=Per´gamus.= The citadel of the city of Troy. The word is often used to signify Troy. From it Xerxes reviewed his troops as he marched to invade Greece. =Per´icles.= An Athenian of noble family, son of Xanthippus and Agariste. His naturally great mental powers were greatly improved by attending the lectures of Zeno and other philosophers. He became a commander, a statesman, and an orator, and gained the esteem of the people by his address and liberality. In his ministerial capacity, Pericles did not enrich himself. The prosperity and happiness of Athens was his primary object. He made war against the Lacedæmonians, and restored the temple of Delphi to the care of the Phocians, who had been improperly deprived of that honorable trust. The Peloponnesian war was fomented by his ambitious views. He at length lost his popularity, but only temporarily, and he was restored to all the honors of which he had been deprived. A pestilence which prevailed proved fatal to him in his seventieth year, about 429 years before Christ. =Per´seus.= A son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of Acrisius. It had been predicted by the oracle that Acrisius was to perish by his daughter's offspring, so Perseus, soon after his birth, was, with his mother Danae, thrown into the sea. Both were saved and reached the island of Seriphos, where they were treated kindly by Polydectes, the king, who, however, soon became jealous of the genius of Perseus. Perseus had promised Polydectes to bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa. To enable him to obtain this Pluto lent him a helmet which made the wearer invisible. Minerva gave him her buckler, and Mercury furnished him with wings. Thus equipped he found the Gorgons, and cut off Medusa's head, with which he fled through the air, and from the blood which dropped from it, sprang the horse Pegasus. During his flight Perseus discovered Andromeda chained to a rock to be devoured by a sea monster, which he destroyed, and married Andromeda. He now returned to Seriphos, where he turned into stone Polydectes by showing him Medusa's head. By an accident, in throwing a quoit he killed Acrisius, thus fulfilling the prediction of the oracle. =Per´seus= or =Per´ses=. A son of Philip, king of Macedonia. He distinguished himself by his enmity to the Romans, and when he had made sufficient preparations he declared war against them. He, however, wanted courage and resolution, and though he at first obtained some advantages over the Roman armies, his timidity proved destructive to his cause. He was defeated at Pydna, and soon after was taken prisoner, and died in prison at Rome.