A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

PENTATHLON (πένταθλον, quinquertium), was next to the pancratium the most beautiful of all athletic performances. The persons engaged in it were called Pentathli (πένταθλοι). The pentathlon consisted of five distinct kinds of games, viz. leaping (ἅλμα), the foot-race (δρόμος), the throwing of the discus (δίσκος), the throwing of the spear (σίγυννος or ἀκόντιον), and wrestling (πάλη), which were all performed in one day and in a certain order, one after the other, by the same athletae. The pentathlon was introduced in the Olympic games in Ol. 18.

PENTĒCOSTĒ (πεντηκοστή), a duty of two per cent, levied upon all exports and imports at Athens. The money was collected by persons called πεντηκοστολόγοι. The merchant who paid the duty was said πεντηκοντεύεσθαι. All the customs appear to have been let to farm, and probably from year to year. They were let to the highest bidders by the ten Poletae, acting under the authority of the senate. The farmers were called τελῶναι, and were said ὠνεῖσθαι τὴν πεντηκοστήν.

PEPLUM or PEPLUS (πέπλος), an outer garment or shawl, strictly worn by females, and thus corresponding to the himation or pallium, the outer garment worn by men. Like all other pieces of cloth used for the [Amictus], it was often fastened by means of a brooch. It was, however, frequently worn without a brooch. The shawl was also often worn so as to cover the head while it enveloped the body, and more especially on occasion of a funeral or of a marriage, when a very splendid shawl (παστός) was worn by the bride. The following woodcut may be supposed to represent the moment when the bride, so veiled, is delivered to her husband at the door of the nuptial chamber. He wears the [Pallium] only; she has a long shift beneath her shawl, and is supported by the pronuba. Of all the productions of the loom, pepli were those on which the greatest skill and labour were bestowed. So various and tasteful were the subjects which they represented, that poets delighted to describe them. The art of weaving them was entirely oriental; and those of the most splendid dyes and curious workmanship were imported from Tyre and Sidon. They often constituted a very important part of the treasures of a temple, having been presented to the divinity by suppliants and devotees.

Peplum. (Bartoli, ‘Admir. Rom. Ant.,’ pl. 57.)

PĒRA (πήρα), a wallet, made of leather, worn suspended at the side by rustics and by travellers to carry their provisions, and adopted in imitation of them by the Cynic philosophers.

PERDŬELLĬO was in the ancient times of the republic nearly the same as the Majestas of the later times. [[Majestas].] Perduellis originally signified hostis, and thus the offence was equivalent to making war on the Roman state. Offenders were tried by two judges called Perduellionis Duumviri. In the time of the kings the duumviri perduellionis and the quaestores parricidii appear to have been the same persons; but after the establishment of the republic, the offices were distinct, for the quaestores were appointed regularly every year, whereas the duumviri were appointed very rarely, as had been the case during the kingly period. Livy represents the duumviri perduellionis as being appointed by the kings, but they were really proposed by the king and appointed by the populus. During the early part of the republic they were appointed by the comitia curiata, and afterwards by the comitia centuriata, on the proposal of the consuls. In the case of Rabirius (B.C. 63), however, this custom was violated, as the duumviri were appointed by the praetor instead of by the comitia centuriata. The punishment for those who were found guilty of perduellio was death; they were either hanged on the arbor infelix, or thrown from the Tarpeian rock. But when the duumviri found a person guilty, he might appeal to the people (in early times the populus, afterwards the comitia centuriata), as was done in the first case which is on record, that of Horatius, and in the last, which is that of Rabirius, whom Cicero defended before the people in the oration still extant.

PĔRĔGRĪNUS, a stranger or foreigner. In ancient times the word peregrinus was used as synonymous with hostis; but in the times of which we have historical records, a peregrinus was any person who was not a Roman citizen. In B.C. 247, a second praetor (praetor peregrinus) was appointed for the purpose of administering justice in matters between Romans and peregrini, and in matters between such peregrini as had taken up their abode at Rome. [[Praetor].] The number of peregrini who lived in the city of Rome appears to have had an injurious influence upon the poorer classes of Roman citizens, whence on some occasions they were driven out of the city. The first example of this kind was set in B.C. 127, by the tribune M. Junius Pennus. They were expelled a second time by the tribune C. Papius, in B.C. 66. During the last period of the republic and the first centuries of the empire, all the free inhabitants of the Roman world were, in regard to their political rights, either Roman citizens, or Latins, or peregrini, and the latter had, as before, neither commercium nor connubium with the Romans. They were either free provincials, or citizens who had forfeited their civitas, and were degraded to the rank of peregrini, or a certain class of freedmen, called peregrini dediticii.

PĔRĬOECI (περίοικοι). This word properly denotes the inhabitants of a district lying around some particular locality, but is generally used to describe a dependent population, living without the walls or in the country provinces of a dominant city, and although personally free, deprived of the enjoyment of citizenship, and the political rights conferred by it. A political condition such as that of the perioeci of Greece, and like the vassalage of the Germanic nations, could hardly have originated in anything else than foreign conquest, and the perioeci of Laconia furnish a striking illustration of this. Their origin dates from the Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus, when the old inhabitants of the country, the Achaeans, submitted to their conquerors on certain conditions, by which they were left in possession of their private rights of citizenship. They suffered indeed a partial deprivation of their lands, and were obliged to submit to a king of foreign race, but still they remained equal in law to their conquerors, and were eligible to all offices of state except the sovereignty. But this state of things did not last long: in the next generation after the conquest the relation between the two parties was changed. The Achaeans were reduced from citizens to vassals; they were made tributary to Sparta; their lands were subjected to a tax; and they lost their rights of citizenship, the right of voting in the general assembly, and their eligibility to important offices in the state, such as that of a senator, &c. It does not, however, appear that the perioeci were generally an oppressed people, though kept in a state of political inferiority to their conquerors. On the contrary, the most distinguished among them were admitted to offices of trust, and they sometimes served as heavy-armed soldiers; as, for instance, at the battle of Plataea. The Norman conquest of England presents a striking parallel to the Dorian conquest of Laconia, both in its achievement and consequences. The Saxons, like the old Achaeans, were deprived of their lands, excluded from all offices of trust and dignity, and reduced, though personally free, to a state of political slavery. The Normans, on the contrary, of whatever rank in their own country, were all nobles and warriors, compared with the conquered Saxons, and for a long time enjoyed exclusively the civil and ecclesiastical administration of the land.