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

POLEMARCHUS. POLUS. 929
PO'DIUM, in architecture, is a continued pe- elected annually, and from what happened when
destal, for supporting a row of columns, or serving Phloebidas, the Lacedaemonian commander, seized
for a parapet, or forming a sort of terrace, as the the Cadmleia or citadel of Thebes (B. C. 382), we
podiuon in the theatre and amphitheatre. (Vitruy. may infer that in times of peace they were iniii. 3, v. 7, vii. 4; AMPHITHEATRUM.) [P. S.] vested with the chief executive power of the state,
POENA (Greek, 7roivi). The Roman sense of and the command of the city, having its military
this word is explained by Ulpian (Dig. 50. tit. 16. force under their orders. (Xen. IHell. v. 2. ~ 30.)
s. 13) at the same time that he explains Fraus They are not, however, to be confounded with the
and Multa. Fraus is generally an offence, Noxa; Boeotarchs. At Thespiae also (Plut. Daem7etr. c. 39)
and Poena is the punishment of an offence, Noxae there were officers of this name, and likewise in
vindicta. Poerna is a general name for any punish- Aetolia (Polyb. iv. 79) and Arcadia. At Cynaetha
ment of any offence: Multa is the penalty of a in the latter country the gates of the city were
particular offence, which is now (in Ulpian's time) entrusted to the special care of the Polemarchs:
pecuniary. Ulpian says in his time because by they had to keep guard by them in the day-time,
the Law of the Twelve Tables, the:Multa was and to close them at night, and the keys were alpecuaria or a certain number of oxen and sheep. ways kept in their custody. (Id. iv. 18.) [R. W.]
(Plin. xviii. 3; Festus, s. vv. /Imltasz, Ieculatus.) POLE'TAE (t7rwrirat), a board of ten officers,
[LaEx ATERNI.N TARPEIA.] Ulpian proceeds to or magistrates (for they are called &PXs by HIarsay that Poena may affect a person's caput and pocration), whose duty it was to grant leases of thIe
existimatio, that is, Poena may be loss of citizen- i public lands and mines, and also to let the revenues
ship and Infainia. A Multa was imposed accord- arising from the customs, taxes, confiscations, and
ing to circumstances, and its amount was deter- forfeitures. Of such letting the word 7rWoAEY (not
mined by the pleasure of him who imposed it. A ulsrOooY) was generally used, and also the correlaPoena was only inflicted when it was imposed by tive words W'evEi60at and 7rptao-Oat. Their official
some lex or some other legal authority (quo alio place of business was called a7rcoXalv~pov. One was
j'1e). When no poena was imposed, then a multa chosen from each tribe. A chairman presided at
or penalty might be inflicted. Every person who their meetings (eirpvrdvvTE). In the letting of the
had jurisdictio (this seems to be the right reading revenue they were assisted by the managers of the
instead of judicatio) could impose a multa; and theoric fund ('ob oaewpUce'), and they acted under
these were magistratus and praesides provinceiarum. the authority of the Senate of Five Hundred, who
A Poena might be inflicted by any one who was exercised a general control over the financial de-.
intrusted with the judicial prosecution of the offence partment of the administration. Resident aliens,
to which it was affixed. The legal distinction be- whto did not pay their residence-tax (Cevo-ltomnV),
tween Poerna and Multa is not always observed by were summoned before them, and if found to have
the Roman writers. [G. L.] committed default, were sold in a room called
POLEMARCHUS (rrohe.'apXos). An account roaTWXl7TPIOv Tor [LETeIolov. (Demosth. c. Alsritoq.
of the functions of the Athenian umagistrate of this 787.) Other persons who had forfeited their freename is given under ARacIoNT. Athens, however, dom to the state were also sold by the wrcoAral:,
was not the only state of Greece which had officerss as foreigners who had been convicted' of usurping
so called. We read of them at Sparta, and in the rights of citizenship. (Harpoc. and Suid. s. vv.
various cities of Boeotia. As their name denotes, IlsAOTral and LeTro[KIOV; Pollux, viii. 99; Bickh,
they were originally and properly connected with Pubi. Fcon. of] Altens, p. 155, 2d ed.; Meier, do
military affairs, being entrusted either with the bon. damn. p. 41.) [C. R. K.]
command of armies abroad, or the superintendence POLITEIA, POLI/TES (rorAst'ea, 7roXAs'v-).
of the war department at home: sometimes with [CIvITAS (GREEK I).]
both. The polemarchs of Sparta appear to have POLITOPHY'LACES (7roArIodpSkatces).
ranked next to the king, when on actual service [TAGUs]
abroad, and were generally of the royal kindred or POLLICA'RIS. [PEs.]
house (ydvos). (Herod. vii. 173.) They comr- POLLICITA'TIO. LOBLIGATIONES, p. 821.]
manded single morae (Xen. Rep. Lac. xi. 4), so P'OLLINCTO'RES. [FuNuS, p. 558, a.]
that they would appear to have been six in number POLUS (7riAo3), in astronomy, is a very diffi(Muller, Dor. iii. 12. ~ 4), and sometimes whole cult word to explain in a perfectly satishactory
armies. (Rerod. 1. c.) They also formed part of smanner, on account of the various senses ill which
the king's council in war, and of the royal escort it is used. In such a case, the only safe guide to
called bajooeia (Xen. Hell. vi. 4. ~ 14), and were the original meaning of a word is to determine, if
supported or represented by the officers called possible, its sense in the earliest passage in which
ovw/popess. (Miller, iii. 12. ~ 5.) The polemarbhs it occurs, and to compare that sense with awhat is
of Sparta had also the superintendence of the public known of the etymology of the word. Now it is
tables: a circumstance which admits of explana- evident that 7rdXos contains the root IIEA, which
tion from the fact that Lycurgus is said to have we find in 7rEAo/luat and other words, and the
instituted the syssitia for the purposes of war, and fundamental idea attached to which appears to lbe
therefore as military divisions; so that the Lace- that of motion. Then, turning to the Greek audaemonians would eat and fight in the same com- thors0 we find the word first occurring in the wellpany. (Uiiller, iii. 12. ~ 4.) But in addition to known passage in which Aeschylus (Prom. 427)
their military functions, and the duties connected speaks of Atlas as supporting on his shoulders the
therewith, the polemarchs of Sparta had a civil as pole of Heaven, that is, the vault of the sky, which
well as a certain extent of judicial power (Id. iii. 7. was called 7ro'os in accordance with the notion,
~ 8), in which respect they resembled the cpXwvo which prevailed from the time of Thales, that the
sroXe',apXos at Athens. In Boeotia also there sky was a hollow sphere, which moved continually
were magistrates of this name. At Thebes, for round the earth, carrying the heavenly bodies with
instance, there appears to have been two, perhaps it, (Comp. Eurip. Or. 1 685; Pseudo-Plat. A.rioce
t e