Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/694

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

678 PTOLEMAI? neighbourhood the freshwater lake Monoleus afforded it a good supply of water and fish. The shell of the true land-tortoise was found at Ptoleniais ; it is described by Agatharchides (op. Geogr. Minor.'p. 40, Hudson; Pcripl. Mar. Erythr. p. 17) as covered with small lozenge-shaped plates, of the whiteness of the pearl-oyster. To ancient geographers the position of I'tolemais was of great importance, being one of the points from which their computations of latitude were made. Modem geographers, how- ever, are not agreed as to the degree in which it should be placed, some identifying it with Bas- Asslz, opposite the island of Welksley, while others (Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus, vol. ii. p. 92) pre- fer a more southerly site, near the port of Mlrza- Momharrik. (Comp. Mannert, vol. x. 1. p. 48, seq.) 3. (UToKefiais 7) 'Ep/xf^ov, Ptol. i. 1.5. § 11, iv. 5. § 56 ; TlroAfnaiK^ iroKis, Strab. xvii. p. 813), a city of Upper Aegypt, NW. of Abydus, and situ- ated on the western side of the Nile. It can hardly be regarded, however, as an Aegyptian city, its population and civil institutions being almost exclu- sively Greek, and its importance derived entirely from the favour of the Ptolemies. The ruins of Ptoleniais Hermii are supposed to be at the modern hamlet of Mensieh. (ChampoUion, f Egypte, vol. i. p. 253, seq.) [W. B. D.] PTOLEIIA'IS (UroXinah), a small town on the coast of Pamphylia, between the river Jlelas and the town of Coracesium, is mentioned only by Strabo (siv. p. 667). Leake {Asia Minor, p. 197) conjectures that Ptoleniais did not stand upon the coast, as it is not mentioned in the Stadiasmus, but occupied per- haps the situation of the modern town of Alara, where is a river, and upon its banks a steep hill crowned with a Turkish castle. (Comp. Richter, WaVfahrten, p. 334.) [L. S.] PTOLEMATS CYRENAICAE. [Barca.] PTOLEMAIS PHOENI'CIAE. [Ace.] PTOLIS. [Mantineia, p. 262, b.] PTOU.M. [BoEOTiA, p. 412, a.] PTY'CHIA. [CoRCYRA, p. 671, b.] PUBLICA'NOS, AD, in Gallia, is placed In the Itins. on a road which leads from Vienna ( Vienne) on the Rhone to the Alpis Graia {Little St. Ber- nard). In following this road Ad Publicanos comes after ]Iantala [Mantai^], and its position is at the commencement of the territoiy of the Centrones or La Tarentaise. Wesseling observes that the name Ad Publicanos indicates a toll place at a bridge. [Pons Aerarius]. D'Anville supposes that Ad Publicanos was at the point where the Arli, a tributary of the here, is crossed, near which there was an ancient Hospitium or Stabulum, as it was called, such as we find on several Roman roads. This place is now called UHopital de Conjkins, and is near the junction of the Arli and the here. Ad Publicanos was probably on the boundary of the Allobroges and Centrones, where some dues would be paid. These dues or customs were established in a period of Gallic history even anterior to the Roman conquest. (Strab. iv. p. 190.) Gallia was loaded with these imposts, which continued to the time of the French Revolution of 1789. The dis- tance between JIantala and Ad Publicanos is marked xvi. in the Itins., which does not agree with the site fixed by D'Anville. Other geographers place Ad Publicanos at the xWhge oi Des Fontaines. [G. L.] PU'CINUM {UovKivov: Duin6),a, town of Vene- tia, in the territory of the Garni (Plin. iii. 18. s. 22), PUTEOLI. though Ptolemy assigns it to Istria (Ptol. iii. ). § 28). It is placed by Pliny between the river Ti- mavus and Tergeste, which leaves little doubt that it is the place called Duino, about 16 miles from Trieste, and less than 2 from the sources of the Timavus. It stands on the brow of a steep rocky ridge or slope facing the sea ; and the neighbouring district is still noted for its wine, which was famous in the days of Pliny, and was reckoned particularly wholesome, so that Livia the wife of Augustus ascribed the great age to which she attained princi- pally to her use of it. (Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8, xvii. 4. s. 3.) [E. H. B.] PULCHRUM PROM. [Apollinis Prom.] PULLA'RIAE I'NSULAE. [P01.A.] PULTO'VIA, a place in Upper Paimonia, on the south-west of Petovio, on the river Puhka. {It. Bieros. p. 561 ; comp. Muchar, Noricum, i. p. 240.) [L. S.] PU'NICUM {Sta Marinella), a village or station on the coast of Etruria, mentioned only in the Tabula, which places it 6 miles beyond Pyrgi {Sta Severa) on the Via Aurelia; and this distance enables us to fix its site at the modern village or hamlet of Sta Marinella, where there are still some traces of a Roman port, and more extensive remains of a Roman villa in the immediate neighbourhood {Tab, Pent.; 'Nihhy, Bintwni di Roma. vol. ii. p. 313; Dennis's Etruria, vol. ii. p. 7.) [E. H. B.] PU'NICUM, called by Piocopius {de Aed. iv. 6. p. 287) UiKPovs, a town of Moesia Superior, at the mouth of the Pingus {Tab. Peut.). [T. H. D.] PUPLISCA, a town of the Libumi (Geogr. Rav. iv. 26), which has been identified with Jablanatu on the mainland facing the S. of the island of Arbe. (Neigebaur, Die Sud-Slaven, p. 225.) [E. B. J.] PURA. [Gedrosia.] PURPURA'RIAE INS., islands off the coast of Mauretania, which are said to have been discovered by Juba (Phn. vi. 37), who established there a manufactory of purple. If his description of them as being 625 M. P. from the Fortunate Islands be received, they cannot be, as D'Anville supposed, Lamerote or Fuente Ventura, the two nearest of the Canaries to the African continent. Still greater difficulties exist in supposing them to be Madeira and Porto Santo, which are too remote from Juba's kingdom to be the seat of a manufactui'e of purple carried on by him. Lelewel {Endechmgen der Carthager und GriecJien, p. 140) considers them to be the islands of Lanzarote Sta Clara, with the smaller ones of Graciosa and Alegranza. (Kenrick, Phoenicia, p. 229 ; Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 129, trans.) [E. B. J.] PUTE'OLI {UovT€6oi, Ptol. Dion Cass.; Ho- TioAoi Strab., ^c<. Apost.: Eth. Puteolanus: Poz- zuoVi), a maritime city of Campania situated on the northern shore of the Sinus Cumanus or Crater and on the east side of the smaller bay known as the Sinus Baianus. It was originally a Greek city of the name of Dicaearchia (AiKoiapx'") Strab. ; Ai- Kaiapx^'i-O; Steph. B.: Eth. AiKaiapxevs and AiKoi- apxe/TTjs, Steph.), and was a colony of the neighbour- ing Cumae, to which it served as a port. (Strab. v. p. 245.) There can be little doubt of the accuracy of this statement, but Stephanus of Byzantium and Eusebius ascribe its foundation to a colony frrtn Samos ; and it is not improbable that in this as in many similar instances, the colony from Cumae was reinforced by a fresh band of emigrants from Samos (Steph. B. s. v. Tloriooi; Euseb. ii. p 129, ed.