Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/653

 PLACIA. colony, both Pliny and Tacitus giving it that title (Plin. iii. 15. s. 20; Tac. Hist. ii. 19): it had pro- bably received a fresh colony under Augustus. We learn from Tacitus (/. c.) that it was one of the most flourishing and populous cities of the district of Gallia Cispadana; and though of no natm-al strength, being situated in an open plain, it was well fortified. For this reason it was occupied in A. n. 69 by Spurinna, one of the generals of Otho, and successfully defended by him against Caecina, the general of Vitellius, who had crossed the Padus, and laid siege to Placentia, but was compelled to abandon it and withdraw to Cremona. (Tac. Hist. ii. 17 — 23.) During the assaults of Caecina, the amphi- theatre, which is said to have been the largest pro- vincial edifice of the kind in Italy, and was situated without the walls, was accidentally burnt. {lb. 21.) From this time we meet with no further mention of Placentia in history till the reign of Au- relian, when that emperor sustained a great defeat from the Marcomanni, under its walls. (Vopisc. Aurel. 21.) But the city still continued to be one of the mo.st considerable places on the line of the Via Aemilia ; and though it is noticed by St. Am- brose, towards the close of the fourth century, as sharing in the desolation that had then befallen the whole of this once tlourishing province (Ambros. Ep. 39), it survived all the ravages of the barba- rians; and even after the full of the We.stern Em- pire was still a comparatively flourishing town. It was there that Orestes, the father of the unhappy Augustulus, was put to death by Odoacer, in a. d. 476. (P. Diac. Hist. Miscell. xvi. p. 558.) Pro- copius also mentions it during the Gothic wars as a strong fortress and the chief city of the province ol Aemilia. It was only taken by Totila, in a. d. 546, by famine. (Procop. B. G. iii. 13, 17.) Con- siderably later it is still noticed by P. Diaconus among the " opulent cities " of Aemilia (Jlist. Lavg. ii. 18); a position which it preserved throughout tiie middle aires. At the present day it is still a flou- rishing and populous place, with about 30,000 in- habitants, though partially eclipsed by the superior importance to which Parma has attained since it became the capital of the reigning dukes. There are no remains of antiquity. Placentia was undoubtedly indebted for its pros- perity and importance in ancient times, as well as in the middle ages, to its advantageous situation for the navigation of the Po. Strabo (v. p. 215) speaks of the navigation from thence to Ravenna, as if the river first began to be navigable from Placentia downwards; but this is not quite correct. The city itself lay at a short distance from the river; but it had an emporium or port on the stream itself, pro- bably at its confluence with the Trebia, which was itself a considerable town. This was taken and plundered by Hannibal in B.C. 218. (Liv. sxi. 57; lac. Hist. ii. 19.) It has been already mentioned that the Via Aemilia, as originally constnicted, led from Ari- niinum to Placentia, a distance of 178 miles. It was afterwards continued from the latter city to Dertona, from whence a branch proceeded across the Ajtcnnines to Genoa (Strab. v. p. 17); while another line was carried from Placentia across the Padus direct to Mediolanum, a distance of 40 miles; and thus communicated with the whole of Gallia Trans- padana. {Itin. Ant. pp. 98, 127, 288; Itin. Hier. p. 616; Tab. Pent.) [E. H. B.] PLA'CIA (IlAaKiij: EtJi. naKtav6s), .an ancient PLATAEA. C.",7 Pelasgian tovm in Mysia Olympene, at the fjot of Mount Olympus, and on the east of Cyzicus. The place seems to have decayed or to have been de- stroyed at an early time, as it is not mentioned by later writers. (Herod, i. 57; Scylax, p. 35; Dionys. Hal. i. p 23: Steph. B. s. v. UXuktj.) [L. S.] PLACUS (riAdKos), a woody mountain of My.sia, at the foot of which Thebe is said to have been situated in the Iliad (vi. 397, 425, xxii. 479); but Strabo (siii. p. 614) was unable to learn anything about such a mountain in that neighbourhood. [See Pelecas.] [L. S.] PLAGIATJA. [Lusitania.] PLANAHIA INS. [Fortunatae Iksulae.] PLANA'SIA. [Lerisa; Leron.J PLANA'SIA (riAamo-ta: Pianosd), a small is- land in the Tyrrhenian sea, about 10 miles SW. of Ilva {Ella), and nearly 40 from the nearest point on the coast of Etruria. It is about 3 miles long by 2 1 in width, and is low and flat, from whence probably it derived its name. (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 79; Itin. Marit. p. 513.) The Mari- time Itinerary reckons it 90 stadia from Ilva, while Pliny calls the same distance 38 miles ; but this is evidently a mistake for its distance from the main- land. It is remarkable that Pliny mentions Pla- naria and Planasia as if they were two distinct Islands, enumerating the one before and the other after Ilva; but it is certain that the two names are only forms of the same, and both refer to the same island. (Cluver. Ital. p. 504 ; Harduin. Not. ad Plin. I. c.) In Vairo's time it seems to have be- longed to M. Piso, who kept large flocks of peacocks there in a wild state. (Varr. Ii. R. iii. 6.) It was subsequently used as a place of banishment, and among others it was there that Postumus Agrippa, the grandson of Augustus, spent the last years of his life in exile. (Tac. Ann. i. 3, 5; Dion Cass. Iv. 32 ; Suet. Avg. 65.) Some ruins of Eoman build- ings still remain in the island : and its quarries of granite seem to have been certainly worked in an- cient times. It is now inhabited only by a few fisher- men. [E. H. B.] PLANE'SIA (UKavpaia, Strab. iii. p. 159), an island in the Sinus Illicitanus, on the SE. coast of Hispania Tarraconensis, now Isola Plana. [T.H.D.] PLATAEA. [Platea.] PLATAEA or PLATAEAE {UXdraia, Horn. Herod.; nAaraiai, Thuc. Strab. Pans, &c. : Eth. TlXaraiivs, Plataeensis), an ancient city of Boeotia, was situated upon the frontiers of Attica at the foot of Mt. Cithaeron, and between that mountain and the river Asopus, which divided its territory from that of Thebes. (Strab. ix. p. 411.) The two cities were about 6^ miles apart by the road, but the direct distance was little more than 5 geographical miles. According to the Thebans Plataea was founded by them (Thuc. iii. 61); but Pausanias represents the Plataeans as indigenous, and according to their own account they derived their name from Plataea, a daughter of Aso- pus. (Paus. ix. 1. § 1.) Plataea is mentioned in Ho- mer among the other Boeotian cities. (//. ii. 504.) In B. C. 519 Plataea, unwilling to submit to the supre- macy of Thebes, and unable to resist her powerful neighbour with her own unaided resources, formed a close alliance with Athcn.s, to which she continued faithful during the whole of her sub-sequent history. (Herod, vi. 108; Thuc. iii. 68.) She sent 1000 men to the assistance of Athens at Marathon, and shared in the glories of that victory. (Herod. I. c.) The Plataeans also fought at Artemisium, but were