PELLICO 



0033 



PELORU8 JACK 



Pellico, SILVIO (I78S-1864). 



I pi 

 II MM IM//O 



rieilinoiit. .Illlie -I (788 I: 



pet \\hicli WAN Htlp 



It* liberal opinions, he a 



n with the Car- 

 bonari, was 

 arrested on 



.ui,| i' 



lenteneed to 

 death, hut 

 the sentence 

 was com- 



mnted to 15 



years' im- 

 prisonment. 

 He was re- 

 leased under 

 the amnesty 



'. and wrote :i simple nan t 

 tive, Le Mie Priui.-ni, ls.'{2, the 

 publication of which caused some- 

 thing of a sensation. It wa< trans 

 lated into English by T. Roscoo. 

 1833, as My Ten Years' Imprison 

 ment, and remains Pellico s best 

 known work. He wrote also a 

 number of plays and poems, the 

 most successful being his tragedy, 

 Francesca da Rimini, 1818, which 

 won the admiration of Lord Byron. 

 He died Jan. 31, 1854. See Life. 

 I Rinieri, 1899-1901. 



Pellitory (1'arietaria ramiflora) 

 Perennial herb of the natural order 

 Urticaceae. It is a native of Eu- 

 rope, N. Africa, and W. Asia. Krom 

 a short, woody rootstock, usually 

 between the masonry of old walls, 

 tounded reddish branching stems 

 arise, with alternate oval or lance 

 shaped, downy leaves. The tiny 

 greenish flowers are produced in 

 short sprays from the base of tho 

 leaf-stalk*. Under the influence of 

 sunshine, or slight irritation, the 

 anthers explode and little clouds of 

 pollen are seen. 



Pells (Ut. pellis, skin). Old 

 name for sheepskins. When 

 prepared, the records of the 

 exchequer were written thereon in 

 early days. The clerk of the pells 

 was an official who kept a record 

 of all monies entering and leaving 

 the exeh'i|M>T. The office was 

 abolished in 1834. See Exchequer. 



Pelopidas '.I. 3ft4 B.C.). Theban 

 general and statesman. In 385 B.C. 

 Epatninondas (7.1-.) caved his life 

 in a battle with the Spartans near 

 Mantine:!, and the two became de- 

 voted friends. It is said that Pelo 

 pidas, though a man of wealth, 

 adopted a .simple life in order that 

 Eparninondas. who was a poor man, 

 iiii-jht be able to associate with him 

 on eipml terms. 



By 3~'. I'elopi.la-s had liberated 

 his native city from its Spartan 

 garrison, and he took a leading part 



qncnt struggle with 

 !! <li<l invaluable service 

 uith ! 



!n. (jarful 



IM -\p<-i|iii. n - in tin- North flftsUOft 



I. t. I he tyrant of I 

 iml ul-. i u. nt .MI an embaMy to t !, 

 again came 



milii t uith Alexander of 

 . and after the victory of 

 .-ph.iliie IIP I hi* death while 



to kill 



hi" "|<l enemy with IIH iwn hand. 

 Peloponnese Oft 1 - SKSUS 



in.l ..I |v|op-j TheS. por- 

 tion (mod. Morea) of ancient Greece. 

 It is connected ith the N. portion 

 by the i-tlmmi of Corinth lt-i 

 original inhabitants were Pelas- 



who were overrun success- 

 ively by Achaeans and Dorians. 

 It was divided, mainly by its 

 mountain ranges, into seven states, 

 Aehaea, Corinthia, Elis, Argolis, 

 Messenia, Laconia, and Arcadia, 

 all of which had a seaboard except 

 Arcadia. See Greece; Sparta. 



Peloponnesian War. Name of 

 the war between Sparta and Athens, 

 in which nearly all the rest of 



Pellitory. Leal-stalk with flowers. 

 Inset, flowers surrounded by bracts 



Greece was involved. Lasting from 

 431-404 B.C., the ostensible cause 

 was the quarrel between Corcyra 

 and its mother city Corinth, in 

 which Athens supported the former 

 and Sparta the latter. In reality, it 

 was a struggle between the demo- 

 cratic lonians of Athens, the 

 islands, and the maritime towns, 

 and the oligarchical, continental 

 Dorians, represented by Sparta. 

 It may be divided into three 

 b. ( 1 ) The Archidamian War 

 >:;! \'2\). s<> named from Archi 

 dam MS, king of Sparta, who com 

 manded the forces against Athens. 

 In this the honours of war were 

 equally distributed. The chief in 

 cjili-nts were the plague at Athen*. 

 the capture of Spluu-teiiii. the 

 defeat of Cleon by Brasidas. and 

 the heroic resistance of the Platae- 

 ans under siege. The peace of 

 Nicias arranged a cessation of hos 

 tilities for 50 yean, but it only 



hutod five month*. (2) 421-412. 

 Thin period wan marked I 

 traiMfercnre of the seat of war to 



the i. -ult of win--!, wf the 

 duuutroiu ffiffilisHi ex|*-litiori. m- 



I tis' the .iriiliition of Alei- 



hiadcM. (3)TheD*celcanWar(412- 

 MO called from the oocu- 

 i of Decelea, 14 m. N 

 Athens, by the Spartans. 



The scene of interest lies 

 in the E*t. The exile of 

 Al il'iades caused him to ta 



:! of Athens, and 

 theki- int. rvenedon the 



wide of Sparta. The decisive \ 

 of Aegospotami enabled Lycander 

 to capture Athens in 405, with the 

 result that the " lonsi walU " were 

 destroyed, her navy burnt, an<l her 

 colonies lott. The effect was to 

 confer the temporary hegemony of 

 Greece upon Sparta. There is no 

 doubt that the importance of the 

 war has been exaggerated, owing 

 to the detailed account given by 

 Thucydides, and that it had little 

 effect upon the general history of 

 the world. See Greece: History. 



Pelops. In Greek legend, 

 the son of Tantalus, king of 

 Phrygia. Being expelled from his 

 native coun- 

 try, he mi- 

 grated to 

 Pisa, where 

 he became 

 king. He was 

 said to have 

 been killed by 

 his father, and 

 his llcsli put 

 before the 

 gods to eat at 

 a banquet. 

 Hermes, however, restored Pelops 

 to life. At Pisa he became one of the 

 suitors of Hippodamia, daughter of 

 King Oenomaus, the condition of 

 winning her being that he should 

 enter for a chariot race with her 

 father, in which unsuccessful com- 

 petitors were put to death. Pelops 

 won the race by bribing My nil us, 

 the king's charioteer, to remove 

 the lynch-pin from his master's 

 chariot wheel. When Myrtilus 

 subsequently claimed the reward 

 promised. Pelops threw him into 

 the sea. As he disappeared 

 .Myrtilus cursed Pelops and all his 

 house. This curse caused the suc- 

 cession of tragedies among the de- 

 scendants of Pelops, such as the 

 crimes of Atreus and the murder 

 of Agamemnon. 



Pelorus Jack. Local name be- 

 stowed on a grampus (q.v.) that 

 was in the habit for years of 

 .11 companying vessels through 

 l-'rem-h Pass, between Wellington 

 .in I Nelson, New Zealand. Travel- 

 ler* looked for it eagerly, aiul the 

 regarded it as a friendly 



IT 7 



Pelops, legendary 

 kin? ol Pisa 



Britiik iluttum 



