Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/176

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164 PEDIUS. abandon the project (c. 32, 33). Irritated by his disappointment, Astyochus turned a deaf ear to the application which the Chians made for assistance when the Athenians fortified Delphinimn, and Pedaritus in his despatches to Sparta complained of the admiral's conduct, in consequence of which a commission was sent out to inquire into it. (Thuc. viiL 38, 40.) Pedaritus himself seems to have acted with great harshness at Chios, in consequence of which some Chian exiles laid complaints against him at Sparta, and his mother Teleutia adminis- tered a rebuke to him in a letter. ^Plut. Apophth. Imc. p. 241, d). Meantime the Athenians con- tinued their operations at Chios, and had completed their works. Pedaritus sent to Rhodes, where the Peloponnesian fleet was lying, saying that Chios would fall into the hands of the Athenians unless the whole Peloponnesian armament came to its succour. He himself meantime made a sudden attack on the naval camp of the Athenians, and stormed it ; but the main body of the Athenians coming up he was defeated and slain, in the begin- ning of B. c. 411. (Thuc. viii. hh. ) f C. P. M.] PEDA'RIUS, L. COMl'NIUS. [Cominius, No. 8.] PEDIA'NUS, ASCO'NIUS. [Asconius.] PE'DIAS (neSias), a daughter of Menys of La- cedaemon, and the wife of Caraniis, king of Attica, from whom an Attic phyle and demos derived their name. (ApoUod. iii. 14. § 5 ; Plut. Tliemid. 14 ; Steph. Byz. s. v.)

l. s.]

PEDIA'SIMUS, JOANNES. [Joannes, No. 61.] PE'DITTS. 1. Q. Pkdius, the great-nephew of the dictator C. Julius Caesar, being the grandson of Julia, Caesar's eldest sister. This is the state- ment of Suetonius {Caesar^ 83), but Glandorp has conjectured (Onom. p. 432), not without reason, that Pedius may have been the son of the dic- tator's sister, since we find him grown up and discharging important duties in Caesar's lifetime. The name of Pedius first occurs in b. c. 57, when he was serving as legatus to his uncle in Gaul, (Caes. B. G. ii. 1.) In B. c. 55, Pedius became a candidate for the curule aedileship with Cn. Plan- cius and others, but he lost his election. (Cic. pro Plane. 7, 22 : respecting the interpretation of these passages, see Wunder, Prolegomena, p. Ixxxiii, &c. to his edition of Cicero's oration pro Plancio.) On the breaking out of the civil war in B. c. 49, Pedius naturally joined Caesar. During Caesar's campaign in Greece against Pompey, a. c. 48, Pedius remained in Italy, having been raised to the praetorship, and in the course of that year he defeated and slew Milo in the neighbourhood of Thurii. At the beginning of B. c. 45, we find Pedius serving as legatus against the Pompeian party in Spain, and on his return to Rome with Caesar in the autumn of the year, he was allowed the honour of a triumph with the title of pro- consul. (Fasti Capit.) In Caesar's will Pedius was named one of his heirs along with his two other great-nephews, C. Octavius and L. Pinarius, Octavius obtaining three-fourths of the property, and the remaining fourth being divided between Pinarius and Pedius, who resigned his share of the inheritance to Octavius. After the fall of the consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, at the battle of Mutina in the month of April, b, c. 43, Octavius marched to Rome at the head of an array [Augustus, p. 425, b.), and in the month of August he was PEDIUS. elected consul along with Pedius. The latter forthwith, at the instigation of his colleagie, pro- posed a law, known by the name of the Lex Pedia, by which all the murderers of Julius Caesar were punished with aquae et ignis interdidio. Pedius was left in charge of the city, while Octavius marched into the north of Italy, and as the latter had now determined to join Antonius and Lepidus, Pedius proposed in the senate the repeal of the sentence of outlawry which had been pronounced against them. To this the senate was obliged to give an unwilling consent ; and soon afterwards towards the close of the year there was formed at Bononia the celebrated triumvirate between Octa- vius, Antonius and Lepidus. As soon as the news reached Rome that the triumvirs had made out a list of persons to be put to death, the utmost consternation prevailed, more especially as the names of those who were doomed had not trans- pired. During the whole of the night on which the news arrived, Pedius was with difficulty able to prevent an open insurrection ; and on the fol- lowing morning, being ignorant of the decision of the triumvirs, he declared that only seventeen persons should be put to death, and pledged the public word for the safety of all others. But the fatigue to which he had been exposed was so great that it occasioned his death on the succeeding night, (Cic. ad Alt. ix. 14 ; Caesar, B. C. iii, 22 ; Auctor, B. Hisp. 2 ; Suet. Caes. 83 ; Dion Cass, xliii. 31, 42, xlvi. 46, 52 ; Appian, B. C. iii. 22, 94, m, iv. 6 ; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 4. s. 7 ; Veil. Pat. ii. Q9 ; Suet. Ner. 3, Galh. 3.) 2. Q, Pedius, the grandson of No. 1, was a painter. [See below.] 3. Pedius Poplicola, a celebrated orator mentioned by Horace (Serm. i. 10. 28), may have been a son of No. 1. 4. Pedius Blaesus. [Blaesus, p. 492, a.] 5. Cn. Pedius Cast us, consul suffectus at the beginning of the reign of Vespasian, a, d. 7 1 . PE'DIUS, Q., a Roman painter in the latter part of the first century B, c. He was the grand- son of that Q. Pedius who Avas the nephew of Julius Caesar, and his co-heir with Augustus (see above, No, 1 ) : but, as he was dumb from his birth, his kinsman, the orator Messala, had him taught painting : this arrangement was approved of by Augustus, and Pedius attained to considerable excellence in the art, but he died while still a youth (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 4. s. 7). Miiller places him at B.C. 34, but this is too early a date. [P-S.] PE'DIUS, SEXTUS, a Roman jurist, whose writings were apparently known to Pomponius (Dig. 4. tit. 3. s. 1. § 4). His name Sextus ap- pears in a passage of Paulus (Dig. 4. tit. 8. s. 32. § 20), and in other passages. Pedius was younger than Ofilius [Ofilius], or at least a contemporary (Dig, 14. tit. 1. s. 1. § 9) : and the same remark ap- plies to Sabinus (Dig. 50. tit. 6, s. 13. § 1), where MassUrius Sabinus is meant. He is most frequently cited by Paulus and Ulpian. He is also cited by Julian (Dig. 3. tit. 5. s. 6. § 9). We may, there- fore, conclude that he lived before the time of Hadrian. He wrote Libri ad Edictum, of which the twentj-fifth is quoted by Paulus (Dig. 37. tit. 1. s. 6. § 2). He also wrote Libri de Slipulationi- bus (12. tit. 1. 6. 6). The passages which are cited from him show that he had a true perception of the right method of legal interpretation ; for instance, he says, in a passage quoted by Paulus, " it is best