PSĒPHUS (ψῆφος), a ball of stone, used by the Athenian dicasts in giving their verdict. [[Cadiscus].] Hence ψηφίζεσθαι and its various derivatives are used so often to signify voting, determining, &c.
PSEUDENGRĂPHĒS GRĂPHĒ (ψευδεγγραφῆς γραφή). The name of every state debtor at Athens was entered in a register by the praetores, whose duty it was to collect the debts, and erase the name of the party when he had paid it. If they made a false entry, either wilfully, or upon the suggestion of another person, the aggrieved party might institute a prosecution against them, or against the person upon whose suggestion it was made. Such prosecution was called γραφὴ ψευδεγγραφῆς. It would lie also, where a man was registered as debtor for more than was really due from him.
PSEUDŎCLĒTEIAS GRĂPHĒ (ψευδοκλητείας γραφή), a prosecution against one, who had appeared as a witness (κλητήρ or κλήτωρ) to prove that a defendant had been duly summoned, and thereby enabled the plaintiff to get a judgment by default. The false witness (κλητήρ) was liable to be criminally prosecuted, and punished at the discretion of the court. The γραφὴ ψευδοκλητείας came before the Thesmothetae, and the question at the trial simply was, whether the defendant in the former cause had been summoned or not.
PSĪLI (ψιλοί). [[Arma].]
PSYCTĒR (ψυκτήρ, dim. ψυκτηρίδιον), a wine-cooler, was sometimes made of bronze or silver. One of earthenware is preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Copenhagen. It consists of one deep vessel for holding ice, which is fixed within another for holding wine. The wine was poured in at the top. It thus surrounded the vessel of ice and was cooled by the contact. It was drawn off so as to fill the drinking-cups by means of a cock at the bottom.
PŪBES, PŪBERTAS. [[Impubes]; [Infans].]
PUBLĬCĀNI, farmers of the public revenues of the Roman state (vectigalia). Their name is formed from publicum, which signifies all that belongs to the state, and is sometimes used by Roman writers as synonymous with vectigal. The revenues which Rome derived from conquered countries, consisting chiefly of tolls, tithes, harbour duties, the scriptura, or the tax which was paid for the use of the public pasture lands, and the duties paid for the use of mines and salt-works (salinae), were let out, or, as the Romans expressed it, were sold by the censors in Rome itself to the highest bidder. This sale generally took place in the month of Quinctilis, and was made for a lustrum. The terms on which the revenues were let, were fixed by the censors in the so-called leges censoriae. The people or the senate, however, sometimes modified the terms fixed by the censors, in order to raise the credit of the publicani; and in some cases even the tribunes of the people interfered in this branch of the administration. The tithes raised in the province of Sicily alone, with the exception of those of wine, oil, and garden produce, were not sold at Rome, but in the districts of Sicily itself, according to a practice established by Hiero. The persons who undertook the farming of the public revenue of course belonged to the wealthiest Romans, and during the latter period of the republic they belonged almost exclusively to the equestrian order. Their wealth and consequent influence may be seen from the fact, that as early as the second Punic war, after the battle of Cannae, when the aerarium was entirely exhausted, the publicani advanced large sums of money to the state, on condition of repayment after the end of the war. The words equites and publicani are sometimes used as synonymous. The publicani had to give security to the state for the sum at which they bought one or more branches of the revenue in a province; but as for this reason the property of even the wealthiest individual must have been inadequate, a number of equites generally united together, and formed a company (socii, societas, or corpus), which was recognised by the state, and by which they were enabled to carry on their undertakings upon a large scale. Such companies appear as early as the second Punic war. The shares which each partner of such a company took in the business were called partes, and if they were small, particulae. The responsible person in each company, and the one who contracted with the state, was called manceps [[Manceps]]; but there was also a magister to manage the business of each society, who resided at Rome, and kept an extensive correspondence with the agents in the provinces. He seems to have held his office only for one year; his representative in the provinces was called sub magistro, who had to travel about, and superintend the actual business of collecting the revenues. Nobody but a Roman citizen was allowed to become a member of a company of publicani; freedmen and slaves were excluded. No Roman magistrate, however, or governor of a province, was allowed to take any share whatever in a company of publicani, a regulation which was chiefly intended as a protection against the oppression of the provincials. The collection of the taxes in the provinces was performed by an inferior class of men, who were said operas publicanis dare, or esse in operis societatis. They were engaged by the publicani, and consisted of freemen as well as slaves, Romans as well as provincials. The separate branches of the public revenue in the provinces (decumae, portoria, scriptura, and the revenues from the mines and salt-works) were mostly leased to separate companies of publicani; whence they were distinguished by names derived from that particular branch which they had taken in farm; e.g. decumani, pecuarii or scripturarii, salinarii or mancipes salinarum, &c. [[Decumae]; [Portorium]; [Salinas]; [Scriptura].] The portitores were not publicani properly so called, but only their servants engaged in examining the goods imported or exported, and levying the custom-duties upon them. They belonged to the same class as the publicans of the New Testament.
PUBLĬCUM. [[Publicani].]
PŬGĬLĀTUS (πύξ, πυγμή, πυγμαχία, πυγμοσύνη), boxing, was one of the earliest athletic games among the Greeks, and is frequently mentioned in Homer. In the earliest times boxers (pugiles, πύκται) fought naked, with the exception of a girdle (ζῶμα) round their loins; but this was not used when boxing was introduced at Olympia, as the contests in wrestling and racing had been carried on there by persons entirely naked ever since Ol. 15. Respecting the leathern thongs with which pugilists surrounded their fists, see Cestus, where its various forms are illustrated by woodcuts. The Ionians, especially those of Samos, were at all times more distinguished pugilists than the Dorians, and at Sparta boxing is said to have been forbidden by the laws of Lycurgus. But the ancients generally considered boxing as a useful training for military purposes, and a part of education no less important than any other gymnastic exercise.
PŬGILLĀRES. [[Tabulae].]