=Por´cia.= A daughter of Cato of Utica, who married Bibulus, and after his death Brutus. She was distinguished for her prudence and courage. After her husband's death she killed herself by swallowing burning coals. She is said to have given herself a severe wound to show that she could bear pain. =Porphyr´ius.= A Platonic philosopher of Tyre. He studied eloquence at Athens under Longinus, and afterwards retired to Rome. His most celebrated work was in reference to the Christian religion. Porphyry died A.D. 304, aged seventy-one years. =Porsen´na or Por´sena.= A king of Etruria, who declared war against the Romans because they refused to restore Tarquin to the throne; He was prevented from entering the gates of Rome by the valor of P. Horatius Cocles, who at the head of a bridge kept back Porsenna's army, whilst the bridge was being cut down by the Romans to prevent the entry of their enemies into the city. Eventually Porsenna abandoned the cause of Tarquin. =Praxit´eles.= A famous sculptor of Greece, who lived about 324 years before the Christian era. The most famous of his works was a Cupid, which he gave to Phyrne. He executed a statue of Phyrne, and also one of Venus. =Pri´amus.= The last king of Troy was son of Laomedon, by Strymo, called Placia by some writers. He married Arisba, whom he divorced in order to marry Hecuba, by whom he had a number of children, the most celebrated of whom were Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus, Laodice, and Cassandra. After he had reigned some time, Priam was anxious to recover his sister Hesione, who had been carried into Greece by Hercules, and to achieve this, he manned a fleet, the command of which he gave to his son Paris, who, instead of obeying the paternal instructions, carried away Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. This caused the Trojan war, which lasted for ten years. At the end of the war Priam was slain by Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. =Pro´bus, M. Aure´lius.= A native of Pannonia. His father was a gardener, who became a military tribune. His son obtained the same office in the twenty-second year of his age, and distinguished himself so much by his probity and valor that he was invested with the imperial purple. He encouraged the arts, and by his victories added to the glory of his country. He was slain by his soldiers in the fiftieth year of his age, B.C. 282. =Proco´pius=, born of a noble family in Cilicia, was related to the emperor Julian. He signalized himself under Julian, and afterwards retired to the Thracian Chersonesus, whence he made his appearance at Constantinople, and proclaimed himself master of the Eastern Empire. He was defeated in Phrygia, and beheaded A.D. 366. There was a famous Greek historian of the same name, who wrote the history of the reign of Justinian, and who was secretary to Belisarius.