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

440 POLLIO. POLLUX.
PO'LLIO, CLO'DIUS, a man of praetorian emperor Hadrian, may have been a son of No.'2
rank, against whom Nero wrote a poem, entitled and a grandson of No. 1. (Dig. 27. tit. 1o s. 15.
Luscio. (Suet Domn. 1.) ~ 17.)
PO'LLIO, DOMI'TIUS, offered his daughter 4. Lived in the reign of M. Aurelius, and was
for a Vestal Virgin in the reign of Tiberius. consul the second time in A.D. 176 with M. Fla(Tac. Ann. ii. 87.) vius Aper. The year of his first consulship is not
PO'LLIO, L. FUFI'DIUS, consul A. D. 166 recorded. (Lamprid. Commod. 2; Fasti.) The Sewith Q. Servilius Pudens. (Lamprid. Comrnnod. 11; natusconsultum Vitrasianum, of which mention is
Fasti.) made in the Digest (40. tit. 5. s. 30. ~ 6), was
PO'LLIO, HERE'NNIUS, a Roman orator, probably passed during one of the consulships of
and a contemporary of the younger Pliny. (Plin. Vitrasius Pollio. This Pollio was perhaps the
Eop. iv. 19.) great-grandson of No. 1. The Vitrasia Faustina
PO'LLIO, JUILIUS, a tribune of the prae- slain by Commodus was probably his daughter.
torian cohort, assisted Nero in poisoning Britan- (Lamprid. Cbomrnod. 4.)
nicus. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 15.) POLLIS (lIo'AArs), is first mentioned in B.c.
PO'LLIO, ME'MMIUS. [MEMMIUS, No. 390 as 4roroXevh, or second in command of the
13.] Lacedaemonian fleet (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. ~ 11). In
PO'LLIO, NAE'VIUS. [NAEVIrrs, No. 8.] B.c. 376 he was appointed navarchus or comPO'LLIO, ROMI'LIUS, a Roman who at- mander-in-chief of a Lacedaemonian fleet of sixty
tained the age of upwards of a hundred years. ships in order to cut off from Athens her supplies'When asked by the emperor Augustus how he of corn. His want of success and defeat by Chahad preserved such vigour of mind and body, he brias are related in the life of the latter [Vol. I.
replied "-intus mulso, foris oleo." (Plin. H. N. p. 676, a.] (Xen. Hell. v. 4. ~~ 60, 61; Diod.
xxii. 24. s. 53.) xv. 34; Polyaen. iii. Il. ~ 17.) In several MSS.
PO'LLIO, RU'BRIUS, the commander of the of the above-mentioned authors, his name is written
praetorian cohorts in the reign of Claudius, was IdoAls, but Io'AALs is the preferable form.
allowed a seat in the senate as often as he accom- POLLIS, an architect, who wrote on the rules
panied the emperor thither. (Dion Cass. lx. 23.) of the orders of architecture, praeceplte symmetriaPO'LLIO, TREBE'LLIUS. [TREBELLIUS.] rum. (Vitruv. vii. praef. ~ 14.) [P. S.]
PO'LLIO, VALE'RIUS, an Alexandrian phi- POLLT'TIA, slain by Nero with her father
losopher, lived in the time of the emperor Ha- L. Vetus. (Tac. Ann. xvi. 10, 11.)
drian, and was the father of the philosopher POLLUX. [DioscuRI.]
~Diodorus. (Suidas, s. v. HIlwAfwv.) [DIODORUS, POLLUX, JU'LIUS ('Io'Aros IoAvFsrVcK1s), of
literary, No. 2.] Naucratis in Egypt, was a Greek sophist and
PO'LLIO, VE'DIUS, a Roman eques and a grammarian. He received instruction in criticism
friend of Augulstus, was by birth a freedman, and from his father, and afterwards went to Athens,
has obtained a place in history on account of his where he studied rhetoric under the sophist
riches and his cruelty. He was accustomed to Adrian. He opened a private school at Athens,
feed his lampreys with human flesh, and when- where he gave instruction in grammar and rhetoric,
ever a slave displeased him, the unfortunate wretch and was subsequently appointed by the emperor
was forthwith thrown into the pond as food for Commodus to the chair of rhetoric at Athens. He
the fish. On one occasion Augustus was supping died during the reign of Commodus at the age of
with him, when a slave had the misfortune to fifty-eight, leaving a young son behind him. We
break a crystal goblet, aud his master imme- may therefore assign A. D. 183 as the yearin which
idiately ordered him to be thrown to the fishes. he flourished. (Suidas, s. v. IloNvuES Ksls; Philostr.
The slave fell at the feet of Augustus, praying for Vit. Soph. ii. 12.) Philostratus praises his critical
mercy; the emperor interceded with his master skill, but speaks unfavourably of his rhetorical
on his behalf, but when he could not prevail upon powers, and implies that he gained his professor's
Pollio to pardon him, he dismissed the slave of his chair from Commodus simply by his mellifluous
own accord, and commanded all Pollio's crystal voice. He seems to have been attacked by many of
goblets to be broken and the fish-pond to be filled his contemporaries on account of the inferior characup. Pollio died B. c. 15, leaving a large part of ter of his oratory, and especially by Lucian in his
his property to Augustus. (Dion Cass. liv. 23;'Prrldpcv ldersaahAos, as was supposed by the anSenec. de Ira, iii. 40, de C'lemz. i. 18; Plin. H. N. cients and has been maintained by many modern
ix. 23. s. 39, 53. s. 78; Tac. Ann. i. i0, xii. 60.) writers (see especially C. F. Ranke, Comment. de
This Pollio appears to be the same as the one Polluce et Luciano, Quedlinburg, 1831), though
against whom Augustus wrote fescennine verses. Hlemsterhuis, from the natural partiality of an
(Macrob. Sat. ii. 4.) editor for his author, stoutly denies this supposition,
PO'LLIO, VESPA/SIUS, a native of Nursia, and believes that Lucian intended' to satirize
was thrice tribune of the soldiers and likewise a certain Dioscorides. It has also been conjecpraefect of the camp. His son obtained the dig- tured that Lucian attacks Pollux in his Lexsiphanes,
nity of praetor, and his daughter Vespasia Polla and that he alludes to him with. contempt in a
became the mother of the emperor Vespasian. passage of the De Saltatione (c. 33, p. 287, ed.
(Suet. Vesp. 1.) Reitz). Athenodorus, who taught at Athens at
PO'LLIO, VITRA'SIUS. 1. The praefectus the same time as Pollux, was likewise one of his
or governor of Egypt in the reign of Tiberius, detractors. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 14.) We
died A. D. 32. (Dion Cass. lviii. 1.9.) know nothing more of the life of Pollux, except
2. Probably the son of the preceding, was the that he was the teacher of the sophist Antipater,
procurator of the emperor in Egypt in the reign of who taught in the reign of Alexander Severus.
Claudius. (Plin. I. AV. xxxvi. 7. s. 11.) (Philostr. Ibid. ii. 24.)
3. The legatus Lugdunensis, in the reign of the Pollux was the author of several works. of which