Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/679

 POLEVOI early part of the 2d century B. 0. He wrote a " Voyage round the World," from Pontus to j Carthage, and polemical works against Timasus [ and Eratosthenes. An edition of his frag- I ments by Preller was published at Leipsic in ! 1838. III. A king of Pontus, died after A. D. 2. He was originally of Caria or Phrygia, and ; was the son of Zeno the rhetorician. He ob- I tained his kingdom from Mark Antony, whom | he served efficiently in the war .against Parthia. j He was made prisoner, but obtained his liberty | when the civil war broke out between Octa- vius and Antony, and immediately marched to the assistance of the latter. After the battle of Actium Polemo was reconciled to Octa- vius, who confirmed him in his sovereignty, and added to his realm all the territory upon the Cimmerian Bosporus. In a war against the Aspurgians, a barbarian tribe, he was made prisoner and put to death. IV. Son of the preceding, after whose death he assisted his mother Pythodoris in the administration. On her death (A. D. 39) he was recognized by Caligula. Three years later the emperor Clau- dius ceded Cilicia to him in exchange for the kingdom of the Bosporus, which was given to a descendant of Mithridates. Polemo II. em- braced Judaism in order to espouse Berenice, afterward famous for her amour with Titus ; but that princess having left him, he returned to his former faith. He abdicated during the reign of Nero. POLEVOI, Nicolai Alexeyevitch, a Kussian au- thor, born in Irkutsk, Siberia, July 4, 1796, died in St. Petersburg, March 6, 1846. He was the son of a manufacturer and brandy distiller, was educated at home, and at a very early age wrote plays. He read enormously, and was known in his native town as "the wonderful boy." In 1811 he was sent to Moscow, his father following to establish his business there; but in 1812 they left that city at the French invasion. For some years afterward Polevoi passed his time in mercantile expe- ditions between St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, and Kursk; but in 1825 he returned to Moscow and established a newspaper called the " Mos- cow Telegraph," which inaugurated a new era in Russian literary criticism, but was sup- pressed in 1834 on account of its liberal ten- dencies. In 1838 he went to St. Petersburg, where he spent the remainder of his life. His incessant literary labor gradually broke down his constitution, while the rapidity with which he produced his" works diminished his reputa- tion. The best of his dramas are " Parasha, the Siberian Girl," the "Grandfather of the Russian Fleet," and a translation of "Hamlet." He wrote " Sketches of "Russian Literature," the " Life of Suvaroff," the " Life of Peter the Great," a " Life of the Emperor Napoleon " (which extended to the burning of Moscow, and was completed by the author's brother), a " History of the Russian People," and a " Cen- tury of Russia," a historical account from 1745 to 1845. His brother, XENOPHON ALEXEYE- POLICE 659 VITOH, after being for many years a bookseller at Moscow, removed to St." Petersburg. lie is the author of a novel entitled " Michael Vasi- levitch Lomonosoff " (2 vols., Moscow, 1836), and other works. His sister, KATARINA ALEXE- YEVNA AVDEYEFF (1789-1865), was a well known authoress. PETE, the son of Nicolai, an author residing at St. Petersburg, became known by his biography of Shakespeare con- tained in the Russian translation of his com- plete works by Nekrasoff and Gerbel (4 vols., St. Petersburg, 1866-'7). POLI, Giuseppe Sa?erio, an Italian naturalist, born in Molfetta, Oct. 24, 1746, died in Naples, April 7, 1825. He entered the army, and was appointed by Ferdinand I. in 1776 professor of military geography at Naples, became a fellow of the royal society of England while on a tour of inspection of the military schools of Europe, and on his return was appointed pro- fessor of experimental philosophy and director of the military academy at Naples. He was distinguished as a comparative anatomist and physiologist, but particularly for his knowl- edge of the character and habits of testacean mollusks. He published Testacea Utriusquc Sicilies (2 vols. fol., Parma, 1792-'5 ; vol. iii., 1826). He discovered many new genera and species, and the nervous system of the testa- cea, though he mistook its nature. POLIANTHES. See TUBEROSE. POLICE (Gr. Tro/Ureta, government), a civil force organized in connection with the judi- cial and executive system of a state or city, for the preservation of order and the enforce- ment of the laws. Little is known of the police systems which prevailed in the various cities of Greece. In Rome the duties of the policeman seem to have been shared by sev- eral classes of officials ; the lictor arrested criminals and conducted them into court, and the inspectors, subprefects, and other officers, either personally or by their subordinates, performed most of the civil duties now de- volving on the police. In despotic govern- ments the police have exercised important and often oppressive functions. Its beneficent action in sanitary matters, in preventing and detecting frauds, larcenies, and petty crimes, and in promoting the reformation of juvenile offenders, is of recent date. -The police system in France is of considerable antiquity. Pre- vious to the middle of the 15th century, the provost of Paris and his lieutenants, civil and criminal, were charged with maintaining the peace of the city, and with the suppression of vagrancy. About 1446 or 1447 the city was divided into 16 districts, over each of which a commissary of police presided, having under him a certain number of sergeants, the whole being under the control of the provost, to whom in 1448 Charles VII. committed a gen- eral jurisdiction over vagrants and malefac- tors. About 1520 Francis I. deprived the pro- vost of the city of his extensive jurisdiction, and created a provost marshal (prevot de mare-