among the ancient pagans, was a song of rejoicing sung in honour of Apollo, chiefly used on occasions of victory and triumph. See APOLLO.

in the ancient poetry, a foot consisting of four syllables; of which there are four kinds, the paean primus, secundus, &c.

The paean primus consists of one long syllable and three short ones, or a trocheus and pyrrhichius, as temporibus; the paean secundus consists of a short syllable, a long, and two short, or an iambus and a pyrrhichius, as potentia; the paean tertius consists of two short syllables, a long and a short one, or a pyrrhichius and a trocheus, as animatus; the paean quartus consists of three short syllables and a long one, or a pyrrhichius and iambus, as celebritas.

PAEDOBAPTISM; infant-baptism, or that conferred on children.

PEONIA, PIONY; a genus of the digynia order, belonging to the polyandria clas of plants. There are two species, both of them very hardy, and will flourish in any common soil. They are large herbaceous flowering perennials, with tuberous roots, sending up strong annual stalks from one to three feet in height; terminated by very large flowers of a beautiful red colour, and much larger than any rose. The common officinal, or male piony, also is remarkable for its capsules turning backward, opening and displaying their red inside, together with the numerous seeds, in a singularly agreeable order, appearing very ornamental after the flower is past. The plants may be propagated either by parting the roots, or by seed. This plant was formerly celebrated in nervous distempers, but the present practice pays very little regard to it.

PÆSTUM, called Posidonia by the Greeks, a town of Lucania, on the Sinus Positanus: an ancient colony prior to the first Punic war, according to Livy; but later, according to Velleius, Peñane rose were in great esteem, and produced twice a-year. (Virgil, Ovid).