Potentia, a town of Picenum. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 44.
Pothīnus, a eunuch, tutor to Ptolemy king of Egypt. He advised the monarch to murder Pompey, when he claimed his protection after the battle of Pharsalia. He stirred up commotions in Alexandria, when Cæsar came there, upon which the conqueror ordered him to be put to death. Lucan, bk. 8, li. 483; bk. 10, li. 95.
Pothos, one of the deities of the Samothracians. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.
Potidæa, a town of Macedonia, situate in the peninsula of Pallene. It was founded by a Corinthian colony, and became tributary to the Athenians, from whom Philip of Macedonia took it. The conqueror gave it to the Olynthians, to render them more attached to his interest. Cassander repaired and enlarged it, and called it Cassandria, a name which it still preserves, and which has given occasion to Livy to say, that Cassander was the original founder of that city. Livy, bk. 44, ch. 11.—Demosthenes, Olynthiac.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 23.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.
Potidania, a town of Ætolia. Livy, bk. 28, ch. 8.
Potīna, a goddess at Rome, who presided over children’s potions. Varro.
Potitius. See: [Pinarius].
Potniæ, a town of Bœotia, where Bacchus had a temple. The Potnians, having once murdered the priest of the god, were ordered by the oracle, to appease his resentment, yearly to offer on his altars a young man. This unnatural sacrifice was continued for some years, till Bacchus himself substituted a goat, from which circumstance he received the appellation of Ægobolus and Ægophagus. There was here a fountain whose waters made horses run mad as soon as they were touched. There were also here certain goddesses called Potniades, on whose altars, in a grove sacred to Ceres and Proserpine, victims were sacrificed. It was also usual, at a certain season of the year, to conduct into the grove young pigs, which were found the following year in the groves of Dodona. The mares of Potniæ destroyed their master Glaucus son of Sisyphus. See: [Glaucus]. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 8.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 267.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 15, ch. 25.——A town of Magnesia, whose pastures gave madness to asses, according to Pliny.
Practium, a town and a small river of Asia Minor, on the Hellespont.
Præcia, a courtesan at Rome, who influenced Cethegus, and procured Asia as a consular province for Lucullus. Plutarch, Lucullus.