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

214 PETROCORIUS. PETROCORIUS.
as legatus of Pompey, to whom the provinces of the Perigueux, whom Sirmond supposed to be the
two Spains had been granted. On the breaking out subject of the present article, but whom the authors
of the civil war in B. c. 49, Afranius and Petreius of the Histoire Litteraire de la France consider, but
were in Nearer Spain at the head of so powerful an with little reason, to be his father. Our Paulinus
army, that Caesar, after obtaining possession of was intimate with Perpetuus, who was bishop of
Italy, hastened to Spain to reduce those provinces. Tours from A.D. 461 to 491, and whom he calls his
Afranius and Petreius, on the approach of Caesar, patron. It was at the desire of Perpetuus that he
united their forces, and took up a strong position put into verse the life of St. Martin of Tours; and
near the town of Ilerda (Lerida in Catalonia), on in an epistle addressed to that prelate, he humbly
the right bank of the Sicoris (Segre). At first tells him, with an amusing reference to the history
they were very successful, and Caesar was placed in of Balaam, that, in giving him confidence to speak,
great difficulties; but these he quickly surmounted, he had repeated the miracle of opening the mouth
and soon reduced the enemy to such straits, that of the ass. He afterwards supplied, at the desire
Afranius and Petreius were obliged to surrender. of the bishop, some verses to be inscribed on the
They were dismissed uninjured by Caesar, part of walls of the new church which Perpetuus finished
their troops disbanded, and the remainder incor- about A. D. 473 (or according to Oudin, A. D. 482),
porated in the conqueror's army. Petreius joined and to which the body of St. Martin was transferred.
Pompey in Greece, and after the loss of the battle He sent with them some verses De Visitatione Veof Pharsalia in B. C. 48, he first fled to Patrae in potuli sui, on occasion of the cure, supposed to be
Achaia, and subsequently passed over to Africa. miraculous, which his grandson and the young lady
He took an active part in the campaign in Africa to whom he was married or betrothed, had expein B. C. 46. At the battle of Ruspina, fought at rienced through the efficacy of a document, apthe beginning of January in this year, he was parently the account of the miracles of St. Martin,
severely wounded; and he was also present at the written by the hand of the bishop. We gather
battle of Thapsus in the month of April, by which that this poem was written when the author
Caesar completely destroyed all the hopes of the was old, from the circumstance of his having a
Pompeian party in Africa. After the loss of the grandson of marriageable age. Of the death of
battle Petreius fled with Juba to Zama, and as Paulinus we have no account.
the inhabitants of that town would not admit them The works of Paulinus Petrocorius are:-1. De
within its walls, they retired to a country house of Vita S. Martini, a poem in hexameter verse, divided
Juba's, where despairing of safety they fell by into six books. It has little poetical or other merit.
each other's hands. The exact manner of their The first three books are little else than a versified
death is somewhat differently related by different abridgement of the De Beati Martini Vita Liber
writers. According to some accounts Juba des- of Sulpicius Severus; and the fourth and fifth
patched Petreius first and then killed himself, comprehend the incidents mentioned in the Dialogi
while the contrary is stated by others. (Cic. ad II. et III. de Virtutibus Beati Martini of the same
Att. viii. 2; Caes. B. C. i. 38, 63-86; Hirt. B. author. The sixth book comprises a description of
Afr. 18, 19, 91, 94; Dion Cass. xli. 20, xlii. 13, the miracles which had been wrought at the tomb
xliii. 2, 8; Appian, B. C. ii. 42, 43, 95, 100; of St. Martin, under the eyes of Perpetuus, who
Lucan, iv. 4, &c.; Vell. Pat. ii. 48, 50; Suet. had sent an account of them to Paulinus. 2. De
Caes. 34, 75; Liv. Epit. 110, 114.) Visitatione Nepotuli sui, a description of the mira3. M. PETREIUS, a centurion in Caesar's army culous cure of his grandson already mentioned;
in the Gallic war, who died fighting bravely at also written in hexameter verse. 3. De Orantibus
Gergovia, B. C. 52. (Caes. B. G. vii. 50.) (an inappropriate title, which should rather be
PE'TRICHUS (rI'TpLXos), the author of a Orantibus simply, or Ad Orantes), apparently a
Greek poem on venomous serpents,'OpLaKd, who portion of the hexameter verses designed to be inlived in or before the first century after Christ. scribed on the walls of the new church built by
His poem, which is no longer extant, is quoted Perpetuus. 4. Perpetuo Episcopo Epistola. This
by Pliny (H. N. xx. 96, xxii. 40) and the letter was sent to Perpetuus, with the verses De
scholiast on Nicander's T/leriaca (pp. 47, 50, ed. Visitatione and De Orantibus. The works of
Aid.). [W. A. G.] Paulinus Petrocorius were first printed by FranPETRO, T. FLA'VIUS, the ancestor of the ciscus Juretus, Paris, 1585. Some writers have
emperor Vespasian, was a native of the municipium spoken, but without foundation, of an earlier edition
of Reate, and served as a centurion in Pompey's printed at Dijon: Juretus ascribed the works to
army at the battle of Pharsalia, B. c. 48. (Suet. Paulinus of Nola, an error which is as ancient as
Vesp. 1.) [VESPASIANUS.] the time of Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus of
PETROCO'RIUS or PETRICO'RDIUS Poictiers, by whom it was shared. After the first
(PAULINUS). Among the various Paulini who publication of the works they were inserted in
flourished in the Western Empire in the fifth cen- several collections of the Christian poets, and in
tury, was Paulinus, called in the MSS. Petricordius, some editions (e. g. Paris, 1575, 1589, and Cologne,
which modern critics correct to Petrocorius, and 1618) of the Bibliotheca Patrunm, generally, howsuppose to be given him from the place of his birth, ever, under the name of Paulinus of Nola. In the
inferred to be Petrocorii, the modern Perigueux. Lyon edition of the Bibliotheca Patrum, fol. 1677,
Some moderns have erroneously given to him the vol. vi. p. 297, &c., they are ascribed to their right
praenomen Benedictus; an error which has arisen author. They were again published by Christianus
from their having regarded as a name the epithet Daumius, 8vo. Leipzig, 1686, with ample notes of
"benedictus," "blessed," given to him by some Juretus, Barthius, Gronovius, and Daumius. To
who have confounded him with his more celebrated the works of our Paulinus were subjoined in this
namesake, Paulinus of Nola [PAULINUS, p. edition, the Eucharisticon of Paulinus the Penitent,
144]. Sidonius Apollinaris (Epistol. viii. 11) or Paulinus of Pella [PAULINUIS], and the poem
mentions a Paulinus, an eminent rhetorician of on Jonah and the Ninevites, ascribed to Ter