I. c. ; Polemon, ap. Macrob. I. c.) The modern town of Palagonia is thought to retain the traces of the name of Palica, liut ceitainly does not occupy the site of the city of Ducetius, being situ- ated on a lofty hill, at some distance from the Lago di Naftia. Some remains of the temple and other buildings were still visible in the days of Fazello in the neighbourhood of the lake. The locality is fully described by him, and more recently by the Abate Ferrara. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. iii. 2; Ferrara, Camni Flegrei della Sicilia, pp.48. 105.) [E.H.B.]

PALIMBOTHRA (naii.>.§6epa, Ptol. vii. 1. § 73; Steph. B. s. v."), a celebrated city of ancient In- dia, situated at the junction of the Ganges and Erannaboas (ffj>a»;((i'a/(a), at present known by the name of Patna. Strabo, who states (ii. p. 70) that Megasthenes was sent to Palimbothra as an am- bassador to the king Sandrocottus {Chandra gupta),

describes it as a vast town, in the form of a paral- lelogram 80 stadia in length and 15 in breadth, surrounded by a stockade, in which open spaces were cut to shoot through, and by a ditch. He adds that it was in the country of the Prasii (xv. p. 702). In another passage he places it, on the authority of Megasthenes, at 6000 stadia from the mouths of the Ganges; or on that of Patrocles, who was sent as an ambassador to Allitrochades, the son of San- drocottus (ii. p. 70), at 5000 stadia (xv. p. 689). Pliny appro.aches most nearly to the computation of tlie latter traveller, as he makes the distance front Palimbothra to the sea to be 638 M. P., about 5100 stadia (vi. 17. § 21). Arrian calls it the greatest of the cities of India, and apparently quotes the same description from Megasthenes which Strabo must have had before him. {Indie c. 10.) Dio- dorus attributes to Hercules the building of its walls (ii. 39). Where Pliny s.ays " Amnis Jomanes in Gangem per Palibothros decurrit," he is evidently speaking of the people, and not, as some have sup- po.sed, of the town (vi. 19). There seems no reason to doubt that the ancient Sanscrit name of this town was Pataliputra. (Lassen, Indisch. Altertlmm. i. p. 137; Franklin, Inquiry into the ancient Pali- bothra, Lond. 1815, who, however, places it wrongly at Bhagalpur.) [V.]

PALINDROMUS PROMONTORIUM (naiV- Bpo/xos oiKpa), a promontoiy of the extreme SW. of the Arabian peninsula, at the Straits of Bab-el- Mandeh, placed by Ptolemy between Ocelis Empo- rium and Posidium Promontorium, in long. 74° 30', lat. 11° 40' (vi. 7. § 7). It now bears the same name as the strait. (iIoresby, Sailing Directions for the Red Sea, p. 2.) [G. W.]

PALINU'RUS or PALINU'RI PROMON'IO'- EIUM (llaXivoupos aKpuniipiov, Strab. : Capo Pali' uro'), a promontory on the coast of Lucania, on the Tyrrhenian sea, between Vclia and Buxentum. It had a port of the same name immediately adjoining it, which still bears the name of the Porto di PuUnnro. Both headland and port received their name from the well-known tradition, recorded by Virgil, and alluded to by many other Latin writers, that it was here that Palinurus, the pilot of Aeneas, was cast on shore and buried. (Virg. Aen. v. 833 — 871, vi. 337—381; Dionys. i. 53; Lucan, ix. 42; Mel. ii. 4. § 9; Solin. 2. § 13.) We learn from Servius that heroic honours were paid him by the Lucanians (probably by the citizens of Velia), and that he had a cenotaph and sacred grove not far from that city. (Serv. nrf .4e?i. vi. 278.) It does not appear that there was ever a town adjoining the headland; and tlie port, which is small, though secure and well sheltered, is mentioned only by Dionysius; but the promontory is noticed by all the geographers except Ptolemy, and is described by Pliny as forming the northern boundary of a great bay which might be considered as extending to the Colmnna Khegina, or the headland on the Sicilian straits. It is in fact the most salient point of the projecting mass of mountains which separate the gulf of Posidonia from that of Laiis or Policastro, and form the chief natu- ral feature of the coast of Lucania. (Piin. iii. 5. s. 10; Mel. ii. 4. § 9; Strab. vi. p. 252; Oros. iv. 9.) Some ruins of ancient buildings are still visible on the sunmiit of the headland, which are popularly known as the tomb of Palinurus. The promontory still retains its ancient name, though vulgarly cor- rupted into that of Pahnudo. Like most mountain promontories, that of Pali-