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 PIRAEUS PIRON 539 adjudged a pirate and a felon, and be punish- able with death. The words high seas here apply to any waters near seacoasts which are beyond low-water mark. A temporary act in 1819, revived and continued in 1823, authorizes public and private ships to seize pirates wher- ever they may be found. The act of May 15, 1820, provides : "If any person shall upon the high seas, or in any open roadstead, or in any haven, basin, or bay, or in any river where the sea ebbs and flows, commit the crime of rob- bery in or upon any ship or vessel, or upon the lading thereof, or upon the crew, he shall be adjudged a pirate If any person en- gaged in any piratical enterprise, or belonging to the crew of any piratical vessel, shall land and commit robbery on shore, such person shall also be adjudged a pirate, and upon conviction shall suffer death." The act of March 3, 1847, provides that subjects or citizens of foreign states found and taken on the seas making war on the United States, or cruising against the vessels and property thereof, or of the citizens of the same, contrary to the provisions of any treaty existing between the United States and the country of such persons, shall, when such acts are declared by such treaties to be piracy, be arraigned, tried, convicted, and punished in the courts of the United States. Finally, citi- zens of the United States who are engaged in the slave trade are declared by the statute of 1820 to be pirates, and upon conviction are to suffer death. These are the existing laws con- cerning piracy. The general rule, that rob- bery on the high seas is piracy, has no excep- tion or qualification in favor of commissioned privateers in any act of congress, or in the law of nations; and accordingly a privateer bearing a commission of the United States, who feloni- ously seized the goods of a neutral, that is to say, robbed him on the high seas, was adjudged a pirate. A recent act (Aug. 5, 1861) makes vessels built, purchased, fitted out, or held for piratical acts subject to seizure and condemna- tion, whether any act of piracy has been com- mitted or attempted from such vessel or not. PIR J3FS (Gr. TLetpaievc), a town of Greece, the seaport of Athens, on a peninsula of the same name and on the shore of the harbor formed by a small inlet of the Saronic gulf, 5 m. W. S. W. of the city, with which it has been connect- ed by rail since 1869; pop. in 1872, 11,047. Of the three ports anciently employed by the Athenians (Piraeus, Munychia, and Phalerum), Piraeus is the only one which has always re- mained in use, and is fit for the service of a modern harbor, the others being too shallow. The modern town has sprung up entirely since 1834, and is growing rapidly. It contains four churches, six schools, a custom house, and a lazaretto. The harbor of Piraeus is deep and safe, though the entrance is somewhat difficult. The number of vessels entering the port in 1872 was 713, with an aggregate tonnage of 71,402. The imports in that year were valued at $3,177,334, the exports at $681,956. The rail- way connecting it with the city was the first constructed in Greece. Before the Persian war Phalerum had been the port of Athens; but Themistocles, seeing the natural advantages of the Piraeus, surrounded the peninsula with a line of fortifications 60 stadia in circumference and 60 ft. high. It was afterward, for greater security, connected with Athens by the cele- brated long walls. Sulla destroyed its fortifi- cations and arsenals, and it never recovered from the blow. Piraeus had become even in the time of Strabo an insignificant village. During the middle ages the harbor was called Drako or Porto Leone ; the latter name com- ing, according to some authorities, from two brazen lions which long ornamented the en- trance to the port, but were carried away by the Venetians in 1687; according to others, from a white marble lion formerly placed upon the beach below the port. The adjacent har- bors of ancient Munychia and Zea bore at the same period the names Phanari and Stratiotiki, and all these names were perhaps more com- monly used than the ancient ones down to the end of the Turkish rule. (See ATHENS, vol. ii., pp. 58, 59.) PIRANESI, GiOTanni Battista, an Italian en- graver, born Oct. 4, 1720, died in Rome, Nov. 9, 1778. He completed his studies in Rome, where he resided for many years. He has been called " the Rembrandt of architecture " on account of his skill in designing and engra- ving architectural subjects and ancient ruins. Piranesi drew at once on the plate, and fin- ished it by etching, hardly using the graver. For spirit and vigor of execution and bold ef- fect his works are unique. The most celebra- ted of them relate to the antiquities, public buildings, and views of Rome. His son Fran- cesco published in Paris a complete collection of his plates, comprising nearly 2,000 subjects, in 30 vols. fol. The most recent edition is in 29 vols. fol. (1836). Both Francesco and his sister Laura inherited to some extent their father's genius. PIRMASENS, a town of Rhenish Bavaria, 12 m. E. S. E. of Zweibriicken; pop. in 1871, 8,563. It has a Protestant church, with a fine monument of the landgrave Louis IX. of Hesse- Darmstadt. Shoes are the most important of the many articles manufactured here, and are exported to the United States and other coun- tries. The Prussians here defeated the French under Moreau, Sept. 14, 1793. PIRNA, a town of Saxony, on the left bank of the Elbe, 10m. S. E. of Dresden ; pop. in 1871, 8,905. It has a celebrated lunatic asy- lum. The town was of importance during the middle ages, but its commerce and industry declined under successive wars until a recent period, when they revived, and an active trade is now carried on in many articles, especially in the so-called Pirna sandstone. PIRON, Alexis, a French dramatist, born in Dijon, July 9, 1689, died in Paris, Jan. 21, 1773. He took his degree as an advocate at