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 PERGOLESI PERIANDER 291 ed it into the province of Asia, with Perga- mus as the capital. It soon decayed, however, being deprived of its treasures of literature by Antony, who attached them to the library of Alexandria, and subsequently also of its dignity as capital of the province under the Byzantine rule. Here was one of the seven churches founded by St. Paul, and the city became one of the principal Asian seats of Christianity in its earliest period. It was finally destroyed during the Turkish wars. Its site is now oc- cupied by a flourishing town, called Bergama, Ruins of Perganms. noted for its manufactories of morocco leath- er. Among the extensive ruins are the founda- tions of the palace of Lysimachus and of a tem- ple of the Corinthian order, a large Roman ba- silica, a double tunnel for the Selinus, remains of an amphitheatre built over the stream with arrangements to flood the arena for nautical sports, the front of a Byzantine palace, and several inscriptions. The recent researches of Ernst Curtius, Gelzer, and others have pro- duced many valuable results. See Beitrage zur Greschichte und Topographic Kleinasiens (Ephe- 808, Pergamon, Smyrna, Sardes), edited by Ernst Curtius (academy of sciences, Berlin, 1872). PERGOLESI, or Pergolese, Giovanni Battista, an Italian composer, born in Jesi, Jan. 3, 1710, died at Torre del Greco, near Naples, March 16, 1736. He entered the Neapolitan conserva- tory del poveri in Gesu Cristo, but left it at the age of 14, and received lessons in vocal composition from Vinci and Hasse. At 20 years of age he procured an engagement at the teatro nuovo, Naples, for which he wrote comic intermezzos, including the Serva padro- na, subsequently produced with great enthu- siasm at Paris. In 1734 he left Naples to become chapelmaster in Loreto, and in 1735 went to Rome, where he brought out his op- era of Olimpiade, which was coldly received, notwithstanding it was highly commended by contemporary musicians. He renounced the drama, and returning to Loreto applied himself wholly to sacred compositions, which were better appreciated; and few works of their class have been more admired than his mass in D, containing the celebrated Gloria in J?x- ! eelsis, and his Dixit Dominus and Laudate. Shortly before his death, his health failing rapidly, he removed to Torre del Greco, near the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. Here during his last illness he composed his cantata of Orfeo ed Euridice, his Salve Regina, and his cele- brated Stdbat Mater. PERL See FAIRIES. PERIMDER, tyrant of Corinth, succeeded his father Cypselus probably about 625 B. 0., died about 585. At first his reign was mild, but afterward it became exceedingly oppres- sive. Herodotus says that Periander sent to ask Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, what mode of government it was safest to adopt in or- der to rule with security. Thrasybulus took the messenger into a corn field, and walking through it broke off and threw away all the ears that overtopped the rest. Periander thence- forth constantly depressed the power of the higher orders by putting to death or banishing prominent citizens. He suppressed common tables, clubs, and public education, shed much blood, and made exorbitant exactions. On one occasion, it is said, the women of Corinth, whom he had invited to a religious festival, were stripped by his order of their rich attire and ornaments. Aristotle speaks of him as the first who brought to a system the art of ruling despotically. His foreign policy was