Priēne, a maritime town of Asia Minor, at the foot of mount Mycale, one of the 12 independent cities of Ionia. It gave birth to Bias, one of the seven wise men of Greece. It had been built by an Athenian colony. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 2; bk. 8, ch. 14.—Strabo, bk. 12.
Prima, a daughter of Romulus and Hersilia.
Prion, a place at Carthage.
Prisciānus, a celebrated grammarian at Athens, in the age of the emperor Justinian.
Priscilla, a woman praised for her conjugal affection by Statius, bk. 5, Sylvæ, poem 1.
Priscus Servilius, a dictator at Rome who defeated the Veientes and the Fidenates.——A surname of the elder Tarquin king of Rome. See: [Tarquinius].——A governor of Syria, brother to the emperor Philip. He proclaimed himself emperor in Macedonia when he was informed of his brother’s death, but he was soon after conquered and put to death by Decius, Philip’s murderer.——A friend of the emperor Severus.——A friend of the emperor Julian, almost murdered by the populace.——Helvidius, a questor in Achaia during the reign of Nero, remarkable for his independent spirit. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 6.—Juvenal.——An officer under Vitellius.——One of the emperor Adrian’s friends.——A friend of Domitian.——An orator, whose dissipated and luxurious manners Horace ridicules, bk. 1, satire 7, li. 9.
Pristis, the name of one of the ships that engaged in the naval combat which was exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of his father’s death. She was commanded by Mnestheus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 116.
Privernus, a Rutulian killed by Capys in the wars between Æneas and Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 576.
Privernum, now Piperno Vecchio, a town of the Volsci in Italy, whose inhabitants were called Privernates. It became a Roman colony. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 540.—Cicero, bk. 1, De Divinatione, ch. 43.
Proba, the wife of the emperor Probus.——A woman who opened the gates of Rome to the Goths.