Plistarchus, son of Leonidas, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ, succeeded on the Spartan throne at the death of Cleombrotus. Herodotus, bk. 9, ch. 10.——A brother of Cassander.
Plisthanus, a philosopher of Elis, who succeeded in the school of Phædon. Diogenes Laërtius.
Plisthĕnes, a son of Atreus king of Argos, father of Menelaus and Agamemnon, according to Hesiod and others. Homer, however, calls Menelaus and Agamemnon sons of Atreus, though they were in reality the children of Plisthenes. The father died very young, and the two children were left in the house of their grandfather, who took care of them and instructed them. From his attention to them, therefore, it seems probable that Atreus was universally acknowledged their protector and father, and thence their surname of Atridæ. Ovid, Remedia Amoris, li. 778.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1.—Homer, Iliad.
Plistīnus, a brother of Faustulus the shepherd, who saved the life of Romulus and Remus. He was killed in a scuffle which happened between the two brothers.
Plistoănax and Plistōnax, son of Pausanias, was general of the Lacedæmonian armies in the Peloponnesian war. He was banished from his kingdom of Sparta for 19 years, and was afterwards recalled by order of the oracle of Delphi. He reigned 58 years. He had succeeded Plistarchus. Thucydides.
Plistus, a river of Phocis falling into the bay of Corinth. Strabo, bk. 9.
Plotæ, small islands on the coast of Ætolia, called also Strophades.
Plotīna Pompeia, a Roman lady who married Trajan while he was yet a private man. She entered Rome in the procession with her husband when he was saluted emperor, and distinguished herself by the affability of her behaviour, her humanity, and liberal offices to the poor and friendless. She accompanied Trajan in the east, and at his death she brought back his ashes to Rome, and still enjoyed all the honours and titles of a Roman empress under Adrian, who by her means had succeeded to the vacant throne. At her death, A.D. 122, she was ranked among the gods, and received divine honours, which, according to the superstition of the times, she seemed to deserve, from her regard for the good and prosperity of the Roman empire, and for her private virtues. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Plotinopŏlis, a town of Thrace, built by the emperor Trajan, and called after Plotina, the founder’s wife.——Another in Dacia.
Plotīnus, a Platonic philosopher of Lycopolis in Egypt. He was for eleven years a pupil of Ammonius the philosopher, and after he had profited by all the instructions of his learned preceptor, he determined to improve his knowledge, and to visit the territories of India and Persia to receive information. He accompanied Gordian in his expedition into the east, but the day which proved fatal to the emperor, nearly terminated the life of the philosopher. He saved himself by flight, and the following year he retired to Rome, where he publicly taught philosophy. His school was frequented by people of every sex, age, and quality; by senators as well as plebeians, and so great was the opinion of the public of his honesty and candour, that many, on their death-bed, left all their possessions to his care, and entrusted their children to him, as a superior being. He was the favourite of all the Romans; and while he charmed the populace by the force of his eloquence, and the senate by his doctrines, the emperor Gallienus courted him, and admired the extent of his learning. It is even said that the emperor and the empress Salonina intended to rebuild a decayed city of Campania, and to appoint the philosopher over it, that there he might experimentally know, while he presided over a colony of philosophers, the validity and the use of the ideal laws of the republic of Plato. This plan was not executed, through the envy and malice of the enemies of Plotinus. The philosopher, at last become helpless and infirm, returned to Campania, where the liberality of his friends for a while maintained him. He died A.D. 270, in the 66th year of his age, and as he expired, he declared that he made his last and most violent efforts to give up what there was most divine in him and in the rest of the universe. Amidst the great qualities of the philosopher, we discover some ridiculous singularities. Plotinus never permitted his picture to be taken, and he observed, that to see a painting of himself in the following age, was beneath the notice of an enlightened mind. These reasons also induced him to conceal the day, the hour, and the place of his birth. He never made use of medicines, and though his body was often debilitated by abstinence or too much study, he despised to have recourse to a physician, and thought that it would degrade the gravity of a philosopher. His writings have been collected by his pupil Porphyry. They consist of 54 different treatises divided into six equal parts, written with great spirit and vivacity; but the reasonings are abstruse, and the subjects metaphysical. The best edition is that of Picinus, folio, Basil, 1580.