A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PERSIUS. PERSIUS. 209
to have been regarded by him as the heir to his Probi Vaierii sublata indicate, apparently, that it
throne, and became the partner of his captivity. must be regarded as an extract from some longer
(Liv. xlii. 52, xlv. 6, 39; Plut. Aemil. 33, 37; piece, but what that piece may have been, and
Zonar. ix. 24.) [E. H. B.] how or by whom the extract was made, are quesPERSEUS, a painter, the disciple of Apelles, tions which do not now admit of solution. A
who addressed to him a work upon painting. At slight degree of confusion is perceptible in the
least so we understand the somewhat ambiguous arrangement of some of the details, which must,
passage of Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. ~ 23), doubtless, be ascribed to the carelessness or inter"Apellis discipulus Perseus, ad quenz de hac arte polations of transcribers, and the concluding porscripsit," which is generally understood to mean the tion especially, from the words "Sed mox a
converse, namely, that Perseus wrote upon paint- schola" to the end, is evidently out of its proper
ing to Apelles. The former interpretation is, we place, or, rather, ought to be regarded as an addithink, more strictly grammatical; also, it was more tion by a later hand. Following, therefore, this
natural and usual for a great master to write a sketch as our guide, we learn that
work for the instruction of a favourite pupil, than AULUS PER.SIUS FLACCUS, a Roman knight confor a pupil to inscribe a work to his master; nected by blood and marriage with persons of the
and, above all, the name of Perseus does not highest rank, was born at Volaterrae in Etruria on
occur as a writer on painting, either in Pliny's the 4th of December, during the consulship of L.
lists of his authorities, or elsewhere, whereas it Vitellinls and Fabius Persicus, A. D. 34 (comp.
is well known that' Apelles wrote upon his art. Hieron. Clron. Enlseb. an. 2050). His father Flaccus
Perseus must have flourished about 01. 11 8, B. C. died six years afterwards; his mother, Fulvia Si308. [P. S.] sennia married as her second husband a certain
PE'RSICUS, PAULUS FA'BITJS, consul Fusius belonging to the equestrian order, and within
A. D. 34 with L. Vitellius. (Dion Cass. lviii. 24; a few years again became a widow. Young Persius
Tac. Ann. vi. 28; Frontin. Aquaed. 102.) This received the first rudiments of education in his
Fabius Persicus was notorious for his licentious- native town, remaining there until the age of
ness. (Senec. de Benef. iv. 3].) twelve, and then removed to Rome, where he
PE'RSIUS. 1. C. PERSIUS, an officer in the studied grammar under the celebrated Remmius
Roman army in the second Punic war, distin- Palaemon, rhetoric under Verginils Flayvils. When
guished himself in a sally from the citadel of Ta- approaching the verge of manhood he became the
rentum, B. c. 210. (Liv. xxvi. 39.) pupil of Cornutus the Stoic, who opened up to him
2. C. PERsIUs, a contemporary of the Gracchi, the first principles of mental science, and speedily
had the reputation of being one of the most learned impressed upon his plastic mind a stamp which
men of his time; and Lucilius therefore said that gave a character to his whole subsequent career.
he did not wish Persius to read his works. The To this master, who proved in very truth the
speech, which the consul C. Fannius Strabo deli- guide, philosopher, and friend of his future life, he
vered against Gracchus in B. c. 122, and which attached himself so closely that he never quitted
was much admired by Cicero, was said by some to his side, and the warmest reciprocal attachment
have been written by Persius. (Cic. de Fin. i. 3, was cherished to the last by the instructor and his
de Orat. ii. 6, Brut. 26.) disciple. While yet a youth he was on familiar
3. PErSius, of Clazomenae, whose lawsuit with terms with Lucan, with Ceesius Bassus the lyric
Rupilius Rex is described by Horace in one of his poet, and with several other persons of literary
Satires (i. 7). eminence; in process of timne he became acquainted
PE/RSIUS, is the third in order of the four with Seneca also, but never entertained a very
great Roman satirists, being younger than Lucilius warm admiration for his talents. By the highand Horace, older than Juvenal. The Eusebian minded and virtuous Paetus Thrasea (Tac. Anin.
chronicle supplies the date of his birth and of his xvi. 21, 34), the husband of his kinswoman the
death, but, with this exception, the whole of the younger Arria, Persius was tenderly beloved, and
Iknowledge we possess regarding his origin and seems to have been well worthy of such affection,
personal history is derived exclusively from an for he is described as a youth of pleasing aspect, of
ancient biography which in the greater number of most gentle manners, of maiden modesty, pure and
the codices now extant is prefixed to his works. upright, exemplary in his conduct as a son, a
By several modern scholars it has been ascribed, brother, and a nephew. He died of a disease of
without a shadow of evidence or probability, to the stomach, at an estate near the eighth milestone
Suetonius, merely, it would seem, because he is on the Appian way, on the 24th of November in
the reputed author of the lives of Terence, Horace, the consulship of P. Marius and L. Asinius Gallus,
Lucan, and Juvenal; in MSS: of a recent date it A. D. 62, before he had completed his twenty-eighth
frequently bears the name of Annaeus Cornutus, year.
but in the oldest and most valuable it is uniformly The extant works of Persius, who, we are told,
entitled Vita Auli Persii Flacci de Co77meentario wrote seldom and slowly, consist of six short
Plrobi Valerii sublata. Who this Probus may satires, extending in all to 650 hexameter lines,
have been, whether M. Valerius Probus of Berytus, and were left in an unfinished state. They were
who flourished under Nero, or some other indi- slightly corrected after his death by Cornutus,
vidual among the various Latin grammarians who while Caesius Bassus was permitted, at his own
bore that appellation [PRoBUS], it is impossible earnest request, to be the editor. In boyhood he
to determine; but the information contained in composed a comedy, a book of OsoLtopLIcd (the subthe memoir is of such a minute and precise de- ject is a matter of conjecture), and a few verses
scription, that we can scarcely doubt that the ma- upon Arria, the mother-in-law of Thrasea, that
terials were derived from some pure source, and Arria whose death has been rendered so celebrated
collected at a period not very remote from that to by the narratives of Pliny and Dion Cassius (Plin.
which they refer. The words de Cotnmenzeario Ep. iii. 16; Dion Cass. Ix. 1 6; comp. Martial. i,
VOL. 1II. P