a celebrated writer of maxims, that is, maxims in the language of the common people, flourished at Rome about B.C. 42. He was of Syrian extraction, as his name implies, and was brought to Rome as a slave; but his talents having excited the admiration of his master, he received his freedom. His maxims were much admired, and Julius Caesar is said to have considered them as superior even to those of Labeo. He interspersed them with moral sentences, many of which have been preserved by later writers. St Jerome states that a collection of these moral sentences was made, and that the Romans employed them as a school-book. They have been again collected from various sources, and published several times, along with Seneca or Phaedrus; and they have also been published separately. The best edition is that of J. C. Orelli, Leipzig, 1822, or that of C. Zell, Stuttgart, 1829.

PUNA, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Bengal, sixty-three miles east from Moorshedabad. Long. 89° 12' E. Lat. 24° N.

PUNCHARY, a town of Northern Hindustan, in the province of Kanman, situated at the top of a very steep pass in the mountain, in the neighbourhood of which is a cave containing an image of Mahâ Deo, and his wife Bowance, to which pilgrims pay their devotions. A perpendicular cliff is also pointed out here, from which the Hindus precipitate themselves as an offering to their idols. Lat. not ascertained.