Homer; (2) an historian of Abydus, an intimate friend of Aristotle.
See edition by N. Festa, in Mythographi graeci (1902), in the Teubner series, with valuable prolegomena supplementary to Intorno all’ opuscolo di Palefato de incredibilibus (1890), by the same writer.
PALAESTRA (Gr. παλαίστρα), the name apparently applied by the Greeks to two kinds of places used for gymnastic and
athletic exercises. In the one case it seems confined to the places
where boys and youths received a general gymnastic training,
in the other to a part of a gymnasium where the athletae, the
competitors in the public games, were trained in wrestling
(παλαίειν), to wrestle) and boxing. The boys’ palaestrae were
private institutions and generally bore the name of the manager
or of the founder; thus at Athens there was a palaestra of Taureas
(Plato, Charmides). The Romans used the terms gymnasium and
palaestra indiscriminately for any place where gymnastic exercises
were carried on.
PALAFOX DE MENDOZA, JUAN DE (1600–1659), Spanish
bishop, was born in Aragon. He was appointed in 1839 bishop
of Angelopolis (Puebla de los Angeles) in Mexico, and there
honourably distinguished himself by his efforts to protect the
natives from Spanish cruelty, forbidding any methods of conversion
other than persuasion. In this he met with the uncompromising
hostility of the Jesuits, whom in 1647 he laid under an
interdict. He twice, in 1647 and 1649, laid a formal complaint
against them at Rome. The pope, however, refused to approve
his censures, and all he could obtain was a brief from Innocent X.
(May 14, 1648), commanding the Jesuits to respect the episcopal
jurisdiction. In 1653 the Jesuits succeeded in securing his translation
to the little see of Osma in Old Castile. In 1694 Charles II.
of Spain petitioned for his canonization; but though this passed
through the preliminary stages, securing for Palafox the title
of “Venerable,” it was ultimately defeated, under Pius VI.,
by the intervention of the Jesuits.
See Antonio Gonzalez de Resende, Vie de Palafox (French trans., Paris, 1690).
PALAFOX Y MELZI, JOSE DE (1780–1847), duke of Saragossa,
was the youngest son of an old Aragonese family.
Brought up at the Spanish court, he entered the guards at an
early age, and in 1808 as a sub-lieutenant accompanied Ferdinand
to Bayonne; but after vainly attempting, in company with
others, to secure Ferdinand’s escape, he fled to Spain, and
after a short period of retirement placed himself at the head
of the patriot movement in Aragon. He was proclaimed by
the populace governor of Saragossa and captain-general of
Aragon (May 25, 1808). Despite the want of money and of
regular troops, he lost no time in declaring war against the French,
who had already overrun the neighbouring provinces of Catalonia
and Navarre, and soon afterwards the attack he had provoked
began. Saragossa as a fortress was both antiquated in design
and scantily provided with munitions and supplies, and the
defences resisted but a short time. But it was at that point
that the real resistance began. A week’s street fighting made
the assailants masters of half the town, but Palafox’s brother
succeeded in forcing a passage into the city with 3000 troops.
Stimulated by the appeals of Palafox and of the fierce and
resolute demagogues who ruled the mob, the inhabitants resolved
to contest possession of the remaining quarters of Saragossa
inch by inch, and if necessary to retire to the suburb across the
Ebro, destroying the bridge. The struggle, which was prolonged
for nine days longer, resulted in the withdrawal of the French
(Aug. 14), after a siege which had lasted 61 days in all.
Palafox then attempted a short campaign in the open country,
but when Napoleon’s own army entered Spain, and destroyed
one hostile army after another in a few weeks, Palafox was
forced back into Saragossa, where he sustained a still more
memorable second siege. This ended, after three months, in
the fall of the town, or rather the cessation of resistance, for the
town was in ruins and a pestilence had swept away many
thousands of the defenders. Palafox himself, suffering from
the epidemic, fell into the hands of the French and was kept
prisoner at Vincennes until December 1813. In June 1814 he
was confirmed in the office of captain-general of Aragon, but
soon afterwards withdrew from it, and ceased to take part in
public affairs. From 1820 to 1823 he commanded the royal
guard of King Ferdinand, but, taking the side of the Constitution
in the civil troubles which followed, he was stripped of all his
honours and offices by the king, whose restoration by French
bayonets was the triumph of reaction and absolutism. Palafox
remained in retirement for many years. He received the title
of duke of Saragossa from Queen Maria Christine. From 1836
he took part in military and political affairs as captain-general
of Aragon and a senator. He died at Madrid on the 15th of
February 1847.
A biographical notice of Palafox appeared in the Spanish translation of Thiers’s Hist. des consulates de l’empire, by P. de Madrago. For the two sieges of Saragossa, see C. W. C. Oman, Peninsular War, vol. i.; this account is both more accurate and more just than Napier’s.
PALAMAS, GREGORIUS (c. 1296–1359), Greek mystic and
chief apologist of the Hesychasts (q.v.), belonged to a distinguished
Anatolian family, and his father held an important
position at Constantinople. Palamas at an early age retired
to Mt Athos, where he became acquainted with the mystical
theories of the Hesychasts. In 1326 he went to Skete near
Beroea, where he spent some years in isolation in a cell specially
built for him. His health having broken down, he returned to
Mt Athos, but, finding little relief, removed to Thessalonica.
About this time Barlaam, the Calabrian monk, began his attacks
upon the monks of Athos, and Palamas came forward as their
champion. In 1341 and 1351 he took part in the two synods
at Constantinople, which definitively secured the victory of the
Palamites. During the civil war between John Cantacuzene and
the Palaeologi, Palamas was imprisoned. After Cantacuzene’s
victory in 1347, Palamas was released and appointed archbishop
of Thessalonica; being refused admittance by the
inhabitants, he retired to the island of Lemnos, but subsequently
obtained his see. Palamas endeavoured to justify the mysticism
of the Hesychasts on dogmatic grounds. The chief objects of
his attack were Barlaam, Gregorius Acindynus and Nicephorus
Gregoras.
Palamas was a prolific writer, but only a few of his works have been published, most of which will be found in J. P. Migne, Patrologia graeca (cl., cli.). They consist of polemics against the Latins and their doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Ghost; Hesychastic writings; homilies; a life of St Peter (a monk of Athos); a rhetorical essay Prosopopeia (ed. A. Jahn, 1884), containing the accusations brought against the body by the soul, the defence made by the body, and the final pronouncement of the judges in favour of the body, on the ground that its sins are the result of inadequate teaching.
See the historical works of John Cantacuzene and Nicephorus Gregoras, the Vita Palamae by Philotheus, and the encomium by Nilus (both patriarchs of Constantinople); also C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).
PALAMAU, a district of British India, in the Chota-Nagpur division of Bengal. It was formed out of Lohardaga, in 1894, and takes its name from a former state or chiefship. The administrative headquarters are at Daltonganj: pop. (1901), 5837. It consists of the lower spurs of the Chota-Nagpur plateau, sloping north to the valley of the Son. Area 4914 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 619,600, showing an increase of 3·8% in the decade; average density, 126 persons per sq. m., being the
lowest in all Bengal. Palamau suffered severely from drought in 1897. A branch of the East Indian railway from the Son valley to the valuable coalfield near Daltonganj was opened in 1902. The only articles of export are jungle produce, such as lac and tussur silk. The forests are unprofitable.
See Palamau District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1907).
PALAMCOTTAH, a town of British India, in the Tinnevelly district of Madras, on the opposite bank of the Tambraparni river to Tinnevelly town, with which it shares a station on the South Indian railway, 444 m. south of Madras. Pop. (1901), 39,545. It is the administrative headquarters of the district, and also the chief centre of Christian missions in south India. Among many educational institutions may be mentioned the Sarah Tucker College for Women, founded in 1895.
