POENA (ποινή), a general name for any punishment of any offence. Multa is the penalty of a particular offence. A Poena was only inflicted when it was imposed by some lex or some other legal authority (quo alio jure). When no poena was imposed, then a multa or penalty might be inflicted.
PŎLĔMARCHUS (πολέμαρχος). Respecting the polemarchus at Athens, see [Archon]. We read also of polemarchs at Sparta, and in various cities of Boeotia. As their name denotes, they were originally and properly connected with military affairs, being entrusted either with the command of armies abroad, or the superintendence of the war department at home; sometimes with both. The polemarchs of Sparta appear to have ranked next to the king, when on actual service abroad, and were generally of the royal kindred or house (γένος). They commanded single morae, so that they would appear to have been six in number, and sometimes whole armies. They also formed part of the king’s council in war, and of the royal escort called damosia. At Thebes there appear to have been two polemarchs, perhaps elected, annually; and in times of peace they seem to have been invested with the chief executive power of the state, and the command of the city, having its military force under their orders. They are not, however, to be confounded with the Boeotarchs.
PŌLĒTAE (πωλῆται), a board of ten officers, or magistrates, whose duty it was to grant leases of the public lands and mines, and also to let the revenues arising from the customs, taxes, confiscations, and forfeitures. Of such letting the word πωλεῖν (not μισθοῦν) was generally used, and also the correlative words ὠνεῖσθαι and πρίασθαι. One was chosen from each tribe. In the letting of the revenue they were assisted by the managers of the theoric fund (τὸ θεωρικόν), and they acted under the authority of the senate of Five Hundred, who exercised a general control over the financial department of the administration. Resident aliens, who did not pay their residence tax (μετοίκιον), were summoned before them, and, if found to have committed default, were sold.
POLLINCTŌRES. [[Funus].]
PŌMOĒRĬUM. This word is compounded of post and moerium (murus), in the same manner as pomeridiem of post and meridiem, and thus signifies a line running by the walls of a town (pone or post muros). But the walls of a town here spoken of are not its actual walls or fortifications, but symbolical walls, and the course of the pomoerium itself was marked by stone pillars, erected at certain intervals. The sacred line of the Roman pomoerium did not prevent the inhabitants from building upon or taking into use any place beyond it, but it was necessary to leave a certain space on each side of it unoccupied, so as not to unhallow it by profane use. Thus we find that the Aventine, although inhabited from early times, was for many centuries not included within the pomoerium. The pomoerium was not the same at all times; as the city increased the pomoerium also was extended; but this extension could, according to ancient usage, only be made by such men as had by their victories over foreign nations increased the boundaries of the empire, and neither could a pomoerium be formed nor altered without the augurs previously consulting the will of the gods by augury: hence the jus pomoerii of the augurs.
POMPA (πομπή), a solemn procession, as on the occasion of a funeral, triumph, &c. It is, however, more particularly applied to the grand procession with which the games of the circus commenced (Pompa Circensis). [[Circus].]
PONS (γέφυρα), a bridge. As the rivers of Greece were small, and the use of the arch known to them only to a limited extent, it is probable that the Greek bridges were built entirely of wood, or, at best, were nothing more than a wooden platform supported upon stone piers at each extremity. Pliny mentions a bridge over the Acheron 1000 feet in length; we also know that the island Euboea was joined to Boeotia by a bridge; but the only existing specimen of a Greek bridge is the one over a tributary of the Eurotas. The Romans regularly applied the arch to the construction of bridges, by which they were enabled to erect structures of great beauty and solidity, as well as utility. The width of the passage-way in a Roman bridge was commonly narrow, as compared with modern structures of the same kind, and corresponded with the road (via) leading to and from it. It was divided into three parts. The centre one, for horses and carriages, was denominated agger or iter; and the raised footpaths on each side decursoria, which were enclosed by parapet walls similar in use and appearance to the pluteus in the basilica. There were eight bridges across the Tiber. I. Of these the most celebrated, as well as the most ancient, was the Pons Sublicius, so called because it was built of wood; sublices, in the language of the Formiani, meaning wooden beams. It was built by Ancus Martius, when he united the Janiculum to the city, and was situated at the foot of the Aventine.—II. Pons Palatinus formed the communication between the Palatine and its vicinities and the Janiculum.—III. IV. Pons Fabricius and Pons Cestius were the two which connected the Insula Tiberina with the opposite sides of the river; the first with the city, and the latter with the Janiculum.
Pons Cestius, and Pons Fabricius, at Rome, with the buildings between restored.
Both are still remaining. They are represented in the preceding woodcut: that on the right hand is the pons Fabricius, and that on the left the pons Cestius.—V. Pons Janiculensis, which led direct to the Janiculum.—VI. Pons Vaticanus, so called because it formed the communication between the Campus Martius and Campus Vaticanus.—