Paches, an Athenian, who took Mitylene, &c. Aristotle, Politics, bk. 4.
Păchīnus, or Pachynus, now Passaro, a promontory of Sicily, projecting about two miles into the sea, in the form of a peninsula, at the south-east corner of the island, with a small harbour of the same name. Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 699.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 25.
Marcus Paconius, a Roman put to death by Tiberius, &c. Suetonius, Tiberias, ch. 61.——A stoic philosopher, son of the preceding. He was banished from Italy by Nero, and he retired from Rome with the greatest composure and indifference. Arrian, bk. 1, ch. 1.
Pacŏrus, the eldest of the 30 sons of Orodes king of Parthia, sent against Crassus, whose army he defeated, and whom he took prisoner. He took Syria from the Romans and supported the republican party of Pompey, and of the murderers of Julius Cæsar. He was killed in a battle by Ventidius Bassus, B.C. 39, on the same day (9th of June) that Crassus had been defeated. Florus, bk. 4, ch. 9.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 6, li. 9.——A king of Parthia, who made a treaty of alliance with the Romans, &c.——Another, intimate with king Decebalus.
Pactōlus, a celebrated river of Lydia, rising in mount Tmolus, and falling into the Hermus after it has watered the city of Sardes. It was in this river that Midas washed himself when he turned into gold whatever he touched, and from that circumstance it ever after rolled golden sands, and received the name of Chrysorrhoas. It is called Tmolus by Pliny. Strabo observes that it had no golden sands in his age. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 142.—Strabo, bk. 18.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 86.—Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 110.—Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 8.
Pactyas, a Lydian entrusted with the care of the treasures of Crœsus at Sardes. The immense riches which he could command, corrupted him, and, to make himself independent, he gathered a large army. He laid siege to the citadel of Sardes, but the arrival of one of the Persian generals soon put him to flight. He retired to Cumæ and afterwards to Lesbos, where he was delivered into the hands of Cyrus. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 154, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 35.
Pactye, a town of the Thracian Chersonesus.
Pactyes, a mountain of Ionia, near Ephesus. Strabo, bk. 14.
Pācŭvius Marcus, a native of Brundusium, son of the sister of the poet Ennius, who distinguished himself by his skill in painting, and by his poetical talents. He wrote satires and tragedies which were represented at Rome, and of some of which the names are preserved, as Peribœa, Hermione, Atalanta, Ilione, Teucer, Antiope, &c. Orestes was considered as the best finished performance; the style, however, though rough and without either purity or elegance, deserved the commendation of Cicero and Quintilian, who perceived strong rays of genius and perfection frequently beaming through the clouds of the barbarity and ignorance of the times. The poet in his old age retired to Tarentum, where he died in his 90th year, about 131 years before Christ. Of all his compositions about 437 scattered lines are preserved in the collections of Latin poets. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2; Rhetorica ad Herennium, bk. 2, ch. 27.—Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 56.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 10.
Padæi, an Indian nation, who devoured their sick before they died. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 99.