Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/645

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PICTAVI. XUM Tolenlino), on opposite sides of the valley of the Flusor (CkieMi) • Septesu'EDA (S. Severino), in the upper valley of the Poteiiza ; Tkeia, on the left bank of the same stream, near the modern tovrn of Treja ; and Eicina, on its right bank, not far from Mucerata. The site of Pausulae (Pausulani, Plin.) is fixed by Holstenius at Monte dell' Olmo, and that of Pollentia (Pollentini, Id.) at Monte Melons, all in the same neighbourhood ; but these last identifications are merely conjectural. Picenum was traversed by a line of highroad, which followed the fine of the coast from Ancona to Atemum, where it united with the Via Valeria ; while its more direct communications with Rome were secured by the Via Salaria, which crossed the Apen- nines direct from Interocrea by Falacrinum to Ascu- lum, and thence to the Adriatic. Further to the north, also, a branch of the Via Flaniinia, quitting the main line of that great road at Nuceria, crossed the central ridge of the Apennines by Prolaqueum to Septempeda in the valley of the Potentia, and thence proceeded by Treia and Auximum to Ancona. Be- sides these more important lines of road, the Tabula notices two cross lines : the one leading from Auxi- mum by Eicina and Urbs Salvia to Asculum ; the other from Asculum to Firmum, and its port Cas- tellum Firmanuni. The extremely hilly and broken character of the country renders the determination of distances along these lines of road veiy uncertain; and the whole district is given in the Tabula in so confused a manner that little reliance can be placed on its authority. [E. H. B.] PICTAVI. [PlCTONES.] PICTI. The names of the Picti and Scoti ap- pear only in late writers, by whom they are spoken of as two allied people. The Picts seem to have been identical with the ancient Caledonians ("Caldo- Tmrnaliorumque Pictorum, silvae et paludes," Eumen. Pan. vi. 7). and dwelt N. of the Firth of Forth (Beda, H. Keel. i. 1). Ammianus MarcelUnus re- presents the Picti as divided, in the time of the emperor Constans, into two tribes, the Dicalidonae and Vecturiones, and as committing fearful ravages in conjunction with the Attacotti and Scotti (xxvii. 8. § 4.) Their ethnological relations have been already discussed [Bkitannicae Imsulab, Vol. I. p. 438]. The name of Picti, or painted, is com- monly supposed to be derived from their custom of painting their bodies, and would thus be only a trans- lation of the British word Brith, signifying anything painted, and which, according to Camden ( Gere. -Descr. p. sxxvi.), is the root of the name Briton. Such an etymology favours the notion that the Picts were an indigenous race ; but on this point nothing positive can be aflSrmcd. (Com p. Amin. Marc. xx. 1, xxvi. 4; Beda, H. Eccl. iii. 4, v. 21.) [T.H.D.] PPCTONES (UiKTovis), and, at a later period, PiCTAVi, were a Gallic nation, south of the Loire and on the coast of the Atlantic. Ptolemy (ii. 7. § 6) places them in Celtogalatia Aquitania, and mentions two of their towns, Limonum or Lemonum (Poitiers) and Eatiatum. "They occupy," he says, '■ the most northern parts of Aquitania, those on the river (Liger), and on the sea." Strabo (iv. pp. 190, 191) makes the Loire the boundary between the Namnetes and the Pictones. South of the Pictavi he places the Santones, who extend to the Garonne. The Pictones are mentioned by Caesar. He got ships from them for his war against the Veneti (S. G. iii. 11). The Pictones joined Vercingetorix in B. c. 52, when he was raising all Gallia against PIKEES. C29 Caesar. In b. c. 5 1 C. Caninius, a Icgatus of Caesar, marched into the country of the Pictones to relieve Lemonum, which was besieged by Dumnacus (£. G. viii. 26). [Lemonum.] Lucan (i. 436) says that the Pictones were " immunes," or paid no taxes to the Eomans : — " Pictones immunes subigunt sua rura. " His authority is not worth much ; and besides that, this verse and the four verses which follow are probably spurious. (Notes in Oudendorp's edition of Lucan.) The teiTitory of the Pictones was bounded on the east by the Turones and Bituriges Cubi. It cor- responded to the diocese of Poitiers. [G. L.] PICTO'NIUM PROMONTO'RIUM, as it is now generally written, but in Ptolemy (ii. 7. § 1) Pec- tonium (J17)kt6viov &Kpov), is placed by him on the coabt of Gallia Aquitania, between the mouth of the river which he names Canentelus [Carantonus] and the port Secor or Sicor. It is impossible to de- termine what point of land is Pectonium. D'Anville supposes it to be L'Aiguillon near the mouth of the Sevre Niortaise ; and Gossellin takes it to be La Pointe de Boisvinet. [G. L.] PIDA (Jl'iSa), a town in Pontus Galaticus, on the road leading from Amasia to Neocaesareia. (Ptol. v. 6. § 9 ; Tab. Pent., where it is called Pidae.) [L. S.] PIENGI'TAE (n(€77rTaj, Ptol. iii. 5. § 20), a people in European Sarmatia, supposed by Schafa- rik to be the inhabitants of the river Piena, which falls into the Pripjdt near Pinsk (Slawische Alter- thiimer, vol. i. p. 207.) PI'ERA. [ClEEIUM.] PI'EEES (riiepfs), a Thracian people, occupying the narrow strip of plain land, or low hill, between the mouths of the Peneius and the Haliacmon, at the foot of the great woody steeps of Olympus. (Thtic. ii. 99; Strab. vii. p. 331, Fr. 22, ix. p. 410; Liv. xliv. 9.) This district, which, under the name of PiERiA or PiERis (ITiepia, Iliepis), is men- tioned in the Homeric poems (//. xiv. 225), was, ac- cording to legend, the birthplace of the Muses (Hesiod, Theog. 53) and of Orpheus, the father of song. (Apoll. Argon, i. 23.) When this worship was introduced into Boeotia, the names of the moun- tains, grots, and springs with which this poetic religion was connected, were transferred from the N. to the S. Afterwards the Pieres were expelled from their original seats, and driven to the N. beyond the Strymon and Mount Pangaeus, where they formed a new settlement. (Herod, vii. 112; Thuc. I. c.) The boundaries which historians and geographers give to this province vary. In the systematic geography of Ptolemy (iii. 13. § 15) the name is given to the extent of coast between the mouths of the Ludias and the Haliacmon. Pieria was bounded on the W. from the contiguous district of the Thessalian Per- rhaebia by the great chain of Olympus. An offshoot from Olympus advances along the Pierian plain, in a NW. direction, as far as the ravine of the Haliacmon, where the mountains are separated by that chasm in the great eastern ridge of Northern Greece from the portion of it anciently called Bermius. The highest summit of the Pierian range called Piebu.s MoNS (Plin. iv. 15; comp. Pausan. ix. 29. § 3; X. 1 3. § 5) rises about 8 miles to the N. of Vla- khoUvadho, and is a conspicuous object in all the country to the E. It would seem that there was a city called Pieiua (ITiepia: Elh. Uiepiwrr]^, Ilie- S s 3