P H L 
P H L 
268 
as is evident from his mentioning the confuls of that year. 
He wrote feveral works of great erudition, of which we 
have nothing left but fragments. Among thefe was a 
Hiftory of the Olympiads. A Treatife of Long-lived 
Perfons, and another of Wonderful Things; the (hort 
and broken remains of which Xylander tranflated into 
Latin, and publilhed at Bafil in i 568, with the Greek and 
with notes. Meurfius publilhed a new edition of them 
with his notes at Leyden, in 1622; but the lateft is that 
ofFranzius, 1775. The titles of part of the reft of Phle¬ 
gon’s writings are preferved by Suidas. It is fuppofed 
that the Hiftory of Adrian, publilhed under Phlegon’s 
name, was written by Adrian himfelf, from this paifage 
of Spartianus : “ Adrian thirfted fo much after fame (fays 
he), that he gave the books of his own life, drawn up by 
himfelf, to his freedmen, commanding them to publilh 
thofe books under their own names j for we are told that 
Adrian wrote Phlegon’s books.” 
Phlegon’s name has been more familiar among the 
moderns, and his fragments have had a greater degree of 
regard paid to them than perhaps they deferve, merely 
becaufe lie has been fuppofed to fpeak of the darknefs 
which prevailed during our Lord’s palTion. The book in 
which the words are contained is loft; but Eufebius has 
preferved them in his Chronicon. They are thefe: “ In 
the 4th year of the 202d Olympiad, there was a greater 
and more remarkable eclipfe of the fun than any that had 
ever happened before : for at the lixth hour the day was 
fo turned into the darknefs of night, that the very liars in 
the firmament were vilible; and there was an earthquake 
in Bithynia which threw down many houfes in the city of 
Nicaea.” Eufebius thinks that thefe words of Phlegon 
related to the prodigies which accompanied Chrift’s cruci¬ 
fixion ; and many other fathers of the church have thought 
the fame : but this opinion is liable to many difficulties ; 
for no man had ever a ftronger defire than Phlegon to 
compile marvellous events, and to obferve the fuperna- 
tural circumftances in them. How was it then poffible 
that a man of this turn of mind fliould not have taken 
notice of the moll furprifing circumftances in the eclipfe 
■which it is fuppofed he hints at, viz. its happening on the 
day when the moon was at the full ? Had Phlegon done 
this, Eufebius would not have omitted it. And hence it 
became a matter of controverfy, fome time ago, whether 
Phlegon really fpoke of the darknefs at the time of our 
Lord’s palTion; and many ciiffertations were written on 
both fides of the queftion. This difpute was occafioned 
by the above paifage from Phlegon being omitted in an 
edition of Clarke’s Boyle’s Ledtures, publilhed after his 
death, at the inftance of Sykes, who had fuggelted to 
Clarke, that an undue ftrefs had been laid upon it. 
Whifton, who informs us of this affair, expreffes great 
difpleafure againft Sykes, and calls “ the fuggeltion 
groundlefs.” Upon this, Sykes publilhed “ A Differtation 
on the Eclipfe mentioned by Phlegon ; or, an Inquiry 
whether that Eclipfe had any relation to the Darknefs 
which happened at our Saviour's Palfion ; 1732,” 8vo. 
Sykes concludes it to be moll probable that Phlegon had 
in view a natural eclipfe which happened November 24, 
in the firft year of the 2oad Olympiad, and not in the 
fourth year of the Olympiad, in which Clirilt was cruci¬ 
fied. Many pieces were written againft him, and to fome 
l.e replied ; but perhaps it is a controverfy which concerns 
the learned world merely, fince the caufe of religion is 
but- little affedted by it. 
PHLE'GON, in mythology, one of the horfes of the 
Sun. 
PHLEGON'TIS,/. in natural hiftory, a precious Hone 
of a flame colour. 
PHLEGO'SIS,/. [Greek.] An inflammation. 
PHLEGRyE'I CAM'PI, or Burnt Fields, in ancient 
geography, a diltridt of Campania, or Campagna, in Italy, 
of which the ancient mythologifts have given very pom¬ 
pous defcriptions. This, they fay, was the fcene of the 
combats between the giants and the gods, and of the 
vidlory over them gained by Jupiter. The territory thus 
denominated appears to have experienced in a great de¬ 
gree the deftructive effedts of fubterranean fires. Accord¬ 
ingly we here find Vefuvius, the Solfatara Hill fmoking, 
as the poets have pretended, from the effedts of Jupiter’s 
thunder; the Monte Nuovo, which was fuddenly thrown 
up from the bowels of the earth on the day of St. Mi¬ 
chael’s feaft, in.the year 1538, as if the fons of Titan had 
intended to renew the war; the Monte Barbara, formerly 
Mons Gaurus, the favourite of Bacchus, the grotto of 
the Curmean Sibyl, the noxious and gloomy lakes of 
Avernus and Acheron, the green bowers of Elyfium, 
&c. See. It is not improbable that thefe objedls terrified 
the Greeks, in their firft voyages to this coaft; and that 
they were afterwards embellifhed and exaggerated by the 
fancy and fidlion of the poets. It remained for the geo¬ 
grapher and natural hiftorian to develope the fadts which 
had been thus difguifed by the poets. 
PHLEGY'AS, a fon of Mars, king of the Lapitlue in 
Theffaly. He was father of Ixion and Coronis, to whom 
Apollo offered violence. When the father heard that his 
daughter had been fo wantonly abufed, he marched an 
army againft Delphi, and reduced the temple of the god 
to allies. This was highly refented : Apollo killed Plile- 
gyas, and placed him in hell, where a huge Hone hangs 
over his head, and keeps him in continual alarms, by its 
appearance of falling every moment. Ovid's Met. v. 87. 
PHLEME, f. [from phlebotomy.'] A fleam, fo it is com¬ 
monly written ; an inftrument which is ufed in bleeding 
of horfes. See Fleam. 
PHLE'UM,/. [tpAEov or tpfaa; of Theophraftus. Phleos 
of Pliny.] Cat’s-tail Grass ; in botany, a genus of the 
clafs triandria, order digynia, natural order of gramina, 
or graffes. Generic charadlers—Calyx: glume one- 
flowered, two-valved, oblong, linear, compreffed, gaping 
with two cufps at top : valves ftraight, concave, compref¬ 
fed, embracing, equal, truncated, mucronated at the top of 
the keel. Corolla: two valved, Ihorter than the calyx; 
outer valve embracing the inner, which is fmaller. Nec¬ 
tary two-leaved ; leaflets ovate,concave, acute. Stamina: 
filaments three, capillary, longer than the calyx. Antherac 
oblong, forked. Pillillum: germen roundilh, llyles two, 
capillary, reflex; ftigmas feathered. Pericarpium : none ; 
the calyx and corolla inclofing the feed. Seed Angle, 
roundilh.— EJfential Character. Calyx two-valved, fertile-, 
linear, truncated, with a two-cufped tip; corolla in- 
clofed. 
Much difference of opinion has exifted among bota- 
nifts, refpefling the limits between this genus and Pha- 
laris, chiefly on account of the abrupt inner margin of 
the calyx-valves, attributed to Phleum by Linnaeus. 
We have followed the arrangement of Mr.Profeffor Mar- 
tyn. See, therefore, the article Phalaris ; alfo Alope- 
curus and Cynosurus. In the prefent genus, we have 
feven fpecies. 
1. Phleum pratenfe, or meadow cat’s-tail grafs: fpike 
cylindric; calyx ciliate, awned ; culm ereft. Root pe¬ 
rennial. Culms from one foot to two or three feet in 
height in moift meadows, but in dry foils much lower, 
upright, round, and fmooth. Leaves lanceolate, pointed, 
rough on the upper furface and along the nerve: fheath 
ftreaked, fmooth. Spike regularly cylindric, and blunt 
at the top, fometimes five or fix inches long, but ufually, 
in its wild (late, much fhorter: at firft fight it bears fome 
refemblance to that of fox-tail grafs; but on examination 
it will be found very different in form, colour, &c. It is 
alfo rough, whereas that is fmooth ; and the two horns at 
the top of the truncate calyx betray it immediately. The 
flowers are very clofe fet on the lpike. Peduncles very 
{hort, fomewhat branched: pedicels fcarcely perceptible, 
confluent at the bafe, two flowered. Valves of the calyx 
with briftle - bearing dots, three - nerved, compreffed, 
cufped; the keel fringed with white fpreading flex- 
uofe bridles, alternately longer and Ihorter, the. upper 
ones forked; outer valve of the corolla five-nerved, naked, 
3 fharpifti, 
