(anc. geog.), a town of Achaia in Peloponnesus, on the river Piersus, 70 stadia from the sea, and to the south of Patrae 150 stadia. Another, of Crete (Pliny); a colony from the Phare of Messenia (Stephanus.) A third Phare, or Phere (Strabo, Ptolemy); Phara, α (Polybius); a town of Messenia, on the river Nesto (Strabo); on the north side of the Sinus Messenius, and to the north-west of Areca. Anciently read Pharis in Homer (Pausanias, Statius), though now read Phare. Pharia is the name of the people.

PHARAMOND is the name which is given by the generality of historians to the first king of France. He is said to have reigned at Treves, and over a part of France, about the year 420; and to have been succeeded by his son Clodion; but the account which is given of these two princes is very uncertain. It is probable Pharamond was properly no more than a general of an army, the head of a military society of Franks, who were masters of their persons and their fortunes. Gregory of Tours seems to have been of this opinion. "It is not generally known (says he) who was the first king of the French. Sulpitius Severus, who mentions several things respecting that nation, takes no notice of its first monarch; he only says that it had generals." Be that as it may, the institution of the famous Salique law (so named from the Salians, the most illustrious of the Franks) is generally attributed to Pharamond. "This law fixed the punishment of crimes, and various points of police. There is no just ground for believing that it expressly settled the right of succession to the crown: it only says, that, with relation to the Salic land, women have no share of heritage, without restricting it to the royal family in particular; for all those were generally called Salic lands which were held by right of conquest; and it is easy to conceive that a nation of soldiers, whose general was their king, would not submit to be governed by a woman. A long custom, supported by the principles of the nation, came in time to be the established law of the kingdom." (See M. Abbé Millot, Elem. de l'Histoire de France, tom. i.)