Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/652

 606 riTYUSAE. TliTv6((T(ra), literally, " iibounfiiii<; in pine-troes." 1. An island off the promontory Scyllaeum, or Bu- cpphala, in Troezenia in Argolis. (Pans. ii. 34. § 8.) Pliny mentions (iv. 12. s. 19) an island Pityusa in the Argolic gulf, but from the order in which it occurs in Pliny, it would seem to be a different island from the preceding. 2. One of the Demonnesi in the Propontis, accord- ing to Hesychius (5. v.). [Demonnesi.] PITYU'SAE (niTuoCtrai or XliTvovacrai, Strab. iii. p. 167; Ptol. ii. 6. § 77), two islands on the S. eoast of Spain, 700 stadia, or nearly 100 miles from Dianium (Plin. iii. 5. s. 11; Liv. xxviii. 37). Their position is thus defined by Diodorus (v. 17): they are three nights' and days' sail from the Columns of Hercules, one day's sail from Iberia, and one day and night from Libya; whilst, according to the Itinerary (p. 511), they were 300 stadia from the Baleares, and 400 from Carthago Spar- taria, or Carthwjena. The larger of the two islands was called Ebusus ("Egi/a-tros, Ptol. I. c), the smaller Ophiusa QOtpiovacja, Ih,) and as they are only separated by a narrow strait, and as Ophiusa, from its small size, was unimportant, they are sometimes confounded together as one island by the ancients (Diod. V. 16; Liv. I.e.; Dioscor. i. 92, &c.) Their name of Pityusae was derived, like that of many other ancient places, from the abundance of pine- trees which grew upon them. They were 46 miles in extent. Diodorus Q. c.) compares Ebusus with Corcyra for size ; and according to Strabo (I. c.) it was 400 stadia in circumference, and of about equal length and breadth. It was hilly in some parts, and not very fruitful, producmg but little oil and wine ; but its figs were good, and it afforded excellent pasturage. Snakes and noxious animals were not found upon it, whilst, on the contrary, the smaller island abounded in serpents to such a de- gree that it seems to have taken its name from them (Plin. iii. 14, xv. 21, xxxv. 59, &c.; Mela, ii. 7; Avien. Descr. Orb. 621, &o.). The chief town, also named Ebusus, which lay on the SE. side of the island, was a civitas foederata, and had a mint. (Ramus, Cat. Num. vet. Graec. et Lat. Mus. Reg. Baniae, i. p. 13.) It was a well-built city with a good harbour, and was the resort of many barbarians and foreigners, especially Phoenicians. (Strab., Mela, Diod., U. cc.) The larger island is now Iviza, the smaller, Forrnentara. [T. H. D.] PLACEN'TIA (nKaKfVTta: Eth. Placentinus: Piacenza), a city of Gallia Cispadana, situated near the S. bank of the Padus, just below the point where it receives the waters of the Trebia. It was on the Via Aemilia, of which it originally formed the ter- mination, that road being in the first instance carried from Ariminum to Placeutia ; and was 40 miles distant from Parma. We have no account of the existence of a town on the spot previous to the establishment of the Roman colony, which was settled there in B.C. 219, after the great Gaulish war, at the same time with Cremona. (Liv. Epit. xx ; Veil. Pat. i. 14 ; Pol. iii. 40; Ascon. in Pison. p. 3.) It consisted of not less than 6000 colonists, with Latin rights. But the new colony was scarcely founded, and its walls hardly completed, when the news of the ap- proach of Hannibal produced a general rising of the neighbouring Gauls, the Boians and Insubrians, who attacked Placentia, ravaged its territory, and drove many of the colonists to take refuge at Mutiiia; but were unable to effect anything against the city itself, which was still in the hands of the Romans PLACENTIA, in the following year, and became the head-quarters of the army of Scipio both before and after the battle of the Trebia. (Pol. iii. 40, 66; Liv. xvi. 25, 56, 59, 63; Appian, Hann. 5, 7.) At a later period of the same war, in b. c. 209, Placentia was one of the colonies which proved faithful to Rome at its great- est need, and came forward readily to furnish its quota of supplies for the war, when twelve of the older colonies failed in doing so. (Liv. xxvii. 10.) Shortly after this it withstood the arms of Has- drubal, who was induced to lay siege to it, after be had crossed the Alps and descended into Cis- alpine Gaul, and by so doing lost a great deal of valuable time. After a protracted siege he was coinpelled to abandon the enterprise, and continue his march into Italy, leaving Placentia behind him. (Id. xxvii. 39, 43.) A few years later it was less fortunate, having been taken by surprise by the sudden insurrection of the Gauls in b. c. 200, who plundered and burnt the town, and carried off the greater part of the inhabitants into captivity. (Id. xxxi. 10.) After the victory of the consul L. Fu- rius, about 2000 of the prisoners taken on this occasion were restored to the colony; and a few years afterwards L. Valerius Flaccus, who wintered at Cremona and Placentia, restored and repaired as far as possible all the losses they had suffered during the war. (Id. xxxi. 21, sxxiv, 22.) But they were still exposed to the ravages of the Gauls and Ligurians; and in b. c. 193 their territory was laid waste by the latter up to the very gates of the city. (Id. xxxiv. 56.) Hence we cannot wonder to find them, in b. c. 190, complaining of a deficiency of settlers, to remedy which the senate decreed that a fresh body of 3000 families should be settled at each of the old colonies of Placentia and Cremona, while new ones should be established in the district of the Boii. (Id. sxxvii. 46, 47.) A few years later the consul M. Aemilius, having completed the subjection of the Ligurians, constructed the cele- brated road, which was ever after known by his name, from Ariminum to Placentia (Id. xxxix. 2); and from this time the security and tranquillity enjoyed by this part of Italy caused it to rise rapidly to a state of great prosperity. In this there can be no doubt that Placentia fully shared; hut we hear little of it during the Roman Republic, though it appears to have been certainly one of the principal towns of Cispadane Gaul. In the civil war of Marius and Sulla, a battle was fought near Pla- centia, in which the partisans of Carbo were de- feated by Lucullus, the general of Sulla, b. c. 82 (Appian, B. C. i. 92); and in that between Caesar and Fompey, b. c. 49, it was at Placentia that a mutiny broke out among the troops of the former, which at one time assumed a very formidable as- pect, and was only quelled by the personal firmness and authority of the dictator. (Appian, B. C. ii. 47; Dion Cass. xli. 26.) Placentia, indeed, seems to have been at this period one of the places com- monly selected as the head-quarters of Roman troops in this part of Italy. (Cic. ad Att. vi. 9.) It was again the scene of a somewhat similar mu- tiny of the legions of Augustus during the Perusian War, b. c. 41. (Dion Cass, xlviii. 10.) Cicero notices PJacentia towards the close of the republican period as a municipium: its colonial rank must have been merged in the ordinary muni- cipal condition in consequence of the Lex Julia, B.C. 90. (Cic. in Pison. 23; Fest. 5. v. Munici- pium.') But under the Empire it reappears as a