POLL-TAX POLYBIUS. 



615 



transacted by means ot writings drawn up with 

 various formalities, the wording, &c. of these, writ- 

 ings forms a subject of study, and various works 

 have been written on the chancery style, so called ; 

 and in all governments, the study of a diplomatic 

 style, and of the mode of transacting diplomatic 

 business, belongs to it. See Cours de Style Diploma- 

 tique (2 vols., Dresden, 1823). The knowledge of 

 parliamentary rules, the duties of committees, and 

 all the forms usual in the administration of public 

 business, fail under the head of political practice in 

 representative governments. 



POLL-TAX. See Tax. 



POLLUX. See Castor. 



POLLUX, JULIUS, was born in Egypt, in the lat- 

 ter part of the second century. He devoted him- 

 self early to letters, and settled at Athens, where he 

 read lectures on ethics and eloquence. He became 

 preceptor to the emperor Commodus, for whose use 

 he drew up the catalogue of Greek synonymes in 

 ten books, under the name of Onomasticon, the best 

 edition of which is that of Amsterdam (1706, folio), 

 by Wetstein. He died A. D. 238. 



POLNITZ, CHARLES Louis, baron von, born in 

 1692, early displayed marks of talent, and travelled 

 through Europe. Of his travels he gave an amus- 

 ing account in his Lettres et MSmoires (ostensibly at 

 Amsterdam, 1727). He was also the author of 

 L'Etat de Saxe sous Augusts III. (1734), and of 

 the well-known Saxe Galante ; the Histoire de la 

 Duchesse d'Hanovre (wife of George I.) is attributed 

 to him. After his death (1775), appeared his Me- 

 moires sur les Quatre derniers Souverains de la 

 Maison de Brandenbourg (1791). 



POLO, GILES (commonly called Gil Polo'} ; a 

 Spanish poet, born at Valencia in 1517. His incli- 

 nation for poetry led him to abandon the profession 

 of law, and his first works placed him among the 

 best Spanish poets of his time. His reputation was 

 established by his Diana Enamorata, a pastoral ro- 

 mance, partly in prose and partly in verse, intend- 

 ed as a continuation of the Diana of Montemayor. 

 In invention, Gil Polo is not inferior to his prede- 

 cessor, whom he surpasses in purity of style, and in 

 the harmony and brilliancy of his verse. He died 

 in 1572. Cervantes excepts the Diana of Gil Polo 

 from his list of works condemned to be burnt. 



POLO, MARCO, a celebrated traveller of the thir- 

 teenth century, was the son of Nicholas Polo, a 

 Venetian merchant, who, accompanied by his bro- 

 ther Matthew, had penetrated to the court of Kub- 

 lai, the great khan of the Tartars. This prince, 

 being highly entertained with their account of 

 Europe, made them his ambassadors to the pope ; 

 on which they travelled back to Rome, and, with 

 two missionaries, once more visited Tartary, accom- 

 panied by the young Marco, who became a great 

 favourite with the khan. Having acquired the diff- 

 erent dialects of Tartary, he was employed on vari- 

 ous embassies ; and, after a residence of seventeen 

 years, all the three Venetians returned to their own 

 country, in 1295, with immense wealth. Marco 

 afterwards served his country at sea against the 

 Genoese, and, being taken prisoner, remained many 

 years in confinement, the tedium of which he be- 

 guiled by composing the history of the travels of his 

 father and himself, under the title of Delle Mara- 

 viglie del Hondo da lui vedute, &c.,the first edition 

 of which appeared at Venice in 1496 (8vo). It 

 has been translated into various languages, the best 

 versions of which are one in Latin (Cologne, 1 671), 

 and another in French, published at the Hague in 

 1(575, in two volumes. Polo relates many incredi- 

 ble things, but the greater part of his narrative has 

 been verified by succeeding travellers, and it is 



thought that what he wrote from ins own know- 

 ledge is both curious and true. He not only gave 

 a better account of China than any previously af- 

 forded, but likewise furnished an account of Japan, 

 of several islands in the East Indies, of Madagascar, 

 and of the coast of Africa. He ultimately regained 

 his liberty ; but of his subsequent history nothing is 

 known. 



POLONAISE is a Polish national dance, which 

 has been imitated, but with much variation, by other 

 nations ; also the tune to which it is danced. 



The Polonaise, in music, is a movement of three 

 crotchets in a bar, characterized by having every 

 rhythmical caesura not on the first, but the last 

 crotchet of the bar. The Polonaise is generally 

 written in two strains, and its movement, though 

 majestic, is smooth and fluent. 



POLTAVA ; celebrated for the defeat of Charles 

 XII. See Pultawa. 



POLY^ENUS ; a Greek writer, who flourished 

 in the second century. He appears to have been 

 by birth a Macedonian, and is principally known as 

 the author of a work on military tactics entitled 

 Stratagemata. Isaac Casaubon published an edition 

 of it, which was .reprinted at Leyden in 1690, with 

 improvements. There is an English translation of 

 it by Shepherd (4to, 1793). 



POLYANDRIA (from Xuf, many, and , 

 a man) denotes the custom of one woman having 

 several husbands, a custom found with some un- 

 civilized tribes. For the meaning of the term in 

 botany, see Plants. 



POLYARCHY (from -raXt/j, many, and ^j, 

 government) is sometimes used to denote any form 

 of government in which many rule, whether it be 

 an aristocracy or a democracy, in contradistinction 

 to monarchy, in which one rules. 



POLYBIUS, a Greek historian, was born at 

 Megalopolis, in Arcadia, about 203 B. C. His 

 father, Lycortas, was one of the leaders of the 

 Achzean league, and the confidential friend of Philo- 

 poemen. Educated for arms and political life, he 

 was sent, at the age of twenty-four years, as a 

 member of an embassy to Ptolemy Epiphanes. 

 When the war between Perseus, king of Macedonia, 

 and the Romans, broke out, Polybius was sent to 

 the Roman consul Marcius, to inform him of the re- 

 solution of the Achaeans to join him with their 

 forces. He remained some time in the Roman 

 camp, and then returned with a commission from 

 Marcius, to oppose the demand made by the com- 

 mander Appius for more auxiliary troops to be sent 

 to Epirus. About this time, the design of the 

 Romans to make all the free states of Greece de- 

 pendent became evident, and Polybius took part in 

 all the measures for the preservation of their inde- 

 pendence. When, therefore, after the subjugation 

 of Perseus, the Romans used less disguise, Polybius 

 found himself among the 1000 hostages whom the 

 Achasans were obliged to deliver up to the Romans. 

 His learning, virtues, and talents soon gained him 

 the favour of some of the most distinguished sena- 

 tors, especially the two sons of PauTus ^Emilius. 

 The hostages were not dismissed until seventdpn 

 years had elapsed, when Polybius, who did not wish 

 to see again his degraded country, remained in Rome, 

 and entered into the service of Scipio ^Emilianus. 

 He accompanied him on his expedition to Africa, 

 and proved a very useful counsellor to him. When 

 the Achzeans became involved in a war with the 

 Romans, he hastened to the army of the consul 

 Mummius to mitigate the fate of his countrymen. 

 He was a witness of the destruction of Corinth, and 

 of the change of Achaia into a Roman province. 

 Amid these melancholy occurrences he preserved 



