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now Ponte Molle, was built by Aemilius | pendous remains, still existing in Italy, PorScaurus the censor.

The Roman bridges without the city were too many to be enumerated here. They formed one of the chief embellishments in all the public roads; and their frequent and stu

tugal, and Spain, attest, even to the present day, the scale of grandeur with which the Roman works of national utility were always carried on.

The bridge which Trajan built across the

Bridge at Ariminum.

Danube was one of the greatest efforts of following woodcut, from a representation of human ingenuity. The form is given in the it on the column of Trajan at Rome.

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When the comitia were held, the voters, in order to reach the enclosure called septum and ovile, passed over a wooden platform, elevated above the ground, which was called pons suffragiorum, in order that they might be able to give their votes without confusion or collusion. [COMITIA.]

Pons is also used to signify the platform (¿ñíßáðρа, áñоßálpa), used for embarking in, or disembarking from, a ship.

PONTIFEX (iepodidúokahos, lepovóuos, iepopúλaž, iepooúvṛns). The origin of this word is explained in various ways; but it is probably formed from pons and facere (in the signification of the Greek pélev, to perform a sacrifice), and consequently signifies the priests who offered sacrifices upon the bridge. The ancient sacrifice to which the name thus alludes, is that of the Argei on the sacred or sublician bridge. [ARGEI.]

extent; for it was now determined, that in case of a vacancy the college itself should nominate two candidates, and the people elect one of them. M. Antonius again restored the right of co-optatio to the college.

that after their institution by Numa, the college had the right of co-optation, that is, if a member of the college died (for all the pontiffs held their office for life), the members met and elected a successor, who, after his election, was inaugurated by the augurs. This election was sometimes called captio. In B. c. 104 a Lex Domitia was passed, which transferred the right of electing the members of the great colleges of priests to the people (probably in the comitia tributa); that is, the people elected a candidate, who was then made a member of the college by the co-optatio of the priests themselves, so that the co-optatio, although still necessary, became a mere matter of form. The Lex Domitia was repealed by Sulla in a Lex Cornelia de Sacerdotiis (B. C. 81), which restored to the great priestly colleges their full right of co-optatio. In в.C. 63 the law of Sulla was abolished, and the DoThe Roman pontiffs formed the most illus-mitian law was restored, but not in its full trious among the great colleges of priests. Their institution, like that of all important matters of religion, was ascribed to Numa. The number of pontiffs appointed by this king was four, and at their head was the pontifex maximus, who is generally not included when the number of pontiffs is mentioned. It is probable that the original number of four pontiffs (not including the pontifex maximus) had reference to the two earliest tribes of the Romans, the Ramnes and Tities, so that each tribe was represented by two pontiffs. In the year B. C. 300 the Ogulnian law raised the number of pontiffs to eight, or, including the pontifex maximus, to nine, and four of them were to be plebeians. The pontifex maximus, however, continued to be a patrician down to the year B. c. 254,when Tib. Coruncanius was the first plebeian who was invested with this dignity. This number of pontiffs remained for a long time unaltered, until in B. c. 81 the dictator Sulla increased it to fifteen, and J. Caesar to sixteen. In both these changes the pontifex maximus is included in the number. During the empire the number varied, though on the whole fifteen appears to have been the regular number.

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The mode of appointing the pontiffs was also different at different times. It appears

The college of pontiffs had the supreme superintendence of all matters of religion, and of things and persons connected with public as well as private worship. They had the judicial decision in all matters of religion, whether private persons, magistrates, or priests were concerned, and in cases where the existing laws or customs were found defective or insufficient, they made new laws and regulations (decreta pontificum), in which they always followed their own judgment as to what was consistent with the existing customs and usages. The details of these duties and functions were contained in books called libri pontificii or pontificales, commentarii sacrorum or sacrorum pontificalium, which they were said to have received from Numa, and which were sanctioned by Ancus Martius.

As to the rights and duties of the pontiffs, it must first of all be borne in mind, that the pontiffs were not priests of any particular divinity, but a college which stood above all other priests and superintended the whole

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external worship of the gods. One of their principal duties was the regulation of the sacra, both publica and privata, and to watch that they were observed at the proper times (for which purpose the pontiffs had the whole regulation of the calendar, see CALENDARIUM), and in their proper form. In the management of the sacra publica they were in later times assisted in certain duties by the Triumviri Epulones. [EPULONES.]

The pontiffs convoked the assembly of the curies (comitia calata or curiata) in cases where priests were to be appointed, and flamines or a rex sacrorum were to be inaugurated; also when wills were to be received, and when a detestatio sacrorum and adoption by adrogatio took place. [ADOPTIO.]

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called tutulus or galerus, with an apex upon it, and the toga praetexta.

The pontifex maximus was the president of the college, and acted in its name, whence he alone is frequently mentioned in cases in which he must be considered only as the organ of the college. He was generally chosen from among the most distinguished persons, and such as had held a curule magistracy, or were already members of the college. Two of his especial duties were to appoint (capere) the vestal virgins and the flamines [VESTALES; FLAMEN], and to be present at every marriage by confarreatio. When festive games were vowed, or a dedication made, the chief pontiff had to repeat over, before the persons who made the vow or the dedication, the formula in which it was to be performed (praeire verba). During the period of the republic, when the people exercised sovereign power in every respect, we find that if the pontiff, on constitutional or religious grounds, refused to perform this solemnity, he might be compelled by the people.

A pontifex might, like all the members of the great priestly colleges, hold any other military, civil, or priestly office, provided the different offices did not interfere with one another. Thus we find one and the same person being pontiff, augur, and decemvir sacrorum; instances of a pontifex maximus being at the same time consul are very numerous. But whatever might be the civil or military office which a pontifex maximus held beside his pontificate, he was not allowed originally to leave Italy.

In most cases the sentence of the pontiffs only inflicted a fine upon the offenders; but | the person fined had the right of appealing to the people, who might release him from the fine. In regard to the vestal virgins, and the persons who committed incest with them, the pontiffs had criminal jurisdiction, and might pronounce sentence of death. A man who had violated a vestal virgin was, according to an ancient law, scourged to death by the pontifex maximus in the comitium, and it appears that originally neither the vestal virgins nor the male offenders in such a case had any right of appeal. In later times we find that, even when the pontiffs had passed sentence upon vestal virgins, a tribune interfered, and induced the people to appoint a quaestor for the purpose of making a fresh inquiry into the case; and it sometimes happened that after this new trial the sentence of the pontiffs was modified or annulled. Such cases, however, seem to have been mere irreg-perors themselves were always chief pontiffs, ularities, founded upon an abuse of the tribunitian power. In the early times the pontiffs were in the exclusive possession of the civil as well as religious law, until the former was made public by Cn. Flavius. The regulations which served as a guide to the pontiffs in their judicial proceedings, formed a large collection of laws, which was called the jus pontificium, and formed part of the Libri Pontificii.

The meetings of the college of pontiffs, to which in some instances the flamines and the rex sacrorum were summoned, were held in the caria regia on the Via Sacra, to which was attached the residence of the pontifex maximus and of the rex sacrorum. As the chief pontiff was obliged to live in a domus publica, Augustus, when he assumed this dignity, changed part of his own house into a domus publica. All the pontiffs were in their appearance distinguished by the conic cap,

The college of pontiffs continued to exist until the overthrow of paganism. The em

and as such the presidents of the college; hence the title of pontifex maximus (P. M. or PON. M.) appears on several coins of the emperors. If there were several emperors at a time, only one bore the title of pontifex maximus; but in the year A. D. 238 we find that each of the two emperors Maximus and Balbinus assumed this dignity. From the time of Theodosius the emperors no longer appear in the dignity of pontiff; but at last the title was assumed by the Christian bishop of Rome.

There were other pontiffs at Rome, who were distinguished by the epithet Minores. They appear to have been originally only the secretaries of the pontiffs; and when the real pontiffs began to neglect their duties, and to leave the principal business to be done by their secretaries, it became customary to designate these scribes by the name of Pontifices Minores. The number of these secretaries is uncertain.

PORTICUS.

POPA. [SACRIFICIUM.]
POPINA. [CAUPONA.]
POPULA RIA. [AMPHITHEATRUM.]
POPULUS. [PATCH];

POPULIFU’GIA or POPLIFU'GIA, the day of the people's flight, was celebrated on the nonos of July, according to an ancient tradition, in commemoration of the flight of the people, when the inhabitants of Ficulae, Fidenae, and other places round about, appeared in arms against Rome shortly after the departure of the Gauls, and produced such a panic that the Romans suddenly fled before them. Other writers say that the Populifugia was celebrated in commemoration of the flight of the people before the Tuscans; while others again refer its origin to the flight of the people on the death of Romulus.

PORISTAE (πоρισтαí), magistrates at Athens, who probably levied the extraordinary supplies.

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meetings of the senate held, goods exhibited for sale, &c.

PORTI'SCULUS (kɛλɛvotŃs), an officer in a ship, who gave the signal to the rowers, that they might keep time in rowing. This officer is sometimes called Hortator or Pausarius.

PORTITO RES. [PUBLICANI.]

PORTO RIUM, a branch of the regular revenues of the Roman state, consisting of the duties paid on imported and exported goods. A portorium, or duty upon imported goods, appears to have been paid at a very early period, for it is said that Valerius Poplicola exempted the plebes from the portoria at the time when the republic was threatened with an invasion by Porsena. The time of its introduction is uncertain; but the abolition of it, ascribed to Poplicola, can only have been a temporary measure; and as the expenditure of the republic increased, new portoria PORTICUS (σroά), a walk covered with must have been introduced. In conquered a roof, and supported by columns, at least on places, and in the provinces, the import and one side. Such shaded walks and places of export duties, which had been paid there beresort are almost indispensable in the southern fore, were generally not only retained, but countries of Europe, where people live much increased, and appropriated to the aerarium. in the open air, as a protection from the heat | Sicily, and above all, Asia, furnished to the of the sun and from rain. The porticoes at- Roman treasury large sums, which were tached to the temples were either constructed raised as portoria. In в. c. 60 all the portoonly in front of them or went round the whole ria in the ports of Italy were done away with building, as is the case in the so-called Tem- by a Lex Caecilia, but were restored by Juple of Theseus at Athens. They were origi- lius Caesar and the subsequent emperors. nally intended as places for those persons to assemble and converse in who visited the temple for various purposes. As such temple-porticoes, however, were found too small, or not suited for the various purposes of private and public life, most Grecian towns had independent porticos, some of which were very extensive; and in most of these stoae, seats (exedrae) were placed, that those who were tired might sit down. They were frequented not only by idle loungers, but also by philosophers, rhetoricians, and other persons fond of intellectual conversation. The Stoic school of philosophy derived its name from the circumstance, that the founder of it used to converse with his disciples in a stoa. The Romans derived their great fondness for such covered walks from the Greeks; and as luxuries among them were carried in everything to a greater extent than in Greece, wealthy Romans had their private porticoes, sometimes in the city itself, and sometimes in their country-seats. In the public porticoes of Rome, which were exceedingly numerous and very extensive (as that around the Forum and the Campus Martius), a variety of business was occasionally transacted: we find that law-suits were conducted here,

Respecting the amount of the import or export duties we have but little information. In the time of Cicero the portorium in the ports of Sicily was one-twentieth (vicesima) of the value of taxable articles; and it is probable that this was the average sum raised in all the other provinces. In the times of the emperors the ordinary rate of the portorium appears to have been the fortieth part (quadragesima) of the value of imported goods; and at a later period the exorbitant sum of oneeighth (octava) is mentioned.,

The portorium was, like all other vectigalia, farmed out by the censors to the publicani, who collected it through the portitores. [VECTIGALIA; PUBLICANI.]

POSSE ́SSIO. [AGER PUBLICUS.]
POSTICUM. [JANUA.]

POSTLIMINIUM, POSTLI'MINII JUS. If a Roman citizen during war came into the possession of an enemy, he sustained a diminutio capitis maxima [CAPUT], and all his civil rights were in abeyance. Being captured by the enemy, he became a slave; but his rights over his children, if he had any, were not destroyed, but were said to be in abeyance (pendere) by virtue of the Jus Postliminii: when he returned, his children were again in his

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power; and if he died in captivity, they became sui juris. Sometimes by an act of the state a man was given up bound to an enemy, and if the enemy would not receive him, it| was a question whether he had the Jus Postliminii. This was the case with Sp. Postumius, who was given up to the Samnites, and with C. Hostilius Mancinus, who was given up to the Numantines; but the better opinion was, that they had no Jus Postliminii, and Mancinus was restored to his civic rights by a lex. It appears that the Jus Postliminii was founded on the fiction of the captive having never been absent from home; a fiction which was of easy application, for, as the captive during his absence could not do any legal act, the interval of captivity was a period of legal non-activity, which was terminated by his showing himself again.

POTESTAS. [PATRIA POTESTAS.] PRACTORES (πράкторƐç), subordinate officers at Athens, who collected the fines and penalties (ἐπιβολάς and τιμήματα) imposed by magistrates and courts of justice, and payable

to the state.

PRAECINCTIO. [AMPHITHEATRUM.] PRAECO ́NES, criers, were employed for various purposes: 1. In sales by auction, they frequently advertized the time, place, and conditions of sale: they seem also to have acted the part of the modern auctioneer, so far as calling out the biddings and amusing the company, though the property was knocked down by the magister auctionis. [AUCTIO.] 2. In| all public assemblies they ordered silence. 3. In the comitia they called the centuries one by one to give their votes, pronounced the vote of each century, and called out the names of those who were elected. They also recited the laws that were to be passed. 4. In trials, they summoned the accuser and the accused, the plaintiff and defendant. 5. In the public games they invited the people to attend, and proclaimed the victors. 6. In solemn funerals they also invited people to attend by a certain form; hence these funerals were called funera indictiva. 7. When things were lost, they cried them and searched for them. 8. In the infliction of capital punishment, they sometimes conveyed the commands of the magistrates to the lictors.

Their office, called Praeconium, appears to have been regarded as rather disreputable: in the time of Cicero a law was passed preventing all persons who had been praecones from becoming decuriones in the municipia. Under the early emperors, however, it became very profitable, which was no doubt partly owing to fees, to which they were entitled in the

PRAEFECTUS.

courts of justice, and partly to the bribes which they received from the suitors, &c. PRAEFECTUS ERA'RII. [AERARI

UM.]

PRAEFECTUS ANNO'NAE, the praefect of the provisions, especially of the cornmarket, was not a regular magistrate under the republic, but was only appointed in cases of extraordinary scarcity, when he seems to have regulated the prices at which corn was to be sold. Augustus created an officer under the title of Praefectus Annonae, who had juris diction over all matters appertaining to the corn-market, and, like the Praefectus Vigilum, was chosen from the equites, and was not reckoned among the ordinary magistrates. PRAEFECTUS AQUA'RUM. [AQUAE DUCTUS.]

PRAEFECTUS CASTRO'RUM, praefect of the camp, is first mentioned in the reign of Augustus. There was one to each legion.

PRAEFECTUS CLASSIS, the commander of a fleet. This title was frequently given in the times of the republic to the commander of a fleet; but Augustus appointed two permanent officers with this title, one of whom was stationed at Ravenna on the Hadriatic, and the other at Misenum on the Tuscan sea, each having the command of a fleet.

PRAEFECTUS FABRUM. [FABRI.] PRAEFECTUS JURI DICUNDO. [CoLONIA, p. 92.]

PRAEFECTUS LEGIOʻNIS. [EXERCITUS, p. 147.]

PRAEFECTUS PRAETO'RIO, was the commander of the troops who guarded the emperor's person. [PRAETORIANI.] This office was instituted by Augustus, and was at first only military, and had comparatively small power attached to it; but under Tiberius, who made Sejanus commander of the praetorian troops, it became of much greater importance, till at length the power of these praefects became only second to that of the emperors. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the praefects, like the vizirs of the east, had the superintendence of all departments of the state, the palace, the army, the finances, and the law: they also had a court in which they decided cases. office of praefect of the praetorium was not confined to military officers: it was filled by Ulpian and Papinian, and other distinguished jurists.

The

Originally there were two praefects; after wards sometimes one and sometimes two, from the time of Commodus sometimes three and even four. They were, as a regular rule,

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