Par then iæ

A word derived from the Greek, signifying children born of unmarried women. The name was applied to a particular cla of citizens in Sparta after the Me enian war, whose origin was ascribed to the following circumstances: The Spartans having been at war with the Me enians for twenty years, and having by that means very much depopulated their country, and apprehending that if the war continued it might eventually strip Sparta of all its male inhabitants, they sent some of their young men from the army into the city, with license to be familiar with as many unmarried women as they would; and the children begotten by them in this manner were called par then iæ , on account of the uncertainty as to who were their fathers. At the end of the war, this brood were deemed bastards, and were denied the bearing of any office in the government, etc. This unjust exclusion enraged them so much that they conspired with the slaves to destroy all the nobility; but, on the discovery of their plot, they were driven out of the city; after which, being headed by Phalantus, a bold and enterprising son of chance, they traveled into Magna Grecia in Italy, and built Tarentum.