Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/452

440 POLLIO. PO'LLTO, CLO'DIUS, a man of praetorian rank, against whom Nero wrote a poem, entitled Luscio. (Suet Darn. 1.) PO'LLIO, DOMFTIUS, offered his daughter for a Vestal Virgin in the reign of Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. ii. 87.) PO'LLIO, L. FUFFDIUS, consul a. d. 166 with Q.Ser villus Pudens. (Lamprid. tW;HO(/. 11 ; Fasti.) PO'LLIO, HERE'NNIUS, a Roman orator, and a contemporary of the younger Pliny. (Plin. Ep. iv. 19.) PO'LLIO, JU'LIUS, a tribune of the prae- torian cohort, assisted Nero in poisoning Britan- nicus. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 15.) PO'LLIO, ME'MMIUS. [Memmius, No. 13.] PO'LLIO, NAE'VIUS. [Naevius, No. 8.] PO'LLIO, ROMl'LIUS, a Roman who at- tained the age of upwards of a hundred years. When asked by the emperor Augustus how he had preserved such vigour of mind and body, he replied " intus mulso, foris oleo." (Plin. H. N. xxii. 24. s. 53.) PO'LLIO, RU'BRIUS, the commander of the praetorian cohorts in the reign of Claudius, was allowed a seat in the senate as often as he accom- panied the emperor thither. (Dion Cass. Ix. 23.) PO'LLIO, TREBE'LLIUS. [Trebellius,] PO'LLIO, VALE'RIUS, an Alexandrian phi- losopher, lived in the time of the emperor Ha- drian, and was the father of the philosopher Diodorus. (Suidas, s. v. IlccAlwu.) [DiODORUS, literarv, No. 2.] PO'LLIO, VE'DIUS, a Roman eques and a friend of Augustus, was by birth a freedman, and has obtained a place in history on account of his riches and his cruelty. He was accustomed to feed his lampreys with human flesh, and when- ever a slave displeased him, the unfortunate wretch was forthwith thrown into the pond as food for the fish. On one occasion Augustus was supping with him, when a slave had the misfortune to break a crystal goblet, aud his master imme- diately ordered him to be thrown to the fishes. The slave fell at the feet of Augustus, praying for mercy ; the emperor interceded with his master on his behalf, but when he could not prevail upon PoUio to pardon him, he dismissed the slave of his own accord, and commanded all Pollio8 crystal goblets to be broken and the fish-pond to be filled up. Pollio died B.C. 15, leaving a large part of his property to Augustus. (Dion Cass. liv. 23 ; Senec. de Ira, iii. 40, de Clem. i. 18 ; Plin. H. N. ix. 23. s. 39, 53. s. 78 ; Tac. Ann. i. 10, xii. 60.) This Pollio appears to be the same as the one against whom Augustus wrote fescennine verses. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 4.) PO'LLIO, VESPA'SIUS, a native of Nursia, was thrice tribune of the soldiers and likewise praefect of the camp. His son obtained the dig- nity of praetor, and his daughter Vespasia Polla became the mother of the emperor Vespasian. (Suet. Vesp. 1.) PO'LLIO, VITRA'SIUS. 1. The praefectus or governor of Egypt in the reign of Tiberius, died A. D. 32. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 19.) 2. Probably the son of the preceding, was the procurator of the emperor in Egypt in the reign of Claudius. (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 7. s. 11.) 3. The legatus Lugduneusis, in the reign of the POLLUX. emperor Hadrian, may have been a son of No. 'J and a grandson of No. 1. (Dig. 27. tit. 1. s. 15. §17.) 4. Lived in the reign of M. Aurelius, and was consul the second time in A. d. 176 with M. Fla-, vius Aper. The year of his first consulship is no| recorded. (Lamprid. Commod. 2 ; Fasti.) The 6'e- natusconsultum Vitrasianuin, of which mention is made in the Digest (40. tit. 5. s. 30. § 6), was probably passed during one of the consulships of Vitrasius Pollio. This Pollio was perhaps the great-grandson of No. 1. The Vitrasia Faustina slain by Commodus was probably his daughter. (Lamprid. Commod. 4.) POLLIS (rioAAts), is first mentioned in b. c. 390 as cTTio-ToAeuy, or second in command of the Lacedaemonian fleet (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. § 11). In B.C. 376 he was appointed navarchus or com- mander-in-chief of a Lacedaemonian fleet of sixty ships in order to cut off from Athens her supplies of corn. His want of sucoess and defeat by Cha- brias are related in the life of the latter [Vol. I. p. 676, a.] (Xen. HelL v. 4. §§ 60, 61 ; Diod. XV. 34 ; Polyaen. iii. 11. § 17.) In several MSS. of the above-mentioned authors, his name is written IloAis, but IIoAAjs is the preferable form. POLLIS, an architect, who wrote on the rules of the orders of architecture, praecepla symmetrior rum. (Vitruv. vii. praef. § 14.) [P- S-] POLLUTIA, slain by Nero with her father L. Vetus. (Tac. Ann. xvi." 10, II.) POLLUX. [Dioscuri.] POLLUX, JU'LIUS ('louAios noAuSeuKTjs), of Naucratis in Egypt, was a Greek sophist and grammarian. He received instruction in criticism from his father, and afterwards went to Athens, where he studied rhetoric under the sophist Adrian. He opened a private school at Athena, where he gave instruction in grammar and rhetoric, and was subsequently appointed by the emperor Commodus to the chair of rhetoric at Athens. He died during the reign of Commodus at the age of fifty-eight, leaving a young son behind him. We may therefore assign a. d. 183 as the year in which he flourished. (Suidas, s.r. IIoAiiSeuKTjy ; Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 12.) Philostratus praises his critical skill, but speaks unfavourably of his rhetorical powers, and implies that he gained his professor's chair from Commodus simply by his mellifluous voice. He seems to have been attacked by many of his contem.poraries on account of the inferior charac- ter of his oratory, and especially by Lucian in his 'PTyropcDV SiMcTKaAos, as was supposed by the an- cients and has been maintained by many modern writers (see especially C. F. Ranke, Comment, de Polluee et Luciano, Quedlinburg, 1831), though Hemsterhuis, from the natural partiality of an editor for his author, stoutly denies this supposition, and believes that Lucian intended to satirize a certain Dioscorides. It has also been conjec- tured that Lucian attacks Pollux in his Leociphanes^ and that he alludes to him with contempt in a passage of the De Saltatio?ie (c. 33, p. 287, ed. Reitz). Athenodorus, who taught at Athens at the same time as Pollux, was likewise one of his detractors. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 14.) We know nothing more of the life of Pollux, except that he was the teacher of the sophist Antipater, who taught in the reign of Alexander Severus. (Philostr. Ibid. ii. 24.) Pollux was the author of several vvcrks, of which