PRŌLĒTĀRĬI. [[Caput].]
PRŎMĒTHEIA (προμήθεια), a festival celebrated at Athens in honour of Prometheus. It was one of the five Attic festivals, which were held with a torch-race in the Ceramicus [comp. [Lampadephoria]], for which the gymnasiarchs had to supply the youths from the gymnasia. Prometheus himself was believed to have instituted this torch-race, whence he was called the torch-bearer.
PRŌMULSIS. [[Coena], [p. 96], b.]
PRŌNŬBAE, PRŌNŬBI. [[Matrimonium].]
PROPRAETOR. [[Praetor].]
PRŎPỸLAEA (προπύλαια), the entrance to a temple, or sacred enclosure, consisted of a gateway flanked by buildings, whence the plural form of the word. The Egyptian temples generally had magnificent propylaea, consisting of a pair of oblong truncated pyramids of solid masonry, the faces of which were sculptured with hieroglyphics. In Greek, except when the Egyptian temples are spoken of, the word is generally used to signify the entrance to the Acropolis of Athens, which was executed under the administration of Pericles.
PRŌQUAESTOR. [[Quaestor].]
PRŌSCĒNĬUM. [[Theatrum].]
PRŌSCRIPTĬO. The verb proscribere properly signifies to exhibit a thing for sale by means of a bill or advertisement. But in the time of Sulla it assumed a very different meaning, for he applied it to a measure of his own invention (B.C. 82), namely, the sale of the property of those who were put to death at his command, and who were themselves called proscripti. After this example of a proscription had once been set, it was readily adopted by those in power during the civil commotions of subsequent years. In the proscription of Antonius, Caesar, and Lepidus (B.C. 43), Cicero and some of the most distinguished Romans were put to death.