P
P ⇒ A
Paconius (80 – 25 BCE)
To transport a marble pediment intended to replace the cracked base of the colossal statue
of Apollo at Ephesos, Paconius designed a machine described by V 10.2.13–14,
whose design caused it to swerve off the path (cf. K). The family was Oscan
and mercantile.
RE 18.2 (1942) 2123–2124, Fr. Münzer.
PTK and GLIM
Paetus (50 – 100 CE?)
Physician, a greybeard and a supporter of the false prophet and paradoxographer Alexander
of Abonouteikhos (Lucian Alex. 60.8). A physician with this name is the addressee of the
first “Hippokratic” letter, wherein King Artaxerxe ̄s requests some remedy against a plague;
the second letter, containing the reply of “Paetus,” refers the king to H. Supposed
neo-Pythagorean elements in the correspondence make possible a connection with our
Paetus, who may have forged the letters to increase his prestige.
RE 10 (1965) 473–474 (#3), Fr. Kudlien.
Bruno Centrone
Pahlavi, Translations into (200 – 900 CE)
A number of Greek astronomical and astrological works translated into Pahlavi, later lost,
and partly surviving only in Arabic translation. See also -Z.
P’s (Ptalamayus) Mathematical Syntaxis (Almagest) was translated into Pahlavi: this
work is mentioned in the De ̄nkard (4.428.15–429.8) with the title Megist ̄ıg ̄ı hro ̄may “the Megíste ̄
of the Romans” (i.e., “Greeks”). The redactors of the Z consulted the Pahlavi Almagest;
Manusˇcˇihr’s Epistle (2.2.9–11) discusses mathematical parameters introduced by Ptolemy, as
compared with those derived from Indian astronomical works. It remains unclear if Rabba ̄n
al-T
̇
abarı ̄’s mid-9th c. Arabic translation derived from the Pahlavi version.
V V’ Anthologies, already translated in the 3rd c., underwent a new recension
by W. Arabic sources claim that the Sasanian astrologer Za ̄da ̄nfarru ̄x al-
Andarzaghar was a great admirer of V’ Biz ̄ıdaj (Anthologies). Za ̄da ̄nfarru ̄x wrote a Kita ̄b