PĂTRŎNŎMI (πατρονόμοι), magistrates at Sparta, who exercised, as it were, a paternal power over the whole state. They did not exist till a late period, and they succeeded to the powers which the ephori formerly possessed.
PĂTRŌNUS. The act of manumission created a new relation between the manumissor and the slave, which was analogous to that between father and son. The manumissor became with respect to the manumitted person his patronus, and the manumitted person became the libertus of the manumissor. The word patronus (from pater) indicates the nature of the relation. If the manumissor was a woman, she became patrona. The libertus adopted the gentile name of the manumissor. Cicero’s freedman Tiro was called M. Tullius Tiro. The libertus owed respect and gratitude to his patron, and in ancient times the patron might punish him in a summary way for neglecting those duties. This obligation extended to the children of the libertus, and the duty was due to the children of the patron. It was the duty of the patron to support his freedman in case of necessity, and if he did not, he lost his patronal rights; the consequence was the same if he brought a capital charge against him. The most important of the patronal rights related to the property of liberti, as in certain cases the patronus had a right to the whole or a part of the property of a libertus.
PAUPĔRĬES, the legal term for mischief done by an animal (quadrupes) contrary to the nature of the animal, as if a man’s ox gored another man. In such cases the law of the Twelve Tables gave the injured person an action against the owner of the animal for the amount of the damage sustained. The owner was bound either to pay the full amount of damages or to give up the animal to the injured person (noxae dare).
PĂVĪMENTUM. [[Domus], [p. 144], b.]
PECTEN (κτείς), a comb. The Greeks and Romans used combs made of box-wood. The Egyptians had ivory combs, which also came into use by degrees among the Romans. The wooden combs, found in Egyptian tombs, are toothed on one side only; but the Greeks used them with teeth on both sides. The principal use of the comb was for dressing the hair, in doing which the Greeks of both sexes were remarkably careful and diligent. To go with uncombed hair was a sign of affliction.
PĔCŬLĀTUS, is properly the misappropriation or theft of public property. The person guilty of this offence was peculator. The origin of the word appears to be pecus, a term which originally denoted that kind of moveable property which was the chief sign of wealth. Originally trials for peculatus were before the populus or the senate. In the time of Cicero matters of peculatus had become one of the quaestiones perpetuae.
PĔCŪLĬUM. [[Servus].]
PĔCŪNĬA. [[Aes]; [Argentum]; [Aurum].]
PĔDĀRĬI. [[Senatus].]
PĔDĬSĔQUI, a class of slaves, whose duty was to follow their master when he went out of his house. There was a similar class of female slaves, called Pedisequae.