Portia and Portius. See: [Porcia] and [Porcius].
Portmos, a town of Eubœa. Demosthenes.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.
Portumnalia, festivals of Portumnus at Rome, celebrated on the 17th of August, in a very solemn and lugubrious manner, on the borders of the Tiber. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 547.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5, ch. 3.
Portumnus, a sea deity. See: [Melicerta].
Porus, the god of plenty at Rome. He was son of Metis or Prudence. Plato.——A king of India, when Alexander invaded Asia. The conqueror of Darius ordered him to come and pay homage to him, as a dependent prince. Porus scorned his commands, and declared he would go and meet him on the frontiers of his kingdom sword in hand, and immediately he marched a large army to the banks of the Hydaspes. The stream of the river was rapid; but Alexander crossed it in the obscurity of the night, and defeated one of the sons of the Indian monarch. Porus himself renewed the battle, but the valour of the Macedonians prevailed, and the Indian prince retired covered with wounds, on the back of one of his elephants. Alexander sent one of the kings of India to demand him to surrender, but Porus killed the messenger, exclaiming, “Is not this the voice of the wretch who has abandoned his country?” and when he at last was prevailed upon to come before the conqueror, he approached him as an equal. Alexander demanded of him how he wished to be treated. “Like a king,” replied the Indian monarch. This magnanimous answer so pleased the Macedonian conqueror, that he not only restored him his dominions, but he increased his kingdom by the conquest of new provinces; and Porus, in acknowledgment of such generosity and benevolence, became one of the most faithful and attached friends of Alexander, and never violated the assurances of peace which he had given him. Porus is represented as a man of uncommon stature, great strength, and proportionable dignity. Plutarch, Alexander.—Philostratus, bk. 2, ch. 10.—Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 8, &c.—Claudianus, De Consulatu Honorii, ch. 4.——Another king of India in the reign of Alexander.——A king of Babylon.
Pŏsīdes, a eunuch and freedman of the emperor Claudius, who rose to honours by the favour of his master. Juvenal, satire 14, li. 94.
Posidēum, a promontory and town of Ionia, where Neptune had a temple. Strabo, bk. 14.——A town of Syria below Libanus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 20.——A town near the Strymon, on the borders of Macedonia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.
Posīdon, the name of Neptune among the Greeks.
Posidonia, a town of Lucania, better known by the name of Pæstum. See: [Pæstum].
Posidonium, a town or temple of Neptune, near Cænis in Italy, where the straits of Sicily are narrowest, and scarce a mile distant from the opposite shore.