Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/554

528 P E R P E R there. Two tributaries of the Caicus, named Selinus and Cetius, flowed through or near the city. The ancient name is still preserved under the form " Bergamo." The excavations conducted by the Prussian Government at Per- gamum under the direction of Humaun and Bohu have disclosed many of the buildings with which the acropolis was adorned, the temples of Athena and Augustus, the Stoa, &c., have recovered great part of the frieze on the altar of Zeus, and have given materials of every kind for the elucidation of Pergamenian history and Greek antiquities generally, which it will take years to classify and place before the public (see the preliminary reports published by Conze, Bohn, and Humann). PERGOLESI (or PERGOLESE), GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1710-1736), Italian musical composer, was born at Jesi, Ancona, 3d January 1710, and educated at Naples in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesu Cristo, where he studied the violin under Domenico de Matteis, and coun terpoint under Gaetano Greco, Durante, and Francesco Feo. While learning all he could from these great teachers he struck out from the very first a style of his own, and brought it prominently forward in his earliest known composition, an oratorio, called La Conversion* di S. Guglielmo, performed in the church of S. Agnello in 1731, in which year he also produced his first opera, Sallustia, at the Teatro Fiorentino. After receiving fur ther instruction from Vinci he produced another opera, Rerimiro, which failed lamentably. This disappointment led him to devote his chief attention to church music ; and his next great works two masses, one for two and the other for four choirs, with double orchestra established his reputation as a genius of the highest order, and proved that he was at least as great in his newly-adopted style as in his dramatic pieces. Nevertheless, the greatest success that he was ever destined to attain was reserved for his celebrated intermezzo 1 or, as we should now call it, operetta La Serva Padrona. This delightful work, fairly success ful on the occasion of its first production in 1731 or 1733, became after Pergolesi s death a recognized favourite at every theatre of importance in Europe. In 1746 it found its way to Paris, and had a long run at the Theatre Italien, followed in 1752 by an equally successful one at the Academic. Two years later it was translated into French, and ran for 150 successive nights. As late as 1867 it was revived in this form at the Opera Comique ; and in 1873 it was revived in London at the Royalty Theatre. The libretto by Nelli is unusually bright and sparkling ; and so fresh is the music that it still sounds as if composed but yesterday. In this characteristic, indeed, lies the secret of its extraordinary success, for the scale on which it is written is of the smallest imaginable dimensions. The dramatis personse consist of three characters only, one of them being mute, and the orchestra is limited entirely to the stringed band, unrelieved by a single wind instrument. But the fire of genius breathes in every bar, and the whole work has the character of a continuous inspiration. In 1734 Pergolesi was appointed maestro di cappella at Loreto. Soon after this his health began to fail rapidly, but he worked on incessantly to the end. His last com positions were a cantata for a single voice, Orfeo ed Euri- dice ; a lovely Salve Reyina, also for a single voice ; and his famous Stabat Mater, for two female voices. For this last-named work the best known of all his sacred com positions he received in advance ten ducats (1 15s.), and thought the price enormous. He was barely able to finish it before his death, which took place at Pozzuoli, 16th March 1736. Pergolesi s works comprise fourteen operas and intermezzi, nine teen sacred compositions, and many charming pieces of chamber music, a long list, when one remembers that he died at the age of 26 years and 3 months. The purity of his style has not been ex- 1 A light buffo piece, the acts of which were interpolated, for the sake of relief, between those of a serious opera. ceeded by any composer of the Italian school ; and in his orchestral e fleets and other points of little less importance he shows himself immensely in advance of all his predecessors. PERIANDER was born about 665 B.C. and succeeded his father Cypselus as despot of Corinth in 625 B.C. His rule appears to have been at first mild and beneficent, but evil advice or domestic calamity converted him into a cruel tyrant. There runs a well-known story that he sent to ask the advice of Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, who, in stead of replying, walked with the messenger through a cornfield and struck off as he walked the tallest and fairest of the ears. Periander took the hint, and proceeded to exterminate the most eminent of his subjects. 1 Whatever the cause, there seems no reason to doubt that the latter part of the despot s life was darkened by crime. Goaded by the slanders of concubines, he murdered his beloved wife Melissa, daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, and then, in a fit of remorse, burned the slanderers alive. 2 The murder of his wife alienated from the tyrant the affection of his favourite son Lycophron, whom, failing to move either by rigour or blandishments, he banished to Corcyra,. then a dependency of Corinth. At last, enfeebled by age, Periander offered to resign the tyranny to his son and to retire himself to Corcyra ; but the prospect alarmed the Corcyreans, and they put Lycophron to death. The tyrant took his revenge by sending three hundred of the noblest Corcyrean youths to Alyattes, king of Lydia, to be made eunuchs of ; they were rescued, however, by the Samians. Periander did not long survive his son ; he fell into a deep despondency, and died either of grief or by violence volun tarily incurred in 585 B.C., at the age of eighty. The accounts of Periander s character are at first sight discrepant. One writer (Heraclides) describes him as just and moderate, an enemy of vice and luxury, which he severely repressed. But more com monly he appears as cruel and oppressive. He surrounded himself with a body-guard, and, according to Aristotle, reduced tyranny to a system by putting down eminent and aspiring citizens, impover ishing the rich, maintaining spies, and sowing distrust between classes and individuals. His costly offerings to the gods drained the resources, while his public works and constant wars taxed the energies and distracted the attention of the citizens. The privilege of settling in Corinth was placed by him under certain restrictions. On the other hand, he not only patronized literature in the person of the poet Arion but was himself the author of a collection of moral maxims in 2000 verses. His reputation for wisdom stood so high that he was commonly reckoned amongst the seven wise men, though some, as Plato, denied his claim. Amongst the wars to which he owed his military fame were successful expeditions against Epidaurus and Corcyra. He built a fleet and scoured the seas on both sides of the isthmus, through which it is said that he meditated cutting a canal. To him were due the Greek colonies of Apollonia, Anactorium, and Leucas. On the whole, Periander would appear to have been one of those brilliant despots whose personal vices have not destroyed their literary and artistic sense, and who by their abilities have raised the states which they governed to a high pitch of outward prosperity and power. Certain it is that with the close of his dynasty, which happened a few years after his death, when his successor Psammetichns perished in a popular rising, the golden age of Corinthian history came to an end. There was another Periander, tyrant of Ambracia, said to have been a relative of the tyrant of Corinth. He was deposed by the people, probably not long after the death of the latter. The chief authorities for the life of Periander are Herodotus (iii. 48-53 ; v. 92), Aristotle (Pol., v. 11, 12), Heraclides Ponticus (v.), Nicol. Damasc. (59, (30), Diog. Laert. (i. 7). The letters in Diogenes ascribed to Periander are no doubt spurious. 1 In Aristotle s version of the story the rules of Periander and Thrasybulus are reversed. - The relations of Periander to his dead wife form the subject of a curious tale. It is said that he got a necromancer to call up the spirit of Melissa (as Saul called up Samuel), in order to question her about a hidden treasure, just as people in Wiirtemberg used to call up ghosts in churchyards for a similar purpose. But the ghost refused to answer. " For," said she, " I am cold ; 1 cannot wear the garments laid in my grave, because they have not been burned." So Periander called to gether all the women of Corinth in their best attire as for a festival, stripped them, and burned their garments on the grave of his wife, that her ghost might not go naked. Similar to this is the story in Lucian of the ghost of a dead wife appearing to her husband and begging him to find and burn one of her golden sandals which had fallen underneath the chest and so had not been burned with the other.