PAPIRIOS, JUSTUS. 



PARACELSUS. 



,.,. , 



of tb home to L. Paplriui Craasuit, who WM created dictator B.C. 

 Mt, by the coniu] Manila*, in order to carry on the war ncainit th 

 Antiat-*. C l.iv.,' Tiii. 12 ; Cic,, 'Ad. Fam.,' ix. 21.) The time of hi* 

 flnt nm-uliihip it doubtful. Livy mention! C. Postilioa and L. Fapi- 

 rfa* Mugillannt as consult in B.C. 325 : bat he adds that inttead of 

 Papirius Mnrillamiii, the uame of Papiriu* Cursor WM found in some 

 ann*l*. (' l.i..' Tiii. 23.) During tlie year of their consulship the 

 Lx PcetilU Papilla was pasted, which enacted that no one should b<> 

 kept in fetters or bonds, except for a crime which deserved them, and 

 only until be had suffered the punishment which the law provided ; 

 it alao en noted that creditors should have a right to attach the goods 

 and not the parsons, of their debtors. (' Liv.,' Tiii. 28.) 



In the following year Papirius Cursor, who is said by Livy (viii. ?IH 

 to have been considered at that time the most illustrious general of 

 his age, was appointed dictator to carry on the war against the Sam- 

 nitoa. He appointed Q. Fabius Haximus his master of the horse ; and 

 during hit absence at Home to renew the auspices, Fabius attacked the 

 enemy contrary to his commands and gained a signal victory. On his 

 return to the camp, he commanded Fabius to be put to death ; but 

 the soldiers espousing the cause of Fabiut, the execution was delayed 

 till the following day, before which time Fabius had an opportunity of 

 escaping to Rome, where be placed himself under the protection of 

 the senate. The proceedings which followed are interesting to the 

 student of the constitutional history of Rome, as they show that an 

 appeal (proToeatio) could be made to the people from the decision of 

 a dictator, which ia in accordance with a remark of Livy in another 

 part of bis history (ill 55), that after the decemvirs were expelled 

 from Rome, n law was pushed, enacting that in future no magistrate 

 should be made from whom there should be no appeal Papirius 

 demanded Fabius of the senate ; and as neither the entreaties of the 

 senators nor those of the father of Fabius, who had been dictator and 

 three times consul, could induce Papirius to pardon him, the father of 

 Fabius appealed (provocavit) to the people, and at length, at the 

 ear-next entreaties of the people and of the tribunes of the plobs, the 

 life of Fabiua waa spared. Papirius named a new master of the horse, 

 and. on his return to the army, defeated the Sauinites, and put an cud 

 to the war for the time. (' Lir.,' viii. 29-37.) 



Papirius was elected consul a second time with Q. Publius Philo, in 

 B.O. 320, and again defeated the Samnites; and apparently a third 

 time in the following year, though there appears to be some doubt 

 upon the latter point. ( Liv.,' ix. 7-16.) He was consul for the fourth 

 time in B.C. 815 (' Liv.,' ix. 22), and for the fifth time in B.C. 313 

 (' Liv.,' ix. 28). He was again named dictator in B.C. 809, to carry on 

 the war against his old enemies the Samuitea, whom he defeated with 

 great slaughter, and obtained, on account of his victory, the honour 

 of a triumph (' Liv.,' ix. 33, 40); after which time we find no further 

 mention of him. 



Papirius Cursor, says Livy (ix. 16), was considered the most illustri- 

 ous man of his age ; and it was thought he would have been equal to 

 contend with Alexander the Great, if the latter, after the conquest of 

 Asia, bad turned bin arms against Kurope. 



PAITRIU8, JUSTUS, a Roman jurUt, who compiled twenty 

 books of Constitutions, according to the Florentine Index. There 

 are sixteen excerpts from this work in the Digest. In one excerpt 

 (Dig. 2, tit. 14, s. 59) Papirius mentions a rescript of the Emperor 

 Antoninu*, addressed to Avidius Cassius. The fact of the rescript 

 l.eiug aldreaned to Casiius shows that Antoninus is the Emperor 

 Marcus Antoninus. Accordingly Papirius was living under Marcus 

 Antoninus ; and he alto survived him, as appears from his sncakinc 

 oftheDiviFratrea. 



A jurist of the name of Papirius Frouto ia cited by Callistratu*. 

 (Dig. 14, tit 8, s. 4.) 



PAITRIUS, 8EXTU8 or PUBLIUS, is the collector or supposed 

 collector of the ok) Leges Curtate, or as they are sometimes called, 

 I/ge Recto, which were enacted at Rome during the kingly period. 

 This Papirius ia aaid to have been Pontifex Maximus and to have lived 

 under the last Tarquin. The few and doubtful fragments of this 

 opposed compilation are contained in Hoffmann, ' Hist. Juris.,' vol. ii. 

 ]. i The collection is mentioned under the name of Jus Papiriannm, 

 not because he added anything of bis own, but because he arranged 

 the laws in due order (Poinponiua, 'Dig.,' 1, tit. 2, s. 2, 2) ; and 

 sometimes it ia called Ltx 1'apiria. (Senriua ad Virg. ' .lEneid,' 

 xii. 886.) 



PAPPUS, ALEXANWU'NUS, an eminent mathematician of 

 Alexandria, who flourished about the end of the 4th century of our 

 era. In the very brief accounts we have of him, he is mentioned as 

 tho author of several treatises, all of which, except his ' Mathematical 

 Collections ' (Mowurixal Ivrayvyat), probably the most valuable of 

 his writings, appear to have perished. This work, as its name imports, 

 ia miscellaneous; and betides a variety of proposition*, both problems 

 and theorems, contains some curious notices, not found elsewhere, of 

 the history of mathematics, and of matlir-maticians in his own and in 

 preceding times. Of the eight books of the 'Mathematical Collections,' 

 tho first and about one half of the second are presumed to bo lost ; 

 tho rest have reached tho present time, though with many Imper- 

 fections, and in some passages go mutilated that the meaning cannot 

 be certainly determined. The original Greek, except some short 

 extracts, ha* nertr been printed; and the only translation of it, which 



ia by Commandlne, was first published at Peearo in 1688 ; and another 

 edition, with little variation or improvement, was printed in 1660 at 

 Bologna. This translation is accompanied with a commentary, often 

 tedious, and in some places defective ; but at the same time it is 

 extremely valuable, from the explanation which it contains of some 

 difficulties, and the correction of many errors in the manuscript used 

 by Commanding, and which pervade all the manuscripts of Pappus 

 that have hitherto been examined. From Commanrtine's manner of 

 referring to the Greek, it appears that he had only one manuscript fur 

 his guide. He died before the work bad received hU last corrections, 

 and no account is given of the history or character of the manuscript 

 which he followed. From a family dispute between two sons-in-law, 

 the publication was suspended for some time after his death ; and at 

 length, by the munificence of his patron, the Duke of Urbino, tho 

 translation was printed, but confessedly without any correction what- 

 ever of the errors or omissions in the unfinished work of Commandine. 

 In this state however it was a very interesting communication to the 

 mathematician* of that age, and almost immediately excited tho 

 greatest interest and attention towards the Greek geometry. 



The two first books of Pappus are not in Commandine's translation, 

 from their not being found in any of the manuscripts to which he had 

 access; but a portion of the second book was afterwards found in :i 

 manuscript in the Savilian Library at Oxford, and published by Dr. 

 Wallis in 1688, with a Latin translation, and valuable notes explana- 

 tory of the Greek arithmetic. From this remaining fragment, it is 

 reasonably conjectured by Dr. Wallis that these two books related 

 solely to that arithmetic ; and thence he infers that the loss of them 

 ia not greatly to be lamented : the whole object of the second book 

 appears to be equivalent to what is now considered as a very simple 

 proposition, viz. that the multiplication of any numbers, all or any of 

 which have ciphers annexed, may be performed by multiplying 

 numbers without the ciphers, and then adding all the ciphers to tho 

 product. The first book was probably employed about the simp:. 

 operation) of the addition and subtraction of numbers. Tho third 

 book contains geometrical problems both linear and solid. The fourth 

 contains theorems of plane, solid, and linear classes of propositions. 

 The fifth treats principally of isoperimetrical figures. The sixth is 

 employed chiefly in explaining and correcting some propositions of 

 Theodosius and some other ancient writers, in treatises on spherics. 

 The seventh book is entirely on the ancient analysis. The eighth 

 and last book is entirely on mechanics ; but though a curious docu- 

 ment of the state of that branch of science in the time of Pappus, yet 

 from the great improvement both in the theory and practice of 

 mechanics in modern times, it is comparatively of little value. 



(Dr. Trail, Lift of Simeon ; Suidas, in voc. ' Yossius de Chronologiii 

 Mathematicorum ; ' and Montucta, torn. L) 



PARACK'LSUS, the name commonly given to a very extraordinary 

 person, who called himself by the compound and high-sounding appel- 

 lation PniLirrug AUREOLCS THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS BOMBAST, AB 

 HOHKNHEIM; to which is sometimes added the epithet 'Kremita.' 

 Of all these names it is difficult to say which, if any, really belonged 

 to him ; for though he seems to have liked 'Theophrastus' better than 

 any of the others, and sometimes (as in his will and his letter to Eras- 

 mus) called himself by that alone, and though he says, in his book 

 called ' Paragranuiu/ "Et Naturto et Baptistnatis jure Theopbrostus 

 nominor," still he was wont to pay so little regard to truth, either in 

 his words or actions, that ha cannot safely be believed oven in such a 

 trifle as this. The place of his birth is equally uncertain, but he is 

 generally supposed to have been born in 1403, at Einsiedeln in the 

 canton of Schwyz, the Latin name of which, ' Helvetia! Ereuius,' 

 caused him to be sometimes called 'Kremita.' (See however II. ii.;, 

 'Jtiblioth. Medic. Pract.,' torn, it) His father was a physician, and 

 instructed him in alchemy, astrology, and medicine. He win 

 regularly educated, and lie confesses himself that he was not fond of 

 books and bad a horror of languages, insomuch that at one time he 

 did not open a book for ton years together. This is quite confirmed 

 by the internal testimony of his writings, which arc as unintelligible 

 from their style aa their substance. 



He early commenced a wandering life, and pent some years in 

 travelling over almost all Europe and probably several parts of Asia 

 and Africa. Ho had a most ardent desire for information of all sorts, 

 . :;; in-elected no opportunity of acquiring it ; but he seems to have 

 d very little judgment in the choice of his informants, and to 

 have consulted conjurers, old women, and quacks of every description, 

 quite as much as physicians and philosophers. The most valuable 

 acquisition that he made hi his travels was an acquaintance with 

 metallic chemistry, by means of which he was enabled to perform 

 several wonderful cures, and thereby laid the foundation of his fame. 

 In 1526 he waa chosen to bo profeasor of medicine and natural 

 philosophy at Basel, and commenced his course of lectures by lighting 

 some sulphur in a brazen chafing-dish, and then threw into the flame 

 the works of Galen and Aviceuna, exclaiming " Bio vos ardebitis in 

 gehennn." He lectured partly in Latin and partly in German, which, 

 together with hia singular manners and the novelty of his opinions, 

 rendered him extremely popular. In consequence however of a 

 dispute with the magistrates about the amount of a fee which he 

 demanded of one of the canons, he left Basel in about a year, and 

 recommenced his wandering life. He seldom stayed long in one place, 



