416 



PRISCIAN 



PRISONERS OF WAR 



qualities to be palatable to the Knglish taste. 

 He survives mainly by his purely playful efforts, 

 his lyrics and his epigrams, not a few of which 

 are unsurpassable. In the kind of piece known 

 to the French its r,-r.i i/'occation he is unrivalled, 

 and his beautiful stanzas to A Child of Quality 

 have been as fortunate as Gray's Long Story in 

 setting the tone to a host of versifiers. In 1740, 

 long after his death, two volumes were published, 

 one containing alleged Memoirs, in whicli there is 

 little of his, and the other a number of posthumous 

 verses, among which are some of his liest. These 

 are included in Kvans's two volume edition of 1779. 

 Thackeray wrote admirably of Prior in his Knglish 

 Humourists ( 1853). See his Selected Poems, edited 

 by the writer of this notice (Parchment Library, 

 1889) ; an article by Mr G. A. Aitken in the Coil- 

 temporary Review for May 1890; and the edition 

 of Prior's works by 11. Brimley Johnson (2 vols. 

 1892). 



Priscian (I.at. Prucianus), surnamed ('.:< u:i 

 ENSis, born or educated in Ca-sarea, is in |M>int 

 of reputation the first of Latin grammarians ; his 

 treatise was in universal use as a text-book during 

 the middle ages. Priscian flourished in the begin- 

 ning of the 6th century : Paulus Diacomis calls him 

 a contemporary of Cassiodorus (468-562 A.D. ). He 

 taught Latin at Constantinople, and enjoyed a 

 government salary. The work whicli has preserved 

 his name is his UMMMHfortOrMH lininiinitticorum 

 Libri XVIII, The first sixteen books treat of the 

 different parts of speech ; the remaining two, of 

 syntax. The work shows great learning and good 

 sense, and contains quotations from many Greek 

 and Latin authors no longer extant. Priscian al-o 

 wrote six smaller grammatical treatises, and two 

 hexameter poems of the didactic sort, I >< Laude 

 liii/ifrattiru Anattasii and a free translation of the 

 Periegesis of Dionysius. The liest edition of the 

 grammatical works is that by Hertz and Keil in 

 Keil's Grammatici Latini, vols. ii. and iii. ( 1855-60 ) ; 

 of the poems, by Bahrens, in Poetce Latini Minores, 

 vol. v. (1883). 



Priscilli.-m. the chief propagator of the doc- 

 trines professed by the sect known from bU name 

 as Priscillianists. They spread widely in Spain 

 during the last third of the 4th century, and 

 lingered there till the middle of the 5th century. 

 The first seed of their doctrines is said to have lieen 

 carried into Spain by a Mcmphian named Marcus, 

 whose earliest disciples were Agape, a Spanish 

 lady, and Hclpidius, a rhetorician. Priscillian 

 was a man of noble birth, pious and well educate,! ; 

 ami his eloquence and nobility of character soon 

 gathered round him a group of devoted follower, 

 including two bishops, Install tins and Salviamis. 

 From tlicir hands he received episcopal ordina- 

 tion, and he established his see at Avila (Abila). 

 Hyginus, bishop of Cordova, was the first to take 

 alarm, but his measures were so gentle that he himself 

 was covered with reproaches by the ultra orthodox 

 ami fanatical. Priscillian's most determined 

 enemies were Idacius, bishop of F.merita ( Mcrida), 

 and IthaciiiH, bishop of Sossiiba. He was con- 

 demned and excommunicated at the synod of Sara- 

 gossa (381 ), with three others of the leaders of I lie 

 party. They next went to Rome to clear them- 

 selves before the pope, but were denied audience, 

 and at Milan on the return journey they met as 

 little sympathy from Ambrose. Under the vacil- 

 lating rule of Gratian. however, they prospered, 

 but their hopes wcic dashed to the ground by the 

 usurpation of Clemens Maximus. From the judg- 

 ment of the synod of Bordeaux (384) Priscilliati 

 appealed like Paul to Cresar, and was at length 

 summoned to appear at Treve*. Martin of Tours 

 was in favour of tolerant measures, but after his 



departure the fanatical party prevailed, nnd 1'rUcil 

 lian, with others of the party, win- c-nnileniMed and 

 put to death the firM who suffered death for heresy 

 (385). Many I'liscillianists recanted after the 

 synod of Toledo (400), and soon after that of -117 they 

 disappear altogether. Their doctrines contained 

 Manich.-can and Gnostic elements, strange co-mical 

 speculations based on primitiveduiilism, t he dc M-trine 

 of emanations and astrological fatalism. They 

 practised rigid asceticism, ami eschewed marriage 

 and the use of animal food. One damning blot on 

 their morals was that absolute veracity was only 

 obligatory between themselves. (Inner i h 

 still were'mode against their morality ; but it should 

 l>e remembered that the only accounts we have art 1 

 those of bitter enemies, and their principles, origin- 

 ally olwcure enough, have Ix-en made darker by a 

 cloud of calumny. ' If the I'riscillianists violated 

 the laws of nature," says Gildion, 'it was not by 

 the licentiousness but by the severity of their lives.' 



See Hansel's Onmtic Hererir* and Neander's C'li urrh Hil- 

 lary ; also Mandeniach'g Gnekiekte (it* 1'ritcillianitmu* 

 ( Treves, 1851 ). Sehepps claims to have dineovrivd Miineof 

 his writings; these he edited in vol. xviii. of the ' 

 .^rifitvritin Kcctftifuticomm Lattiwrum (Vienna. 18X8). 



Prism, in Geometry, a solid figure which can 

 be most easily conceived of if we imagine a number 

 of plane figures (triangles, quadrilaterals, \c. ) 

 exactly similar in form and si/.e to In- cut out of 

 paper or any thin plate, and piled one above the 

 other, and then the whole pile to lieconie one body. 

 It will thus be seen that the top and liotiom ot th< 

 prism are similar, equal, and parallel to each other, 

 and that the sides are plane figures, rectangular if 

 the prism be ' right ' (i.e. if in the above illustration 

 the pile of plane figures be built up perpendicularly ), 

 and rhomhoidal if the prism be 'oblique' (i.e. if tl e 

 pile slope to one side) ; but under all circumstance. 

 the sides of a prism must lie parallelograms. Tl e 

 top and bottom faces may be either triangle*,, 

 squares, parallelograms, or quadrilaterals of an 

 sort, or figures of five, six, seven. \c. sides, provide I 

 only iKith are alike; and the number of sides i i 

 the plane figure which forms the top or liottom > '. 

 course determines the number of faces of tin 1 prism : 

 thus, in a triangular prism, there are live face- 

 in all (three sides nml two ends); in a quadrangular 

 pi ism, six faces ( four sides and two ends ),&<. It two 

 prisms, one being ' right,' and the other 'oblique.' 

 nave their bases of equal area, and t>e of the same 

 vertical height, their solid content is the same, and 

 is found by multiplying the area of the base by the 

 vertical height. The parallelopiped is a quad- 

 rangular prism, and the cube is a particular case of 

 the parallelopiped. 



PIIISM, in Optics, is a triangular prism of glass 

 or other transparent sulwtance, its two ends being 

 i-.,,..celes triangles, and having most frequently a 

 very acute vertical angle, which gives the prism 

 the appearance of a long wedge. The prism is a 

 most important instrument in experiments on the 

 refraction of light, and, in the hands of the most 

 eminent optical philosophers, has l>een the means 

 of largely adding to the science of optics. See 

 OPTICS, REFRACTION, SPKCTIM M. 



Prisoners of War are those who are cap- 

 tured from the enemy during naval or military 

 operations. By the laws or recognised principles of 

 war, (he entire people of a vanquished town, state, 

 or nation lieconie the absolute property of the 

 \ ii-tors. In ancient times the treatment of prisoners 

 of war was very severe. In the Greek wars it was 

 no uncommon thing to put the whole adult male 

 population of a conquered state to the sword, while 

 the women and children were enslaved. Although 

 the putting to death of prisoners became less fre- 

 quent, they and their families were commonly 

 reduced to slavery to as recent a period as the 13th 



