Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

882 PELLTS. PENESTAE.
crook in the hand of a shepherdess, who sits upon,aKcs, and a dress, supposed to have had a' sheepa rock, tending sheep and other cattle. (See also skin sewed to it below, KCa'rdc.K7J.
voodcut to OSCILLUM.) PELTA (7ri;NT), a small shield. Iphicrates,
On account of its connection with pastoral life observing that the ancient CiraPEuJS was cumbrous
the crook is continually seen in works of ancient and inconvenient, introduced among the Greeks
art in the hands of Pan (Sil. Ital. zPue. xiii. 334), a much smaller and lighter shield, from whichl
and of satyrs, fauns, and shepherds. It was also those who bore it took the name of peltastac.
the usual attribute of Thalia, as the Muse of [Ex RCITUS, p. 487, b.] It consisted principally
Pastoral poetry. (Combe, Anc. M11arbles qf Br. of a frame of wood or wickerwork (Xen. Aeab.
jlM[hseeum, Part iii. pl. 5.) [J. Y.] ii. 1. ~ 6), covered with skin or leather, without
PEGMA (7rr~ya), a pageant, i. e. an edifice of the metallic rim. [ANTYX.] (Tinlaeus, Lex.
vwood, consisting of two or more stages (tcabulata), Plat. s. av.) Light and small shields of a great
which were raised or depressed at pleasure by variety of shapes were used by numerous nations
means of balance-weights (ponderibus reductis, before the adoption of them by the Greeks. The
Claudian, de M/[allii Theod. Cons. 323-328; Sen. round target or cetra was a species of the Pelta,
Epist. 89). These great machines were used in and was used especially by the people of Spain
the Roman amphitheatres (Juv. iv. 121; Mart. i. 2. and Mauritania. [CETRA.] The Pelta is also
2; Sueton. Claud. 34), the gladiators who fought said to have been quadrangular. (Schol. in T/iucyd.
upon them being called pegzcares. (Caclig. 26.) ii. 29.) A light shield of similar construction was
They were supported upon wheels so as to be part of the national armour of Thrace (Thucyd.
drawn into the circus, glittering with silver and a ii. 29; Eurip. Alces. 516, Rles. 407; Max. Tyr.
-profusion of wealth. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 3. s. 16.) Diss. vii.) and of various parts of Asia, and was on
At other times they exhibited a magnificent though this account attributed to the Amazons, in whose
dangerous (Vopisc. Ccasri. 15) display of fire- hands it appears on the works of ancient art some.
works. (Claudian, 1. c.) Accidents sometimes hap- times elliptic, as in the bronzes of Siris (woodcut,
pened to the musicians and other performers who p. 712), and at other times variously sinuated on
were carried upon them. (Phaedr. v. 7. 7.) the margin, but most commonly with a semicirt
The pegmata mentioned by Cicero (ad Att. iv. 8) cular indentation on one side (lunatis peltis, Virg.
may have been movable book-cases. [J. Y.] Aen. i. 490, xi. 663). An elegant form of the
PEGMARES. [PEGlAL.] pelta is exhibited in the annexed woodcut, taken
PELATAE (7redrTaz), are defined by Pollux from a sepulchral urn in the Capitoline Museum at
(iii. 82) and other authorities to be free labourers Rome, and representing Penthesileia, Queen of the
working for hire, like the 5Tres, in contradistinc- Amazons, in the act of offering aid to Priam.
tion to the Helots and Penestae, who were bondsmen or serfs, having lost their freedom by conquest
or otherwise. Aristotle (aCp. Phot. s. a. v. IIrarm)
thus connects their name with 7reXas: rIEAdrat, he
says, from 7resas, oaov E yy-Cira in 7rEVLuaV 7rpo- <
oerTes: i. e. persons who are obliged by poverty
to attach themselves to others. Timaeus (Lex (.Plat. s. v.) gives the samle explanation. IleAdrT7s, \
o arTl Tpo(pceo dsrspeTruc Kal o rpo-7rcA/\iac'v. In
the later Greek writers, such as Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, and Plutarch, the word is used for
the Latin cliens, though the relations expressed
by the two terms are by no means similar. Plutarch (Ages. c. 6) also uses the word rather loosely
for Helots, and we are told of a nation of Illyrians
(the Ardiaei) who possessed 300,000 Prospelatae,
compaied by Theopompus (ap. Atlh. vi. p. 271],
d. e.) with the Helots of Laconia. (Mblller, Do.
iii. 4. ~ 7; WVachsmuth, Hlellen. Altertlhumsk. vol. i.
pp. 361, 811, 2d ed.; Hermann, Grieclh. Staatsaltertlz. ~ 1.01, n. 9.) [R. W.]/
PELLEX. [CoNcUBImNA.1
PELLIS (Veplma, Sopd), the hide or skin of a
quadruped. Before weaving was introduced into _-_ _Europe there is reason to believe that its inhabit- PELTASTAE. [ExERCITUS, p. 487, b.;
ants were universally clothed in skins. The prac- PELTA.]
tice continued among the less civilised nations PENA'TES. See Diet. of Gr. and Romn. Biogr.
(Virg. Georg. iii. 383; Tacit. Germ. 17, 46; Ovid, andcl 1yth.
T-'ist. iii. 10. 19), and is often ascribed by the PENESTAE (7reverat), probably from 7re'VEIpoets to hleroes and imaginary beings [Comp. Oat, operari. (Dionys. ii. 9.) The Penestae of
AEGIS; NaRmIS.] The term o-inspa or orsr-ipya, Thessaly are generally conceived to have stood in
denoted an article of domestic furniture, which was nearly the same relation to their Thessalian lords
made by sewing together several goat-skins with as the Helots of Laconia did to the Dorian Sparthe hair on. (Schol. in A.istoph. Aves, 122.) The tans, although their condition seems to have been
sheep-skin (o'a, asdcos, S~Oipa) was worn not on the whole superior. (Plat. Leg. vi. p. 776.)
only by.the Lacedaemonian helots, but frequently They were the descendants of the old Pelasoic or
by the laborious poor, as is still the case in many Aeolian inhabitants of Thessaly proper, and the
parts of Europe. The lamb-skin was called ap- following account is given of them by an author