Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/94

82 PACUVIUS. writers in antiquity to have been one of the greatest of the Latin tragic poets. Horace regarded him and Accius {Ep. ii. 1. BQ) as the two most im- portant of the early tragedians ; and he is especially praised for the loftiness of his thoughts, the vigour of his language, and the extent of his knowledge. Hence we find the epithet doctus frequently applied to him, and the great critic Varro {ap. Gell. vii. 14) praises him for the ubertas of his style. He was at the same time an equal favourite with the people, with whom his verses continued to be esteemed in the time of Julius Caesar (comp. Cic. de Amic. 7 ; Suet. Caes. 84). The tragedies of Pacuvius con- tinued, like those of his predecessors on the Latin stage, to be taken from Sophocles, Euripides, and the great Greek writers ; but he did not confine himself io a mere translation of the latter, as most of the previous Latin writers had done, but worked up his materials with more freedom and inde- pendent judgment, of which we have an example in his Dulorestes, which was an adaptation to the Latin stage of the Iphigeneia in Tauris of Euripides. Some of the plays of Pacuvius were not based upon the Greek tragedies, but belonged to the class called Praetextatae^ in which the subjects were taken from Roman story. One of these was en- titled Paullus, and had as its hero the celebrated L. Aemilius Paullus who conquered Perseus, king of Macedonia (Gell. ix. 14). The following titles of his tragedies have come dovn to us : — Anchises ; Antiopa ; Armorum Judicium ; Atalanta ; Chryses; Dulorestes ; Hermiona ; Iliona ; Medus or Medea ; Niptra ; Periboea ; Tantalus (doubtful) ; Teucer ; Thyestes. Of these the Antiopa and the Dulorestes were by far the most celebrated. Although the reputation of Pacuvius rested almost exclusively on his tragedies, yet he seems to have written other kinds of poetry. He is ex- pressly mentioned as having composed Saiurae, according to the old Roman meaning of the word (Diomedes, iii. p. 482, ed. Putschius), and there Beems no reason for doubting, as some modern writers have done, that he also wrote comedies. The Pseudo is expressly mentioned as a comedy of Pacuvius (Fulgentius, p. 562), and the Tarentilla may also have been a comedy. The fragments of Pacuvius are published in the collections of Stephanus, Fragmenia Vet. Poet., Paris, 1564, of Scriverius, Tragicorum Vet. Fragm. Lugd. Batav. 1620, and of Bothe, Poet. Latii Scenic. Fragm. vol. i. Lips. 1834. (The principal ancient autho- rities respecting Pacuvius are : Hieronym. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 156. 3 ; Plin. //. A^. xxxv. 4. s. 7 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 9 ; Quintil. x. 1 ; Gell. vii. 14, xiii. 2, xvii. 21 ; Cic. de Optim. Gen. Orat. i. 6, Brut. 64, 74, de Amic. 7, Tusc. ii. 21, de Orat. i. 58, ad Herenn. iv. 4 ; Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 55 ; Pers. i. 77. The chief modern writers are : Delrio, Syntagm. Trag. Lat. Antv. 1594, and Paris, 1620 ; Sagit- tarius, De Vita et Scriptis Livii Andronici, M. Pa- cuvii, <^c., Altenb. 1672 ; Annibal di Leo, il/emom di M. Pacuvio Antichissimo Poeta Tragico, Napoli, 1763 ; Lange, Vindiciae Trag. Rom. Lips. 1822 ; Nake, Comment, de Pacuvii Duloreste, Lid. Lect. Bonn. 1 822 ; Stieglitz, de Pacuvii Duloreate, Lips. 1826 : Vater, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklop'ddie, art. Pacuvius.) PACU'VIUS. 1 and 2. M. and Q. Pacuvii, with the cognomen Claudii, who subscribed the accusation of Valerius against M, Scaurus, B. c. 54. (Ascon. in Scaur, p. 1 9, ed. Orelli.) PAEAN. 3. Sex. Pacuvius, tribune of the plebs, b, c. 27, in which year Octavian received the title of Au- gustus, outdid all his contemporaries in his flattery of Augustus, and devoted himself as a vassal to the emperor in the Spanish fashion. (Dion Cass. liii. 20.) Dion Cassius says, that according to some authorities his name was Apudius ; but it would appear that Pacuvius is the right name, since Ma- crobius tells us {Sat. i. 12) that it was Sex. Pacu- vius, tribune of the plebs, who proposed the ple- biscitum by which the name of the month of Sextilis was changed into that of Augustus in honour of the emperor. This Sex. Pacuvius appears to be the same as the Pacuvius Taurus, upon whom Augustus perpetrated a joke, when he was one day begging a congiarium from the emperor. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 4.) The Sex. Pacuvius Taurus, plebeian aedile, mentioned by Pliny {H. N. xxxiv. 5. s. 1 1 ), was a different person from the preceding one, and lived at a more ancient time. 4. Pacuvius Labeo, to whom was addressed a letter of Capito, cited by A. Gellius (v. 21). 5. Pacuvius, a legate of Sentius in Syria, A.D. 19 {Tac.Ann.n. 79), is probably the same Pacuvius who is mentioned by Seneca (Ep. ii. 12). PACU'VIUS, C. ATEIUS, was one of the pupils of Servius Sulpicius, who are enumerated by Pomponius. (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. §44.) This appears to be the Ateius, who is cited by Labeo (Dig. 23. tit, 3. s. 79) as authority for an opinion of Servius on the words " cum commodissimura esset," which were part of the terms of a gift of dos. Another opinion of Servius is cited from him also by Labeo (34. tit. 2. s. 39. § 2). This Pacuvius appears also to be the jurist quoted by Ulpian (13. tit. 6. s. 1 ). [G. L.] PAEA'NIUS {Uaidv:os the author of a trans- lation of the history of Eutropius into Greek. It is quite uncertain who this Paeanius was, but it has been conjectured that he lived not long after Eutropius himself. This translation, of which Zonaras seems to have often availed himself, is not very accurate, but still not inelegant. It wasprinted for the first time by F. Sylburg in the third volume of his Romanae Historiae Scrijrtores, Francof. 1590, and is also contained in the editions of Eu- tropius by Hearne, Havercamp, and Verheyk. It has been printed in a separate form by Kaltwasser under the title, " Paeanii Metaphrasis in Eutropii Historiam Romanam, in usum scholarum," Gotha, 1780. PAEAN (Tlaidv, UaiTJcov or Uaiciv), that is, " the healing," is according to Homer the designa- tion of the physician of the Olympian gods, who heals, for example, the wounded Ares and Hades. (II. V.401, 899.) After the time of Homer and Hesiod, the word Tlaidv becomes a surname of As- clepius, the god who had the power of healing. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1494 ; Virg. Aen. vii. 769.) The name was, however, used also in the more ge- neral sense of deliverer from any evil or calamity (Pind. Pyth. iv. 480), and was thus applied to Apollo and Thanatos, or Death, who are conceived as delivering men from the pains and sorrows of life. (Soph. Oed. Tyr. 154; Pans. i. 34. §2; Eurip. Hippol. 1373.) With regard to Apollo and Thanatos hov/ever, the name may at the same time contain an allusion to Trafetv, to strike, since both are also regarded as destroyers. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 137.) From Apollo himself the name