673 



PARMENIO. 



PARNELL, THOMAS. 



(174 



to enable us to judge of it8 general method and subject. It opened 

 with an allegory, which was intended to exhibit the soul's longing 

 after truth. The soul is represented as drawn by steeds along an 

 untrodden road to the residence of Justice (Dike), who promises to 

 reveal everything to it. After this introduction the work is divided 

 into two parts : the first part treats of the knowledge of truth, and the 

 second explains the physiological system of the Eleatic school. 



PARME'NIO, a Macedonian general, who distinguished himself in the 

 service of Philip, father of Alexander the Great. He gained a decisive 

 victory over the Illrrians, about the time of Alexander's birth, and 

 the news of both events reached Philip, who was then absent from his 

 capital on some expedition, together with that of his having won the 

 prize at the Olympic games. Philip, while preparing to invade the 

 Persian empire, sent a, considerable force into Asia as an advanced 

 guard, and he chose Parmenio and Attalus as the leaders of the 

 expedition. These commanders began by expelling the Persian 

 garrisons from several Greek towns of Asia Minor. Parmenio took 

 Grynseum in jEolis, the inhabitants of which, having sided with the 

 Persians, and fought against the Macedonians, were sold as slaves. 

 When Alexander set out on his Asiatic expedition, Parmenio had one 

 of the chief commands in the army. At the head of the Thessaliuu 

 cavalry he contributed materially to the victory of the Granicus ; and 

 at Issns he had the command of the cavalry on the left wing, which 

 wan placed near the sea-coast, and had to sustain for a time the prin- 

 cipal attack of the Persians. In the field of Gaugamela, he advised 

 Alexander not to give battle until he had well reconnoitred the 

 ground. Being in command of the left wing he was attacked in flank 

 by the Persians, and was for a time in some danger, until Alexander, 

 who had been successful in another part of the field, came to his 

 assistance. Parmenio afterwards pursued the fugitives, and took 

 possession of the Persian camp, with the elephants, camels, and all the 

 baggage. 



When Alexander marched beyond the Caspian gutes in pursuit of 

 Darius and Bessus, he left Parmenio, who was now advanced in years, 

 in Media, at the head of a considerable force. Some time after, 

 whilst Alexander was encamped at Artacoana, a conspiracy is said to 

 have been discovered against his life. The informer was a boy of 

 infamous character, and the persons accused were officers, though not 

 of exalted rank. The informer said that he had first told his secret to 

 Philotas, the son of Parmeuio, who had daily access to Alexander, but 

 who had taken no notice of it for two days, at the end of which time, 

 through the means of another officer near Alexander's person, the 

 information was conveyed to the king. This threw strong suspicion 

 upon Philotas, who however was not implicated by either the informer 

 or any of the accused in their confessions. But Craterus, who had an 

 old jealousy against Philotas, on account of the favour the latter 

 enjoyed with the king, encouraged the suspicions of Alexander, who 

 recollected what Philotas had said at the time when he claimed 

 Jupiter Ammon for his father he pitied those who were doomed to 

 serve a man who fancied himself a god. Craterus had also for some 

 time previous bribed a courtezan kept by Philotas, who reported to him, 

 and through him to the king, all the boastful vapourings and expres- 

 sions of discontent uttered by Philotas iu his unguarded moments. In 

 abort, Alexander, according to Curtius, was induced to order P-hilotas 

 to be tortured, in consequence of the suggestions of Craterus, Hephaes- 

 tion, and others of the king's companions. Cceniur , who had married 

 the sister of Philotas, was one of the most violent against the accused, 

 for fear, it was supposed, of being thought an abettor of his brother- 

 in-law. The torture was administered by Craterus himself, and 

 Philotas, after enduring dreadful agonies, confessed, though in vague 

 terms, that he had conspired against the life of Alexander, and that 

 his father Parmeuio was cognisant of it. This being considered 

 sufficient evidence, Philotas was stoned to death, and Alexander 

 despatched a messenger to Media with secret orders to Oleander and 

 other officers who were serving under Parmeuio, to put their com- 

 mander to death. The unsuspecting veteran, while conversing with 

 his officers, was run through the body by Oleander. This is the 

 substance of the account of Curtius (vi. and vii.), a compiler by no 

 means unfavourably disposed towards Alexander. 



Arrian, after stating that he derived his knowledge of these occur- 

 rences from the work of Ptolemseus, briefly says that Philotas was 

 charged by Alexander, before the assembled Macedonians, with having 

 conspired against him : that Philotas at first succeeded in justifying 

 himself, but that afterwards fresh evidence was produced to criminate 

 him, and among other arguments urged against him on his trial, one 

 of the strongest was, that having received information of a plot against 

 the king's life, he did not reveal it, although he had access to 

 Alexander's person twice a day. The result of the trial was that 

 Philotas and his accomplices were run through with spears by the 

 Macedonians. Alexander despatched Polydamanthus to Media with 

 letters for Oleander, Sitalces, and Menides, three officers who were 

 serving under Parmenio. Parmenio was put to death, pursuant to 

 the orders of Alexander : " Whether it was," Arrian observes, "that 

 Alexander thought it unlikely that Parmenio should be ignorant of 

 the treachery of his ton Philotas, or that, even if he was ignorant of 

 it, it appeared to Alexander a dangerous thing to leave him alive after 

 the execution of his son, especially as Parmenio's authority was so 

 great with the troops, both Macedonian and auxiliary." (Arrian, b. iii.) 



BIOCJ. D1V. VOL. IV. 



Whatever may be thought of the trial and execution of Philotas, 

 and it appears to have been at least a summary and unsatisfactory 

 proceeding, the murder of Parmenio and the manner of it form one of 

 the darkest blots in Alexander's character. Parmenio was evidently 

 sacrificed in cold blood to what have been styled in after-ages ' reasons 

 of state.' He was seventy years of age ; he had lost two sons in the 

 campaigns of Alexander, and. Philotas was the last remaining to 

 him. Parmenio appears to have been a steady, brave, and prudent 

 commander. 



PARMIGIA'NO, FRANCESCO MAZZUOLI, sometimes called, iu 

 the diminutive form, PAHMIGIANINO, was born at Parma, January 11, 

 1503, and was the son of Filippo Mazzuoli, called dell' Erbette. He 

 studied painting under his uncles Michele and Filippo and his country- 

 man Marmitta. In his sixteenth year he finished a picture of the 

 Baptism of Christ, now in the palace of Count Sanvitati. Correggio's 

 visit to Parma 1521 made him acquainted with the style of that 

 master. In 1522 he painted, among other works, a Madonna with the 

 Child, and St. Jerome and St. Beruardin (in the convent Della Nun- 

 ziata), but which has suffered from time and the hands of unskilful 

 restorers. In hopes of giving Pope Clement VII. proofs of his skill, 

 ho went in 1523 to Rome, where the sight of the works of Raffaelle 

 made a deep impression on him. In his subsequent works he endea- 

 voured to combine with the grace of Raffaelle the contrasts of Michel 

 Angelo and the grace and harmony of Correggio ; whence ho was called 

 II Rafiaellino. On the taking of Rome, 1527, when he sustained 

 considerable loss, he went to Bologna, where the engraver Fantuzzi, 

 commonly called Antonio de Trento, stole several of his drawings, 

 which were afterwards found in the collection of the Earl of Arundel, 

 and brought back to Italy by Count Zanetti, who published them in 

 1749, admirably cut on wood and printed in colours. 



Among the finest works executed by Parmigiano in Bologna were 

 St. Rochus, painted for the church of St. Petronius, the Madonna della 

 Rosa, now in the Dresden Gallery, which he had changed from a 

 Venus to a Madonna, and the St. Margaret. He afterwards returned 

 to his own country, where he painted the Cupid fashioning his bow, 

 with two infants at his feet, one laughing, and the other crying, of 

 which there are numerous repetitious ; and began to adorn with 

 several paintings the newly built church Della Stecoata. But his 

 health being greatly weakened, he was unable to work, and the 

 directors of the building threw him into prison, as he had received a 

 sum of money in advance. They indeed set him at liberty on his 

 promise to complete the work ; but indignant at this treatment, he fled 

 to Casal Maggiore, where he died August 24, 1540, iu his thirty-seventh 

 year. His works, especially his easel pieces, are very scarce. The 

 predominant features of his style are elegance of form, grace of counte- 

 nance, contrast in the attitudes, perfect knowledge of the chiaroscuro, 

 and the charm of colour. But his figures are often characterised by 

 excessive slenderness rather than real elegance of form, and his grace 

 sometimes degenerates into affectation and his contrasts into extra- 

 vagance. Parmigiano was celebrated for the care and freedom with 

 which he designed, and for those bold strokes of the pencil which 

 Albano calls divine. There are few altar-pieces by him : the most 

 valued is that of St. Margaret in Bologna, a composition rich in figures, 

 which was studied by the Caracci, and which Guido even preferred to 

 the St. Cecilia of Raflaelle. In the National Gallery is a large painting 

 (114 feet by 5 feet) of the vision of St. Jerome, painted in 1527 for the 

 church of San Salvatore di Lauro at Citta di Castello. 



The etchings of Parmigiano are universally known as models of 

 taste, delicacy, and freedom. He has been erroneously considered as 

 the inventor of the art of etching, which was practised by Albert 

 Diirer before bin; but he was the first who introduced it into 

 Italy. 



PARNELL, THOMAS, was born in Dublin iu 1679. He entered 

 Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of 13, and became Master of Arts 

 in 1700. In the same year, though under the canonical age, he was 

 ordained a deacon, a dispensation having been granted by the Bishop 

 of Derry. About three years afterwards he took priest's orders, and 

 in 1705 received the archdeaconry of Clogher from Dr. Ashe, the 

 bishop of the diocese. Nearly at the same time he married Mrs. Anne 

 Miuchin, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. Parnell was on 

 a familiar footing with the leading wits of the time of Queen Anne. 

 On the ejection of the Whigs, towards the close of her reign, he 

 abandoned that party, to which he had been previously attached, and 

 was cordially welcomed as an adherent by the Oxford administration. 

 His hopes of preferment from this quarter however were disappointed 

 by the dismissal of the Tories from office on the death of the queen. 

 Thereafter he is represented to have fallen into intemperate habits, 

 occasioned, it is said, chiefly by the untimely death of one of his sons, 

 or the loss of his wife, who died in 1712. On the recommendation of 

 Swift, he obtained a prebend from Archbishop Kiug in 1713 ; and iu 

 May 1716, was presented to the vicarage of Finglass. He died at 

 Chester, on his way to Ireland, in July 1717, in the thirty-eighth year 

 of his age. A selected edition of his poems was published by Popo 

 soon after his death, and dedicated to the Earl of Oxford. A volume, 

 said to contain his posthumous works, the authenticity of which is 

 doubtful, appeared in Dublin hi 1758. As a poet, Paruell is prin- 

 cipally remarkable for the smoothness and easo of his versification, 

 and the elegance and purity of his sentiments. The pieces on which 



2 x 



