PĔDUM (κορώνη), a shepherd’s crook. On account of its connection with pastoral life, the crook is often seen in works of ancient art, in the hands of Pan, Satyrs, Fauns, and shepherds. It was also the usual attribute of Thalia, as the muse of pastoral poetry.
Pedum, Shepherd’s Crook. (From a Painting found at Civita Vecchia.)
PEGMA (πῆγμα), a pageant, i.e. an edifice of wood, consisting of two or more stages (tabulata), which were raised or depressed at pleasure by means of balance weights. These great machines were used in the Roman amphitheatres, the gladiators who fought upon them being called pegmares. They were supported upon wheels so as to be drawn into the circus, glittering with silver and a profusion of wealth. When Vespasian and Titus celebrated their triumph over the Jews, the procession included pageants of extraordinary magnitude and splendour, consisting of three or four stages above one another, hung with rich tapestry, and inlaid with ivory and gold. By the aid of various contrivances they represented battles and their numerous incidents, and the attack and defence of the cities of Judaea. The pegma was also used in sacrifices. A bull having been slain in one of the stages, the high priest placed himself below in a cavern, so as to receive the blood upon his person and his garments, and in this state he was produced by the flamines before the worshippers.
PĔLĂTAE (πελάται), were free labourers working for hire, like the thetes, in contra-distinction to the helots and penestae, who were bondsmen or serfs. In the later Greek writers, such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch, the word is used for the Latin cliens, though the relations expressed by the two terms are by no means similar.
PELTA (πέλτη), a small shield. Iphicrates, observing that the ancient [Clipeus] was cumbrous and inconvenient, introduced among the Greeks a much smaller and lighter shield, from which those who bore it took the name of peltastae. It consisted principally of a frame of wood or wicker-work, covered with skin or leather.
PĔNESTAE (πενέσται), a class of serfs in Thessaly, who stood in nearly the same relation to their Thessalian lords as the helots of Laconia did to the Dorian Spartans, although their condition seems to have been on the whole superior. They were the descendants of the old Pelasgic or Aeolian inhabitants of Thessaly Proper. They occupied an intermediate position between freemen and purchased slaves, and they cultivated the land for their masters, paying by way of rent a portion of the produce of it. The Penestae sometimes accompanied their masters to battle, and fought on horseback as their vassals: a circumstance which need not excite surprise, as Thessaly was so famous for cavalry. There were Penestae among the Macedonians also.
PĔNĔTRĀLE. [[Templum].]
PĒNĬCILLUS. [[Pictura], [p. 295] a.]
PENTĂCOSĬŎMĔDIMNI. [[Census].]