Pæones. A powerful Thracian people, who in early times were spread over a great part of Macedonia and Thrace. Their country was called Pæonia. The Pæonian tribes on the lower course of the Strymon were subdued by the Persians, 513 B.C.; but the tribes in the north of the country maintained their independence. They frequently invaded and plundered the territories of the Macedonian monarchs; but they were eventually subdued by Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. After the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans, 168, the part of Pæonia east of the Axius formed the second, and the part of Pæonia west of the Axius formed the third of the four districts into which Macedonia was divided by the Romans.
Pæstum (anc. Posidonia, It. Pesto). Anciently a Greek city of Lucania, in the present Neapolitan province of Principato Citeriore, on the Sinus Pæstanus, now the Gulf of Salerno. It was founded by the Trœzenians and the Sybarites some time between 650 and 610 B.C. It was subdued by the Samnites of Lucania, who named it Pæstum, and slowly declined in prosperity after it fell into the hands of the Romans, who established a colony here about 273 B.C. In 210 B.C. it furnished ships to the squadron with which D. Quintus repaired to the siege of Tarentum; and in the following year it was among the eighteen colonies which still professed readiness to furnish supplies to the Roman armies. In the 10th century it was burnt by the Saracens, and the site is now occupied by the modern village of Pesto.
Pageant. In ancient military history, a triumphal car, chariot, or arch, variously adorned with colors, flags, etc., carried about in public shows, processions, etc. Also gorgeous show or spectacle.
Pagræ (now Pagras, Bagras, Bargas). A city of Syria, on the eastern side of Mount Amanus, at the foot of the pass called by Ptolemy the Syrian Gates, on the road from Antioch to Alexandria, the scene of the battle between Alexander Balas and Demetrius Nicator, 145 B.C.
Pah. The name of the stockaded intrenchments of the New Zealanders.
Pah-Ute Indians. A tribe of aborigines of Shoshone stock, who, to the number of 2000, reside on two reservations in Nevada. (See [Indians and their Agencies].) They are a peaceable race, but are low down in the scale of civilization.
Pailler (Fr.). An ancient body of French militia. The soldiers belonging to it were probably so called either from the circumstance of their wearing straw in their helmets, in order to know one another in action, or because they were accustomed to set fire to the habitations of their enemies with bundles of straw, which they always carried with them for that purpose.
Paladin (Fr.). A name given to those ancient knights who were either what the French call comtes du palais, “counts of the palace,” or princes lineally descended from Charlemagne and other old kings.
Paladin. A term originally derived from the counts Palatine, or of the palace, who were the highest dignitaries in the Byzantine court, and thence used generally for a lord or chieftain, and by the Italian romantic poets for a knight-errant.
Palæsta (now Palasa). A town of Epirus, on the coast of Chaonia, and a little south of the Acroceraunian Mountains. Here Cæsar landed his forces when he crossed over to Greece to carry on the war against Pompey.