Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

PERA.

290

PEEIOECI.

PERA (w/jpa), a wallet, made of leather,
worn suspended at the side by rustics and by
travellers to carry their provisions, and
adopted in imitation of them by the Cynic
philosophers.

PERDUELLIO was in the ancient times of
the republic nearly the same as the Majes-
tas of the later times. [Majkstas.] Pcrdu-
ellis originally signified hostis, and thus the
offence was equivalent to making war on the
Roman state. Offenders were tried by two
judges called Perduellionis Duumviri. In the
time of the kings the duumviri perduellionis
and the quaestores parricidii appear to have
been the same persons ; but after the estab-
lishment of the republic, the offices were
distinct, for the quaestore3 were appointed
regularly every year, whereas the duumviri
were appointed very rarely, as had been the
case during the kingly period. Livy repre-
sents the duumviri perduellionis as being
appointed by the kings, but they were really
proposed by the king and appointed by the
populus. During the early part of the repub-
lic they were appointed by the comitia cu-
riata, and afterwards by the comitia centu-
riata, on the proposal of the consuls. In the
case of Rabirius (n. c. (i3), however, this
custom was violated, as the duumviri were
appointed by the praetor instead of by the
comitia centuriata. The punishment for
those who were found guilty of perduellio
was death; they were either hanged on the
arbor infelix, or thrown from the Tarpeian
rock. But when the duumviri found a person
guilty, he might appeal to the people (in
early times the populus, afterwards the co-
mitia centuriata), as was done in the first
case which is on record, that of Horatius,
and in the last, which is that of Rabirius,
whom Cicero defended before the people in
the oration still extant.

PEREGRIXUS, a stranger or foreigner.
In ancient times the word pcregrinus was
used as synonymous with hostis; but in the
times of which we have historical records, a
peregrinus was any person who was not a
Roman citizen. In n.c. 247, a second prae-
tor (praetor peregrinus) was appointed for
the purpose of administering justice in mat-
ters between Romans and peregrini, and in
matters between such peregrini as had taken
up their abode at Rome. [Peaetor.] The
number of peregrini who lived in the city of
Rome appears to have had an injurious influ-
ence upon the poorer classes of Roman citi-
zens, whence on some occasions they were
driven out of the city. The first example of
this kind was set in b. c. 127, by the tribune
M. Junius Pennus. They were expelled a
second time by the tribune C. Papius, in b.c.

6C. During the last period of the republic
and the first centures of the empire, all the
free inhabitants of the Roman world were, in
regard to their political rights, either Roman
citizens, or Latins, or peregrini, and the
latter had, as before, neither commercium
nor connubium with the Romans. They
were either free provincials, or citizens who
had forfeited their civitas, and were degraded
to the rank of peregrini, or a certain class of
freedmcn, called peregrini dediticii.

PERIOECI (wept'oucoi). This word pro-
perly denotes the inhabitants of a district
lying around some particular locality, but is
generally used to describe a dependent popu-
lation, living without the walls or in the
country provinces of a dominant city, and
although personally free, deprived of the en-
joyment of citizenship, and the political
rights conferred by it. A political condition
such as that of the perioeci of Greece, and
like the vassalage of the Germanic nations,
could hardly have originated in anything
else than foreign conquest, and the perioeci
of Laconia furnish a striking illustration of
this. Their origin dates from the Dorian
conquest of the Peloponnesus, when the old
inhabitants of the country, the Achaeans,
submitted to their conquerors on certain
conditions, by which they were left in pos-
session of their private rights of citizenship.
They suffered indeed a partial deprivation of
their lands, and were obliged to submit to a
king of foreign race, but still they remained
equal in law to their conquerors, and were
eligible to all offices of state except the sove-
reignty. But this state of things did not last
long : in the next generation after the con-
quest the relation between the two parties
was changed. The Achaeans were reduced
from citizens to vassals ; they were made
tributary to Sparta ; their lands were sub-
jected to a tax ; and they lost their rights of
citizenship, the right of voting in the general
assembly, and their eligibility to important
offices in the state, such as that of a senator,
&c. It does not, however, appear that the
perioeci were generally an oppressed people,
though kept in a state of political inferiority
to their conquerors. On the contrary, the
most distinguished among them were admit-
ted to offices of trust, and they sometimes
served as heavy-armed soldiers ; as, for in-
stance, at the battle of ITataea. The Norman
conquest of England presents a striking pa-
rallel to the Dorian conquest of Laconia,
both in its achievement and consequences.
The Saxons, like the old Achaeans, were de-
prived of their lands, excluded from all offices
of trust and dignity, and reduced, though
personally free, to a state of political slavery.