Pityūsa, a small island on the coast of Argolis. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.——A name of Chios.——Two small islands in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Spain, of which the larger was called Ebusus, and the smaller Ophiusa. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Strabo.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
Pius, a surname given to the emperor Antoninus, on account of his piety and virtue.——A surname given to a son of Metellus, because he interested himself so warmly to have his father recalled from banishment.
Placentia, now called Placenza, an ancient town and colony of Italy, at the confluence of the Trebia and Po. Livy, bk. 21, chs. 25 & 56; bk. 37, ch. 10.——Another, near Lusitania, in Spain.
Placideianus, a gladiator in Horace’s age, bk. 2, satire 7.
Placidia, a daughter of Theodosius the Great, sister to Honorius and Arcadius. She married Adolphus king of the Goths, and afterwards Constantine, by whom she had Valentinian III. She died A.D. 449.
Placidius Julius, a tribune of a cohort, who imprisoned the emperor Vitellius, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 85.
Planasia, a small island of the [♦]Tyrrhene sea.——Another, on the coast of Gaul, where Tiberius ordered Agrippa the grandson of Augustus to be put to death. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 3.——A town on the Rhone.
[♦] ‘Tyrhene’ replaced with ‘Tyrrhene’
Plancīna, a woman celebrated for her intrigues and her crimes, who married Piso, and was accused with him of having murdered Germanicus, in the reign of Tiberius. She was acquitted either by means of the empress Livia, or on account of the partiality of the emperor for her person. She had long supported the spirits of her husband, during his confinement, but when she saw herself freed from the accusation, she totally abandoned him to his fate. Subservient in everything to the will of Livia, she, at her instigation, became guilty of the greatest crimes, to injure the character of Agrippina. After the death of Agrippina, Plancina was accused of the most atrocious villanies, and, as she knew she could not elude justice, she put herself to death, A.D. 33. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 26, &c.
Lucius Plancus Munatius, a Roman, who rendered himself ridiculous by his follies and his extravagance. He had been consul, and had presided over a province in the capacity of governor; but he forgot all his dignity, and became one of the most servile flatterers of Cleopatra and Antony. At the court of the Egyptian queen in Alexandria, he appeared in the character of the meanest stage dancer, and in a comedy he personated Glaucus, and painted his body of a green colour, dancing on a public stage quite naked, only with a crown of green reeds on his head, while he had tied behind his back the tail of a large sea fish. This exposed him to the public derision, and when Antony had joined the rest of his friends in censuring him for his unbecoming behaviour, he deserted to Octavius, who received him with great marks of friendship and attention. It was he who proposed, in the Roman senate, that the title of Augustus should be conferred on his friend Octavius, as expressive of the dignity and the reverence which the greatness of his exploits seemed to claim. Horace has dedicated bk. 1, ode 7, to him; and he certainly deserved the honour, from the elegance of his letters, which are still extant, written to Cicero. He founded a town in Gaul, which he called Lugdunum. Plutarch, Antonius.——A patrician, proscribed by the second triumvirate. His servants wished to save him from death, but he refused it, rather than to expose their persons to danger.