measure reproduced. In some cases it has even been possible | the imitation in stucco of the appearance of a wall veneered with coloured marbles. No wall paintings exist, but there are often to recover the original arrangement of the garden beds, and to fine floor mosaics. To this belong a number of private houses replant them accordingly, thus giving an appropriate frame-(e.g. the House of the Faun), and the colonnade round the forum; work to the statues, &c. with which the gardens were decorated, and which have been found in situ. The same character of elaborate decoration, guided almost uniformly by good taste and artistic feeling, is displayed in the mosaic pavements, which in all but the humbler class of houses frequently form the ornament of their floors. One of these, in the House of the Faun, well known as the battle of Alexander, presents us with the most striking specimen of artistic composition that has been preserved to us from antiquity. The architecture of Pompeii must be regarded as presenting in general a transitional character from the pure Greek style to that of the Roman Empire. The temples (as already observed) have always the Roman peculiarity of being raised on a podium of considerable elevation; and the same characteristic is found in most of the other public buildings. All the three orders of Greek architecture-the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian-are found freely employed in the various edifices of the city, but rarely in strict accordance with the rules of art in their proportions and details; while the private houses naturally exhibit still more deviation and irregularity. In many of these indeed we find varieties in the ornamentation, and even in such leading features as the capitals of the columns, which remind one rather of the vagaries of medieval architecture than of the strict rules of Vitruvius or the regularity of Greek edifices. One practice which is especially prevalent, so as to strike every casual visitor, and dates from the early years of the empire, is that of filling up the flutings of the columns for about one-third of their height with a thick coat of stucco, so as to give them the appearance of being smooth columns without flutings below, and only fluted above. The unpleasing effect of this anomalous arrangement is greatly aggravated by the lower part of each column being almost always coloured with red or yellow ochre, so as to render the contrast between the two portions still stronger. The architecture of Pompeii suffers also from the inferior quality of the materials generally employed. No good building stone was at hand; and the public as well as private edifices were constructed either of volcanic tufa, or lava, or Sarno limestone, or brick (the latter only used for the corners of walls). In the private houses even the columns are mostly of brick, covered merely with a coat of stucco. In a few instances only do we find them making use of a whitish limestone wrongly called travertine, which, though inferior to the similar material so largely employed at Rome, was better adapted than the ordinary tufa for purposes where great solidity was required. The portion of the portico surrounding the forum which was in the process of rebuilding at the time when the city was destroyed was constructed of this material, while the earlier portions, as well as the principal temples that adjoined it, were composed in the ordinary manner of volcanic tufa. Marble appears to have been scarce, and was sparingly employed. In some instances where it had been freely introduced, as in the great theatre, it would seem that the slabs must have been removed at a period subsequent to the entombment of the city. These materials are used in several different styles of construction belonging to the six different periods which Mau traces in the architectural history of Pompeii. 1. That of the Doric temple in the Foro Triangolare (6th century B.C.) and an old column built into a house in Region vi.. Insula 5: also of the older parts of the city walls-date uncertain (Sarno limestone and grey tufa). 2. That of the limestone atriums (outer walls of the houses of ashlar-work of Sarno limestone, inner walls with framework of limestone blocks, filled in with small pieces of limestone). Date, before 200 B.C. 3. Grey tufa period; ashlar masonry of tufa, coated with fine white stucco; rubble work of lava. The artistic character is still Greek. and the period coincides with the first (incrustation) style of mura! decoration, which (probably originating in Alexandria) aimed at The paintings of the house of the Vettii are perhaps the best-preserved in Pompeii, and extremely fine in conception and execution, especially the scenes in which Cupids take part. the basilica, the temples of Apollo and Jupiter, the large theatre An interesting farm-house (few examples have been so far discovered in Italy) is that at Boscoreale excavated in 1893-1894. which contained the treasure of one hundred and three silver vases now at the Louvre. The villa of P. Fannius Synhistor, not far off, was excavated in 1900; it contained fine wall paintings, which, despite their importance, were allowed to be exported, and sold by auction in Paris (some now in the Louvre). (See F. Barnabei, La Villa pompeiana di P. Fannio Sinistore; Rome, 1901.) The road leading from the Porta Ercolanese towards Herculaneum is bordered on both sides for a considerable extent by rows of tombs, as was the case with all the great roads leading into Rome, and in deed in all large Roman towns. These tombs are in many instances monuments of considerable pretension, and of a highly ornamental character, and naturally present in the highest degree the peculiar advantage common to all that remains of Pompeii, in their perfect preservation. Hardly any scene even in this extraordinary city is more striking than the coup d'ail of this long street of tombs, preserving uninjured the records of successive generations eighteen centuries ago. Unfortunately the names are all otherwise unknown; but we learn from the inscriptions that they are for the most part those of local magistrates and municipal dignitaries of Pompeii. Most of them belong to the early empire. There appears to have been in the same quarter a considerable suburb, outside the gate, extending on each side of the road towards Herculaneum, apparently much resembling those which are now found throughout almost the whole distance from thence to Naples. It was known by the name of Pagus Augustus Felix Suburbanus. Other suburbs were situated at the harbour and at the saltworks (salinae). No manuscripts have been discovered in Pompeii. Inscriptions have naturally been found in considerable numbers, and we are indebted to them for much information concerning the municipal arrangements of the town, as well as the construction of various edifices and other public works. The most interesting of these are such as are written in the Oscan dialect, which appears to have continued in official use down to the time when the Roman colony was introduced by Sulla. From that time the Latin language was certainly the only one officially employed, though Oscan may have still been spoken by a portion at least of the population. Still more curious, and almost peculiar to Pompeii, are the numerous writings painted upon the walls, which have generally a semipublic character, such as recommendations of candidates for municipal offices, advertisements, &c., and the scratched inscriptions (graffiti), which are generally the mere expression of individual impulse and feeling, frequently amatory, and not uncommonly conveyed in rude and imperfect verses. In one house also a whole box was found filled with written tablets-diptychs and triptychs -containing the record of the accounts of a banker named L. Caecilius Jucundus. See A. Mau, Pompeii: its Life and Art (trans. by F. W. Kelsey, 2nd ed., New York and London, 1902; 2nd revised edition of the German original, Pompeii in Leben und Kunst, Leipzig, 1908), the best general account written by the greatest authority on the subject, to which our description owes much, with full references to other sources of information; and, for later excavations, Notizie degli Scavi and Romische Mitteilungen (in the latter, articles by Mau), passim. For the inscriptions on the tablets and on the walls, Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, vol. iv. (ed. Zangemeister and Mau). Recent works on the Pompeian frescoes are those of Berger, in Die Maltechnik des Allerthums, and A. P. Laurie, Greek and Roman Methods of Painting (1910). (E. H. B.; T. As.) Oscan Inscriptions.-The surviving inscriptions which can be dated, mainly by the gradual changes in their alphabet, are of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., some certainly belonging to the Gracchan period. The oldest of the Latin inscriptions are C.I.L. x. 794, the record of the building of colonnades in the forum by the " quaestor" V. Popidius, and two or three election placards (C.I.L. iv. 29, 30, 36) of one R. Caecilius, a candidate for the same office. It cannot be an accident that the alphabet of these inscriptions belongs distinctly to Sullan or pre-Sullan times, while no such officer as a quaestor appears in any later documents (e.g. in C.I.L. x. 844, it is the duoviri who build the small theatre), but does appear in the Oscan inscriptions. Hence it has been inferred that these oldest Latin inscriptions are also older than Sulla's colony; if so, Latin must have been in use, and in fairly common use (if the programmata were to be of any service), in Pompeii at that date. On the other hand, the good condition of many of the painted Oscan inscriptions at the times when they were first uncovered (1797 onwards) and their subsequent decay and the number of Oscan graffiti appear to make it probable that at the Christian era Oscan was still spoken in the town. The two languages undoubtedly existed side by side during the last century B.C., Latin being alone recognized officially and in society, while Oscan was preserved mainly by intercourse with the country folk who frequented the market. Thus beside many Latin programmata later than those just mentioned we have similar inscriptions in Oscan, addressed to Oscan-speaking voters, where IIIIner. obviously relates to the quattuorvirate, a title characteristic of the Sullan and triumviral colonies. An interesting stone containing nine cavities for measures of capacity found in Pompeii and now preserved in the Naples Museum with Oscan inscriptions erased in antiquity shows that the Oscan system of measurement was modified so as to correspond more closely with the Roman, about 14 B.C., by the duoviri, who record their work in a Latin inscription (C.I.L. x. 793; for the Oscan see Ital. Dial. p. 67). See further OSCA LINGUA, and R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects, pp. 54 sqq.; Nissen, Pompeianische Studien; J. Beloch, Campanien, 2nd ed. (R. S. C.) POMPEY, the common English form of Pompeius, the name of a Roman plebeian family. 1. GNAEUS POMPEIUS (106-48 B.C.), the triumvir, the first of his family to assume the surname MAGNUS, was born on the 30th of September in the same year as Cicero. When only seventeen he fought together with his father in the Social War. He, took the side of Sulla against Marius and Cinna, but for time, in consequence of the success of the Marians, he kept in the background. On the return of Sulla from the Mithradatic War Pompey joined him with an army of three legions, which he had raised in Picenum. Thús early in life he connected himself with the cause of the aristocracy, and a decisive victory which he won in 83 over the Marian armies gained for him from Sulla the title of Imperator. He followed up his successes in Italy by defeating the Marians in Sicily and Africa, and on his return to Rome in 81, though he was still merely an eques and. not legally qualified to celebrate a triumph, he was allowed by general consent to enjoy this distinction, while Sulla greeted him with the surname of Magnus, a title he always retained and handed down to his sons. Latterly, his relations with Sulla were somewhat strained, but after his death he resisted the attempt of the consul M. Aemilius Lepidus to repeal the constitution. In conjunction with A. Lutatius Catulus, the other consul, he defeated Lepidus when he tried to march upon Rome, and drove him out of Italy (77). With some fears and misgivings the senate permitted him to retain the command of his victorious army, and decided on sending him to Spain, where the Marian party, under Sertorius, was still formidable. Pompey was fighting in Spain from 76 to 71, and though at first he met with serious reverses he was ultimately successful. After Sertorius had fallen a victim to assassination, Pompey easily defeated his successor Perperna and put an end to the war. In 71 he won fresh glory by finally crushing the slave insurrection of Spartacus. That same year, amid great popular enthusiasm, but without the hearty concurrence of the senate, whom he had alarmed by talking of restoring the dreaded power of the tribunes, he was elected with M. Licinius Crassus to the consulship, and entered Rome in triumph (December 31) for his Spanish victories. He was legally ineligible for the consulship, having held none of the lower offices of state and being under age. The following year saw the work of Sulla undone; the tribunate was restored, and the administration of justice was no longer left exclusively to the senate, but was to be shared by it with the wealthier portion of the middle class, the equites (q.v.) and the tribuni aerarii. The change was really necessary, as the provincials could never get justice from a court composed of senators, and it was carried into effect by Pompey with Caesar's aid. Pompey rose still higher in popularity, and on the motion of the tribune Aulus Gabinius in 67 he was entrusted with an extraordinary command over the greater part of the empire, specially for the extermination of piracy in the Mediterranean, by which the corn supplies of Rome were seriously endangered, while the high prices of provisions caused great distress. He was completely successful; the price of corn fell immediately on his appointment, and in forty days the Mediterranean was cleared of the pirates. Next year, on the proposal of the tribune Manilius, his powers were still further extended, the care of all the provinces in the East being put under his control for three years together with the conduct of the war against Mithradates VI., who had recovered from the defeats he had sustained from Lucullus and regained his dominions. Both Caesar and Cicero supported the tribune's proposal, which was easily carried in spite of the interested opposition of the senate and the aristocracy, several of whom held provinces which would now be practically under Pompey's command. The result of Pompey's operations was eminently satisfactory. The wild tribes of the Caucasus were cowed by the Roman arms, and Mithradates himself fled across the Black Sea to Panticapaeum (modern Kertch). In the years 64 and 63 Syria and Palestine were annexed to Rome's empire. After the capture of Jerusalem Pompey is said to have entered the Temple, and even the Holy of Holies. Asia and the East generally were left under the subjection of petty kings who were mere vassals of Rome. Several cities had been founded which became centres of Greek life and civilization. Pompey, now in his forty-fifth year, returned to Italy in 61 to Their history and political character is obscure; they were at any rate connected with the knights (see AERARIUM). celebrate the most magnificent triumph which Rome had ever witnessed, as the conqueror of Spain, Africa, and Asia (see A. Holm, Hist. of Greece, Eng. trans., vol. iv.). This triumph marked the turning-point of his career. As a soldier everything had gone well with him; as a politician he was a failure. He found a great change in public opinion, and the people indifferent to his achievements abroad. The optimates resented the extraordinary powers that had been conferred upon him; Lucullus and Crassus considered that they had been robbed by him of the honour of concluding the war against Mithradates. The senate refused to ratify the arrangements he made in Asia or to provide money and lands for distribution amongst his veterans. In these circumstances he drew closer to Caesar on his return from Spain, and became reconciled to Crassus. The result was the so-called first triumvirate (see ROME: History). The remainder of his life is inextricably interwoven with that of Caesar. He was married to Caesar's daughter Julia, and as yet the relations between the two had been friendly. On more than one occasion Caesar had supported Pompey's policy, which of late had been in a decidedly democratic direction. Pompey was now in fact ruler of the greater part of the empire, while Caesar had only the two provinces of Gaul. The control of the capital, the supreme command of the army in Italy and of the Mediterranean fleet, the governorship of the two Spains, the superintendence of the corn supplies, which were mainly drawn from Sicily and Africa, and on which the vast population of Rome was wholly dependent, were entirely in the hands of Pompey, who was gradually losing the confidence of all political parties in Rome. The senate and the aristocracy disliked and distrusted him, but they felt that, should things come to the worst, they might still find in him a champion of their cause. Hence the joint rule of Pompey and Caesar was not unwillingly accepted, and anything like a rupture between the two was greatly dreaded as the sure beginning of anarchy throughout the Roman world. With the deaths of Pompey's wife Julia (54) and of Crassus (53) the relations between him and Caesar became strained, and soon afterwards he drew closer to what we may call the old conservative party in the senate and aristocracy. The end was now near, and Pompey blundered into a false political position and an open quarrel with Caesar. In 50 the senate by a very large majority revoked the extraordinary powers conceded to Pompey and Caesar in Spain and Gaul respectively, and called upon them to disband their armies. Pompey's refusal to submit gave Caesar a good pretext for declaring war and marching at the head of his army into Italy. At the beginning of the contest the advantages were decidedly on the side of Pompey, but the superior political tact of his rival, combined with extraordinary promptitude and decision in following up his blows, soon turned the scale against him. Pompey's cause, with that of the senate and aristocracy, was finally ruined by his defeat in 48 in the neighbourhood of the Thessalian city Pharsalus. That same year he fled with the hope of finding a safe refuge in Egypt, but was treacherously murdered by one of his old centurions as he was landing. He was five times married, and three of his children survived himGnaeus, Sextus, and a daughter Pompeia. Pompey, though he had some great and good qualities, hardly deserved his surname of "the Great." He was certainly a very good soldier, and is said to have excelled in all athletic exercises, but he fell short of being a first-rate general. He won great successes in Spain and more especially in the East, but for these he was no doubt partly indebted to what others had already done. Of the gifts which make a good statesman he had really none. As plainly appeared in the last years of his life, he was too weak and irresolute to choose a side and stand by it. But to his credit be it said that in a corrupt time he never used his opportunities for plunder and extortion, and his domestic life was pure and simple. AUTHORITIES.-Ancient: Plutarch, Pompey: Dio Cassius: Appian; Velleius Paterculus; Caesar, De bello civili; Strabo xii., 555-560; Cicero, passim: Lucan, Pharsalia. Modern: Histories of Rome in general (see ROME: Ancient History, ad fin.); works noted under CARSAR and CICERO. Also G. Boissier, Cicero and His Friends (Eng. trans., A. D. Jones, 1897); J. L. Strachan-Davidson's Cicero (1894); Warde Fowler's Julius Caesar (1892); C. W. Oman, Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic (1902); notes in Tyrrell and Purser's Correspondence of Ciccro (see index in vii. 80). 2. GNAEUS POMPEIUS, surnamed Strabo (squint-eyed), Roman statesman, father of the triumvir. He was successively quaestor in Sardinia (103 B.C.), praetor (94), propractor in Sicily (93) and consul (89). He fought with success in the Social War, and was awarded a triumph for his services. Probably towards the end of the same year he brought forward the law (lex Pompeia de Gallia Transpadana), which conferred upon the inhabitants of that region the privileges granted to the Latin colonies. During the civil war between Marius and Sulla he seems to have shown no desire to attach himself definitely to either side. He certainly set out for Rome from the south of Italy (where he remained as proconsul) at the bidding of the aristocratic party, when the city was threatened by Marius and Cinna, but he displayed little energy, and the engagement which he fought before the Colline gate, although hotly contested, was indecisive. Soon afterwards he was killed by lightning (87). Although he possessed great military talents, Pompeius was the best-hated general of his time owing to his cruelty, avarice and perfidy. His body was dragged from the bier, while being conveyed to the funeral pile, and treated with the greatest indignity. See Plutarch, Pompey, 1; Appian. Bell. civ. i, 50, 52, 66-68, 80; Vell. Pat. ii. 21; Livy, Epil. 74-79; Florus iii. 18. 3. GNAEUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (c. 75-45 B.C.), the elder son of the triumvir. In 48 B.C. during the civil war he commanded his father's fleet in the Adriatic. After the battle of Pharsalus he set out for Africa with the remainder of the Pompeian party, but, meeting with little success, crossed over to Spain. Having been joined by his brother Sextus, he collected a considerable army, the numbers of which were increased by the Pompeians who fled from Africa after the battle of Thapsus (46). Caesar, who regarded him as a formidable opponent, set out against him in person. A battle took place at Munda on the 17th of March 45, in which the brothers were defeated. Gnaeus managed to make his escape after the engagement, but was soon (April 12) captured and put to death. He was generally unpopular owing to his cruelty and violent temper. See Pseudo-Oppius, Bellum hispaniense, 1-39; Lucan, Pharsalia, ix. 120; Dio Cassius xliii. 28-40. 4. SEXTUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (75-35 B.C.), the younger son of the triumvir. After his father's death he continued the struggle against the new rulers of the Roman Empire. From Cyprus, where he had taken refuge, he made his way to Africa, and after the defeat of the Pompeians at Thapsus (46) crossed over to Spain. After Caesar's victory at the battle of Munda (45), in which he took no actual part, he abandoned Corduba (Cordova), though for a time he held his ground in the south, and defeated Asinius Pollio, the governor of the province. In 43, the year of the triumvirate of Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, he was proscribed along with the murderers of Caesar, and, not daring to show himself in Italy, he put himself at the head of a fleet manned chiefly by slaves or proscribed persons, with which he made himself master of Sicily, and from thence ravaged the coasts of Italy. Rome was threatened with a famine, as the corn supplies from Egypt and Africa were cut off by his ships, and it was thought prudent to negotiate a peace with him at Misenum (39), which was to leave him in possession of Sicily, Sardinia and Achaea, provided he would allow Italy to be freely supplied with corn. But the arrangement could not be carried into effect, as Sextus renewed the war and gained some considerable successes at sea. However, in 36 his fleet was defeated and destroyed by Agrippa at Naulochus off the north coast of Sicily. After his defeat he fled to Mytilene, and from there to Asia Minor. In the attempt to make his way to Armenia he was taken prisoner by Antony's troops, and put to death at Miletus. Like his father, he was a brave soldier, but a man of little culture. See Dio Cassius, xlvi-xlix.; Appian, Bell. civ. iv. 84-117, v. 2-143; Vell. Pat. ii. 73-87; Plutarch, Antony; Livy, Epit. 123. 128, 129, 131; Cicero, Philippico, xiii., and many references in Letters to Atticus. POMPIGNAN, JEAN JACQUES LEFRANC, MARQUIS DE (17091784), French poet, was born on the 17th of August 1709, at Montauban, where his father was president of the cour des aides, and the son, who also followed the profession of the law, succeeded in 1745 to the same charge. The same year he was also appointed conseiller d'honneur of the parlement of Toulouse, but his courageous opposition to the abuses of the royal power, especially in the matter of taxation, brought down upon him so much vexation that he resigned his positions almost immediately, his marriage with a rich woman enabling him to devote himself to literature. His first play, Didon (1734), which owed much to Metastasio's opera on the same subject, gained a great success, and gave rise to expectations not fulfilled by the Adieux de Mars (1735) and some light operas that followed. His reputation was made by Poésies sacrées et philosophiques (1734), much mocked at by Voltaire who punned on the title: "Sacrés ils Lefranc's odes on profane subsont, car personne n'y touche." jects hardly reach the same level, with the exception of the ode on the death of J. B. Rousseau, which secured him entrance to the Academy (1760). On his reception he made an ill-considered oration violently attacking the Encyclopaedists, many of whom were in his audience and had given him their votes. Lefranc soon had reason to repent of his rashness, for the epigrams and stories circulated by those whom he had attacked made it impossible for him to remain in Paris, and he took refuge in his native town, where he spent the rest of his life occupied in making numerous translations from the classics, La Harpe, who is severe enough on Lefranc in his correspondence, does his abilities full justice in his Cours littéraire, and ranks him next to J. B. Rousseau among French lyric poets. With those of other 18th-century poets his works may be studied in the Petits poètes français (1838) of M. Prosper Poitevin. His Euvres complètes (4 vols.) were published in 1781, selections (2 vols.) in 1800, 1813, 1822. none of great merit. His brother, JEAN Georges Lefranc de Pompignan (17151790), was the archbishop of Vienne against whose defence of the faith Voltaire launched the good-natured mockery of Les Lettres d'un Quaker. Elected to the Estates General, he passed over to the Liberal side, and led the 149 members of the clergy who united with the third estate to form the National Assembly. He was one of its first presidents, and was minister of public worship when the civil constitution was forced upon the clergy. POMPONAZZI, PIETRO (PETRUS POMPONATIUS) (1462-1525), Italian philosopher, was born at Mantua on the 16th of September 1462, and died at Bologna on the 18th of May 1525. His education, begun at Mantua, was completed at Padua, where he became doctor of medicine in 1487. In 1488 he was elected extraordinary professor of philosophy at Padua, where he was a colleague of Achillini, the Averroist. From about 1495 to 1509 he occupied the chair of natural philosophy until the closing of the schools of Padua, when he took a professorship at Ferrara where he lectured on the De anima. In 1512 he was invited to Bologna where he remained till his death and where he produced all his important works. The predominance of medical science at Padua had cramped his energies, but at Ferrara, and even more at Bologna, the study of psychology and theological speculation were more important. In 1516 he produced his great work De immortalitate animi, which gave rise to a storm of controversy between the orthodox Thomists of the Catholic Church, the Averroists headed by Agostino Nifo, and the so-called Alexandrist School. The treatise was burned at Venice, and Pomponazzi himself ran serious risk of death at the hands of the Catholics. Two pamphlets followed, the Apologia and the Defensorium, wherein he explained his paradoxical position as Catholic and philosophic materialist. His last two treatises, the De incantationibus and the De fato, were posthumously published in an edition of his works printed at Basel. Renaissance Pomponazzi is profoundly interesting as the herald of the He was born in the period of transition when scholastic formalism was losing its hold over men both in the Church and outside. Hitherto the dogma of the Church had been based on Aristotle as interpreted by Thomas Aquinas. So close was this identification that any attack on Aristotle, or even an attempt to reopen the old discussions on the Aristotelian problems, was regarded as a dangerous heresy. Pom ponazzi claimed the right to study Aristotle for himself, and devoted himself to the De anima with the view of showing that Thomas Aquinas had entirely misconceived the Aristotelian theory of the active and the passive intellect. The Averroists had to some extent anticipated this attitude by their contention that immortality does not imply the eternal separate existence of the individual soul, that the active principle which is common to all men alone survives. Pomponazzi's revolt went further than this. He held, with Alexander of Aprodisias, that, as the soul is the form of the body (as Aquinas also asserted), it must, by hypothesis, perish with the body; form apart from matter is unthinkable. The ethical consequence of such a view is important, and in radical contrast to the practice of the period. Virtue can no longer be viewed solely in relation to reward and punishment in another existence. A new sanction is required. Pomponazzi found this criterion in Toû kaλoû čveka -virtue for its own sake. "Praemium essentiale virtutis est ipsamet virtus quae hominem felicem facit," he says in the De immortalitate. Consequently, whether or not the soul be immortal, the ethical criterion remains the same: "Neque aliquo pacto declinandum est a virtute quicquid accidat post mortem." his adherence to the Catholic faith, and thus established the In spite of this philosophical materialism, Pomponazzi declared principle that religion and philosophy, faith and knowledge, may be diametrically opposed and yet coexist for the same thinker. This curious paradox he exemplifies in the De incantatione, where in one breath he sums up against the existence the cosmos, and, as a believing Christian, asserts his faith in of demons and spirits on the basis of the Aristotelian theory of their existence. In this work he insists emphatically upon the orderly sequence of nature, cause and effect. Men grow to maturity and then decay; so religions have their day and succumb. Even Christianity, he added (with the usual proviso that he is speaking as a philosopher) was showing indications of decline. See A. H. Douglas, Philosophy and Psychology of Pietro PompoThe Renaissance in Italy; Windelband, History of Philosophy nazzi (1910); also Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie; J. A. Symonds, der Renaissance in Italien; L. Ferri, La Psicologia di P. Pon(trans. by James H. Tufts, pt. 4. c. 1); J. Burckhardt, Die Kultur ponazzi. (J. M. M.) Bononia, Latin comic poet, flourished about 90 B.C. (or earlier). POMPONIUS, LUCIUS, called Bononiensis from his birthplace He was the first to give an artistic form to the Atellanae Fabulae by arranging beforehand the details of the plot which had hitherto been left to improvisation, and providing a written upon words, skill in the use of rustic and farcical language, text. The fragments show fondness for alliteration and playing and a considerable amount of obscenity. (1897-1898); see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (Eng. tr.), bk. iv. ch. 13; Fragments in O. Ribbeck, Scenicae romanorum poesis fragmenta Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. tr.), § 151. POMPOSA, an abbey of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Ferrara, 2 m. from Codigoro, which is 30 m. E. of Ferrara in the delta of the Po. The fine church, a work of the 10th (?) century, with interesting sculptures on the façade and a splendid Romanesque campanile, contains a good mosaic pavement, and interesting frescoes of the 14th century—a school of Giotto and others; and there are also paintings in the "Last Judgment" of the refectory. It was abandoned in 1550 on account of malaria. See G. Agnelli, Ferrara e Pomposa (Bergamo, 1902). (T. As.) POMPTINE MARSHES, a low tract of land in the province of Rome, Italy, varying in breadth between the Volscian mountains and the sea from 10 to 16 m., and extending N. W. to S. E. from Velletri to Terracina (40 m.). In ancient days this low tract | for the blind, a ladies' asylum, a home for the indigent and was fertile and well-cultivated, and contained several prosperous cities (Suessa Pometia, Ulubrae perhaps the mod. Cisterna &c.), but, owing to the dying out of the small proprietors, it had already become unhealthy at the end of the Republican period. Attempts to drain the marshes were made by Appius Claudius in 312 B.C., when he constructed the Via Appia through them (the road having previously followed a devious course at the foot of the Volscian mountains), and at various times during the Roman period. A canal ran through them parallel to the road, and for some reason that is not altogether clear it was used in preference to the road during the Augustan period. Trajan repaired the road, and Theodoric did the same some four hundred years later. But in the middle ages it had fallen into disrepair. Popes Boniface VIII., Martin V., Sixtus V., and Pius VI. all attempted to solve the problem, the last-named reconstructing the road admirably. The difficulty arises from the lack of fall in the soil, some parts no less than 10 m. from the coast being barely above sea-level, while they are separated from the sea by a series of sand-hills now covered with forest, which rise at some points over 100 ft. above sea-level. Springs also rise in the district, and the problem is further complicated by the flood-water and solid matter brought down by the mountain torrents, which choke up the channels made. By a law passed in 1899, the proprietors are bound to arrange for the safe outlet of the water from the mountains, keep the existing canals open, and reclaim the district exposed to inundation, within a period of twenty-four years. The sum of £280,000 has been granted towards the expense by the government. Wang See T. Berti, Paludi pontine (Rome, 1884); R. de la Blanchère, (T. As.) Un Chapitre d'histoire pontine (Paris, 1889). PONANI, a seaport on the west coast of India, in Malabar district, Madras, at a mouth of a river of the same name. Pop. (1901), 10,562. It is the headquarters of the Moplah or Mappilla community of Mahommedans, with a religious college and many mosques, one of which is said to date from 1510. There is a large export of coco-nut products. PONCE, a seaport and the second largest city of Porto Rico, the seat of government of the Department of Ponce, on the south coast, about 50 m. (84 m. by the military road) S.W. of San Juan. Pop. (1899), 27,952, of whom 2554 were negroes and 9942 of mixed races; (1910), 35,027. It is served by the American Railroad of Porto Rico, by a railway to Guayama (1910), and by steamboats from numerous ports; an old military road connects it with San Juan. Ponce consists of two parts: Ponce, or the city proper, and Ponce Playa, or the seaport; they are separated by the Portuguese River and are connected by an electric street railway. Ponce Playa is on a spacious bay and is accessible to vessels drawing 25 ft. of water; Ponce is 2 m. inland at the interior margin of a beautiful plain, with hills in the rear rising to a height of 1000 to 2000 ft. The city is supplied with water by an aqueduct about 2 m. long. There are two attractive public squares in the heart of the city: Plaza Principal and Plaza de las Delicias. Among prominent public buildings are the city hall, the custom-house, the Pearl theatre, several churches Roman Catholic (including a finely decorated cathedral) and Protestant; St Luke's hospital and insane asylum, an asylum aged, and a military barracks. At the Quintana Baths near the See J. Bertrand, Eloge historique de Poncelet (Paris, 1875)tori PONCHIELLI, AMILCARE (1834-1886), Italian musical composer, was born near Cremona on the 1st of September 1834He studied at the Milan Conservatoire. His first dramatic work, written in collaboration with two other composers, was Il Sindaco Babbeo (1851). After completing his studies at Milan he returned to Cremona, where his opera I Promessi sposi was produced in 1856. This was followed by La Savojarda (1861, produced in a revised version as Lina in 1877), Roderigo, rè dei Goti (1864), and La Stella del monte (1867). A revised version of I Promessi sposi, which was produced at Milan in 1872, was his first genuine success. After this came a ballet, Le Due Gemelle (1873), and an opera, I Lituani (1874, produced in a revised version as Alduna in 1884). Ponchielli reached the zenith of his fame with La Gioconda (1876), written to a libretto founded by Arrigo Boito upon Victor Hugo's tragedy, Angelo, Tyran de Padoue. La Gioconda was followed by Il Figliuol prodigo (1880) and Marion Delorme (1885). Among his less |
