Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/270

* POMPEIUS. 230 PONCE. istors, he was trpaeherously niunlered by a for- mer cenlurion of his own, as he was hindiiig fmni the boat. His head was cut ofi'. and afterwards presented to Osar on his arrival in Egypt. But Cffsar was too niagnaiiimous to delight in such a sight, and ordered that the murderer be put to death. Pouipev's body lay on the beach for some time, but was' at length buried by a freedman, Philippus, who had accompanied his master to the shore. POMPEY THE Younger (Sextus Pompeivs) (B.C. 753o). The second son of Pompey the Great, celebrated in Roman history for his resist- ance to Antonius and Octavianus. Hearing of the death of his father, he lied to Spain, finally escap- ing to the borders of the Lacetani, and rallying in°the mountain fastnesses a gang of banditti. He applied to the Roman senate for the restitu- tion of his father's property, which had been con- fiscated. He received a large sum of money from the public treasury and the title of commamler of the seas. Marching southward, he crushed all opposition, took possession of Bietica, and as- sumed the state and authority of a sovereign. When he learned. B.C. 4:i. that a second trium- virate was formed, and that he was among the proscribed, he resorted to piracy, his mariners boarded merchantmen, and Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily fell into his ixiwer. Rome was reduced to the point of starvation by his interception of the torn ships ; the people compelled Antonius and Octavianus to negotiate a peace. A treaty was concluded advantageous to Sextus. Sicily, Sar- dinia, Corsica, and Achaia were given him. and he was promised the consulship the following year. But hostilities were soon resumed, and in 30 a Roman scpiadron under Agrippa destroyed his fleet off Naulochis. Pomiiey fled, but after a few months was overtaken by M. Titius, carried to quietus, and put to death. POMPEY'S PILLAR. The name of a cele- brated colunui standing on a slight elevation in the southwest portion of ancient Alexandria, a short distance outside the Arabian walls. It is a monolith of red granite, of the Corinthian order, raised upon a pedestal. Its total height is 08 feet 9 inches; shaft, 73 feet: circumference, 29 feet 8 inches. The jjresent name is a mere in- vention of travelers. The inscription on the base shows that it was erected by Publius, eparch of Egj-pt, in honor of the Emperor Diocletian, in the' year a.d. 302. It stood in the centre of the court of the Serapeum. or great sanctuary of Serapis. and survived its transformations into a church and a fortification. POMPEY'S THEATRE. A theatre erected in Rome liy Ponipiy. opened in B.C. 55, but not completed till .'v2. It was the first theatre built of stone, and, in deference to the popular preju- dice against such construction for a place of amusement, the stone seats and steps were made to form the approach to a temple of Venus Victrix, built on top of the cavea. The interior was of marble and seated 40,000 spectators. According to Pliny, it was the scene of ex- travagant slaughters at its opening and during the time of Augustus. It was destroyed by fire on several occasions, and was restored, continuing in use to the sixth century. Considerable re- mains exist, particularly under the Palazzo Pio. POM-POM. An automatic gim (see Ma- chine Grxs) extensively used in the Boer-British War of 1900, first by the Boers and afterwards by the British. Its peculiar noise when being tired rapidly caused the British troops to speak of it as a pom-pom. It is very accurate and elVective, and proved to be one of the most forniidalile weapons of the entire war. POMPO'NITJS, Lvcius. A Latin writer of Boliigna ( IJonouia), who lived about li.c. 00. He was among the first to transform the hitherto improvised popular plays called Atellamv into a regular branch of comic literature, by the intriKluction of written composition in the metrical forms and according to the technical rules of the Greeks, .bout .seventy titles and plays by him are mentioned. The extant frag- ments which are printed in Kibbeck's Vomicorum Roininwniiii Fruipiiciilu (1873) show that the author usually chose his subject from low life, and frequently indulged in coarse and even ob- scene language "to gratify the popular taste of the times. POMPONITJS LiE'TUS, .JvLUS (or PoM- roxio Leto) (1428-98). An Italian hunuinist and leader in the revival of learning. He was a natural son of one of the Sanseverini. a jiupil of Lorenzo Valla, and an earnest student of Latin literature. He is most fameil for his effort to pattern after the manners and morals of the ancients, taking Cato for his mo<lel and living in the country like the ideal farmer of Varro. His lectures on Latin authors were marked by the scholarly sense of his teacher, and his classes became centres of Roman, not to say Pagan, life and thought, so that he was persecuted by Paul II., imprisoned for a time, but released! although forliidden to renew the meetings of his academy. The princi|ial source for his life is the work of his pupil. Sabellicus, Xitn I'(jiiii,</)iii L(cli (Strassburg, 1510). POMPO'NIUS ME'LA. See Mela. PON'CA. A tribe of Siouan stock (q.v.), for- merly claiming the territory upon the waters of Xiobrara River, about the Nebraska-Dakota boundary. They speak a dialect of the same language spoken by the Omaha, Osage, Quapaw, and" Kaw, all of whom, according to their own tradition, were originally one people and resided upon the lower Ohio. 'The Ponca were living about the mouth of the Niobrara when visited by Lewis and Clark in 1S04. and remained there, in spite of the inroads of the Sioux, until 1877, when, in consequence of their territory being in- cluded in a cession by the Sioux, the main body of the tribe was forcii)ly removed to wliat is now Oklahoma. During the march and after arrival they died off at such a rapid rate that the tribe was threatened with extinction, when the matter was brought to public attention, with the result that in 1880 a commission reported in favor of returning them to the north. Accordingly a portion of them returned and are now attached to the Santee agency, northeastern Nebraska. The majority, however, still remain in Oklahoma upon a reservation hckl jointly with the Pa«-nee, nto, and Tonkawa. They were reported to num- ber 800 in 1842, 734 in 1S75. and 782 in 1901, of whom 553 were in Oklahoma, and the rest in Nebraska. PONCE, pfin'sa. The capital of the Depart- ment of Ponce. Porto Rico, and the second largest city of the island (Map: Porto Rico, B 3). It" is situated on a plain bordered by