Guinea: Land und Leute,” in Deutsche Rundschau. (1905), vol.
xxvii.; E. de Vasconcelles, As Colonias porluguesas (Lisbon, 1896-1897);
and ]. Machat, Les Rivieres du sud (Paris, 1906), in which
are cited many papers dealing with Portuguese Guinea.
PORTUNUS, or Portumnus, in Roman mythology, originally
the god of gates and doors (Lat. porla), and as such identified
with Ianus and represented with a key in his hand. Gradually
he came to be recognized as a separate deity, who protected
the harbours (portus) and ensured a safe return to seafarers.
(Cicero, Nat. deor. ii. 26; Virgil, Aen. v. 241). With the introduction
of the Greek gods, he became merged in Palaemon-Melicertes.
He had a special priest (fiamen portunalis) and
temples on the Tiber near the Aemilian bridge and near Ostia,
where a festival was celebrated in his honour on the 17th of
August. Mommsen unhesitatingly identifies Portunus with
the river-god Tiberinus, from the fact that the festival is also
called Tiberinalia in the fasli of Philocalus; Marquardt regards
him rather as the tutelary deity of warehouses.
See J. Marquardt, Römische Slaatsverwaltung (1885), iii. 327, note 10.
PORTUS, an ancient harbour of Latium, Italy, on the right
bank of the Tiber, at its mouth. For its origin see Ostia.
Claudius constructed the first harbour here, 212 m. north of Ostia,
enclosing an area of 170 acres, with two long curving moles
projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse,
in the centre of the space between them; the harbour thus
opened directly to the sea on the north-west and communicated
with the Tiber by a channel on the south-east. The object was to
obtain protection from the prevalent south-west wind, to which
the river mouth was exposed. Though Claudius, in the
inscription which he caused to be erected in A.D. 46, boasted
that he had freed the city of Rome from the danger of inundation,
his work was only partially successful. Nero gave the harbour
the name of Portus Augusti. It was probably Claudius who
constructed hither the direct road from Rome, the Via Portuensis
(15 m.) which ran over the hills as far as the modern Ponte
Galera, and then straight across the plain. An older road, the
Via Campana, ran along the foot of the hills, following the right
bank of the Tiber, and passing the grove of the Arval Brothers
at the sixth mile, to the Campus salinarum romanarum, the
saltmarsh on the right bank—from which indeed it derived its
name (see Notizie degli Scavi, 1888, p. 228).
The site can still be fairly clearly traced in the low ground to the east of Fiumicino, and the lighthouse is represented in bas-reliefs. The harbour is generally supposed to have been protected by two moles with a breakwater in front, on which stood the lighthouse, with an entrance on each side of it. Trial soundings made in 1907 showed that the course of the right-hand mole is represented by a low sandhill, while the central breakwater was only some 190 yds. long, and probably divided from each of the two moles by a channel some 125 yds. wide. The existence of two entrances is, indeed, in accordance with the evidence of coins and literary tradition, though the position of that on the left is not certain, and it may have been closed in later times. The whole course of the left-hand mole has not yet been traced, but it seems to have protected not only the south-west but a considerable portion of the north-west side of the harbour. In A.D. 103 Trajan constructed another harbour farther inland—a hexagonal basin enclosing an area of 97 acres, and communicating by canals with the harbour of Claudius, with the Tiber direct, and with the sea, the last now forming the navigable arm of the Tiber (reopened for traffic by Gregory XIII. and again by Paul V.), and bearing the name Fossa trajana, though its origin is undoubtedly due to Claudius. The basin itself is still preserved, and is now a reedy lagoon. It was surrounded by extensive warehouses, remains of which may still be seen: the fineness of the brickwork of which they are built is remarkable. Farther to the east is a circular building in brick with niches; it is called the temple of Portumnus. To the east again is the so-called Arco di Nostra Donna, a gateway (possibly originally built by Trajan) in the fortifications which surround the port and are attributed to the time of Constantino. Many other remains of buildings exist; they were more easily traceable in the 16th century when Pirro Ligorio and Antonio Labacco made plans of the harbour. Considerable excavations were carried on in 1868, but unfortunately with the idea of recovering works of art and antiquities; and the plan and description given by R. Lanciani (Annali del instituto, 1868, 144 sqq.) were made under unfavourable circumstances. By means of these works Portus captured the main share of the harbour traffic of Rome, and though the importance of Ostia did not at once decrease we find Portus already an episcopal see in Constantine's time not very long (if at all) after Ostia, and as the only harbour in the time of the Gothic wars. Its abandonment dates from the partial silting up of the right arm of the Tiber in the middle ages, which restored to Ostia what little traffic was left. To the west of the harbour is the cathedral of S. Rufina (10th century, but modernized except for the campanile) and the episcopal palace, fortified in the middle ages, and containing a number of ancient inscriptions from the site. On the island (Isola Sacra) just opposite is the church of S. Ippolito, built on the site of a Roman building, with a picturesque medieval campanile (13th century ?); 2 m. to the west is the modern village of Fiumicino at the mouth of the right arm of the Tiber, which is 21 m. west-south-west by rail from Rome. It is a frazione, or portion of the commune of Rome. Three miles to the north is the pumping; station by which the lowland (formerly called Stagno di Maccarese, now reclaimed and traversed by many drainage canals) between here and Maccarese is kept drained (Bonifica di Maccarese) (see Tiber).
See H. Dessau in Corp. inscr. latin, xiv. i sqq. (Berlin, 1887); J. Carcopino in Notizie degli Scavi (1907), p. 734. (T. As.)
PORT-VENDRES, a seaport of south-western France, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, in an inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, 19% m. S.S.E. of Perpignan by rail. Pop. (1906), 2525. Port-Vendres, the ancient Portus Veneris, is fourth in importance of the French Mediterranean ports, and forms a good harbour of refuge. Its trade, which is with Spain, Greece and Algeria, is in cork, carobs, grain and wine, &c.
PORUS (4th century B.c.), an Indian prince, ruler of the country between the rivers Hydaspes and Acesines at the time of the invasion of Alexander the Great. In the battle on the banks of the Hydaspes he offeredadesperate resistance, and Alexander,
struck by his independent spirit, allowed him to retain his kingdom, which he increased by the addition of territory. From
this time Porus was a loyal supporter of Alexander. He still
held' the position of a Macedonian satrap when assassinated
some time between 321 and 315 B.c.
§ ee Arrian v. 18, 19; Plutarch, Alexander, 60; Quintus Curtius V111. 14.
PORZIO, CAMILLO (1526-1580 P), Italian historian, belonged to a wealthy and noble Neapolitan family, and was the son of the philosopher, Simone Porzio. He studied law, first at Bologna
and later at Pisa, and after graduating in ulroquejure, practised
as a lawyer in Naples. He died in 1580. His chief literary
Work is La Congiura dei baroni, a history of the unsuccessful
conspiracy of the Neapolitan barons against King Ferdinand I.
of Naples in 1485; it is based on the authentic records of the
state trials, but is prejudiced in favour of the royal power. It
was first published by Manutius in Rome in 1565. Of Porzio's
other works, the Slorla d'Ilalla (from 1547 to 1552), of which
only the first two books have survived, is the most important.
The best edition of these two works is that edited by C. Monzani
(Florence, 1855).
PORZIO, SIMONE (1497-1554), Italian philosopher, was born and died at Naples. Like his greater contemporary, Pomponazzi, he was a lecturer on medicine at Pisa (1546-1552), and in later life gave up purely scientific study for speculation on the nature of man. His philosophic theory was identical with that of Pomponazzi, whose De immorlalilale animi he
defended and amplified in a treatise De menle humane. There
is told of him a story which illustrates the temper of the early
humanistic revival in Italy. When he was beginning his first
lecture at Pisa he opened the meteorological treatises of Aristotle.
The audience, composed of students and townspeople,
interrupted him with the cry Quid de anima? (We would
hear about the soul), and Porzio was constrained to change
the subject of his lecture. He professed the most open
materialism, denied immortality in all forms and taught that
the soul of man is homogeneous with the soul of animals and
plants, material in origin and incapable of separate existence.
POSEIDON, in Greek mythology, god of the sea and of water
generally, son of Cronus and Rhea, and brother of Zeus and
Pluto. The connexion of his name with πόσις, πόντος, ποταμός,
is generally accepted. When the three brothers deposed their
father Cronus the kingdom of the sea fell by lot to Poseidon.
His home was in a golden palace in the depths of the sea near
Aegae in Achaea. In his hand he bore a trident, wherewith he
lashed the sea into fury, split the rocks, and caused horses and
