A classical dictionary / containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table

by John Lemprière

S

Saba, a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. The inhabitants were called Sabæi. Strabo, bk. 16.—Diodorus, bk. 3.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 57; Æneid, bk. 1, li. 420.

Sabăchus, or Sabacon, a king of Æthiopia, who invaded Egypt and reigned there, after the expulsion of king Amasis. After a reign of 50 years he was terrified by a dream, and retired into his own kingdom. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 137, &c.

Sabæi, a people of Arabia. See: [Saba].

Sabāta, a town of Liguria with a safe and beautiful harbour, supposed to be the modern Savona. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 461.—Strabo, bk. 4.——A town of Assyria.

Sabatha, a town of Arabia, now Sanaa.

Sabatra, a town of Syria. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 256.

Sabatini, a people of Samnium, living on the banks of the Sabatus, a river which falls into the Vulturnus. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 33.

Sabazius, a surname of Bacchus, as also of Jupiter. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.—Arnobius, bk. 4.

Sabbas, a king of India.

Sabella, the nurse of the poet Horace, bk. 1, satire 9, li. 29.

Sabelli, a people of Italy, descended from the Sabines, or, according to some, from the Samnites. They inhabited that part of the country which lies between the Sabines and the Marsi. Hence the epithet of Sabellicus. Horace, bk. 3, ode 6.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 255.

Sabellus, a Latin poet in the reign of Domitian and Nerva.

Julia Sabīna, a Roman matron, who married Adrian by means of Plotina the wife of Trajan. She is celebrated for her private as well as public virtues. Adrian treated her with the greatest asperity, though he had received from her the imperial purple; and the empress was so sensible of his unkindness, that she boasted in his presence that she had disdained to make him a father, lest his children should become more odious or more tyrannical than he himself was. The behaviour of Sabina at last so exasperated Adrian that he poisoned her, or, according to some, obliged her to destroy herself. The emperor at that time laboured under a mortal disease, and therefore he was the more encouraged to sacrifice Sabina to his resentment, that she might not survive him. Divine honours were paid to her memory. She died after she had been married 38 years to Adrian, A.D. 138.

Sabīni, an ancient people of Italy, reckoned among the Aborigines, or those inhabitants whose origin was not known. Some suppose that they were originally a Lacedæmonian colony, who settled in that part of the country. The possessions of the Sabines were situated in the neighbourhood of Rome, between the river Nar and the Anio, and bounded on the north by the Apennines and Umbria, south by Latium, east by the Æqui, and Etruria on the west. The greatest part of the contiguous nations were descended from them, such as the Umbrians, the Campanians, the Sabelli, the Osci, Samnites, Hernici, Æqui, Marsi, Brutii, &c. The Sabines are celebrated in ancient history as being the first who took up arms against the Romans, to avenge the rape of their females at a spectacle where they had been invited. After some engagements, the greatest part of the Sabines left their ancient possessions, and migrated to Rome, where they settled with their new allies. They were at last totally subdued, about the year of Rome 373, and ranked as Roman citizens. Their chief cities were Cures, Fidenæ, Reate, Crustumerium, Corniculum, Nomentum, Collatia, &c. The character of the nation for chastity, for purity of morals, and for the knowledge of herbs and incantations, was very great. Horace, epode 17, li. 28.—Cicero, Against Vatinius, ch. 15.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 12.—Livy, bk. 1, chs. 9 & 18.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 2, ch. 51.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 18.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 424.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, lis. 775 & 797; Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, li. 101; [♦]Amores, bk. 3, poem 8, li. 61.—Juvenal, satire 10, li. 197.

[♦] Book name omitted from text.

Sabiniānus, a general who revolted in Africa, in the reign of Gordian, and was defeated soon after, A.D. 240.——A general of the eastern empire, &c.

Sabīnus Aulus, a Latin poet intimate with Ovid. He wrote some epistles and elegies, in the number of which were mentioned, an epistle from Æneas to Dido, from Hippolytus to Phædra, and from Jason to [♦]Hypsipyle, from Demophoon to Phyllis, from Paris to Œnome, from Ulysses to Penelope; the three last of which, though said to be his composition, are spurious. Ovid, Amores, bk. 2, poem 13, li. 27.——A man from whom the Sabines received their name. He received divine honours after death, and was one of those deities whom Æneas invoked when he entered Italy. He was supposed to be of Lacedæmonian origin. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 171.——An officer of Cæsar’s army defeated by the Gauls.——Julius, an officer who proclaimed himself emperor in the beginning of Vespasian’s reign. He was soon after defeated in a battle; and, to escape from the conqueror, he hid himself in a subterraneous cave, with two faithful domestics, where he continued unseen for nine successive years. His wife found out his retreat, and spent her time with him, till her frequent visits to the cave discovered the place of his concealment. He was dragged before Vespasian, and by his orders put to death, though his friends interested themselves in his cause, and his wife endeavoured to raise the emperor’s pity, by showing him the twins whom she had brought forth in their subterraneous retreat.——Cornelius, a man who conspired against Caligula, and afterwards destroyed himself.——Titius, a Roman senator, shamefully accused and condemned by Sejanus. His body, after execution, was dragged through the streets of Rome, and treated with the greatest indignities. His dog constantly followed the body, and when it was thrown into the Tiber, the faithful animal plunged in after it, and was drowned. Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 40.——Poppæus, a Roman consul, who presided above 24 years over Mœsia, and obtained a triumph for his victories over the barbarians. He was a great favourite of Augustus and of Tiberius. Tacitus, Annals.——Flavius, a brother of Vespasian, killed by the populace. He was well known for his fidelity to Vitellius. He commanded in the Roman armies 35 years, and was governor of Rome for 12.——A friend of Domitian.——A Roman who attempted to plunder the temple of the Jews.——A friend of the emperor Alexander.——A lawyer.

[♦] ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency.

Sabis, now Sambre, a river of Belgic Gaul, falling into the Maese at Namur. Cæsar, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18.

Sabota, the same as Sabatha.

Sabracæ, a powerful nation of India. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 8.

Sabrăta, a maritime town of Africa, near the Syrtes. It was a Roman colony, about 70 miles from the modern Tripoli. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 256.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 4.

Sabrina, the Severn in England.

Sabŭra, a general of Juba king of Numidia, defeated and killed in a battle. Lucan, bk. 4, li. 722.

Saburānus, an officer of the pretorian guards. When he was appointed to this office by the emperor Trajan, the prince presented him with a sword, saying, “Use this weapon in my service as long as my commands are just; but turn it against my own breast, whenever I become cruel or malevolent.”

Sabus, one of the ancient kings of the Sabines; the same as Sabinus. See: Sabinus.——A king of Arabia.

Sacădas, a musician and poet of Argos, who obtained three several times the prize at the Pythian games. Plutarch, de Musica.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 14.

Sacæ, a people of Scythia, who inhabited the country that lies at the east of Bactriana and Sogdiana, and towards the north of mount Imaus. The name of Sacæ was given in general to all the Scythians, by the Persians. They had no towns, according to some writers, but lived in tents. Ptolemy, bk. 6, ch. 13.—Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 93; bk. 7, ch. 63.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 17.—Solinus, ch. 62.

Sacer mons, a mountain near Rome. See: [Mons sacer].

Sacer lucus, a wood of Campania, on the Liris.

Sacer portus, or Sacri portus, a place of Italy, near Præneste, famous for a battle that was fought there between Sylla and Marius, in which the former obtained the victory. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 26.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 134.

Sacrāni, a people of Latium, who assisted Turnus against Æneas. They were descended from the Pelasgians, or from a priest of Cybele. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 796.

Sacrātor, one of the friends of Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 747.

Sacra via, a celebrated street of Rome, where a treaty of peace and alliance was made between Romulus and Tatis. It led from the amphitheatre to the capitol, by the temple of the goddess of peace, and the temple of Cæsar. The triumphal processions passed through it to go to the capitol. Horace, bk. 4, ode 2; bk. 1, satire 9.—Livy, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Cicero, For Plancius, ch. 7, Letters to Atticus, bk. 4, ltr. 4.

Sacrāta lex, militaris, A.U.C. 411, by the dictator Valerius Corvus, as some suppose, enacted that the name of no soldier which had been entered in the muster roll should be struck out but by his consent, and that no person who had been a military tribune should execute the office of ductor ordinum.

Marcus Sacrātĭvir, a friend of Cæsar, killed at Dyrrachium. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Sacri portus. See: [Sacer portus].

Sacrum bellum, a name given to the wars carried on concerning the temple of Delphi. The first began B.C. 448, and in it the Athenians and Lacedæmonians were auxiliaries on opposite sides. The second war began 357 B.C., and finished nine years after by Philip of Macedonia, who destroyed all the cities of the Phocians. See: [Phocis].——Promontorium, a promontory of Spain, now Cape St. Vincent, called by Strabo the most westerly part of the earth.

Sadales, a son of Cotys king of Thrace, who assisted Pompey with a body of 500 horsemen. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 1.

Sadus, a river of India.

Sadyātes, one of the Mermnadæ, who reigned in Lydia 12 years after his father Gyges. He made war against the Milesians for six years. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.

Sætabis, a town of Spain near the Lucro, on a rising hill, famous for its fine linen. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 373.

Sagalassus, a town of Pisidia on the borders of Phrygia, now Sadjaklu. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 15.

Sagăna, a woman acquainted with magic and enchantments. Horace, epode 5, li. 25.

Sagăris, a river of Asia, rising from mount Dindymus in Phrygia, and falling into the Euxine. See: [Sangaris]. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 47.——One of the companions of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 263; bk. 9, li. 575.

Claudius Sagitta, an officer who encouraged Piso to rebel against the emperor Nero, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 49.

Sagra, a small river of Italy in the country of the Brutii, where 130,000 Crotoniatæ were routed by 10,000 Locrians and Rhegians. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Strabo, bk. 6.

Saguntum, or Saguntus, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis at the west of the Iberus, about one mile from the sea-shore, now called Morvedro. It had been founded by a colony of Zacynthians, and by some of the Rutuli of Ardea. Saguntum is celebrated for the clay in its neighbourhood, with which cups, pocula Saguntina, were made, but more particularly it is famous as being the cause of the second Punic war, and for the attachment of its inhabitants to the interest of Rome. Hannibal took it after a siege of about eight months; and the inhabitants, not to fall into the enemy’s hands, burnt themselves with their houses, and with all their effects. The conqueror afterwards rebuilt it, and placed a garrison there, with all the noblemen whom he detained as hostages from the several neighbouring nations of Spain. Some suppose that he called it Spartagene. Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Livy, bk. 21, chs. 2, 7, 9.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 271.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 250.—Strabo, bk. 3.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.

Sais, now Sa, a town in the Delta of Egypt, situate between the Canopic and Sebennytican mouths of the Nile, and anciently the capital of Lower Egypt. There was there a celebrated temple dedicated to Minerva, with a room cut out of one stone, which had been conveyed by water from Elephantis by the labours of 2000 men in three years. The stone measured on the outside 21 cubits long, 14 broad, and eight high. Osiris was also buried near the town of Sais. The inhabitants were called Saitæ. One of the mouths of the Nile, which is adjoining to the town, has received the name of Saiticum. Strabo, bk. 17.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 17, &c.

Sala, a town of Thrace, near the mouths of the Hebrus.——A town of Mauritania.——Of Phrygia.——A river of Germany falling into the Elbe, near which are salt-pits. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 57.——Another falling into the Rhine, now the Issel.

Salăcon, a poor man who pretended to be uncommonly rich, &c. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 7, ch. 24.

[♦]Salamantica, a town of Spain, now Salamanca.

[♦] Placed in alphabetical order.

Salamīnia, a name given to a ship at Athens, which was employed by the republic in conveying the officers of state to their different administrations abroad, &c.——A name given to the island of Cyprus, on account of Salamis, one of its capital cities.

Sălămis, a daughter of the river Asopus by Methone. Neptune became enamoured of her, and carried her to an island of the Ægean, which afterwards bore her name, and where she gave birth to a son called Cenchreus. Diodorus, bk. 4.

Sălămis, Salamins, or Salamīna, now Colouri, an island in the Saronicus sinus, on the southern coast of Attica, opposite Eleusis, at the distance of about a league, with a town and harbour of the same name. It is about 50 miles in circumference. It was originally peopled by a colony of Ionians, and afterwards by some of the Greeks from the adjacent islands and countries. It is celebrated for a battle which was fought there between the fleet of the Greeks and that of the Persians, when Xerxes invaded Attica. The enemy’s ships amounted to above 2000, and those of the Peloponnesians to about 380 sail. In this engagement, which was fought on the 20th of October, B.C. 480, the Greeks lost 40 ships, and the Persians about 200, besides an immense number which were taken, with all the ammunition they contained. The island of Salamis was anciently called Sciras, Cychria, or Cenchria, and its bay the gulf of Engia. It is said that Xerxes attempted to join it to the continent. Teucer and Ajax, who went to the Trojan war, were natives of Salamis. Strabo, bk. 2.—Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 56, &c.—Plutarch & Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 3.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 35, &c.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Lucan, bk. 5, li. 109.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 283.

Sălămis, or Salămīna, a town at the east of the island of Cyprus. It was built by Teucer, who gave it the name of the island Salamis, from which he had been banished about 1270 years before the christian era; and from this circumstance the epithets of ambigua and of altera were applied to it, as the mother country was also called vera, for the sake of distinction. His descendants continued masters of the town for above 800 years. It was destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt in the fourth century, and called Constantia. Strabo, bk. 9.—Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 94, &c.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 7, li. 21.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 183.

Sălāpia, or Sălăpiæ, now Salpe, a town of Apulia, where Annibal retired after the battle of Cannæ, and where he devoted himself to licentious pleasure, forgetful of his fame, and of the interests of his country. It was taken from the Carthaginian general by Marcellus. Some remains of this place may be traced near a lake called Salapina Palus, now used for making salt, which, from the situation near the sea, is easily conveyed by small boats to ships of superior burden. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 377.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.

Salăra, a town of Africa propria, taken by Scipio. Livy, bk. 29, ch. 34, &c.

Salaria, a street and gate at Rome which led towards the country of the Sabines. It received the name of Salaria, because salt (sal) was generally conveyed to Rome that way. Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 64.——A bridge called Salarius, was built four miles from Rome through the Salarian gate on the river Anio.

Salassi, a people of Cisalpine Gaul who were in continual war with the Romans. They cut off 10,000 Romans under Appius Claudius, A.U.C. 610, and were soon after defeated, and at last totally subdued and sold as slaves by Augustus. Their country, now called Val de Aousta, after a colony settled there, and called Augusta Prætoria, was situate in a valley between the Alps Graiæ and Penninæ, or Great and Little St. Bernard. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 38.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 17.—Strabo, bk. 4.

Saleius, a poet of great merit in the age of Domitian, yet pinched by poverty, though born of illustrious parents, and distinguished by purity of manners and integrity of mind. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 80.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.

Salēnii, a people of Spain. Mela, bk. 3, ch. 1.

Salentīni, a people of Italy, near Apulia, on the southern coast of Calabria. Their chief towns were Brundusium, Tarentum, and Hydruntum. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 579.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 400.—Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1, ch. 24.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Salernum, now Salerno, a town of the Picentini, on the shores of the Tyrrhene sea, south of Campania, and famous for a medical school in the lower ages. Pliny, bk. 13, ch. 3.—Livy, bk. 34, ch. 45.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 425.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 15.—Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 15.

Salganeus, or Salganea, a town of Bœotia, on the Euripus. Livy, bk. 35, ch. 37, &c.

Salia, a town of Spain, where Prudentius was born. Mela.

Salica, a town of Spain.

Salii, a college of priests at Rome, instituted in honour of Mars, and appointed by Numa to take care of the sacred shields called Ancylia, B.C. 709. See: [Ancyle]. They were 12 in number, the three elders among them had the superintendence of all the rest; the first was called præsul, the second vates, and the third magister. Their number was afterwards doubled by Tullus Hostilius, after he had obtained a victory over the Fidenates, in consequence of a vow which he had made to Mars. The Salii were all of patrician families, and the office was very honourable. The 1st of March was the day on which the Salii observed their festivals in honour of Mars. They were generally dressed in a short scarlet tunic, of which only the edges were seen; they wore a large purple-coloured belt about the waist, which was fastened with brass buckles. They had on their heads round bonnets with two corners standing up, and they wore in their right hand a small rod, and in their left a small buckler. In the observation of their solemnity they first offered sacrifices, and afterwards went through the streets dancing in measured motions, sometimes all together, or at other times separately, while musical instruments were playing before them. They placed their body in different attitudes, and struck with their rods the shields which they held in their hands. They also sung hymns in honour of the gods, particularly of Mars, Juno, Venus, and Minerva, and they were accompanied in the chorus by a certain number of virgins, habited like themselves, and called Saliæ. The Salii instituted by Numa were called Palatini, in contradistinction from the others, because they lived on mount Palatine, and offered their sacrifices there. Those that were added by Tullus were called Collini, Agonales, or Quirinales, from a mountain of the same name, where they had fixed their residence. Their name seems to have been derived a saliendo, or saltando, because during their festivals it was particularly requisite that they should leap and dance. Their feasts and entertainments were uncommonly rich and sumptuous, whence dapes saliares is proverbially applied to such repasts as are most splendid and costly. It was usual among the Romans when they declared war, for the Salii to shake their shields with great violence, as if to call upon the god Mars to come to their assistance. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 20.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 15.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, li. 387.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 3.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 285.——A nation of Germany who invaded Gaul, and were conquered by the emperor Julian. Ammianus Marcellinus, bk. 17.

Salinātor, a surname common to the family of the Livii and others.

Salius, an Acarnanian at the games exhibited by Æneas in Sicily, and killed in the wars with Turnus. It is said by some that he taught the Latins those ceremonies, accompanied with dancing, which afterwards bore his name in the appellation of the Salii. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 298; bk. 10, li. 753.

Crispus Sallustius, a Latin historian, born at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines. He received his education at Rome, and made himself known as a public magistrate in the office of questor and consul. His licentiousness, and the depravity of his manners, however, did not escape the censure of the age, and Sallust was degraded from the dignity of a senator, B.C. 50. His amour with Fausta the daughter of Sylla was a strong proof of his debauchery; and Milo the husband, who discovered the adulterer in his house, revenged the violence offered to his bed, by beating him with stripes, and selling him his liberty at a high price. A continuation of extravagance could not long be supported by the income of Sallust, but he extricated himself from all difficulties by embracing the cause of Cæsar. He was restored to the rank of senator, and made governor of Numidia. In the administration of his province, Sallust behaved with unusual tyranny; he enriched himself by plundering the Africans, and at his return to Rome he built himself a magnificent house, and bought gardens, which, from their delightful and pleasant situation, still preserve the name of the gardens of Sallust. He married Terentia the divorced wife of Cicero; and from this circumstance, according to some, arose an immortal hatred between the historian and the orator. Sallust died in the 51st year of his age, 35 years before the christian era. As a writer he is peculiarly distinguished. He had composed a history of Rome, but nothing remains of it except a few fragments, and his only compositions extant are his history of Catiline’s conspiracy, and of the wars of Jugurtha king of Numidia. In these celebrated works the author is greatly commended for his elegance, the vigour and animation of his sentences; he everywhere displays a wonderful knowledge of the human heart, and paints with a masterly hand the causes that gave rise to the great events which he relates. No one was better acquainted with the vices that prevailed in the capital of Italy, and no one seems to have been more severe against the follies of the age, and the failings of which he himself was guilty in the eyes of the world. His descriptions are elegantly correct, and his harangues are nervous and animated, and well suiting the character and the different pursuits of the great men in whose mouths they are placed. The historian, however, is blamed for tedious and insipid exordiums, which often disgust the reader without improving him; his affectation of old and obsolete words and phrases is also censured, and particularly his unwarrantable partiality in some of his narrations. Though faithful in every other respect, he has not painted the character of Cicero with all the fidelity and accuracy which the reader claims from the historian; and in passing in silence over many actions which reflect the greatest honour on the first husband of Terentia, the rival of Cicero has disgraced himself, and rendered his compositions less authentic. There are two orations or epistles to Cæsar, concerning the regulations of the state, attributed to him, as also an oration against Cicero, whose authenticity some of the moderns have disputed. The best editions of Sallust, are those of Haverkamp, 2 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1742; and of Edinburgh, 12mo, 1755. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Suetonius, The Grammarians in The Cæsars.—Martial, bk. 14, ltr. 191.——A nephew of the historian, by whom he was adopted. He imitated the moderation of Mæcenas, and remained satisfied with the dignity of a Roman knight, when he could have made himself powerful by the favours of Augustus and Tiberius. He was very effeminate and luxurious. Horace dedicated bk. 2, ode 2, to him. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1.—Pliny, bk. 34.——Secundus Promotus, a native of Gaul, very intimate with the emperor Julian. He is remarkable for his integrity, and the soundness of his counsels. Julian made [♦]him prefect of Gaul.——There is also another Sallust, called Secundus, whom some have improperly confounded with Promotus. Secundus was also one of Julian’s favourites, and was made by him prefect of the east. He conciliated the good graces of the Romans by the purity of his morals, his fondness for discipline, and his religious principles. After the death of the emperor Jovian, he was universally named by the officers of the Roman empire to succeed on the imperial throne; but he refused this great though dangerous honour, and pleaded infirmities of body and old age. The Romans wished upon this to invest his son with the imperial purple, but Secundus opposed it, and observed that he was too young to support the dignity.——A prefect of Rome in the reign of Valentinian.——An officer in Britain.

[♦] removed duplicate ‘him’

Salmăcis, a fountain of Caria, near Halicarnassus, which rendered effeminate all those who drank of its waters. It was there that Hermaphroditus changed his sex, though he still retained the characteristics of his own. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 285; bk. 15, li. 319.—Hyginus, fable 271.—Festus, Lexicon of Festus.

Salmōne, a town of Elis in Peloponnesus, with a fountain, from which the Enipeus takes its source, and falls into the Alpheus, about 40 stadia from Olympia, which, on account of that, is called Salmonis. Ovid, bk. 3, Amores, poem 6, li. 43.——A promontory at the east of Crete. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 5.

Salmoneus, a king of Elis, son of Æolus and Enarette, who married Alcidice, by whom he had Tyro. He wished to be called a god, and to receive divine honours from his subjects; therefore to imitate the thunder, he used to drive his chariot over a brazen bridge, and darted burning torches on every side, as if to imitate the lightning. This impiety provoked Jupiter. Salmoneus was struck with a thunderbolt, and placed in the infernal regions near his brother Sisyphus. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 235.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Hyginus, fable 60.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 585.

Salmōnis, a name given to Olympia. See: [Salmone].——The patronymic of Tyro daughter of Salmoneus. Ovid, Amores, bk. 3, poem 6, li. 43.

Salmus (untis), a town of Asia near the Red sea, where Alexander saw a theatrical representation. Diodorus, bk. 17.

Salmydessus, a bay on the Euxine sea.

Salo, now Xalon, a river in Spain, falling into the Iberus. Martial, bk. 10, ltr. 20.

Salodurum, now Soleure, a town of the Helvetii.

Salōme, a queen of Judæa. This name was common to some of the princesses in the family of Herod, &c.

Salon, a country of Bithynia.

Sălōna, or Salōne, a town of Dalmatia, about 10 miles distant from the coast of the Adriatic, conquered by Pollio, who on that account called his son Saloninos, in honour of the victory. It was the native place of the emperor Diocletian, and he retired there to enjoy peace and tranquillity, after he had abdicated the imperial purple, and built a stately palace, the ruins of which were still seen in the 16th century. A small village of the same name preserves the traces of its fallen grandeur. Near is Spalatro. Lucan, bk. 4, li. 404.—Cæsar, Civil War, bk. 9.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.

Salonīna, a celebrated matron who married the emperor Gallienus, and distinguished herself by her private as well as public virtues. She was a patroness of all the fine arts, and to her clemency, mildness, and benevolence, Rome was indebted some time for her peace and prosperity. She accompanied her husband in some of his expeditions, and often called him away from the pursuits of pleasure to make war against the enemies of Rome. She was put to death by the hands of the conspirators, who also assassinated her husband and family, about the year 268 of the christian era.

Salonīnus, a son of Asinius Pollio. He received his name from the conquest of Salona by his father. Some suppose that he is the hero of Virgil’s fourth eclogue, in which the return of the golden age is so warmly and beautifully anticipated.——Publius Licinius Cornelius, a son of Gallienus by Salonina, sent into Gaul, there to be taught the art of war. He remained there some time, till the usurper Posthumius arose, and proclaimed himself emperor. Saloninus was upon this delivered up to his enemy and put to death in the 10th year of his age.

Salonius, a friend of Cato the censor. The daughter of Censorius married Salonius in his old age. Plutarch.——A tribune and centurion of the Roman army, hated by the populace for his strictness.

Salpis, a colony of Etruria, whose inhabitants are called Salpinates. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 31.

Salsum, a river in Spain. Cæsar.

Salvian, one of the fathers of the fifth century, of whose works the best edition is the 12mo, Paris, 1684.

Salvidiēnus, an officer of the army of Augustus. He was betrayed by Antony, and put to death.——A Latin writer in the age of the emperor Probus.

Salvius, a flute-player, saluted king by the rebellious slaves of Sicily in the age of Marius. He maintained for some time war against the Romans.——A nephew of the emperor Otho.——A friend of Pompey.——A man put to death by Domitian.——A freedman of Atticus. Cicero, [♦]Letters to Atticus, bk. 10.——Another of the sons of Hortensius. Cicero, Letters to Atticus.

[♦] ‘ad Div. c. 11.’ replaced with ‘Letters to Atticus, bk. 10’

Salus, the goddess of health at Rome, worshipped by the Greeks under the name of Hygeia. Livy, bks. 9 & 10.

Salyes, a people of Gaul on the Rhone. Livy, bk. 5, chs. 34 & 35; bk. 21, ch. 26.

Samăra, a river of Gaul, now called the Somme, which falls into the British channel near Abbeville.

Samaria, a city and country of Palestine, famous in sacred history. The inhabitants, called Samaritans, were composed of heathens and rebellious Jews, and on having a temple built there after the form of that of Jerusalem, a lasting enmity arose between the people of Judæa and of Samaria, so that no intercourse took place between the two countries, and the name of Samaritan became a word of reproach, and as it were a curse.

Samarobriva, a town of Gaul, now Amiens, in Picardy.

Sambūlos, a mountain near Mesopotamia, where Hercules was worshipped. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12, ch. 13.

Sambus, an Indian king defeated by Alexander. Diodorus, bk. 17.——A river of India.

Same, or Samos, a small island in the Ionian [♦]sea near Ithaca, called also Cephallenia. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 271.

[♦] ‘sear’ replaced with ‘sea’

Samia, a daughter of the river Mæander. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 4.——A surname of Juno, because she was worshipped at Samos.

Samnītæ, or Amnitæ, a people of Gaul.

Samnītes, a people of Italy, who inhabited the country situate between Picenum, Campania, Apulia, and ancient Latium. They distinguished themselves by their implacable hatred against the Romans, in the first ages of that empire, till they were at last totally extirpated, B.C. 272, after a war of 71 years. Their chief town was called Samnium, or Samnis. Livy, bk. 7, &c.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.; bk. 3, ch. 18.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Lucan, bk. 2.—Eutropius, bk. 2.

Samnium, a town and part of Italy inhabited by the Samnites. See: [Samnites].

Samochonites, a small lake of Palestine.

Samonium, a promontory of Crete.

Samos, an island in the Ægean sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is divided by a narrow strait, with a capital of the same name, built B.C. 986. It is about 87 miles in circumference, and is famous for the birth of Pythagoras. It has been anciently called Parthenia, Anthemusa, Stephane, Melamphyllus, Anthemus, Cyparissia, and Dryusa. It was first in the possession of the Leleges, and afterwards of the Ionians. The people of Samos were at first governed by kings, and afterwards the form of their government became democratical and oligarchical. Samos was in its most flourishing situation under Polycrates, who had made himself absolute there. The Samians assisted the Greeks against the Persians, when Xerxes invaded Europe, and were reduced under the power of Athens, after a revolt, by Pericles, B.C. 441. They were afterwards subdued by Eumenes king of Pergamus, and were restored to their ancient liberty by Augustus. Under Vespasian, Samos became a Roman province. Juno was held in the greatest veneration there; her temple was uncommonly magnificent, and it was even said that the goddess had been born there under a willow tree, on the banks of the Imbrasus. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 7, chs. 2 & 4.—Plutarch, Pericles.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 31.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 20.—Thucydides.——The islands of Samothrace and Cephallenia were also known by the name of Samos.

Samosăta, a town of Syria, near the Euphrates, below mount Taurus, where Lucian was born.

Samothrāce, or Samothrācia, an island in the Ægean sea, opposite the mouth of the Hebrus, on the coast of Thrace, from which it is distant about 32 miles. It was known by the ancient names of Leucosia, Melitis, Electria, Leucania, and Dardani. It was afterwards called Samos, and distinguished from the Samos which lies on the coast of Ionia by the epithet of Thracian, or by the name of Samothrace. It is about 38 miles in circumference, according to Pliny, or only 20 according to modern travellers. The origin of the first inhabitants of Samothrace is unknown. Some, however, suppose that they were Thracians, and that the place was afterwards peopled by the colonies of the Pelasgians, Samians, and Phœnicians. Samothrace is famous for a deluge which inundated the country, and reached the very top of the highest mountains. This inundation, which happened before the age of the Argonauts, was owing to the sudden overflow of the waters of the Euxine, which the ancients considered merely as a lake. The Samothracians were very religious; and as all mysteries were supposed to have taken their origin there, the island received the name of sacred, and was a safe and inviolable asylum to all fugitives and criminals. The island was originally governed by kings, but afterwards the government became democratical. It enjoyed all its rights and immunities under the Romans till the reign of Vespasian, who reduced it, with the rest of the islands in the Ægean, into the form of a province. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Strabo, bk. 10.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 108, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 208.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 4.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 12.

Samus, a son of Ancæus and Samia, grandson of Neptune. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 4.

Sana, a town of mount Athos, near which Xerxes began to make a channel to convey the sea.

Sanaos, a town of Phrygia. Strabo.

Sanchoniăthon, a Phœnician historian, born at Berytus, or, according to others, at Tyre. He flourished a few years before the Trojan war, and wrote, in the language of his country, a history in nine books, in which he amply treated of the theology and antiquities of Phœnicia, and the neighbouring places. It was compiled from the various records found in the cities, and the annals which were usually kept in the temples of the gods among the ancients. This history was translated into Greek by Philo, a native of Byblus, who lived in the reign of the emperor Adrian. Some few fragments of this Greek translation are extant. Some, however, suppose them to be spurious, while others contend that they are true and authentic.

Sancus, Sangus, or Sanctus, a deity of the Sabines introduced among the gods of Rome under the name of Dius Fidius. According to some, Sancus was father to Sabus, or Sabinus, the first king of the Sabines. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 421.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 10.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 213.

Sandace, a sister of Xerxes.

Sandaliotis, a name given to Sardinia, from its resemblance to a sandal. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 7.

Sandalium, a small island of the Ægean, near Lesbos.—A port of Pisidia. Strabo.

Sandanis, a Lydian, who advised Crœsus not to make war against the Persians.

Sandānes, a river of Thrace near Pallene.

Sandrocottus, an Indian of a mean origin. His impertinence to Alexander was the beginning of his greatness; the conqueror ordered him to be seized, but Sandrocottus fled away, and at last dropped down overwhelmed with fatigue. As he slept on the ground, a lion came to him, and gently licked the sweat from his face. This uncommon tameness of the animal appeared supernatural to Sandrocottus, and raised his ambition. He aspired to the monarchy, and after the death of Alexander, he made himself master of a part of the country which was in the hands of Seleucus. Justin, bk. 15, ch. 4.

Sane, or Sana, a town of Macedonia. See: [Sana].

Sangăla, a town of India destroyed by Alexander. Arrian, [♦]Anabasis, bk. 5.

[♦] Book name omitted in text.

Sangărius, or Sangăris, a river of Phrygia, rising in mount Dindymus, and falling into the Euxine. The daughter of the Sangarius became pregnant of Altes only from gathering the boughs of an almond tree on the banks of the river. Hecuba, according to some, was daughter of this river. Some of the poets call it Sagaris. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, poem 10.—Claudian, Against Eutropius, bk. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 17.

Sanguinius, a man condemned for ill language, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 7.

Sannyrion, a tragic poet of Athens. He composed many dramatical pieces, one of which was called Io, and another Danae. Athenæus, bk. 9.

Santŏnes and Santŏne, now Saintonge, a people with a town of the same name in Gaul. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 422.—Martial, bk. 3, ltr. 96.

Saon, an historian. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.——A man who first discovered the oracle of Trophonius. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 40.

Sapæi, or Saphæi, a people of Thrace, called also Sintii. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 389.

Sapirene, an island of the Arabic gulf. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 29.

Sapis, now Savio, a river of Gaul Cispadana, falling into the Adriatic. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 406.

Sapor, a king of Persia, who succeeded his father Artaxerxes about the 238th year of the christian era. Naturally fierce and ambitious, Sapor wished to increase his paternal dominions by conquest; and as the indolence of the emperors of Rome seemed favourable to his views, he laid waste the provinces of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Cilicia; and he might have become master of all Asia, if Odenatus had not stopped his progress. If Gordian attempted to repel him, his efforts were weak, and Philip, who succeeded him on the imperial throne, bought the peace of Sapor with money. Valerian, who was afterwards invested with the purple, marched against the Persian monarch, but he was defeated and taken prisoner. Odenatus no sooner heard that the Roman emperor was a captive in the hands of Sapor, than he attempted to release him by force of arms. The forces of Persia were cut to pieces; the wives and the treasures of the monarch fell into the hands of the conqueror, and Odenatus penetrated, with little opposition, into the very heart of the kingdom. Sapor, soon after this defeat, was assassinated by his subjects, A.D. 273, after a reign of 32 years. He was succeeded by his son called Hormisdas. Marcellinus, &c.——The second of that name succeeded his father Hormisdas on the throne of Persia. He was as great as his ancestor of the same name; and by undertaking a war against the Romans, he attempted to enlarge his dominions, and to add the provinces on the west of the Euphrates to his empire. His victories alarmed the Roman emperors, and Julian would have perhaps seized him in the capital of his dominions, if he had not received a mortal wound. Jovian, who succeeded Julian, made peace with Sapor; but the monarch, always restless and indefatigable, renewed hostilities, invaded Armenia, and defeated the emperor Valens. Sapor died A.D. 380, after a reign of 70 years, in which he had often been the sport of fortune. He was succeeded by Artaxerxes, and Artaxerxes by Sapor III., a prince who died after a reign of five years, A.D. 389, in the age of Theodosius the Great. Marcellinus, &c.

Sappho, or Sapho, celebrated for her beauty, her poetical talents, and her amorous disposition, was born in the island of Lesbos, about 600 years before Christ. Her father’s name, according to Herodotus, was Scamandronymus, or, according to others, Symon, or Semus, or Etarchus, and her mother’s name was Cleis. Her tender passions were so violent, that some have represented her attachments to three of her female companions, Telesiphe, Atthis, and Megara, as criminal, and, on that account, have given her the surname of Tribas. She conceived such a passion for Phaon, a youth of Mitylene, that upon his refusal to gratify her desires, she threw herself into the sea from mount Leucas. She had composed nine books in lyric verses, besides epigrams, elegies, &c. Of all these compositions, nothing now remains but two fragments, whose uncommon sweetness and elegance show how meritoriously the praises of the ancients have been bestowed upon a poetess, who for the sublimity of her genius was called the 10th Muse. Her compositions were all extant in the age of Horace. The Lesbians were so sensible of the merit of Sappho, that, after her death, they paid her divine honours, and raised her temples and altars, and stamped their money with her image. The poetess has been censured for writing with that licentiousness and freedom which so much disgraced her character as a woman. The Sapphic verse has been called after her name. Ovid, Heroides, poem 15; Tristia, bk. 2, li. 365.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 13.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 135.—Statius, bk. 5, Sylvæ, poem 3, li. 155.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12, chs. 18 & 29.—Pliny, bk. 22, ch. 8.

Saptine, a daughter of Darius the last king of Persia, offered in marriage to Alexander.

Saracene, part of Arabia Petræa, the country of the Saracens who embraced the religion of Mahomet.

Saracori, a people who go to war riding on asses. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12.

Sarangæ, a people near Caucasus. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 16.

Saranges, a river of India, falling into the Hydraotes, and thence into the Indus.

Sarapāni, a people of Colchis. Strabo.

Sarapus, a surname of Pittacus, one of the seven wise men of Greece.

Sarasa, a fortified place of Mesopotamia, on the Tigris. Strabo.

Saraspades, a son of Phraates king of Parthia, sent as a hostage to Augustus, &c. Strabo.

Saravus, now Soar, a river of Belgium, falling into the Moselle.

Sardanapālus, the 40th and last king of Assyria, celebrated for his luxury and voluptuousness. The greatest part of his time was spent in the company of his eunuchs, and the monarch generally appeared in the midst of his concubines disguised in the habit of a female, and spinning wool for his amusement. This effeminacy irritated his officers; Belesis and Arsaces conspired against him, and collected a numerous force to dethrone him. Sardanapalus quitted his voluptuousness for a while, and appeared at the head of his armies. The rebels were defeated in three successive battles, but at last Sardanapalus was beaten and besieged in the city of Ninus for two years. When he despaired of success, he burned himself in his palace, with his eunuchs, concubines, and all his treasures, and the empire of Assyria was divided among the conspirators. This famous event happened B.C. 820, according to Eusebius; though Justin and others, with less probability, place it 80 years earlier. Sardanapalus was made a god after death. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 150.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 35.

[♦]Sardes. See: [Sardis].

[♦] Placed in alphabetical order.

Sardi, the inhabitants of Sardinia. See: [Sardinia].

Sardĭnia, the greatest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily, is situate between Italy and Africa, at the south of Corsica. It was originally called Sandaliotis, or Ichnusa, from its resembling the human foot (ἰχνος), and it received the name of Sardinia from Sardus, a son of Hercules, who settled there with a colony which he had brought with him from Libya. Other colonies, under Aristæus, Norax, and Iolas, also settled there. The Carthaginians were long masters of it, and were dispossessed by the Romans in the Punic wars, B.C. 231. Some call it, with Sicily, one of the granaries of Rome. The air was very unwholesome, though the soil was fertile, in corn, in wine, and oil. Neither wolves nor serpents are found in Sardinia, nor any poisonous herb, except one, which, when eaten, contracts the nerves, and is attended with a paroxysm of laughter, the forerunner of death; hence risus Sardonicus, Sardous. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 7, ch. 25.—Servius, on Virgil, bk. 7, eclogue 41.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 85.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 7.—Strabo, bks. 2 & 5.—Cicero, On Pompey’s Command; Letters to his brother Quintus, bk. 2, ltr. 3.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 17.—Varro, de Re Rustica.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 6.

Sardica, a town of Thrace, at the north of mount Hæmus.

Sardis, or Sardes, now Sart, a town of Asia Minor, the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, situate at the foot of mount Tmolus, on the banks of the Pactolus. It is celebrated for the many sieges it sustained against the Cimmerians, Persians, Medes, Macedonians, Ionians, and Athenians, and for the battle in which, B.C. 262, Antiochus Soter was defeated by Eumenes king of Pergamus. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, who ordered it to be rebuilt. It fell into the hands of Cyrus, B.C. 548, and was burnt by the Athenians, B.C. 504, which became the cause of the invasion of Attica by Darius. Plutarch, Alexander.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, lis. 137, 152, &c.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 7, &c.

Sardones, the people of Roussilon in France, at the foot of the Pyrenees. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Sardus, a son of Hercules, who led a colony to Sardinia and gave it his name.

Sarephta, a town of Phœnicia between Tyre and Sidon, now Sarfand.

Sariaster, a son of Tigranes king of Armenia, who conspired against his father, &c. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 11.

Sariphi, mountains at the east of the Caspian.

Sarmătæ, or Sauromătæ, the inhabitants of Sarmatia. See: [Sarmatia].

Sarmătia, an extensive country at the north of Europe and Asia, divided into European and Asiatic. The European was bounded by the ocean on the north, Germany and the Vistula on the west, the Jazygæ on the south, and the Tanais on the east. The Asiatic was bounded by Hyrcania, the Tanais, and the Euxine sea. The former contains the modern kingdoms of Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Little Tartary; and the latter, Great Tartary, Circassia, and the neighbouring country. The Sarmatians were a savage uncivilized nation, often confounded with the Scythians, naturally warlike, and famous for painting their bodies to appear more terrible in the field of battle. They were well known for their lewdness, and they passed among the Greeks and Latins by the name of barbarians. In the time of the emperors they became very powerful, and disturbed the peace of Rome by their frequent incursions; till at last, increased by the savage hordes of Scythia, under the barbarous names of Huns, Vandals, Goths, Alans, &c., they successfully invaded and ruined the empire in the third and fourth centuries of the christian era. They generally lived on the mountains without any habitation, except their chariots, whence they have been called Hamaxobii. They lived upon plunder, and fed upon milk mixed with the blood of horses. Strabo, bk. 7, &c.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Florus, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Lucan, bk. 1, &c. Juvenal, satire 2.—Ovid, Tristia, bk. 3, &c.

Sarmatĭcum mare, a name given to the Euxine sea, because on the coast of Sarmatia. Ovid, bk. 4, ex Ponto, poem 10, li. 38.

Sarmentus, a scurrilous person, mentioned by Horace, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 56.

Sarnius, a river of Asia, near Hyrcania.

Sarnus, a river of Picenum, dividing it from Campania, and falling into the Tuscan sea. Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 2, li. 265.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 738.—Strabo, bk. 5.

Saron, a king of Trœzene, unusually fond of hunting. He was drowned in the sea, where he had swum for some miles in pursuit of a stag. He was made a sea god by Neptune, and divine honours were paid to him by the Trœzenians. It was customary for sailors to offer him sacrifices before they embarked. That part of the sea where he was drowned was called Saronicus sinus, on the coast of Achaia, near the isthmus of Corinth. Saron built a temple to Diana at Trœzene, and instituted festivals to her honour, called from himself Saronia, Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 30.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Strabo, bk. 8.

Saronĭcus sinus, now the gulf of Engia, a bay of the Ægean sea, lying at the south of Attica, and on the north of the Peloponnesus. The entrance into it is between the promontory of Sunium and that of Scyllæum. Some suppose that this part of the sea received its name from Saron, who was drowned there, or from a small river which discharged itself on the coast, or from a small harbour of the same name. The Saronic bay is about 62 miles in circumference, 23 miles in its broadest, and 25 in its longest part, according to modern calculation.

Sarpēdon, a son of Jupiter by Europa the daughter of Agenor. He banished himself from Crete, after he had in vain attempted to make himself king in preference to his elder brother Minos, and he retired to Caria, where he built the town of Miletus. He went to the Trojan war to assist Priam against the Greeks, where he was attended by his friend and companion Glaucus. He was at last killed by Patroclus, after he had made a great slaughter of the enemy, and his body, by order of Jupiter, was conveyed to Lycia by Apollo, where his friends and relations paid him funeral honours, and raised a monument to perpetuate his valour. According to some mythologists, the brother of king Minos, and the prince who assisted Priam, were two different persons. This last was king of Lycia, and son of Jupiter by Laodamia the daughter of Bellerophon, and lived about 100 years after the age of the son of Europa. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 173.—Strabo, bk. 12.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 16.——A son of Neptune, killed by Hercules for his barbarous treatment of strangers.——A learned preceptor of Cato of Utica. Plutarch, Cato.——A town of Cilicia, famous for a temple sacred to Apollo and Diana.——Also a promontory of the same name in Cilicia, beyond which Antiochus was not permitted to sail by a treaty of peace which he had made with the Romans. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 38.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 13.——A promontory of Thrace.——A Syrian general who flourished B.C. 143.

Sarra, a town of Phœnicia, the same as Tyre. It receives its name from a small shell-fish of the same name which was found in the neighbourhood, and with whose blood garments were dyed. Hence came the epithet of sarranus, so often applied to Tyrian colours, as well as to the inhabitants of the colonies of the Tyrians, particularly Carthage. Silius Italicus, bk. 6, li. 662; bk. 13, li. 205.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 506.—Festus, Lexicon of Festus.

Sarrastes, a people of Campania on the Sarnus, who assisted Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 738.

Sarron, a king of the Celtæ, so famous for his learning, that from him philosophers were called Sarronidæ. Diodorus, bk. 6, ch. 9.

Sars, a town of Spain, near cape Finisterre.

Sarsĭna, an ancient town of Umbria, where the poet Plautus was born. The inhabitants are called Sarsinates. Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 59.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 14.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 462.

Sarus, a river of Cappadocia. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 41.

Sasanda, a town of Caria. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Sason, an island at the entrance of the Adriatic sea, lying between Brundusium and Aulon on the coast of Greece. It is barren and inhospitable. Strabo, bk. 6.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 627; bk. 5, li. 650.—Silius Italicus, bk. 7, li. 480.——A river falling into the Adriatic.

Satarchæ, a people near the Palus Mæotis. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Flaccus, bk. 6, li. 144.

Sataspes, a Persian hung on a cross by order of Xerxes, for offering violence to the daughter of Megabyzus. His father’s name was Theaspes. Herodotus, bk. 4.

Satibarzanes, a Persian made satrap of the Arians by Alexander, from whom he afterwards revolted. Curtius, bks. 6 & 7.

Satīcŭla and Saticulus, a town near Capua. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 729.—Livy, bk. 9, ch. 21; bk. 23, ch. 39.

Sātis, a town of Macedonia.

Satræ, a people of Thrace. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 111.

Satrapēni, a people of Media, under Tigranes. Plutarch.

Satricum, a town of Italy, taken by Camillus. Livy, bk. 6, ch. 8.

Satropaces, an officer in the army of Darius, &c. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 9.

Satŭra, a lake of Latium, forming part of the Pontine lakes. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 382.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 801.

Satureium, or Satureum, a town of Calabria, near Tarentum, with famous pastures and horses, whence the epithet of satureianus in Horace, bk. 1, satire 6.

Satureius, one of Domitian’s murderers.

Saturnālia, festivals in honour of Saturn, celebrated the 16th or the 17th, or, according to others, the 18th of December. They were instituted long before the foundation of Rome, in commemoration of the freedom and equality which prevailed on earth in the golden reign of Saturn. Some, however, suppose that the Saturnalia were first observed at Rome in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, after a victory obtained over the Sabines; while others support that Janus first instituted them in gratitude to Saturn, from whom he had learnt agriculture. Others suppose that they were first celebrated in the year of Rome 257, after a victory obtained over the Latins by the dictator Posthumius. The Saturnalia were originally celebrated only for one day, but afterwards the solemnity continued for three, four, five, and at last for seven days. The celebration was remarkable for the liberty which universally prevailed. The slaves were permitted to ridicule their masters, and to speak with freedom upon every subject. It was usual for friends to make presents one to another; all animosity ceased, no criminals were executed, schools were shut, war was never declared, but all was mirth, riot, and debauchery. In the sacrifices the priests made their offerings with their heads uncovered, a custom which was never observed at other festivals. Seneca, ltr. 18.—Cato, de Re Rustica, bk. 57.—Suetonius, Vespasian, ch. 19.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 5, ltr. 20.

Saturnia, a name given to Italy, because Saturn had reigned there during the golden age. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 173.——A name given to Juno, as being the daughter of Saturn. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 173; Æneid, bk. 3, li. 80.——An ancient town of Italy, supposed to be built by Saturn, on the Tarpeian rock. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 358.——A colony of Etruria. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 55.

Saturnīnus Publius Sempronius, a general of Valerian, proclaimed emperor in Egypt by his troops after he had rendered himself celebrated by his victories over the barbarians. His integrity, his complaisance and affability, had gained him the affection of the people, but his fondness for ancient discipline provoked his soldiers, who wantonly murdered him in the 43rd year of his age, A.D. 262.——Sextius Julius, a Gaul, intimate with Aurelian. The emperor esteemed him greatly, not only for his virtues, but for his abilities as a general, and for the victories which he had obtained in different parts of the empire. He was saluted emperor at Alexandria, and compelled by the clamorous army to accept of the purple, which he rejected with disdain and horror. Probus, who was then emperor, marched his forces against him, and besieged him in Apamea, where he destroyed himself when unable to make head against his powerful adversary.——Appuleius, a tribune of the people who raised a sedition at Rome, intimidated the senate, and tyrannized for three years. Meeting at last with opposition, he seized the capitol, but being induced by the hopes of a reconciliation to trust himself amidst the people, he was suddenly torn to pieces. His sedition has received the name of Appuleiana in the Roman annals. Florus.——Lucius, a seditious tribune, who supported the oppression of Marius. He was at last put to death on account of his tumultuous disposition. Plutarch, Caius Marius.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 16.——An officer in the court of Theodosius, murdered for obeying the emperor’s orders, &c.——Pompeius, a writer in the reign of Trajan. He was greatly esteemed by Pliny, who speaks of him with great warmth and approbation, as an historian, a poet, and an orator. Pliny always consulted the opinion of Saturninus before he published his compositions.——Sentius, a friend of Augustus and Tiberius. He succeeded Agrippa in the government of the provinces of Syria and Phœnicia.——Vitellius, an officer among the friends of the emperor Otho.

Saturnius, a name given to Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune, as being the sons of Saturn.

Saturnus, a son of Cœlus, or Uranus, by Terra, called also Titea, Thea, or Titheia. He was naturally artful, and by means of his mother, he revenged himself on his father, whose cruelty to his children had provoked the anger of Thea. The mother armed her son with a scythe, which was fabricated with the metals drawn from her bowels, and as Cœlus was going to unite himself to Thea, Saturn mutilated him, and for ever prevented him from increasing the number of his children, whom he treated with unkindness, and confined in the infernal regions. After this the sons of Cœlus were restored to liberty, and Saturn obtained his father’s kingdom by the consent of his brother, provided he did not bring up any male children. Pursuant to this agreement, Saturn always devoured his sons as soon as born, because, as some observe, he dreaded from them a retaliation of his unkindness to his father, till his wife Rhea, unwilling to see her children perish, concealed from her husband the birth of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, and instead of the children she gave him large stones, which he immediately swallowed without perceiving the deceit. Titan was some time after informed that Saturn had concealed his male children, therefore he made war against him, dethroned and imprisoned him with Rhea; and Jupiter, who was secretly educated in Crete, was no sooner grown up, than he flew to deliver his father, and to replace him on the throne. Saturn, unmindful of his son’s kindness, conspired against him, when he heard that he raised cabals against him, but Jupiter banished him from his throne, and the father fled for safety into Italy, where the country retained the name of Latium, as being the place of his concealment (lateo). Janus, who was then king of Italy, received Saturn with marks of attention; he made him his partner on the throne; and the king of heaven employed himself in civilizing the barbarous manners of the people of Italy, and in teaching them agriculture and the useful and liberal arts. His reign there was so mild and popular, so beneficent and virtuous, that mankind have called it the golden age, to intimate the happiness and tranquillity which the earth then enjoyed. Saturn was father of Chiron the centaur by Philyra, whom he had changed into a mare, to avoid the importunities of Rhea. The worship of Saturn was not so solemn or so universal as that of Jupiter. It was usual to offer human victims on his altars, but this barbarous custom was abolished by Hercules, who substituted small images of clay. In the sacrifices of Saturn, the priest always performed the ceremony with his head uncovered, which was unusual at other solemnities. The god is generally represented as an old man, bent through age and infirmity. He holds a scythe in his right hand, with a serpent which bites its own tail, which is an emblem of time and of the revolution of the year. In his left hand he holds a child, which he raises up as if instantly to devour it. Tatius king of the Sabines first built a temple to Saturn on the Capitoline hill, a second was afterwards added by Tullus Hostilius, and a third by the first consuls. On his statues were generally hung fetters in commemoration of the chains he had worn when imprisoned by Jupiter. From this circumstance, all slaves that obtained their liberty generally dedicated their fetters him. During the celebration of the Saturnalia, the chains were taken from the statues to intimate the freedom and the independence which mankind enjoyed during the golden age. One of his temples at Rome was appropriated for the public treasury, and it was there also that the names of foreign ambassadors were enrolled. Hesiod, Theogony.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 319.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 8.—Tibullus, poem 3, li. 35.—Homer, Iliad.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 197; Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 123.

Satŭrum, a town of Calabria, where stuffs of all kinds were dyed in different colours with great success. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 197; bk. 4, li. 335.

Săty̆ri, demigods of the country, whose origin is unknown. They are represented like men, but with the feet and the legs of goats, short horns on the head, and the whole body covered with thick hair. They chiefly attended upon Bacchus, and rendered themselves known in his orgies by their riot and lasciviousness. The first fruits of everything were generally offered to them. The Romans promiscuously called them Fauni, Panes, and Sylvani. It is said that a Satyr was brought to Sylla as that general returned from Thessaly. The monster had been surprised asleep in a cave; but his voice was inarticulate when brought into the presence of the Roman general, and Sylla was so disgusted with it, that he ordered it to be instantly removed. The monster answered in every degree the description which the poets and painters have given of the Satyrs. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 23.—Plutarch, Sulla.—Virgil, eclogue 5, li. 13.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 4, li. 171.

Saty̆rus, a king of Bosphorus, who reigned 14 years, &c. His father’s name was Spartacus. Diodorus, bk. 20.——An Athenian who attempted to eject the garrison of Demetrius from the citadel, &c. Polyænus.——A Greek actor who instructed Demosthenes, and taught him how to have a good and strong delivery.——A man who assisted in murdering Timophanes, by order of his brother Timoleon.——A Rhodian sent by his countrymen to Rome, when Eumenes had accused some of the allies of intentions to favour the interest of Macedonia against the republic.——A peripatetic philosopher and historian, who flourished B.C. 148.——A tyrant of Heraclea, 346 B.C.——An architect who, together with Petus, is said to have planned and built the celebrated tomb which Artemisia erected to the memory of Mausolus, and which became one of the wonders of the world. The honour of erecting it is ascribed to others.

Savera, a village of Lycaonia.

Saufeius Trogus, one of Messalina’s favourites, punished by Claudius, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 35.——Appius, a Roman, who died on his return from the bath upon taking mead, &c. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 53.

Savo, or Savona, a town with a small river of the same name in Campania. Statius, [♦]Sylvæ, bk. 4.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.——A town of Liguria.

[♦] Book name omitted in text.

Sauromatæ, a people in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. They are called Sarmatæ by the Latins. See: [Sarmatia].

Saurus, a famous robber of Elis, killed by Hercules. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 21.——A statuary. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.

Savus, a river of Pannonia, rising in Noricum, at the north of Aquileia, and falling into the Danube, after flowing through Pannonia, in an eastern direction. Claudian, De Consulatu Stilichonis, bk. 2.——A small river of Numidia, falling into the Mediterranean.

Saxŏnes, a people of Germany, near the Chersonesus Cimbrica. Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 11.—Claudian, bk. 1, Against Eutropius, li. 392.

Saziches, an ancient legislator of Egypt.

Scæa, one of the gates of Troy, where the tomb of Laomedon was seen. The name is derived by some from σκαιος (sinster), because it was through this avenue that the fatal horse was introduced. Homer, Iliad.—Silius Italicus, bk. 13, li. 73.——One of the Danaides. Her husband’s name was Dayphron. Apollodorus.

Scæva, a soldier in Cæsar’s army, who behaved with great courage at Dyrrachium. Lucan, bk. 6, li. 144.——Memor, a Latin poet in the reign of Titus and Domitian.——A man who poisoned his own mother. Horace, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 53.——A friend of Horace, to whom the poet addressed bk. 1, ltr. 17. He was a Roman knight.

Scævŏla. See: [Mutius].

Scalabis, now St. Irene, a town of ancient Spain.

Scaldis, or Scaldium, a river of Belgium, now called the Scheld, and dividing the modern country of the Netherlands from Holland. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6, li. 33.——Pons, a town on the same river, now called Condé. Cæsar.

Scamander, or Scamandros, a celebrated river of Troas, rising at the east of mount Ida, and falling into the sea below Sigæum. It receives the Simois in its course, and towards its mouth it is very muddy, and flows through marshes. This river, according to Homer, was called Xanthus by the gods, and Scamander by men. The waters of the Scamander had the singular property of giving a beautiful colour to the hair or the wool of such animals as bathed in them; and from this circumstance the three goddesses, Minerva, Juno, and Venus, bathed there before they appeared before Paris, to obtain the golden apple. It was usual among all the virgins of Troas to bathe in the Scamander, when they were arrived to nubile years, and to offer to the god their virginity in these words, Λαβε μου, Σκαμανδρε, την παεθενιαν. The god of the Scamander had a regular priest, and sacrifices offered to him. Some suppose that the river received its name from Scamander the son of Corybas. Ælian, De Natura Animalium, bk. 8, ch. 21.—Strabo, bks. 1 & 13.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 30.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 18.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 5.—Plutarch.—Æschines, ltr. 10.——A son of Corybas and Demodice, who brought a colony from Crete into Phrygia, and settled at the foot of mount Ida, where he introduced the festivals of Cybele, and the dances of the Corybantes. He some time after lost the use of his senses and threw himself into the river Xanthus, which ever after bore his name. His son-in-law Teucer succeeded him in the government of the colony. He had two daughters, Thymo and Callirhoe. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.—Diodorus, bk. 4.

Scamandria, a town on the Scamander. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 30.

Scamandrius, one of the generals of Priam, son of Strophius. He was killed by Menelaus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 5, li. 49.

Scandaria, a promontory in the island of Cos. Strabo, bk. 14.

Scandinavia, a name given by the ancients to that tract of territory which contains the modern kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lapland, Finland, &c., supposed by them to be an island. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 13.

Scantia Sylva, a wood of Campania, the property of the Roman people. Cicero.

Scantilla, the wife of Didius Julianus. It was by her advice that her husband bought the empire which was exposed to sale at the death of Pertinax.

Scantinia lex. See: [Scatinia].

Scaptesyle, a town of Thrace, near Abdera, abounding in silver and gold mines, belonging to Thucydides, who is supposed there to have written his history of the Peloponnesian war. Lucretius, bk. 6, li. 810.—Plutarch, Cimon.

Scaptia, a town of Latium. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 396.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Livy, bk. 8, ch. 17.

Scaptius, an intimate friend of Brutus. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 5, &c. His brother was a merchant of Cappadocia.

Scapŭla, a native of Corduba, who defended that town against Cæsar, after the battle of Munda. When he saw that all his efforts were useless against the Roman general, he destroyed himself. Cæsar, Hispanic War, ch. 33.——A usurper. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 12, ltr. 37.

Scandon, a town on the confines of Dalmatia.

Scardii, a ridge of mountains of Macedonia, which separates it from Illyricum. Livy, bk. 43, ch. 20.

Scarphia, or Scarphe, a town near Thermopylæ, on the confines of Phthiotis. Seneca, Troades.

Scatinia lex, de pudicitiâ, by Caius Scatinius Aricinus the tribune, was enacted against those who kept catamites, and such as prostituted themselves to any vile or unnatural service. The penalty was originally a fine, but it was afterwards made a capital crime under Augustus. It is sometimes called Scantinia, from a certain Scantinius upon whom it was first executed.

Scaurus Marcus Æmylius, a Roman consul who distinguished himself by his eloquence at the bar, and by his successes in Spain in the capacity of commander. He was sent against Jugurtha, and some time after accused of suffering himself to be bribed by the Numidian prince. Scaurus conquered the Ligurians, and in his censorship he built the Milvian bridge at Rome, and began to pave the road, which from him was called the Æmylian. He was originally very poor. He wrote some books, and among these a history of his own life, all now lost.——His son, of the same name, made himself known by the large theatre which he built during his edileship. This theatre, which could contain 30,000 spectators, was supported by 360 columns of marble, 38 feet in height, and adorned with 3000 brazen statues. This celebrated edifice, according to Pliny, proved more fatal to the manners and the simplicity of the Romans, than the proscriptions and wars of Sylla had done to the inhabitants of the city. Scaurus married Murcia. Cicero, Brutus.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 7; bk. 36, ch. 2.——A Roman of consular dignity. When the Cimbri invaded Italy, the son of Scaurus behaved with great cowardice, upon which the father sternly ordered him never to appear again in the field of battle. The severity of this command rendered young Scaurus melancholy, and he plunged a sword into his own heart, to free himself from further ignominy.——Aurelius, a Roman consul taken prisoner by the Gauls. He was put to a cruel death because he told the king of the enemy not to cross the Alps to invade Italy, which was universally deemed unconquerable.——Marcus Æmilius, a man in the reign of Tiberius accused of adultery with Livia, and put to death. He was an eloquent orator, but very lascivious and debauched in his morals.——Mamercus, a man put to death by Tiberius.——Maximus, a man who conspired against Nero.——Terentius, a Latin grammarian. He had been preceptor to the emperor Adrian. Aulus Gellius, bk. 11, ch. 15.

Scedăsus, a native of Leuctra in Bœotia. His two daughters, Meletia and Molpia, whom some called Theano and Hippo, were ravished by some Spartans, in the reign of Cleombrotus, and after this they killed themselves, unable to survive the loss of their honour. The father became so disconsolate, that when he was unable to obtain relief from his country, he killed himself on their tomb. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 13.—Plutarch, Amatoriæ narrationes, ch. 3.

Scelerātus, a plain of Rome near the Colline gate, where the vestal Minucia was buried alive, when convicted of adultery. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 15.——One of the gates of Rome was called Scelerata, because the 300 Fabii, who were killed at the river Cremera, had passed through it when they went to attack the enemy. It was before named Carmentalis.——There was also a street at Rome formerly called Cyprius, which received the name of the Sceleratus vicus, because there Tullia ordered her postilion to drive her chariot over the body of her father, king Servius. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 48.—Ovid, Ibis, li. 365.

Scena, a town on the confines of Babylon. Strabo, bk. 16.——A river of Ireland, now the Shannon. Orosius, bk. 1, ch. 2.

Scenitæ, Arabians who live in tents. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 11.

Scepsis, a town of Troas, where the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle were long concealed underground, and damaged by the wet, &c. Strabo, bk. 10.

Schedia, a small village of Egypt, with a dockyard between the western mouths of the Nile and Alexandria. Strabo.

Schedius, one of Helen’s suitors. Pausanias, bk. 10, chs. 4 & 30.

Scheria, an ancient name of Corcyra. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.

Schœneus, a son of Athamas.——The father of Atalanta.

Schœnus, or Scheno, a port of Peloponnesus, on the Saronicus sinus.——A village near Thebes, with a river of the same name.——A river of Arcadia.——Another near Athens.

Sciastes, a surname of Apollo at Lacedæmon, from the village Scias where he was particularly worshipped. Lycophron, li. 562.—Tzetzes, on the same reference.

Sciăthis, a mountain of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 14.

Sciăthos, an island in the Ægean sea, opposite mount Pelion, on the coast of Thessaly. Valerius Flaccus, bk. 2.

Scidros, a town of Magna Græcia.

Scillus, a town of Peloponnesus, near Olympia, where Xenophon wrote his history.

Scilūrus, a king of Scythia, who had 80 sons. See: [Scylurus].

Scinis, a cruel robber who tied men to the boughs of trees, which he had forcibly brought together, and which he afterwards unloosed, so that their limbs were torn in an instant from their body. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 440.

Scinthi, a people of Germany.

Sciōne, a town of Thrace, in the possession of the Athenians. It revolted and passed into the hands of the Lacedæmonians during the Peloponnesian war. It was built by a Grecian colony on their return from the Trojan war. Thucydides, bk. 4.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Scīpiădæ, a name applied to the two Scipios, who obtained the surname of Africanus, from the conquest of Carthage. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 843.

Scipio, a celebrated family at Rome, who obtained the greatest honours in the republic. The name seems to be derived from scipio, which signifies a stick, because one of the family had conducted his blind father, and had been to him as a stick. The Scipios were a branch of the Cornelian family. The most illustrious were:—Publius Cornelius, a man made master of horse by Camillus, &c.——A Roman dictator.——Lucius Cornelius, a consul, A.U.C. 456, who defeated the Etrurians near Volaterra.——Another consul, A.U.C. 495.——Cnæus, surnamed Asina, was consul A.U.C. 494 and 500. He was conquered in his first consulship in a naval battle, and lost 17 ships. The following year he took Aleria, in Corsica, and defeated Hanno the Carthaginian general, in Sardinia. He also took 200 of the enemy’s ships, and the city of Panormum in Sicily. He was father to Publius and Cneus Scipio. Publius, in the beginning of the second Punic war, was sent with an army to Spain to oppose Annibal; but when he heard that his enemy had passed over into Italy, he attempted by his quick marches and secret evolutions to stop his progress. He was conquered by Annibal near the Ticinus, where he nearly lost his life, had not his son, who was afterwards surnamed Africanus, courageously defended him. He again passed into Spain, where he obtained some memorable victories over the Carthaginians, and the inhabitants of the country. His brother Cneus shared the supreme command with him, but their great confidence proved their ruin. They separated their armies, and soon after Publius was furiously attacked by the two Asdrubals and Mago, who commanded the Carthaginian armies. The forces of Publius were too few to resist with success the three Carthaginian generals. The Romans were cut to pieces, and their commander was left on the field of battle. No sooner had the enemy obtained this victory than they immediately marched to meet Cneus Scipio, whom the revolt of 30,000 Celtiberians had weakened and alarmed. The general, who was already apprised of his brother’s death, secured an eminence, where he was soon surrounded on all sides. After desperate acts of valour he was left among the slain, or, according to some, he fled into a tower, where he was burnt with some of his friends by the victorious enemy. Livy, bk. 21, &c.—Polybius, bk. 4.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6, &c.—Eutropius, bk. 3, ch. 8, &c.——Publius Cornelius, surnamed Africanus, was son of Publius Scipio, who was killed in Spain. He first distinguished himself at the battle of Ticinus, where he saved his father’s life by deeds of unexampled valour and boldness. The battle of Cannæ, which proved so fatal to the Roman arms, instead of disheartening Scipio, raised his expectations, and he no sooner heard that some of his desperate countrymen wished to abandon Italy, and to fly from the insolence of the conqueror, than with his sword in his hand, and by his firmness and example, he obliged them to swear eternal fidelity to Rome, and to put to immediate death the first man who attempted to retire from his country. In his 21st year, Scipio was made an edile, an honourable office which was never given but to such as had reached their 27th year. Some time after, the Romans were alarmed by the intelligence that the commanders of their forces in Spain, Publius and Cneus Scipio, had been slaughtered, and immediately young Scipio was appointed to avenge the death of his father and of his uncle, and to vindicate the military honour of the republic. It was soon known how able he was to be at the head of an army; the various nations of Spain were conquered, and in four years the Carthaginians were banished from that part of the continent. The whole province became tributary to Rome; New Carthage submitted in one day, and in a battle 54,000 of the enemy were left dead on the field. After these signal victories Scipio was recalled to Rome, which still trembled at the continual alarms of Annibal, who was at her gates. The conqueror of the Carthaginians in Spain was looked upon as a proper general to encounter Annibal in Italy; but Scipio opposed the measures which his countrymen wished to pursue, and he declared in the senate that if Annibal was to be conquered he must be conquered in Africa. These bold measures were immediately adopted, though opposed by the eloquence, age, and experience of the great Fabius, and Scipio was empowered to conduct the war on the coasts of Africa. With the dignity of consul he embarked for Carthage. Success attended his arms; his conquests were here as rapid as in Spain; the Carthaginian armies were routed, the camp of the crafty Asdrubal was set on fire during the night, and his troops totally defeated in a drawn battle. These repeated losses alarmed Carthage; Annibal, who was victorious at the gates of Rome, was instantly recalled to defend the walls of his country, and the two greatest generals of the age met each other in the field. Terms of accommodation were proposed; but in the parley which the two commanders had together, nothing satisfactory was offered, and while the one enlarged on the vicissitudes of human affairs, the other wished to dictate like a conqueror, and recommended the decision of the controversy to the sword. The celebrated battle was fought near Zama, and both generals displayed their military knowledge in drawing up their armies and in choosing their ground. Their courage and intrepidity were not less conspicuous in charging the enemy; a thousand acts of valour were performed on both sides, and though the Carthaginians fought in their own defence, and the Romans for fame and glory, yet the conqueror of Italy was vanquished. About 20,000 Carthaginians were slain, and the same number made prisoners of war, B.C. 202. Only 2000 of the Romans were killed. This battle was decisive; the Carthaginians sued for peace, which Scipio at last granted on the most severe and humiliating terms. The conqueror after this returned to Rome, where he was received with the most unbounded applause, honoured with a triumph, and dignified with the appellation of Africanus. Here he enjoyed for some time the tranquillity and the honours which his exploits merited, but in him also, as in other great men, fortune showed herself inconstant. Scipio offended the populace in wishing to distinguish the senators from the rest of the people at the public exhibitions; and when he canvassed for the consulship for two of his friends, he had the mortification to see his application slighted, and the honours which he claimed bestowed on a man of no character, and recommended by neither abilities nor meritorious actions. He retired from Rome no longer to be a spectator of the ingratitude of his countrymen, and in the capacity of lieutenant he accompanied his brother against Antiochus king of Syria. In this expedition his arms were attended with usual success, and the Asiatic monarch submitted to the conditions which the conquerors dictated. At his return to Rome, Africanus found the malevolence of his enemies still unabated. Cato, his inveterate rival, raised seditions against him, and the Petilli, two tribunes of the people, accused the conqueror of Annibal of extortion in the provinces of Asia, and of living in an indolent and luxurious manner. Scipio condescended to answer to the accusation of his calumniators; the first day was spent in hearing the different charges, but when he again appeared on the second day of his trial, the accused interrupted his judges, and exclaimed, “Tribunes and fellow-citizens, on this day, this very day, did I conquer Annibal and the Carthaginians: come, therefore, with me, Romans; let us go to the capitol, and there return our thanks to the immortal gods for the victories which have attended our arms.” These words had the desired effect; the tribes and all the assembly followed Scipio, the court was deserted, and the tribunes were left alone in the seat of judgment. Yet when this memorable day was past and forgotten, Africanus was a third time summoned to appear; but he had fled before the impending storm, and retired to his country house at Liternum. The accusation was therefore stopped, and the accusers silenced, when one of the tribunes, formerly distinguished for his malevolence against Scipio, rose to defend him, and declared in the assembly, that it reflected the highest disgrace on the Roman people, that the conqueror of Annibal should become the sport of the populace, and be exposed to the malice and envy of disappointed ambition. Some time after Scipio died in the place of his retreat, about 184 years before Christ, in the 48th year of his age; and so great an aversion did he express, as he expired, for the depravity of the Romans, and the ingratitude of their senators, that he ordered his bones not to be conveyed to Rome. They were accordingly inhumated at Liternum, where his wife Æmilia the daughter of Paulus Æmilius, who fell at the battle of Cannæ, raised a mausoleum on his tomb, and placed upon it his statue, with that of the poet Ennius, who had been the companion of his peace and of his retirement. If Scipio was robbed during his lifetime of the honours which belonged to him as the conqueror of Africa, he was not forgotten when dead. The Romans viewed his character with reverence; with raptures they read of his warlike actions, and Africanus was regarded in the following ages as a pattern of virtue, of innocence, courage, and liberality. As a general, the fame and the greatness of his conquests explain his character; and indeed we hear that Annibal declared himself inferior to no general that ever lived except Alexander the Great, and Pyrrhus king of Epirus; and when Scipio asked him what rank he would claim, if he had conquered him, the Carthaginian general answered, “If I had conquered you, Scipio, I would call myself greater than the conqueror of Darius and the ally of the Tarentines.” As an instance of Scipio’s continence, ancient authors have faithfully recorded that the conqueror of Spain refused to see a beautiful princess that had fallen into his hands after the taking of New Carthage, and that he not only restored her inviolate to her parents, but also added immense presents for the person to whom she was betrothed. It was to the artful complaisance of Africanus that the Romans owed their alliance with Masinissa king of Numidia, and also that with king Syphax. The friendship of Scipio and Lælius is well known. Polybius, bk. 6.—Plutarch.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Cicero, Brutus, &c.—Eutropius.——Lucius Cornelius, surnamed Asiaticus, accompanied his brother Africanus in his expeditions in Spain and Africa. He was rewarded with the consulship, A.U.C. 564, for his services to the state, and he was empowered to attack Antiochus king of Syria, who had declared war against the Romans. Lucius was accompanied in this campaign by his brother Africanus; and by his own valour, and the advice of the conqueror of Annibal, he soon routed the enemy, and in a battle near the city of Sardes he killed 50,000 foot and 4000 horse. Peace was soon after settled by the submission of Antiochus, and the conqueror, at his return home, obtained a triumph, and the surname of Asiaticus. He did not, however, long enjoy his prosperity; Cato, after the death of Africanus, turned his fury against Asiaticus, and the two Petilli, his devoted favourites, presented a petition to the people, in which they prayed that an inquiry might be made to know what money had been received from Antiochus and his allies. The petition was instantly received, and Asiaticus, charged to have suffered himself to be corrupted by Antiochus, was summoned to appear before the tribunal of Terentius Culeo, who was on this occasion created pretor. The judge, who was an inveterate enemy to the family of the Scipios, soon found Asiaticus, with his two lieutenants and his questor, guilty of having received the first 6000 pounds weight of gold, and 480 pounds weight of silver, and the others nearly an equal sum, from the monarch against whom, in the name of the Roman people, they were enjoined to make war. Immediately they were condemned to pay large fines; but while the others gave security, Scipio declared that he had accounted to the public for all the money which he had brought from Asia, and therefore that he was innocent. For this obstinacy Scipio was dragged to prison, but his cousin Nasica pleaded his cause before the people, and the pretor instantly ordered the goods of the prisoner to be seized and confiscated. The sentence was executed, but the effects of Scipio were insufficient to pay the fine, and it was the greatest justification of his innocence, that whatever was found in his house had never been in the possession of Antiochus or his subjects. This, however, did not totally liberate him; he was reduced to poverty, and refused to accept the offer of his friends and of his clients. Some time after he was appointed to settle the disputes between Eumenes and Seleucus, and at his return the Romans, ashamed of their severity towards him, rewarded his merit with such uncommon liberality, that Asiaticus was enabled to celebrate games in honour of his victory over Antiochus, for 10 successive days, at his own expense. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 55, &c.—Eutropius, bk. 4.——Nasica, was son of Cneus Scipio, and cousin to Scipio Africanus. He was refused the consulship, though supported by the interest and the fame of the conqueror of Annibal; but he afterwards obtained it, and in that honourable office conquered the Boii, and gained a triumph. He was also successful in an expedition which he undertook in Spain. When the statue of Cybele was brought to Rome from Phrygia, the Roman senate delegated one of their body, who was the most remarkable for the purity of his manners and the innocence of his life, to go and meet the goddess in the harbour of Ostia. Nasica was the object of their choice, and as such he was enjoined to bring the statue of the goddess to Rome with the greatest pomp and solemnity. Nasica also distinguished himself by the active part which he took in confuting the accusations laid against the two Scipios, Africanus and Asiaticus.——There was also another of the same name, who distinguished himself by his enmity against the Gracchi, to whom he was nearly related. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 15.—Livy, bk. 29, ch. 14, &c.——Publius Æmilianus, son of Paulus the conqueror of Perseus, was adopted by the son of Scipio Africanus. He received the same surname as his grandfather, and was called Africanus the younger, on account of his victories over Carthage. Æmilianus first appeared in the Roman armies under his father, and afterwards distinguished himself as a legionary tribune in the Spanish provinces, where he killed a Spaniard of gigantic stature, and he obtained a mural crown at the siege of Intercata. He passed into Africa to demand a reinforcement from king Masinissa the ally of Rome, and he was the spectator of a long and bloody battle which was fought between that monarch and the Carthaginians, and which soon produced the third Punic war. Some time after Æmilianus was made edile, and next appointed consul, though under the age required for that important office. The surname which he had received from his grandfather, he was doomed lawfully to claim as his own. He was empowered to finish the war with Carthage, and as he was permitted by the senate to choose his colleague, he took with him his friend Lælius, whose father of the same name had formerly enjoyed the confidence and shared the victories of the first Africanus. The siege of Carthage was already begun, but the operations of the Romans were not continued with vigour. Scipio had no sooner appeared before the walls of the enemy, than every communication with the land was cut off, and that they might not have the command of the sea, a stupendous mole was thrown across the harbour with immense labour and expense. This, which might have disheartened the most active enemy, rendered the Carthaginians more eager in the cause of freedom and independence; all the inhabitants, without distinction of rank, age, or sex, employed themselves without cessation to dig another harbour, and to build and equip another fleet. In a short time, in spite of the vigilance and activity of Æmilianus, the Romans were astonished to see another harbour formed, and 50 galleys suddenly issuing under sail, ready for the engagement. This unexpected fleet, by immediately attacking the Roman ships, might have gained the victory, but the delay of the Carthaginians proved fatal to their cause, and the enemy had sufficient time to prepare themselves. Scipio soon got the possession of a small eminence in the harbour, and, by the success of his subsequent operations, he broke open one of the gates of the city and entered the streets, where he made his way by fire and sword. The surrender of above 50,000 men was followed by the reduction of the citadel, and the total submission of Carthage, B.C. 147. The captive city was set on fire, and though Scipio was obliged to demolish its very walls to obey the orders of the Romans, yet he wept bitterly over the melancholy and tragical scene; and in bewailing the miseries of Carthage, he expressed his fears lest Rome, in her turn, in some future age, should exhibit such a dreadful conflagration. The return of Æmilianus to Rome was that of another conqueror of Annibal, and, like him, he was honoured with a magnificent triumph, and received the surname of Africanus. He was not long left in the enjoyment of his glory, before he was called to obtain fresh honours. He was chosen consul a second time, and appointed to finish the war which the Romans had hitherto carried on without success or vigorous exertions against Numantia. The fall of Numantia was more noble than that of the capital of Africa, and the conqueror of Carthage obtained the victory only when the enemies had been consumed by famine or by self-destruction, B.C. 133. From his conquests in Spain, Æmilianus was honoured with a second triumph, and with the surname of Numantinus. Yet his popularity was short, and, by telling the people that the murder of their favourite, his brother-in-law Gracchus, was lawful, since he was turbulent and inimical to the peace of the republic, Scipio incurred the displeasure of the tribunes, and was received with hisses. His authority for a moment quelled their sedition, when he reproached them for their own cowardice, and exclaimed, “Factious wretches, do you think your clamours can intimidate me; me, whom the fury of your enemies never daunted? Is this the gratitude that you owe to my father Paulus who conquered Macedonia, and to me? Without my family you were slaves. Is this the respect you owe to your deliverers? Is this your affection?” This firmness silenced the murmurs of the assembly, and some time after Scipio retired from the clamours of Rome to Caieta, where, with his friend Lælius, he passed the rest of his time in innocent pleasure and amusement, in diversions which had pleased them when children; and the two greatest men that ruled the state, were often seen on the sea-shore picking up light pebbles, and throwing them on the smooth surface of the waters. Though fond of retirement and literary ease, yet Scipio often interested himself in the affairs of the state. His enemies accused him of aspiring to the dictatorship, and the clamours were most loud against him, when he had opposed the Sempronian law, and declared himself the patron of the inhabitants of the provinces of Italy. This active part of Scipio was seen with pleasure by the friends of the republic, and not only the senate, but also the citizens, the Latins, and neighbouring states conducted their illustrious friend and patron to his house. It seemed also the universal wish that the troubles might be quieted by the election of Scipio to the dictatorship, and many presumed that that honour would be on the morrow conferred upon him. In this, however, the expectations of Rome were frustrated. Scipio was found dead in his bed, to the astonishment of the world; and those who inquired for the causes of this sudden death, perceived violent marks on his neck, and concluded that he had been strangled, B.C. 128. This assassination, as it was then generally believed, was committed by the triumvirs, Papirius Carbo, Caius Gracchus, and Fulvius Flaccus, who supported the Sempronian law, and by his wife Sempronia, who is charged with having introduced the murderers into his room. No inquiries were made after the authors of his death; Gracchus was the favourite of the mob, and the only atonement which the populace made for the death of Scipio was to attend his funeral, and to show their concern by their cries and loud lamentations. The second Africanus has often been compared to the first of that name; they seemed to be equally great and equally meritorious, and the Romans were unable to distinguish which of the two was entitled to a greater share of their regard and admiration. Æmilianus, like his grandfather, was fond of literature, and he saved from the flames of Carthage many valuable compositions, written by Phœnician and Punic authors. In the midst of his greatness he died poor, and his nephew Quintus Fabius Maximus, who inherited his estate, scarce found in his house 32 pounds weight of silver, and two and a half of gold. His liberality to his brother and to his sisters deserves the greatest commendations, and, indeed, no higher encomium can be passed upon his character, private as well as public, than the words of his rival Metellus, who told his sons, at the death of Scipio, to go and attend the funeral of the greatest man that ever lived or should live in Rome. Livy, bk. 44, &c.—Cicero, de Senectute, Orator, Brutus, &c.—Polybius.—Appian.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 12, &c.—Florus.——A son of the first Africanus, taken captive by Antiochus king of Syria, and restored to his father without a ransom. He adopted as his son young Æmilianus the son of Paulus Æmilius, who was afterwards surnamed Africanus. Like his father Scipio, he distinguished himself by his fondness for literature, and his valour in the Roman armies.——Metellus, the father-in-law of Pompey, appointed commander in Macedonia. He was present at the battle of Pharsalia, and afterwards retired to Africa with Cato. He was defeated by Cæsar at Thapsus. Plutarch.——Salutio, a mean person in Cæsar’s army in Africa. The general appointed him his chief commander, either to ridicule him, or because there was an ancient oracle that declared that the Scipios would ever be victorious in Africa. Plutarch.——Lucius Cornelius, a consul who opposed Sylla. He was at last deserted by his army, and proscribed.——The commander of a cohort in the reign of Vitellius.

Scira, an annual solemnity observed at Athens in honour of Minerva, or, according to others, of Ceres and Proserpine. It received its name either from Sciras, a small town of Attica, or from a native of Eleusis, called Scirus.

Sciradium, a promontory of Attica, on the Saronicus sinus.

Sciras, a name of Ægina. Minerva was also called Sciras. Strabo, bk. 9.

Sciressa, a mountain of Arcadia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 5.

Sciron, a celebrated thief in Attica, who plundered the inhabitants of the country, and threw them down from the highest rocks into the sea, after he had obliged them to wait upon him and to wash his feet. Theseus attacked him, and treated him as he treated travellers. According to Ovid, the earth as well as the sea refused to receive the bones of Sciron, which remained for some time suspended in the air, till they were changed into large rocks called Scironia Saxa, situate between Megara and Corinth. There was a road near them which bore the name of Sciron, naturally small and narrow, but afterwards enlarged by the emperor Adrian. Some suppose that Ino threw herself into the sea, from one of these rocks. Sciron had married the daughter of Cychreus, a king of Salamis. He was brother-in-law to Telamon the son of Æacus. Ovid, bk. 7, Metamorphoses, li. 444; Heroides, poem 2, li. 69.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 47.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 38.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 14, li. 12.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Seneca, Quæstiones naturales, bk. 5, ch. 17.

Scirus, a village of Arcadia, of which the inhabitants are called Sciritæ.——A plain and river of Attica, near Megara. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 36.

Scissis, a town of Spain. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 60.

Scodra, a town of Illyricum, where Gentius resided. Livy, bk. 43, ch. 20.

Scolus, a mountain of Bœotia.——A town of Macedonia, near Olynthus. Strabo.

Scombrus, a mountain of Thrace, near Rhodope.

Scopas, an architect and sculptor of Ephesus, for some time employed in making the mausoleum which Artemisia raised to her husband, and which was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. One of his statues of Venus was among the antiquities with which Rome was adorned. Scopas lived about 450 years before Christ. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43, &c.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 8.—Vitruvius, bk. 9, ch. 9.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8; bk. 36, ch. 5.——An Ætolian who raised some forces to assist Ptolemy Epiphanes king of Egypt, against his enemies Antiochus and his allies. He afterwards conspired against the Egyptian monarch, and was put to death, B.C. 196.——An ambassador to the court of the emperor Domitian.

Scopium, a town of Thessaly.

Scordisci and Scordiscæ, a people of Pannonia and Thrace, well known during the reign of the Roman emperors for their barbarity and uncivilized manners. They were fond of drinking human blood, and they generally sacrificed their captive enemies to their gods. Livy, bk. 41, ch. 19.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Scoti, the ancient inhabitants of Scotland, mentioned as different from the Picts. Claudian, de Tertio Consulatu Honorii, li. 54.

Scotīnus, a surname of Heraclitus. Strabo, bk. 15.

Scotussa, a town of Thessaly at the north of Larissa and of the Peneus, destroyed by Alexander of Pheræ. Livy, bk. 28, chs. 5 & 7; bk. 36, ch. 14.—Strabo, bks. 7 & 9.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 5.——Another in Macedonia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Scribonia, a daughter of Scribonius, who married Augustus after he had divorced Claudia. He had by her a daughter, the celebrated Julia. Scribonia was some time after repudiated, that Augustus might marry Livia. She had been married twice before she became the wife of the emperor. Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 62.——A woman who married Crassus.

Scriboniānus, a man in the age of Nero. Some of his friends wished him to be competitor for the imperial purple against Vespasian, which he declined. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 39.——There were also two brothers of that name, who did nothing without each other’s consent. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 41.

Scribonius, a man who made himself master of the kingdom of Bosphorus.——A physician in the age of Augustus and Tiberius.——A man who wrote annals, A.D. 22. The best edition of Scribonius is that of Patavium, 4to, 1655.——A friend of Pompey, &c.

Scultenna, a river of Gaul Cispadana, falling into the Po, now called Panaro. Livy, bk. 41, chs. 12 & 18.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.

Scylacēum, a town of the Brutii, built by Mnestheus at the head of an Athenian colony. As Virgil has applied the epithet Navifragum to Scylaceum, some suppose that either the poet was mistaken in his knowledge of the place, because there are no apparent dangers to navigation there, or that he confounds this place with a promontory of the same name on the Tuscan sea. Servius explains this passage by supposing that the houses of the place were originally built with the shipwrecked vessels of Ulysses’ fleet—a most puerile explanation! Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 553.—Strabo, bk. 6.

Scylax, a geographer and mathematician of Caria, in the age of Darius son of Hystaspes, about 550 years before Christ. He was commissioned by Darius to make discoveries in the east, and after a journey of 30 months he visited Egypt. Some suppose that he was the first who invented geographical tables. The latest edition of the Periplus of Scylax, is that of Gronovius, 4to, Leiden, 1597. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 44.—Strabo.——A river of Cappadocia.

Scylla, a daughter of Nisus king of Megara, who became enamoured of Minos, as that monarch besieged her father’s capital. To make him sensible of her passion, she informed him that she would deliver Megara into his hands if he promised to marry her. Minos consented, and as the prosperity of Megara depended on a golden hair, which was on the head of Nisus, Scylla cut it off as her father was asleep, and from that moment the sallies of the Megareans were unsuccessful, and the enemy easily became master of the place. Scylla was disappointed in her expectations, and Minos treated her with such contempt and ridicule, that she threw herself from a tower into the sea, or, according to other accounts, she was changed into a lark by the gods, and her father into a hawk. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 393.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 19, li. 21.—Hyginus, fable 198.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 405, &c.——A daughter of Typhon, or, as some say, of Phorcys, who was greatly loved by Glaucus, one of the deities of the sea. Scylla scorned the addresses of Glaucus, and the god, to render her more propitious, applied to Circe, whose knowledge of herbs and incantations was universally admired. Circe no sooner saw him than she became enamoured of him, and instead of giving him the required assistance, she attempted to make him forget Scylla, but in vain. To punish her rival, Circe poured the juice of some poisonous herbs into the waters of the fountain where Scylla bathed, and no sooner had the nymph touched the place than she found every part of her body below the waist changed into frightful monsters like dogs, which never ceased barking. The rest of her body assumed an equally hideous form. She found herself supported by 12 feet, and she had six different heads, each with three rows of teeth. This sudden metamorphosis so terrified her, that she threw herself into that part of the sea which separates the coast of Italy and Sicily, where she was changed into rocks, which continued to bear her name, and which were universally deemed by the ancients as very dangerous to sailors, as well as the whirlpool of Charybdis on the coast of Sicily. During a tempest the waves are described by modern navigators as roaring dreadfully when driven into the rough and uneven cavities of the rock. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12, li. 85.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 66, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Hyginus, fable 199. Some authors, as Propertius, bk. 4, poem 4, li. 39, and Virgil, eclogue 6, li. 74, with Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 500, have confounded the daughter of Typhon with the daughter of Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 424, &c.——A ship in the fleet of Æneas, commanded by Cloanthus, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 122.

Scyllæum, a promontory of Peloponnesus on the coast of Argolis.——A promontory of the Brutii in Italy, supposed to be the same as Scylaceum, near which was the famous whirlpool Scylla, from which the name is derived.

Scyllias, a celebrated swimmer who enriched himself by diving after the goods which had been shipwrecked in the Persian ships near Pelium. It is said that he could dive 80 stadia under the water. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 19.

Scyllis and Dipœnus, statuaries of Crete before the age of Cyrus king of Persia. They were said to be sons and pupils of Dædalus, and they established a school at Sicyon, where they taught the principles of their profession. Pausanias.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 4.

Scyllus (untis), a town of Achaia, given to Xenophon by the Lacedæmonians. Strabo.

Scylūrus, a monarch who left 80 sons. He called them to his bedside as he expired, and by enjoining them to break a bundle of sticks tied together, and afterwards separately, he convinced them that, when altogether firmly united, their power would be insuperable, but, if ever disunited, they would fail an easy prey to their enemies. Plutarch, de Garrulitate.

Scyppium, a town in the neighbourhood of Colophon. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.

Scyras, a river of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 25.

Scyrias, a name applied to Deidamia as a native of Scyros. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, [♦]bk. 1, li. 682.

[♦] Book number omitted from text.

Scyros, a rocky and barren island in the Ægean, at the distance of about 28 miles north-east from Eubœa, 60 miles in circumference. It was originally in the possession of the Pelasgians and Carians. Achilles retired there not to go to the Trojan war, and became father of Neoptolemus by Deidamia the daughter of king Lycomedes. Scyros was conquered by the Athenians under Cimon. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 10, li. 508.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 464; bk. 13, li. 156.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 9.

Scythæ, the inhabitants of Scythia. See: [Scythia].

Scythes, or Scytha, a son of Jupiter by a daughter of Tellus. Half his body was that of a man, and the rest that of a serpent. He became king of a country which he called Scythia. Diodorus, bk. 2.——A son of Hercules and Echidna.

Scythia, a large country situate in the most northern parts of Europe and Asia, from which circumstance it is generally denominated European and Asiatic. The most northern parts of Scythia were uninhabited on account of the extreme coldness of the climate. The more southern parts in Asia that were inhabited were distinguished by the name of Scythia intra et extra Imaum, &c. The boundaries of Scythia were unknown to the ancients, as no traveller had penetrated beyond the vast tracts of land which lay at the north, east, and west. Scythia comprehended the modern kingdoms of Tartary, Russia in Asia, Siberia, Muscovy, the Crimea, Poland, part of Hungary, Lithuania, the northern parts of Germany, Sweden, Norway, &c. The Scythians were divided into several nations or tribes; they had no cities, but continually changed their habitations. They inured themselves to bear labour and fatigue; they despised money, and lived upon milk, and covered themselves with the skins of their cattle. The virtues seemed to flourish among them, and that philosophy and moderation which other nations wished to acquire by study, seemed natural to them. Some authors, however, represent them as a savage and barbarous people, who fed upon human flesh, who drank the blood of their enemies, and used the skulls of travellers as vessels in their sacrifices to their gods. The Scythians made several irruptions upon the more southern provinces of Asia, especially B.C. 624, when they remained in possession of Asia Minor for 28 years, and we find them at different periods extending their conquests in Europe, and penetrating as far as Egypt. Their government was monarchical, and the deference which they paid to their sovereigns was [♦]unparalleled. When the king died, his body was carried through every province, where it was received in solemn procession, and afterwards buried. In the first centuries after Christ they invaded the Roman empire with the Sarmatians. See: [Sarmatia]. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 64; bk. 2, li. 224.

[♦] ‘uuparalleled’ replaced with ‘unparalleled’

Scythīnus, a Greek poet of Teos in Ionia, who wrote iambics. Diogenes Laërtius, Heraclides.—Athenæus, bk. 11.

Scython, a man changed into a woman. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 280.

Scythopŏlis, a town of Syria, said to have been built by Bacchus. Strabo, bk. 16.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 18.

Scythotauri, a people of Chersonesus Taurica. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.

Sebasta, a town of Judæa.——Another in Cilicia.——The name was common to several cities, as it was in honour of Augustus.

Sebastīa, a city of Armenia.

Sebennȳtus, a town of the Delta in Egypt. The branch of the Nile which flows near it has been called the Sebennytic. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 10.

Sebētus, a small river of Campania, falling into the bay of Naples, whence the epithet Sebethis, given to one of the nymphs who frequented its borders, and became mother of Œbalus by Telon. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 734.

Sebusiāni, or Segusiani, a people of Celtic Gaul.

Sectānus, an infamous debauchee in the age of Horace, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 112.

Secundus Julius, a man who published some harangues and orations in the age of the emperor Titus.——A favourite of Nero.——One of the associates of Sejanus.

Seditāni, or Sedentāni, a people of Spain. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 372.

Sedūni, an ancient nation of Belgic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3.

Sedusii, a people of Germany near the Suevi. Cæsar.

Segesta, a town of Sicily founded by Æneas, or, according to some, by Crinisus. See: [Ægesta].

Segestes, a German, friendly to the Roman interest in the time of Germanicus. His daughter married Arminius. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 55.

Segetia, a divinity at Rome, invoked by the husbandmen that the harvest might be plentiful. Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 8.—Macrobius, bk. 1, ch. 16.—Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 2.

Segni, a people with a town of the same name in Belgic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6.

Segrobrica, a town of Spain near Saguntum. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 3.

Segōnax, a prince in the southern parts of Britain, who opposed Cæsar, by order of Cassivelaunus, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 22.

Segontia, or Seguntia, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 10.

Segontiăci, a people of Belgic Gaul, who submitted to Julius Cæsar.

Segovia, a town of Spain, of great power in the age of the Cæsars.——There was also another of the same name in Lusitania. Both had been founded by the Celtiberi.

Seguntium, a town of Britain, supposed to be Carnarvon in Wales. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 21.

Segusiāni, a people of Gaul on the Loire. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 10.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 18.

Segusio, a town of Piedmont on the Durias. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 17.

Ælius Sejānus, a native of Vulsinum in Tuscany, who distinguished himself in the court of Tiberius. His father’s name was Seuis Strabo, a Roman knight, commander of the pretorian guards. His mother was descended from the Junian family. Sejanus first gained the favours of Caius Cæsar the grandson of Augustus, but afterwards he attached himself to the interest and the views of Tiberius, who then sat on the imperial throne. The emperor, who was naturally of a suspicious temper, was free and open with Sejanus, and while he distrusted others, he communicated his greatest secrets to this fawning favourite. Sejanus improved this confidence, and when he had found that he possessed the esteem of Tiberius, he next endeavoured to become the favourite of the soldiers and the darling of the senate. As commander of the pretorian guards he was the second man in Rome, and in that important office he made use of insinuations and every mean artifice to make himself beloved and revered. His affability and condescension gained him the hearts of the common soldiers, and by appointing his own favourites and adherents to places of trust and honour, all the officers and centurions of the army became devoted to his interest. The views of Sejanus in this were well known; yet to advance with more success, he attempted to gain the affection of the senators. In this he met with no opposition. A man who has the disposal of places of honour and dignity, and who has the command of the public money, cannot but be the favourite of those who are in need of his assistance. It is even said that Sejanus gained to his views all the wives of the senators, by a private and most secret promise of marriage to each of them, whenever he had made himself independent and sovereign of Rome. Yet however successful with the best and noblest families in the empire, Sejanus had to combat numbers in the house of the emperor; but these seeming obstacles were soon removed. All the children and grandchildren of Tiberius were sacrificed to the ambition of the favourite under various pretences; and Drusus the son of the emperor, by striking Sejanus, made his destruction sure and inevitable. Livia the wife of Drusus was gained by Sejanus, and though the mother of many children, she was prevailed upon to assist her adulterer in the murder of her husband, and she consented to marry him when Drusus was dead. No sooner was Drusus poisoned than Sejanus openly declared his wish to marry Livia. This was strongly opposed by Tiberius; and the emperor, by recommending Germanicus to the senators for his successor, rendered Sejanus bold and determined. He was more urgent in his demands; and when he could not gain the consent of the emperor, he persuaded him to retire to solitude from the noise of Rome and the troubles of the government. Tiberius, naturally fond of ease and luxury, yielded to his representations, and retired to Campania, leaving Sejanus at the head of the empire. This was highly gratifying to the favourite, and he was now without a master. Prudence and moderation might have made him what he wished to be; but Sejanus offended the whole empire when he declared that he was emperor of Rome, and Tiberius only the dependent prince of the island of Capreæ, where he had retired. Tiberius was upon this fully convinced of the designs of Sejanus; and when he had been informed that his favourite had had the meanness and audacity to ridicule him by introducing him on the stage, the emperor ordered him to be accused before the senate. Sejanus was deserted by all his pretended friends, as soon as by fortune; and the man who aspired to the empire, and who called himself the favourite of the people, the darling of the pretorian guards, and the companion of Tiberius, was seized without resistance, and the same day strangled in prison, A.D. 31. His remains were exposed to the fury and insolence of the populace, and afterwards thrown into the Tiber. His children and all his relations were involved in his ruin, and Tiberius sacrificed to his resentment and suspicions all those who were even connected with Sejanus, or had shared his favours and enjoyed his confidence. Tacitus, bk. 3, Annals, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 58.—Suetonius, Tiberias.

Cnæus Seius, a Roman who had a famous horse of large size and uncommon beauty. He was put to death by Antony, and it was observed, that whoever obtained possession of his horse, which was supposed to be of the same race as the horses of Diomedes destroyed by Hercules, and which was called Sejanus equus, became unfortunate, and lost all his property, with every member of his family. Hence arose the proverb, ille homo habet Sejanum equum, applied to such as were oppressed with misfortunes. Aulus Gellius, bk. 3, ch. 9.

Seius Strabo, the father of Sejanus, was a Roman knight, and commander of the pretorian guards.

Selasia. See: [Sellasia].

Selemnus, a river of Achaia. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 23. See: [Selimnus].

Selēne, the wife of Antiochus king of Syria, put to death by Tigranes king of Armenia. She was daughter of Physcon king of Egypt, and had first married her brother Lathurus, according to the custom of her country, and afterwards, by desire of her mother, her other brother Gryphus. At the death of Gryphus she had married Antiochus, surnamed Eusebes, the son of Antiochus Cyzicenus, by whom she had two sons. According to Appian, she first married the father, and after his death, his son Eusebes. Appian, Syrian Wars, &c.

Seleucēna, or Seleucis, a country of Syria, in Asia. See: [Seleucis].

Seleucīa, a town of Syria, on the sea-shore, generally called Pieria, to distinguish it from others of the same name. There were no less than eight other cities which were called Seleucia, and which had all received their name from Seleucus Nicator. They were all situate in the kingdom of Syria, in Cilicia, and near the Euphrates. Florus, bk. 3, ch. 11.—Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 12.—Strabo, bks. 11 & 15.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 26.——Also the residence of the Parthian kings. Cicero, bk. 8, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 14.

Seleucĭdæ, a surname given to those monarchs who sat on the throne of Syria, which was founded by Seleucus the son of Antiochus, from whom the word is derived. The era of the Seleucidæ begins with the taking of Babylon by Seleucus, B.C. 312, and ends at the conquest of Syria by Pompey, B.C. 65. The order in which these monarchs reigned is shown in the account of Syria. See: [Syria].

Seleucis, a division of Syria, which received its name from Seleucus, the founder of the Syrian empire after the death of Alexander the Great. It was also called Tetrapolis, from the four cities which it contained, called also sister cities; Seleucia called after Seleucus, Antioch called after his father, Laodicea after his mother, and Apamea after his wife. Strabo, bk. 16.

Seleucus I., one of the captains of Alexander the Great, surnamed Nicator, or Victorious, was son of Antiochus. After the king’s death, he received Babylon as his province; but his ambitious views, and his attempt to destroy Eumenes as he passed through his territories, rendered him so unpopular, that he fled for safety to the court of his friend Ptolemy king of Egypt. He was soon after enabled to recover Babylon, which Antigonus had seized in his absence, and he increased his dominions by the immediate conquest of Media, and some of the neighbouring provinces. When he had strengthened himself in his empire, Seleucus imitated the example of the rest of the generals of Alexander, and assumed the title of independent monarch. He afterwards made war against Antigonus, with the united forces of Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus; and after this monarch had been conquered and slain, his territories were divided among his victorious enemies. When Seleucus became master of Syria, he built a city there, which he called Antioch in honour of his father, and made it the capital of his dominions. He also made war against Demetrius and Lysimachus, though he had originally married Stratonice the daughter of the former, and had lived in the closest friendship with the latter. Seleucus was at last murdered by one of his servants called Ptolemy Ceraunus, a man on whom he bestowed the greatest favours, and whom he had distinguished by acts of the most unbounded confidence. According to Arrian, Seleucus was the greatest and most powerful of the princes who inherited the Macedonian empire after the death of Alexander. His benevolence has been commended; and it has been observed, that he conquered not to enslave nations, but to make them more happy. He founded no less than 34 cities in different parts of his empire, which he peopled with Greek colonies, whose national industry, learning, religion, and spirit, were communicated to the indolent and luxurious inhabitants of Asia. Seleucus was a great benefactor to the Greeks; he restored to the Athenians the library and statues which Xerxes had carried away from their city when he invaded Greece, and among them were those of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Seleucus was murdered 280 years before the christian era, in the 32nd year of his reign, and the 78th, or, according to others, the 73rd year of his age, as he was going to conquer Macedonia, where he intended to finish his days in peace and tranquillity in that province where he was born. He was succeeded by Antiochus Soter. Justin, bk. 13, ch. 4; bk. 15, ch. 4; bk. 16, ch. 3, &c.—Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 17.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 51.—Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 12.

Seleucus II., surnamed Callinicus, succeeded his father Antiochus Theus on the throne of Syria. He attempted to make war against Ptolemy king of Egypt, but his fleet was shipwrecked in a violent storm, and his armies soon after conquered by his enemy. He was at last taken prisoner by Arsaces, an officer who made himself powerful by the dissensions which reigned in the house of the Seleucidæ, between the two brothers Seleucus and Antiochus; and after he had been a prisoner for some time in Parthia, he died of a fall from his horse, B.C. 226, after a reign of 20 years. Seleucus had received the surname of Pogon, from his long beard, and that of Callinicus, ironically to express his very unfortunate reign. He had married Laodice the sister of one of his generals, by whom he had two sons, Seleucus and Antiochus, and a daughter whom he gave in marriage to Mithridates king of Pontus. Strabo, bk. 16.—Justin, bk. 27.—Appian, Syrian Wars.

Seleucus III., succeeded his father Seleucus II. on the throne of Syria, and received the surname of Ceraunus, by antiphrasis, as he was a very weak, timid, and irresolute monarch. He was murdered by two of his officers, after a reign of three years, B.C. 223, and his brother Antiochus, though only 15 years old, ascended the throne, and rendered himself so celebrated that he acquired the name of the Great. Appian.

Seleucus IV., succeeded his father Antiochus the Great on the throne of Syria. He was surnamed Philopater, or, according to Josephus, Soter. His empire had been weakened by the Romans when he became monarch, and the yearly tribute of 1000 talents to those victorious enemies concurred in lessening his power and consequence among nations. Seleucus was poisoned after a reign of 12 years, B.C. 175. His son Demetrius had been sent to Rome, there to receive his education, and he became a prince of great abilities. Strabo, bk. 16.—Justin, bk. 32.—Appian.

Seleucus V., succeeded his father Demetrius Nicator on the throne of Syria, in the 20th year of his age. He was put to death in the first year of his reign by Cleopatra his mother, who had also sacrificed her husband to her ambition. He is not reckoned by many historians in the number of the Syrian monarchs.

Seleucus VI., one of the Seleucidæ, son of Antiochus Gryphus, killed his uncle Antiochus Cyzicenus, who wished to obtain the crown of Syria. He was some time after banished from his kingdom by Antiochus Pius son of Cyzicenus, and fled to Cilicia, where he was burnt in a palace by the inhabitants, B.C. 93. Appian.—Josephus.

Seleucus, a prince of Syria, to whom the Egyptians offered the crown of which they had robbed Auletes. Seleucus accepted it, but he soon disgusted his subjects, and received the surname of Cybiosactes, or Scullion, for his meanness and avarice. He was at last murdered by Berenice, whom he had married.——A servant of Cleopatra the last queen of Egypt, who accused his mistress, before Octavianus, of having secreted part of her jewels and treasures.——A mathematician intimate with Vespasian the Roman emperor.——A part of the Alps.——A Roman consul.——A celebrated singer. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 211.——A king of the Bosphorus, who died B.C. 429.

Selge, a town of Pamphylia, made a colony by the Lacedæmonians. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 13.—Strabo.

Selimnus, a shepherd of Achaia, who for some time enjoyed the favours of the nymph Argyra without interruption. Argyra was at last disgusted with her lover, and the shepherd died through melancholy, and was changed into a river of the same name. Argyra was also changed into a river of the same name. Argyra was also changed into a fountain, and was fond of mingling her waters with those of the Selimnus. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 23.

Selīnuns, or Selīnus (untis), a town on the southern parts of Sicily, founded A.U.C. 127, by a colony from Megara. It received its name from σελινον, parsley, which grew there in abundance. The marks of its ancient consequence are visible in the venerable ruins now found in its neighbourhood. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 705.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 19.——A river of Elis in Peloponnesus, which watered the town of Scillus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 6.——Another in Achaia.——Another in Sicily.——A river and town of Cilicia, where Trajan died. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 20.—Strabo, bk. 14.——Two small rivers near Diana’s temple at Ephesus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.——A lake at the entrance of the Cayster. Strabo, bk. 14.

Sellasia, a town of Laconia, where Cleomenes was defeated by the Achæans, B.C. 222. Scarce 200 of a body of 5000 Lacedæmonians survived the battle. Plutarch.

Sellēis, a river of Peloponnesus falling into the Ionian sea. Homer, Iliad.

Selletæ, a people of Thrace near mount Hæmus. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 40.

Selli, an ancient nation of Epirus near Dodona. Lucan, bk. 3, li. 180.—Strabo, bk. 7.

Selymbria, a town of Thrace on the Propontis. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 39.

Sĕmĕle, a daughter of Cadmus by Hermione the daughter of Mars and Venus. She was tenderly beloved by Jupiter; but Juno, who was always jealous of her husband’s amours, and who hated the house of Cadmus because they were related to the goddess of beauty, determined to punish this successful rival. She borrowed the girdle of Ate, which contained every wickedness, deceit, and perfidy, and in the form of Beroe, Semele’s nurse, she visited the house of Jupiter’s mistress. Semele listened with attention to the artful admonitions of the false Beroe, and was at last persuaded to entreat her lover to come to her arms with the same majesty as he approached Juno. This rash request was heard with horror by Jupiter; but as he had sworn by the Styx to grant Semele whatever she required, he came to her bed attended by the clouds, the lightning, and thunderbolts. The mortal nature of Semele could not endure so much majesty, and she was instantly consumed with fire. The child, however, of which she was pregnant, was saved from the flames by Mercury, or, according to others, by Dirce, one of the nymphs of the Achelous, and Jupiter placed him in his thigh the rest of the time which he ought to have been in his mother’s womb. This child was called Bacchus, or Dionysius. Semele immediately after death was honoured with immortality under the name of Thyone. Some, however, suppose that she remained in the infernal regions till Bacchus her son was permitted to bring her back. There were in the temple of Diana, at Trœzene, two altars raised to the infernal gods, one of which was over an aperture, through which, as Pausanias reports, Bacchus returned from hell with his mother. Semele was particularly worshipped at Brasiæ in Laconia, where, according to a certain tradition, she had been driven by the winds with her son, after Cadmus had exposed her on the sea on account of her incontinent amour with Jupiter. The mother of Bacchus, though she received divine honours, had no temples; she had a statue in a temple of Ceres, at Thebes, in Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 9, ch. 5.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 14, li. 323.—Orpheus, Hymns.—Euripides, Bacchæ.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 254; Fasti, bk. 3, li. 715.—Diodorus, bks. 3 & 4.

Semigermāni, a name given to the Helvetii, a people of Germany. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 38.

Semiguntus, a general of the Cherusci, taken prisoner by Germanicus, &c. Strabo, bk. 7.

Sĕmīrămis, a celebrated queen of Assyria, daughter of the goddess Derceto by a young Assyrian. She was exposed in a desert, but her life was preserved by doves for one whole year, till Simmas, one of the shepherds of Ninus, found her, and brought her up as his own child. Semiramis, when grown up, married Menones the governor of Nineveh, and accompanied him to the siege of Bactra, where, by her advice and prudent directions, she hastened the king’s operations and took the city. These eminent services, but chiefly her uncommon beauty, endeared her to Ninus. The monarch asked her of her husband, and offered him instead, his daughter Sosana; but Menones, who tenderly loved Semiramis, refused, and when Ninus had added threats to entreaties, he hung himself. No sooner was Menones dead than Semiramis, who was of an aspiring soul, married Ninus, by whom she had a son called Ninyas. Ninus was so fond of Semiramis, that at her request he resigned the crown to her, and commanded her to be proclaimed queen and sole empress of Assyria. Of this, however, he had cause to repent; Semiramis put him to death, the better to establish herself on the throne, and when she had no enemies to fear at home, she began to repair the capital of her empire, and by her means Babylon became the most superb and magnificent city in the world. She visited every part of her dominions, and left everywhere immortal monuments of her greatness and benevolence. To render the roads passable and communication easy, she hollowed mountains and filled up valleys; and water was conveyed at a great expense, by large and convenient aqueducts, to barren deserts and unfruitful plains. She was not less distinguished as a warrior. Many of the neighbouring nations were conquered; and when Semiramis was once told, as she was dressing her hair, that Babylon had revolted, she left her toilette with precipitation, and though only half dressed, she refused to have the rest of her head adorned before the sedition was quelled and tranquillity re-established. Semiramis has been accused of licentiousness, and some authors have observed that she regularly called the strongest and stoutest men in her army to her arms, and afterwards put them to death, that they might not be living witnesses of her incontinence. Her passion for her son was also unnatural, and it was this criminal propensity which induced Ninyas to destroy his mother with his own hands. Some say that Semiramis was changed into a dove after death, and received immortal honours in Assyria. It is supposed that she lived about 1965 years before the christian era, and that she died in the 62nd year of her age, and the 25th of her reign. Many fabulous reports have been propagated about Semiramis, and some have declared that for some time she disguised herself and passed for her son Ninyas. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 3.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 184.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 11, li. 21.—Plutarch, de Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute, &c.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 1, poem 5, li. 11; Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 58.—Marcellinus, bk. 14, ch. 6.

Semnŏnes, a people of Italy, on the borders of Umbria.——Of Germany, on the Elbe and Oder.

Semōnes, inferior deities of Rome, that were not in the number of the 12 great gods. Among these were Faunus, the Satyrs, Priapus, Vertumnus, Janus, Pan, Silenus, and all such illustrious heroes as had received divine honours after death. The word seems to be the same as semi homines, because they were inferior to the supreme gods and superior to men. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 213.

Semosanctus, one of the gods of the Romans among the Indigetes, or such as were born and educated in their country.

Sempronia, a Roman matron, mother of the two Gracchi, celebrated for her learning, and her private as well as public virtues.——Also a sister of the Gracchi, who is accused of having assisted the triumvirs Carbo, Gracchus, and Flaccus to murder her husband Scipio Africanus the younger. The name of Sempronia was common to the female descendants of the family of the Sempronii, Gracchi, and Scipios.

Semprōnia lex, de magistratibus, by Caius Sempronius Gracchus the tribune, A.U.C. 630, ordained that no person who had been legally deprived of a magistracy for misdemeanours should be capable of bearing an office again. This law was afterwards repealed by the author.——Another, de civitate, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It ordained that no capital judgment should be passed over a Roman citizen without the concurrence and authority of the senate. There were also some other regulations, included in this law.——Another, de comitiis, by the same, A.U.C. 635. It ordained that, in giving their votes, the centuries should be chosen by lot, and not give it according to the order of their classes.——Another, de comitiis, by the same, the same year, which granted to the Latin allies of Rome the privilege of giving votes at elections, as if they were Roman citizens.——Another, de provinciis, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It enacted that the senators should be permitted before the assembly of the consular comitia, to determine as they pleased the particular provinces which should be proposed to the consuls, to be divided by lot, and that the tribunes should be deprived of the power of interposing against a decree of the senate.——Another, called agraria prima, by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the tribune, A.U.C. 620. It confirmed the lex agraria Licinia, and enacted that all such as were in possession of more lands than that law allowed, should immediately resign them, to be divided among the poor citizens. Three commissioners were appointed to put this law into execution; and its consequences were so violent, as it was directly made against the nobles and senators, that it cost the author his life.——Another, called agraria altera, by the same. It required that all the ready money which was found in the treasury of Attalus king of Pergamus, who had left the Romans his heirs, should be divided among the poorer citizens of Rome, to supply them with all the various instruments requisite in husbandry, and that the lands of that monarch should be farmed by the Roman censors, and the money drawn from thence should be divided among the people.——Another, frumentaria, by Caius Sempronius Gracchus. It required that a certain quantity of corn should be distributed among the people, so much to every individual, for which it was required that they should only pay the trifling sum of a semissis, and a triens.——Another, de usurâ, by Marcus Sempronius the tribune, A.U.C. 560. It ordained that, in lending money to the Latins and the allies of Rome, the Roman laws should be observed as well as among the citizens.——Another, de judicibus, by the tribune Caius Sempronius, A.U.C. 630. It required that the right of judging, which had been assigned to the Senatorian order by Romulus, should be transferred from them to the Roman knights.——Another, militaris, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It enacted that the soldiers should be clothed at the public expense, without any diminution of their usual pay. It also ordered that no person should be obliged to serve in the army before the age of 17.

Semprōnius Aulus Atratinus, a senator who opposed the Agrarian law, which was proposed by the consul Cassius, soon after the election of the tribunes.——Lucius Atratinus, a consul A.U.C. 310. He was one of the first censors with his colleague in the consulship, Papirius.——Caius, a consul summoned before an assembly of the people because he had fought with ill success against the Volsci.——Blæsus, a consul who obtained a triumph for some victories gained in Sicily.——Sophus, a consul against the Æqui. He also fought against the Picentes, and during the engagement there was a dreadful earthquake. The soldiers were terrified, but Sophus encouraged them, and observed that the earth trembled only for fear of changing its old masters.——A man who proposed a law that no person should dedicate a temple or altar, without the previous approbation of the magistrates, A.U.C. 449. He repudiated his wife because she had gone to see a spectacle without his permission or knowledge.——Rufus, a senator, banished from the senate, because he had killed a crane to serve him as food.——Tuditanus, a man sent against Sardinia by the Romans.——A legionary tribune, who led away from Cannæ the remaining part of the soldiers who had not been killed by the Carthaginians. He was afterwards consul, and fought in the field against Annibal with great success. He was killed in Spain.——Tiberius Longus, a Roman consul defeated by the Carthaginians in an engagement which he had begun against the approbation of his colleague Cornelius Scipio. He afterwards obtained victories over Hanno and the Gauls.——Tiberius Gracchus, a consul who defeated the Carthaginians and the Campanians. He was afterwards betrayed by Fulvius, a Lucanian, into the hands of the Carthaginians, and was killed, after he had made a long and bloody resistance against the enemy. Annibal showed great honour to his remains; a funeral pile was raised at the head of the camp, and the enemy’s cavalry walked round it in solemn procession.——Gracchus, a man who had debauched Julia. See: [Gracchus].——A eunuch, made governor of Rome by Caracalla.——Densus, a centurion of a pretorian cohort who defended the person of Galba against his assassins. He was killed in the attempt.——The father of the Gracchi. See: [Gracchus].——A censor, who was also sent as ambassador to the court of Egypt.——A tribune of the people, &c. Tacitus.—Florus.—Livy.—Plutarch, Cæsar.—Appian.——An emperor. See: [Saturninus].

Semurium, a place near Rome, where Apollo had a temple. Cicero, Philippics, bk. 6, ch. 6.

Sena, or Senogallia, a town of Umbria in Italy, on the Adriatic, built by the Senones, after they had made an irruption into Italy, A.U.C. 396; and on that account called Gallica. There was also a small river in the neighbourhood which bore the name of Sena. It was near it that Asdrubal was defeated by Claudius Nero. Cornelius Nepos, Cato.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 454.—Livy, bk. 27, ch. 46.—Cicero, Brutus, ch. 18.

Sĕnātus, the chief council of the state among the Romans. The members of this body, called senatores on account of their age, and patres on account of their authority, were of the greatest consequence in the republic. The senate was first instituted by Romulus to govern the city, and to preside over the affairs of the state during his absence. This was continued by his successors; but Tarquin II. disdained to consult them, and by having his own council chosen from his favourites, and from men who were totally devoted to his interest, he diminished the authority and the consequence of the senators, and slighted the concurrence of the people. The senators whom Romulus created were 100, to whom he afterwards added the same number when the Sabines had migrated to Rome. Tarquin the ancient made the senate consist of 300, and this number remained fixed for a long time. After the expulsion of the last Tarquin, whose tyranny had thinned the patricians as well as the plebeians, 164 new senators were chosen to complete the 300; and as they were called conscripts, the senate ever afterwards consisted of members who were denominated patres and conscripti. The number continued to fluctuate during the times of the republic, but gradually increased to 700, and afterwards to 900 under Julius Cæsar, who filled the senate with men of every rank and order. Under Augustus, the senators amounted to 1000, but this number was reduced to 300, which being the cause of complaints, induced the emperor to limit the number to 600. The place of a senator was always bestowed upon merit; the monarchs had the privilege of choosing the members, and after the expulsion of the Tarquins, it was one of the rights of the consuls, till the election of the censors, who from their office seemed most capable of making choice of men whose character was irreproachable, whose morals were pure, and relations honourable. Sometimes the assembly of the people elected senators, but it was only upon some extraordinary occasions; there was also a dictator chosen to fill up the number of the senate after the battle of Cannæ. Only particular families were admitted into the senate; and when the plebeians were permitted to share the honours of the state, it was then required that they should be born of free citizens. It was also required that the candidates should be knights before their admission into the senate. They were to be above the age of 25, and to have previously passed through the inferior offices of questor, tribune of the people, edile, pretor, and consul. Some, however, suppose that the senators whom Romulus chose were all old men; yet his successors neglected this, and often men who were below the age of 25 were admitted by courtesy into the senate. The dignity of a senator could not be supported without the possession of 80,000 sesterces, or about 7000l. English money; and therefore such as squandered away their money, and whose fortune was reduced below this sum, were generally struck out of the list of senators. This regulation was not made in the first ages of the republic, when the Romans boasted of their poverty. The senators were not permitted to be of any trade or profession. They were distinguished from the rest of the people by their dress; they wore the laticlave, half boots of a black colour, with a crescent or silver buckle in the form of a C; but this last honour was confined only to the descendants of those 100 senators who had been elected by Romulus, as the letter C seems to imply. They had the sole right of feasting publicly in the capitol in ceremonial habits; they sat in curule chairs, and at the representation of plays and public spectacles, they were honoured with particular seats. Whenever they travelled abroad, even on their own business, they were maintained at the public expense, and always found provisions for themselves and their attendants ready prepared on the road; a privilege that was generally termed free legation. On public festivals they wore the prætexta, or long white robe, with purple borders. The right of convoking the senate belonged only to the monarchs; and after the expulsion of the Tarquins, to the consuls, the dictator, master of the horse, governor of Rome, and tribunes of the people; but no magistrate could exercise this privilege except in the absence of a superior officer, the tribunes excepted. The time of meeting was generally three times a month, on the calends, nones, and ides. Under Augustus they were not assembled on the nones. It was requisite that the place where they assembled should have been previously consecrated by the augur. This was generally in the temple of Concord, of Jupiter Capitolinus, Apollo, Castor and Pollux, &c., or in the Curiæ called Hostilia, Julia, Pompeia, &c. When audience was given to foreign ambassadors, the senators assembled without the walls of the city, either in the temples of Bellona or of Apollo; and the same ceremony as to their meeting was also observed when they transacted business with their generals, as the ambassadors of foreign nations, and the commanders of armies, while in commission, were not permitted to appear within the walls of the city. To render their decrees valid and authentic, a certain number of members was requisite, and such as were absent without some proper cause, were always fined. In the reign of Augustus, 400 senators were requisite to make a senate. Nothing was transacted before sunrise, or after sunset. In their office the senators were the guardians of religion; they disposed of the provinces as they pleased, they prorogued the assemblies of the people, they appointed thanksgivings, nominated their ambassadors, distributed the public money, and, in short, had the management of everything political or civil in the republic, except the creating of the magistrates, the enacting of laws, and the declarations of war or peace, which were confined to the assemblies of the people. Rank was always regarded in their meetings; the chief magistrates of the state, such as the consuls, the pretors, and censors, sat first; after these the inferior magistrates, such as the ediles and questors, and last of all, those that then exercised no office in the state. Their opinions were originally collected, each according to his age; but when the office of censor was instituted, the opinion of the princeps senatus, or the person whose name stood first on the censor’s list, was first consulted, and afterwards those who were of consular dignity, each in their respective order. In the age of Cicero the consuls elect were first consulted; and in the age of Cæsar, he was permitted to speak first till the end of the year, on whom the consul had originally conferred that honour. Under the emperors the same rules were observed, but the consuls were generally consulted before all others. When any public matter was introduced into the senate, which was always called referre ad senatum, any senator whose opinion was asked, was permitted to speak upon it as long as he pleased; and on that account it was often usual for the senators to protract their speeches till it was too late to determine. When the question was put, they passed to the side of that speaker whose opinion they approved, and a majority of votes was easily collected, without the trouble of counting the numbers. This mode of proceeding was called pedibus in alicujus sententiam ire; and therefore, on that account, the senators who had not the privilege of speaking, but only the right of giving a silent vote, such as bore some curule honours, and on that account were permitted to sit in the senate, but not to deliberate, were denominated pedarii senatores. After the majority had been known, the matter was determined, and a senatus consultum was immediately written by the clerks of the house, at the feet of the chief magistrates, and it was signed by all the principal members of the house. When there was not a sufficient number of members to make a senate, the decision was called senatus autoritas; but it was of no consequence if it did not afterwards pass into a senatus consultum. The tribunes of the people, by the word veto, could stop the debates, and the decrees of the assembled senate, as also any one who was of equal authority with him who had proposed the matter. The senatus consulta were left in the custody of the consuls, who could suppress or preserve them; but about the year of Rome 304, they were always deposited in the temple of Ceres, and afterwards in the treasury, by the ediles of the people. The degradation of the senators was made by the censor, by omitting their names when he called over the list of the senate. This was called præterire. A senator could be again introduced into the senate if he could repair his character or fortune, which had been the causes why the censor had lawfully called him unqualified, and had challenged his opposition. The meeting of the senate was often sudden, except the particular times already mentioned, upon any emergency. After the death of Julius Cæsar, they were not permitted to meet on the ides of March, which were called parricidium, because on that day the dictator had been assassinated. The sons of senators, after they had put on the toga virilis, were permitted to come into the senate, but this was afterwards limited. See: [Papirius]. The rank and authority of the senators, which were so conspicuous in the first ages of the republic, and which caused the minister of Pyrrhus to declare that the Roman senate was a venerable assembly of kings, dwindled into nothing under the emperors. Men of the lowest character were admitted into the senate; the emperors took pleasure in robbing this illustrious body of their privileges and authority, and the senators themselves, by their manners and servility, contributed as much as the tyranny of the sovereign to diminish their own consequence; and by applauding the follies of a Nero, and the cruelties of a Domitian, they convinced the world that they no longer possessed sufficient prudence or authority to be consulted on matters of weight and importance. In the election of successors to the imperial purple after Augustus, the approbation of the senate was consulted, but it was only a matter of courtesy, and the concurrence of a body of men was little regarded who were without power, and under the control of a mercenary army. The title of Clarissimus was given to the senators under the emperors, and, indeed, this was the only distinction which they had in compensation for the loss of their independence. The senate was abolished by Justinian, 13 centuries after its first institution by Romulus.

Senĕca Marcus Annæus, a native of Corduba in Spain, who married Helvia, a woman of Spain, by whom he had three sons, Seneca the philosopher, Annæus Novatus, and Annæus Mela, the father of the poet Lucan. Seneca made himself known by some declamations, of which he made a collection from the most celebrated orators of the age; and from that circumstance, and for distinction, he obtained the appellation of declamator. He left Corduba, and went to Rome, where he became a Roman knight. His son Lucius Annæus Seneca, who was born about six years before Christ, was early distinguished by his extraordinary talents. He was taught eloquence by his father, and received lessons in philosophy from the best and most celebrated stoics of the age. As one of the followers of the Pythagorean doctrines, Seneca observed the most reserved abstinence, and in his meals never ate the flesh of animals; but this he abandoned at the representation of his father, when Tiberius threatened to punish some Jews and Egyptians, who abstained from certain meats. In the character of a pleader, Seneca appeared with great advantage, but the fear of Caligula, who aspired to the name of an eloquent speaker, and who consequently was jealous of his fame, deterred him from pursuing his favourite study, and he sought a safer employment in canvassing for the honours and offices of the state. He was made questor, but the aspersions which were thrown upon him on account of a shameful amour with Julia Livilla, removed him from Rome, and the emperor banished him for some time into Corsica. During his banishment, the philosopher wrote some spirited epistles to his mother, remarkable for elegance of language and for sublimity; but he soon forgot his philosophy and disgraced himself by his flatteries to the emperor, and in wishing to be recalled, even at the expense of his innocence and character. The disgrace of Messalina at Rome, and the marriage of Agrippina with Claudius, proved favourable to Seneca; and after he had remained five years in Corsica, he was recalled by the empress to take care of the education of her son Nero, who was destined to succeed to the empire. In the honourable duty of preceptor, Seneca gained applause; and as long as Nero followed his advice, Rome enjoyed tranquillity, and believed herself safe and happy under the administration of the son of Agrippina. Some, however, are clamorous against the philosopher, and observe that Seneca initiated his pupil in those unnatural vices and abominable indulgences which disgraced him as a monarch and as a man. This may be the language of malevolence, or the insinuation of jealousy. In the corrupted age of Nero, the preceptor had to withstand the clamours of many wicked and profligate ministers; and if he had been the favourite of the emperor, and shared his pleasures, his debauchery and extravagance, Nero would not perhaps have been so anxious of destroying a man whose example, from vicious inclinations, he could not follow, and whose salutary precepts his licentious associates forbade him to obey. Seneca was too well acquainted with the natural disposition of Nero to think himself secure; he had been accused of having amassed the most ample riches, and of having built sumptuous houses, and adorned beautiful gardens, during the four years in which he had attended Nero as a preceptor, and therefore he desired his imperial pupil to accept of the riches, and the possessions which his attendance on his person had procured, and to permit him to retire to solitude and study. Nero refused with artful duplicity, and Seneca, to avoid further suspicions, kept himself at home for some time as if labouring under a disease. In the conspiracy of Piso, which happened some time after, and in which some of the most noble of the Roman senators were concerned, Seneca’s name was mentioned by Natalis, and Nero, who was glad of an opportunity of sacrificing him to his secret jealousy, ordered him to destroy himself. Seneca very probably was not accessary to the conspiracy, and the only thing which could be produced against him as a crimination, was trivial and unsatisfactory. Piso, as Natalis declared, had complained that he never saw Seneca, and the philosopher had observed in answer, that it was not proper or conducive to their common interest to see one another often. He further pleaded indisposition, and said that his own life depended upon the safety of Piso’s person. Seneca was at table with his wife Paulina and two of his friends, when the messenger from Nero arrived. He heard the words which commanded him to destroy himself, with philosophical firmness, and even with joy; and observed, that such a mandate might have long been expected from a man who had murdered his own mother, and assassinated all his friends. He wished to dispose of his possessions as he pleased, but this was refused; and when he heard this, he turned to his friends who were weeping at his melancholy fate, and told them, that since he could not leave them what he believed his own, he would leave them at least his own life for an example, an innocent conduct which they might imitate, and by which they might acquire immortal fame. Against their tears and wailings he exclaimed with firmness, and asked them whether they had not learnt better to withstand the attacks of fortune, and the violence of tyranny? As for his wife, he attempted to calm her emotions, and when she seemed resolved to die with him, he said he was glad to find his example followed with so much constancy. Their veins were opened at the same moment, but the life of Paulina was preserved, and Nero, who was partial to her ordered the blood to be stopped; and from that moment, according to some authors, the philosopher’s wife seemed to rejoice that she could still enjoy the comforts of life. Seneca’s veins bled but slowly, and it has been observed, that the sensible and animated conversation of his dying moments was collected by his friends, and that it has been preserved among his works. To hasten his death he drank a dose of poison, but it had no effect, and therefore he ordered himself to be carried into a hot bath, to accelerate the operation of the draught, and to make the blood flow more freely. This was attended with no better success; and as the soldiers were clamorous, he was carried into a stove, and suffocated by the steam, on the 12th of April, in the 65th year of the christian era, in his 53rd year. His body was burnt without pomp or funeral ceremony, according to his will, which he had made when he enjoyed the most unbounded favours of Nero. The compositions of Seneca are numerous, and chiefly on moral subjects. He is so much admired for his refined sentiments and virtuous precepts, for his morality, his constancy, and his innocence of manners, that St. Jerome has not hesitated to rank him among christian writers. His style is nervous, it abounds with ornament, and seems well suited to the taste of the age in which he lived. The desire of recommending himself and his writings to the world, obliged him too often to depreciate the merit of the ancients, and to sink into obscurity. His treatises are de irâ, de consolatione, de Providentiâ, de tranquillitate animi, de clementiâ, de sapientis constantiâ, de otio sapientis, de brevitate vitæ, de beneficiis, de vitâ beatâ, besides his naturales quæstiones, ludus in Claudium, moral letters, &c. There are also some tragedies ascribed to Seneca. Quintilian supposes that the Medea is his composition, and according to others, the Troas and the Hippolytus were also written by him, and the Agamemnon, Hercules furens, Thyestes & Hercules in Oetâ by his father, Seneca the declaimer. The best editions of Seneca are those of Antwerp, folio, 1615, and of Gronovius, 3 vols., Amsterdam, 1672; and those of his tragedies, are that of Schroder’s, 4to, Delft, 1728, and the 8vo of Gronovius, Leiden, 1682. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12, &c.—Dio Cassius.—Suetonius, Nero, &c.—Quintilian.

Claudius Senecio, one of Nero’s favourites, and the associate of his pleasures and debauchery.——Tullius, a man who conspired against Nero, and was put to death though he turned informer against the rest of the conspirators.——A man put to death by Domitian, for writing an account of the life of Helvidius, one of the emperor’s enemies.——One of Constantine’s enemies.——A man who from a restless and aspiring disposition acquired the surname of Grandio. Seneca, Suasoriæ, ch. 1.

Senia, a town of Liburnia, now Segna. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 21.

Senna, or Sena, a river of Umbria. See: [Sena]. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 407.

Senŏnes, an uncivilized nation of Gallia Transalpina, who left their native possessions, and under the conduct of Brennus, invaded Italy and pillaged Rome. They afterwards united with the Umbri, Latins, and Etrurians to make war against the Romans, till they were totally destroyed by Dolabella. The chief of their towns in that part of Italy where they settled near Umbria, and which from them was called Senogallia, were Fanum Fortunæ, Sena, Pisaurum, and Ariminum. See: Cimbri. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 254.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 454.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 35, &c.—Florus.——A people of Germany near the Suevi.

Sentia lex, de senatu, by Cnæus Sentius the consul, A.U.C. 734, enacted the choosing of proper persons to fill up the number of senators.

Sentinum, a town of Umbria. Livy, bk. 10, chs. 27 & 30.

Sentius Cnæus, a governor of Syria, under the emperors.——A governor of Macedonia.——Septimius, one of the soldiers of Pompey, who assisted the Egyptians in murdering him.——A Roman emperor. See: [Severus].——A writer in the reign of the emperor Alexander, of whose life he wrote an account in Latin, or, according to others, in Greek.

Sepias, a cape of Magnesia in Thessaly, at the north of Eubœa, now St. George.

Seplasia, a place of Capua, where ointments were sold. Cicero, Against Piso, chs. 7 & 11.

Septem aquæ, a portion of the lake near Reate. Cicero, bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 15.——Fratres, a mountain of Mauritania, now Gebel-Mousa. Strabo, bk. 17.——Maria, the entrance of the seven mouths of the Po.

Septempeda, a town of Picenum.

Septerion, a festival observed once in nine years at Delphi, in honour of Apollo. It was a representation of the pursuit of Python by Apollo, and of the victory obtained by the god.

Titus Septimius, a Roman knight distinguished by his poetical compositions both lyric and tragic. He was intimate with Augustus as well as Horace, who has addressed the sixth of his second book of Odes to him.——A centurion put to death, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 32.——A native of Africa, who distinguished himself at Rome as a poet. He wrote, among other things, a hymn in praise of Janus. Only 11 of his verses are preserved. Marcus Terentius [Varro].—Petrus Crinitus, Lives.

Lucius Septimuleius, a friend of Caius Gracchus. He suffered himself to be bribed by Opimius, and had the meanness to carry his friend’s head fixed to a pole through the streets of Rome.

Sepyra, a town of Cilicia, taken by Cicero when he presided over that province. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 15, ch. 4.

Sequăna, a river of Gaul, which separates the territories of the Belgæ and the Celtæ, and is now called la Seine. Strabo, bk. 4.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 2.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 425.

Sequăni, a people of Gaul near the territories of the Ædui, between the Saone and mount Jura, famous for their wars against Rome, &c. See: [Ædui]. The country which they inhabited is now called Franche Compté, or Upper Burgundy. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Sequinius, a native of Alba, who married one of his daughters to Curiatius of Alba, and the other to Horatius, a citizen of Rome. The two daughters were brought to bed on the same day, each of three male children.

Serapio, a surname given to one of the Scipios, because he resembled a swine-herd of that name.——A Greek poet who flourished in the age of Trajan. He was intimate with Plutarch.——An Egyptian put to death by Achillas, when he came at the head of an embassy from Ptolemy, who was a prisoner in the hands of Julius Cæsar.——A painter. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 10.

Serāpis, one of the Egyptian deities, supposed to be the same as Osiris. He had a magnificent temple at Memphis, another very rich at Alexandria, and a third at Canopus. The worship of Serapis was introduced at Rome, by the emperor Antoninus Pius, A.D. 146, and the mysteries celebrated on the 6th of May, but with so much licentiousness that the senate were soon after obliged to abolish them. Herodotus, who speaks in a very circumstantial manner of the deities, and of the religion of the Egyptians, makes no mention of the god Serapis. Apollodorus says it is the same as the bull Apis. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 18; bk. 2, ch. 34.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 83.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 30.

Serbōnis, a lake between Egypt and Palestine.

Serēna, a daughter of Theodosius, who married Stilicho. She was put to death, &c. Claudian.

Sereniānus, a favourite of Gallus the brother of Julian. He was put to death.

Serēnus Samonicus, a physician in the age of the emperor Severus and Caracalla. There remains a poem of his composition on medicine, the last edition of which is that of 1706, in 8vo, Amsterdam.——Vibius, a governor of Spain, accused of cruelty in the government of his province, and put to death by order of Tiberius.

Seres, a nation of Asia, according to Ptolemy, between the Ganges and the eastern ocean in the modern Thibet. They were naturally of a meek disposition. Silk, of which the fabrication was unknown to the ancients, who imagined that the materials were collected from the leaves of trees, was brought to Rome from their country, and on that account it received the name of Sericum, and thence a garment or dress of silk is called serica vestis. Heliogobalus the Roman emperor was the first who wore a silk dress, which at that time was sold for its weight in gold. It afterwards became very cheap, and consequently was the common dress among the Romans. Some suppose that the Seres are the same as the Chinese. Ptolemy, bk. 6, ch. 16.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 29, li. 9.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 19; bk. 19, lis. 142 & 292.—Ovid, Am. 1, poem 14, li. 6.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 121.

Sergestus, a sailor in the fleet of Æneas, from whom the family of the Sergii at Rome were descended. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 121.

Sergia, a Roman matron. She conspired with others to poison their husbands. The plot was discovered, and Sergia, with some of her accomplices, drank poison and died.

Sergius, one of the names of Catiline.——A military tribune at the siege of Veii. The family of the Sergii was patrician, and branched out into the several families of the Fidenates, Sili, Catilinæ, Nattæ, Ocellæ, and Planci.

Sergius and Sergiōlus, a deformed youth, greatly admired by the Roman ladies in Juvenal’s age. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 105, et seq.

Serīphus, an island in the Ægean sea, about 36 miles in circumference, according to Pliny only 12, very barren, and uncultivated. The Romans generally sent their criminals there in banishment, and it was there that Cassius Severus the orator was exiled, and there he died. According to Ælian, the frogs of this island never croaked, but when they were removed from the island to another place, they were more noisy and clamorous than others; hence the proverb of seriphia rana, applied to a man who neither speaks nor sings. This, however, is found to be a mistake by modern travellers. It was on the coast of Seriphos that the chest was discovered in which Acrisius had exposed his daughter Danae and her son Perseus. Strabo, bk. 10.—Ælian, De Natura Animalium, bk. 3, ch. 37.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 21.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 242; bk. 7, li. 65.

Sermyla, a town of Macedonia. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 122.

Seron, a general of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Serrānus, a surname given to Cincinnatus, because he was found sowing his fields when told that he had been elected dictator. Some, however, suppose that Serranus was a different person from Cincinnatus. Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 3.—Livy, bk. 3, ch. 26.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 844.——One of the auxiliaries of Turnus, killed in the night by Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 335.——A poet of some merit in Domitian’s reign. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 80.

Serrheum, a fortified place of Thrace. Livy, bk. 31, ch. 16.

Quintus Sertorius, a Roman general, son of Quintus and Rhea, born at Nursia. His first campaign was under the great Marius, against the Teutones and Cimbri. He visited the enemy’s camp as a spy, and had the misfortune to lose one eye in the first battle he fought. When Marius and Cinna entered Rome and slaughtered all their enemies, Sertorius accompanied them, but he expressed his sorrow and concern at the melancholy death of so many of his countrymen. He afterwards fled for safety into Spain, when Sylla had proscribed him, and in this distant province he behaved himself with so much address and valour that he was looked upon as the prince of the country. The Lusitanians universally revered and loved him, and the Roman general did not show himself less attentive to their interest, by establishing public schools, and educating the children of the country in the polite arts, and the literature of Greece and Rome. He had established a senate, over which he presided with consular authority, and the Romans, who followed his standard, paid equal reverence to his person. They were experimentally convinced of his valour and [♦]magnanimity as a general, and the artful manner in which he imposed upon the credulity of his adherents in the garb of religion, did not diminish his reputation. He pretended to hold commerce with heaven by means of a white hind which he had tamed with great success, and which followed him everywhere, even in the field of battle. The success of Sertorius in Spain, and his popularity among the natives, alarmed the Romans. They sent some troops to oppose him, but with little success. Four armies were found insufficient to crush or even hurt Sertorius; and Pompey and Metellus, who never engaged an enemy without obtaining the victory, were driven with dishonour from the field. But the favourite of the Lusitanians was exposed to the dangers which usually attend greatness. Perpenna, one of his officers who was jealous of his fame and tired of a superior, conspired against him. At a banquet the conspirators began to open their intentions by speaking with freedom and licentiousness in the presence of Sertorius, whose age and character had hitherto claimed deference from others. Perpenna overturned a glass of wine, as a signal for the rest of the conspirators, and immediately Antonius, one of his officers, stabbed Sertorius, and the example was followed by all the rest, 73 years before Christ. Sertorius has been commended for his love of justice and moderation. The flattering description which he heard of the Fortunate Islands when he passed into the west of Africa, almost tempted him to bid adieu to the world, and perhaps he would have retired from the noise of war, and the clamours of envy, to end his days in the bosom of a peaceful and solitary island, had not the stronger calls of ambition and the love of fame prevailed over the intruding reflections of a moment. It has been observed that in his latter days [♠]Sertorius became indolent, and fond of luxury and wanton cruelty; yet we must confess that in affability, clemency, complaisance, generosity, and military valour, he not only surpassed his contemporaries, but the rest of the Romans. Plutarch, Lives.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 30, &c.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 21, &c.—Appian, Civil Wars.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 7, ch. 3.—Eutropius.—Aulus Gellius, bk. 15, ch. 22.

[♦] ‘magnamimity’ replaced with ‘magnanimity’

[♠] ‘Sertorious’ replaced with ‘Sertorius’

Servæus, a man accused by Tiberius of being privy to the conspiracy of Sejanus. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 7.

Serviānus, a consul in the reign of Adrian. He was a great favourite of the emperor Trajan.

Servilia, a sister of Cato of Utica, greatly enamoured of Julius Cæsar, though her brother was one of the most inveterate enemies of her lover. To convince Cæsar of her affection, she sent him a letter filled with the most tender expressions of regard for his person. The letter was delivered to Cæsar in the senate-house, while they were debating about punishing the associates of Catiline’s conspiracy; and when Cato saw it, he exclaimed that it was a letter from the conspirators, and insisted immediately on its being made public. Upon this Cæsar gave it to Cato, and the stern senator had no sooner read its contents, than he threw it back, with the words of “Take it, drunkard.” From the intimacy which existed between Servilia and Cæsar, some have supposed that the dictator was the father of Marcus Brutus. Plutarch, Cæsar.—Cornelius Nepos, Atticus.——Another sister of Cato, who married Silanus. Cornelius Nepos, Atticus.——A daughter of Thrasea, put to death by order of Nero with her father. Her crime was the consulting of magicians only to know what would happen in her family.

Servilia lex, de pecuniis repetundis, by Caius Servilius the pretor, A.U.C. 653. It punished severely such as were guilty of peculation and extortion in the provinces. Its particulars are not precisely known.——Another, de judicibus, by Quintus Servilius Cæpio the consul, A.U.C. 648. It divided the right of judging between the senators and the equites, a privilege which, though originally belonging to the senators, had been taken from them and given to the equites.——Another, de civitate, by Caius Servilius, ordained that if a Latin accused a Roman senator, so that he was condemned, the accuser should be honoured with the name and the privileges of a Roman citizen.——Another, agraria, by Publius Servilius Rullus the tribune, A.U.C. 690. It required the immediate sale of certain houses and lands which belonged to the people, for the purchase of others in a different part of Italy. It required that 10 commissioners should be appointed to see it carried into execution, but Cicero prevented its passing into a law by the three orations which he pronounced against it.

Serviliānus, a Roman consul defeated by Viriathus, in Spain, &c.

Servilius Quintus, a Roman who in his dictatorship defeated the Æqui.——Publius, a consul who supported the cause of the people against the nobles, and obtained a triumph in spite of the opposition of the senate, after defeating the Volsci. He afterwards changed his opinions, and very violently opposed the people because they had illiberally treated him.——A proconsul killed at the battle of Cannæ by Annibal.——Ahala, a master of horse to the dictator Cincinnatus. When Mælius refused to appear before the dictator to answer the accusations which were brought against him on suspicion of his aspiring to tyranny, Ahala slew him in the midst of the people whose protection he claimed. Ahala was accused for this murder and banished, but his sentence was afterwards repealed. He was raised to the dictatorship.——Marcus, a man who pleaded in favour of Paulus Æmilius, &c.——An augur prosecuted by Lucullus for his inattention in his office. He was acquitted.——A pretor ordered by the senate to forbid Sylla to approach Rome. He was ridiculed and insulted by the conqueror’s soldiers.——A man appointed to guard the sea-coast of Pontus by Pompey.——Publius, a proconsul of Asia during the age of Mithridates. He conquered Isauria, for which service he was surnamed Isauricus, and rewarded with a triumph.——A Roman general who defeated an army of Etrurians.——An informer in the court of Tiberius.——A favourite of Augustus.——Geminus, a Roman consul who opposed Annibal with success.——Nonianus, a Latin historian, who wrote a history of Rome, in the reign of Nero. There were more than one writer of this name, as Pliny speaks of a Servilius remarkable for his eloquence and learning; and Quintilian mentions another also illustrious for his genius and literary merit.——Casca, one of Cæsar’s murderers.——The family of the Servilii was of patrician rank, and came to settle at Rome after the destruction of Alba, where they were promoted to the highest offices of the state. To the several branches of this family were attached the different surnames of Ahala, Axilla, Priscas, Cæpio, Structus, Geminus, Pulex, Vatia, Casca, Fidenas, Longus, and Tucca.——Lacus, a lake near Rome. Cicero, For Sextus Roscius of Ameria, ch. 32.

Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, was son of Ocrisia, a slave of Corniculum, by Tullius, a man slain in the defence of his country against the Romans. Ocrisia was given by Tarquin to Tanaquil his wife, and she brought up her son in the king’s family, and added the name of Servius to that which he had inherited from his father, to denote his slavery. Young Servius was educated in the palace of the monarch with great care, and though originally a slave, he raised himself so much to consequence, that Tarquin gave him his daughter in marriage. His own private merit and virtues recommended him to notice not less than the royal favours, and Servius, become the favourite of the people and the darling of the soldiers, by his liberality and complaisance, was easily raised to the throne on the death of his father-in-law. Rome had no reason to repent of her choice. Servius endeared himself still more as a warrior and as a legislator. He defeated the Veientes and the Tuscans, and by a proper act of policy he established the census, which told him that Rome contained about 84,000 inhabitants. He increased the number of the tribes, he beautified and adorned the city, and enlarged its boundaries by taking within its walls the hills Quirinalis, Viminalis, and Esquilinus. He also divided the Roman people into tribes, and that he might not seem to neglect the worship of the gods, he built several temples to the goddess of fortune, to whom he deemed himself particularly indebted for obtaining the kingdom. He also built a temple to Diana on mount Aventine, and raised himself a palace on the hill Esquilinus. Servius married his two daughters to the grandsons of his father-in-law; the elder to Tarquin, and the younger to Aruns. This union, as might be supposed, tended to ensure the peace of his family; but if such were his expectations, he was unhappily deceived. The wife of Aruns, naturally fierce and impetuous, murdered her own husband to unite herself to Tarquin, who had likewise assassinated his wife. These bloody measures were no sooner pursued than Servius was murdered by his own son-in-law, and his daughter Tullia showed herself so inimical to filial gratitude and piety, that she ordered her chariot to be driven over the mangled body of her father, B.C. 534. His death was universally lamented, and the slaves annually celebrated a festival in his honour, in the temple of Diana on mount Aventine, the day that he was murdered. Tarquinia, his wife, buried his remains privately, and died the following day. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 41.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 4.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 1, ch. 53.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 601.——Galba, a seditious person who wished to refuse a triumph to Paulus Æmylius after the conquest of Macedonia.——Claudius, a grammarian. Suetonius, Lives of the Grammarians.——A friend of Sylla, who applied for the consulship to no purpose.——Cornelius, a consul in the first ages of the republic, &c.——Sulpitius, an orator in the age of Cicero and Hortensius. He was sent as ambassador to Marcus Antony, and died before his return. Cicero obtained a statue for him from the senate and the Roman people, which was raised in the Campus Martius. Besides orations he wrote verses, which were highly censured for their indelicacy. His works are lost. Cicero, Brutus, Philippics, &c.—Pliny, bk. 5, ltr. 3.——A despicable informer in the Augustan age. Horace, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 47.——Honoratus Maurus, a learned grammarian in the age of young Theodosius. He wrote Latin commentaries upon Virgil, still extant.

Sesara, a daughter of Celeus king of Eleusis, sister of Triptolemus. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 38.

Sesostris, a celebrated king of Egypt some ages before the Trojan war. His father ordered all the children in his dominions who were born on the same day with him to be publicly educated, and to pass their youth in the company of his son. This succeeded in the highest degree, and Sesostris had the pleasure to find himself surrounded by a number of faithful ministers and active warriors, whose education and intimacy with their prince rendered them inseparably devoted to his interest. When Sesostris had succeeded on his father’s throne, he became ambitious of military fame, and after he had divided his kingdom into 36 different districts, he marched at the head of a numerous army to make the conquest of the world. Libya, Æthiopia, Arabia, with all the islands of the Red sea, were conquered, and the victorious monarch marched through Asia, and penetrated further into the east than the conqueror Darius. He also invaded Europe, and subdued the Thracians; and that the fame of his conquests might long survive him, he placed columns in the several provinces he had subdued; and many ages after, this pompous inscription was read in many parts of Asia: “Sesostris the king of kings has conquered this territory by his arms.” At his return home the monarch employed his time in encouraging the fine arts, and in improving the revenues of his kingdom. He erected 100 temples to the gods for the victories which he had obtained, and mounds of earth were heaped up in several parts of Egypt, where cities were built for the reception of the inhabitants during the inundations of the Nile. Some canals were also dug near Memphis to facilitate navigation, and the communication of one province with another. In his old age Sesostris, grown infirm and blind, destroyed himself, after a reign of 44 years, according to some. His mildness towards the conquered has been admired, while some have upbraided him for his cruelty and insolence in causing his chariot to be drawn by some of the monarchs whom he had conquered. The age of Sesostris is so remote from every authentic record, that many have supported that the actions and conquests ascribed to this monarch are uncertain and totally fabulous. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 102, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Valerius Flaccus, bk. 5, li. 419.—Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 3.—Lucan, bk. 10, li. 276.—Strabo, bk. 16.

Sessites, now Sessia, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Po. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.

Sestias, a name applied to Hero, as born at Sestos. Statius, bk. 6, Thebaid, li. 547.

Sestius, a friend of Brutus, with whom he fought at the battle of Philippi. Augustus resigned the consulship in his favour, though he still continued to reverence the memory of Brutus.——A governor of Syria.

Sestos, or Sestus, a town of Thrace on the shores of the Hellespont, exactly opposite Abydos on the Asiatic side. It is celebrated for the bridge which Xerxes built there across the Hellespont, as also for being the seat of the amours of Hero and Leander. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Musæus, Hero & Leander.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 258.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 18, ltr. 2.

Sesuvii, a people of Celtic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Setăbis, a town of Spain between New Carthage and Saguntum, famous for the manufacture of linen. There was also a small river of the same name in the neighbourhood. Silius Italicus, bk. 16, li. 474.—Strabo, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 3; bk. 19, ch. 1.

Sethon, a priest of Vulcan, who made himself king of Egypt after the death of Anysis. He was attacked by the Assyrians and delivered from this powerful enemy by an immense number of rats, which in one night gnawed their bow-strings and thongs, so that on the morrow their arms were found to be useless. From this wonderful circumstance Sethon had a statue which represented him with a rat in his hand, with the inscription of, “Whoever fixes his eyes upon me, let him be pious.” Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 141.

Setia, a town of Latium above the Pontine marshes, celebrated for its wines, which Augustus is said to have preferred to all others. Pliny, bk. 14, ch. 6.—Juvenal, satire 5, li. 34; satire 10, li. 27.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 112.

Sevēra Julia Aquilia, a Roman lady, whom the emperor Heliogabalus married. She was soon after repudiated, though possessed of all the charms of the mind and body which could captivate the most virtuous.——Valeria, the wife of Valentinian, and the mother of Gratian, was well known for her avarice and ambition. The emperor, her husband, repudiated her and afterwards took her again. Her prudent advice at last ensured her son Gratian on the imperial throne.——The wife of Philip the Roman emperor.

Severiānus, a governor of Macedonia, father-in-law to the emperor Philip.——A general of the Roman armies in the reign of Valentinian, defeated by the Germans.——A son of the emperor Severus.

Sevērus Lucius Septimius, a Roman emperor born at Leptis in Africa, of a noble family. He gradually exercised all the offices of the state, and recommended himself to the notice of the world by an ambitious mind and a restless activity, that could, for the gratification of avarice, endure the most complicated hardships. After the murder of Pertinax, Severus resolved to remove Didius Julianus, who had bought the imperial purple when exposed to sale by the licentiousness of the pretorians, and therefore he proclaimed himself emperor on the borders of Illyricum, where he was stationed against the barbarians. To support himself in this bold measure, he took as his partner in the empire Albinus, who was at the head of the Roman forces in Britain, and immediately marched towards Rome, to crush [♦]Didius and all his partisans. He was received as he advanced through the country with universal acclamations, and Julianus himself was soon deserted by his favourites, and assassinated by his own soldiers. The reception of Severus at Rome was sufficient to gratify his pride; the streets were strewed with flowers, and the submissive senate were ever ready to grant whatever honours or titles the conqueror claimed. In professing that he had assumed the purple only to revenge the death of the virtuous Pertinax, Severus gained many adherents, and was enabled not only to disarm, but to banish the pretorians, whose insolence and avarice were become alarming not only to the citizens, but to the emperor. But while he was victorious at Rome, Severus did not forget that there was another competitor for the imperial purple. Pescennius Niger was in the east at the head of a powerful army, and with the name and ensigns of Augustus. Many obstinate battles were fought between the troops and officers of the imperial rivals, till on the plains of Issus, which had been above five centuries before covered with the blood of the Persian soldiers of Darius, Niger was totally ruined by the loss of 20,000 men. The head of Niger was cut off and sent to the conqueror, who punished in a most cruel manner all the partisans of his unfortunate rival. Severus afterwards pillaged Byzantium, which had shut her gates against him; and after he had conquered several nations in the east, he returned to Rome, resolved to destroy Albinus, with whom he had hitherto reluctantly shared the imperial power. He attempted to assassinate him by his emissaries; but when this had failed of success, Severus had recourse to arms, and the fate of the empire was again decided on the plains of Gaul. Albinus was defeated, and the conqueror was so elated with the recollection that he had now no longer a competitor for the purple, that he insulted the dead body of his rival, and ordered it to be thrown into the Rhone, after he had suffered it to putrefy before the door of his tent, and to be torn to pieces by his dogs. The family and the adherents of [♠]Albinus shared his fate; and the return of Severus to the capital exhibited the bloody triumphs of Marius and Sylla. The richest of the citizens were sacrificed, and their money became the property of the emperor. The wicked Commodus received divine honours, and his murderers were punished in the most wanton manner. Tired of the inactive life which he led in Rome, Severus marched into the east, with his two sons Caracalla and Geta, and with uncommon success made himself master of Seleucia, Babylon, and Ctesiphon; and advanced without opposition far into the Parthian territories. From Parthia the emperor marched towards the more southern provinces of Asia: after he had visited the tomb of Pompey the Great, he entered Alexandria; and after he had granted a senate to that celebrated city, he viewed with the most criticizing and inquisitive curiosity the several monuments and ruins which that ancient kingdom contains. The revolt of Britain recalled him from the east. After he had reduced it under his power, he built a wall across the northern part of the island, to defend it against the frequent invasions of the Caledonians. Hitherto successful against his enemies, Severus now found the peace of his family disturbed. Caracalla attempted to murder his father as he was concluding a treaty of peace with the Britons; and the emperor was so shocked at the undutifulness of his son, that on his return home he called him into his presence, and after he had upbraided him for his ingratitude and perfidy, he offered him a drawn sword, adding, “If you are so ambitious of reigning alone, now imbrue your hands in the blood of your father, and let not the eyes of the world be witnesses of your want of filial tenderness.” If these words checked Caracalla, yet he did not show himself concerned, and Severus, worn out with infirmities which the gout and the uneasiness of his mind increased, soon after died, exclaiming he had been everything man could wish, but that he was then nothing. Some say that he wished to poison himself, but that when this was denied, he ate to great excess, and soon after expired at York on the 4th of February, in the 211th year of the christian era, in the 66th year of his age, after a reign of 17 years, eight months, and three days. Severus has been so much admired for his military talents, that some have called him the most warlike of the Roman emperors. As a monarch he was cruel, and it has been observed that he never did an act of humanity or forgave a fault. In his diet he was temperate, and he always showed himself an open enemy to pomp and splendour. He loved the appellation of a man of letters, and he even composed a history of his own reign, which some have praised for its correctness and veracity. However cruel Severus may appear in his punishments and in his revenge, many have endeavoured to exculpate him, and observed that there was need of severity in an empire whose morals were so corrupted, and where no less than 3000 persons were accused of adultery during the space of 17 years. Of him, as of Augustus, some were found to say, that it would have been better for the world if he had never been born, or had never died. Dio Cassius.—Herodian.—Aurelius Victor., &c.——Alexander Marcus Aurelius, a native of Phœnicia, adopted by Heliogabalus. His father’s name was Genesius Marcianus, and his mother’s Julia Mammæa, and he received the surname of Alexander, because he was born in a temple sacred to Alexander the Great. He was carefully educated, and his mother, by paying particular attention to his morals, and the character of his preceptors, preserved him from those infirmities and that licentiousness which old age too often attributes to the depravity of youth. At the death of Heliogabalus, who had been jealous of his virtues, Alexander, though only in the 14th year of his age, was proclaimed emperor, and his nomination was approved by the universal shouts of the army, and the congratulations of the senate. He had not long been on the throne before the peace of the empire was disturbed by the incursions of the Persians. Alexander marched into the east without delay, and soon obtained a decisive victory over the barbarians. At his return to Rome he was honoured with a triumph, but the revolt of the Germans soon after called him away from the indolence of the capital. His expedition in Germany was attended with some success, but the virtues and the amiable qualities of Alexander were forgotten in the stern and sullen strictness of the disciplinarian. His soldiers, fond of repose, murmured against his severity; their clamours were fomented by the artifice of Maximinus, and Alexander was murdered in his tent, in the midst of his camp, after a reign of 13 years and nine days, on the 18th of March, A.D. 235. His mother Mammæa shared his fate with all his friends; but this was no sooner known than the soldiers punished with immediate death all such as had been concerned in the murder except Maximinus. Alexander has been admired for his many virtues, and every historian, except Herodian, is bold to assert, that if he had lived, the Roman empire might soon have been freed from those tumults and abuses which continually disturbed her peace, and kept the lives of her emperors and senators in perpetual alarms. His severity in punishing offences was great, and such as had robbed the public, were they even the most intimate friends of the emperor, were indiscriminately sacrificed to the tranquillity of the state, which they had violated. The great offices of the state, which had before his reign been exposed to sale, and occupied by favourites, were now bestowed upon merit, and Alexander could boast that all his officers were men of trust and abilities. He was a patron of literature, and he dedicated the hours of relaxation to the study of the best Greek and Latin historians, orators, and poets; and in the public schools which his liberality and the desire of encouraging learning had founded, he often heard with pleasure and satisfaction the eloquent speeches and declamations of his subjects. The provinces were well supplied with provisions, and Rome was embellished with many stately buildings and magnificent porticoes. Alexander Polyhistor, Lives.—Herodian.—Zosim.—Aurelius Victor.——Flavius Valerius, a native of Illyricum, nominated Cæsar by Galerius. He was put to death by Maximianus, A.D. 307.——Julius, a governor of Britain under Adrian.——A general of Valens.——Libius, a man proclaimed emperor of the west, at Ravenna, after the death of Majorianus. He was soon after poisoned.——Lucius Cornelius, a Latin poet in the age of Augustus, for some time employed in the judicial proceedings of the forum.——Cassius, an orator banished into the island of Crete by Augustus, for his illiberal language. He was banished 17 years, and died in Seriphos. He is commended as an able orator, yet declaiming with more warmth than prudence. His writings were destroyed by order of the senate. Suetonius, Octavian Augustus.—Quintilian.——Sulpitius, an ecclesiastical historian, who died A.D. 420. The best of his works is his Historia Sacra, from the creation of the world to the consulship of Stilicho, of which the style is elegant, and superior to that of the age in which he lived. The best edition is in 2 vols., 4to, Patavii, 1741.——An officer under the emperor Julian.——Aquilius, a native of Spain, who wrote an account of his own life in the reign of the emperor Valens.——An officer of Valentinian, &c.——A prefect of Rome, &c.——A celebrated architect employed in building Nero’s golden palace at Rome after the burning of that city.——A mountain of Italy, near the Fabaris. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 713.

[♦] ‘Didus’ replaced with ‘Didius’

[♠] ‘Albinius’ replaced with ‘Albinus’

Sevo, a ridge of mountains between Norway and Sweden, now called Fiell, or Dofre. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 15.

Seuthes, a man who dethroned his monarch, &c.——A friend of Perdiccas, one of Alexander’s generals.——A Thracian king, who encouraged his countrymen to revolt, &c. This name is common to several of the Thracian princes.

Sextia, a woman celebrated for her virtue and her constancy, put to death by Nero. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 16, ch. 10.

Sextia Licinia lex, de Magistratibus, by Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius the tribunes, A.U.C. 386. It ordained that one of the consuls should be elected from among the plebeians.——Another, de religione, by the same, A.U.C. 385. It enacted that a decemvirate should be chosen from the patricians and plebeians instead of the decemviri sacris faciundis.

Sextiæ Aquæ, now Aix, a place of Cisalpine Gaul, where the Cimbri were defeated by Marius. It was built by Caius Sextius, and is famous for its cold and hot springs. Livy, bk. 61.—Velleius Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 15.

Sextilia, the wife of Vitellius. She became mother of two children. Suetonius, Lives.——Another in the same family. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 64.

Sextilius, a governor of Africa, who ordered Marius, when he landed there, to depart immediately from his province. Marius heard this with some concern, and said to the messengers, “Go and tell your master that you have seen the exiled Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage.” Plutarch, Caius Marius.——A Roman preceptor, who was seized and carried away by pirates, &c.——One of the officers of Lucullus.——Hæna, a poet. See: [♦]Hæna.——An officer sent to Germany, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 7.

[♦] No matching reference

Sextius, a lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul.——A seditious tribune in the first ages of the republic.——Lucius was remarkable for his friendship with Brutus; he gained the confidence of Augustus, and was consul. Horace, who was in the number of his friends, dedicated bk. 1, ode 4, to him.——The first plebeian consul.——A dictator.——One of the sons of Tarquin. See: [Tarquinius].

Sextus, a prænomen given to the sixth son of a family.——A son of Pompey the Great. See: Pompeius.——A stoic philosopher, born at Cheronæa in Bœotia. Some suppose that he was Plutarch’s nephew. He was preceptor to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.——A governor of Syria.——A philosopher in the age of Antoninus. He was one of the followers of the doctrines of Pyrrho. Some of his works are still extant. The best edition of the treatise of Sextus Pompeis Festus, Lexicon of Festus, is that of Amsterdam, 4to, 1669.

Sibæ, a people of India. Strabo.

Sibaris. See: [Sybaris].

Sibīni, a people near the Suevi.

Siburtius, a satrap of Arachosia, in the age of Alexander, &c.

Sibyllæ, certain women inspired by heaven, who flourished in different parts of the world. Their number is unknown. Plato speaks of one, others of two, Pliny of three, Ælian of four, and Varro of 10, an opinion which is universally adopted by the learned. These 10 Sibyls generally resided in the following places: Persia, Libya, Delphi, Cumæ in Italy, Erythræa, Samos, Cumæ in Æolia, Marpessa on the Hellespont, Ancyra in Phrygia, and Tiburtis. The most celebrated of the Sibyls is that of Cumæ in Italy, whom some have called by the different names of Amalthæa, Demophile, Herophile, Daphne, Manto, Phemonoe, and Deiphobe. It is said that Apollo became enamoured of her, and that, to make her sensible of his passion, he offered to give her whatever she should ask. The Sibyl demanded to live as many years as she had grains of sand in her hand, but unfortunately forgot to ask for the enjoyment of the health, vigour, and bloom, of which she was then in possession. The god granted her her request, but she refused to gratify the passion of her lover, though he offered her perpetual youth and beauty. Some time after she became old and decrepit, her form decayed, and melancholy paleness and haggard looks succeeded to bloom and cheerfulness. She had already lived about 700 years when Æneas came to Italy, and, as some have imagined, she had three centuries more to live before her years were as numerous as the grains of sand which she had in her hand. She gave Æneas instructions how to find his father in the infernal regions, and even conducted him to the entrance of hell. It was usual for the Sibyl to write her prophecies on leaves which she placed at the entrance of her cave, and it required particular care in such as consulted her to take up those leaves before they were dispersed by the wind, as their meaning then became incomprehensible. According to the most authentic historians of the Roman republic, one of the Sibyls came to the palace of Tarquin II., with nine volumes, which she offered to sell for a very high price. The monarch disregarded her, and she immediately disappeared, and soon after returned, when she had burned three of the volumes. She asked the same price for the remaining six books; and when Tarquin refused to buy them, she burned three more, and still persisted in demanding the same sum of money for the three that were left. This extraordinary behaviour astonished Tarquin; he bought the books, and the Sibyl instantly vanished, and never after appeared to the world. These books were preserved with great care by the monarch, and called the Sibylline verses. A college of priests was appointed to have the care of them; and such reverence did the Romans entertain for these prophetic books, that they were consulted with the greatest solemnity, and only when the state seemed to be in danger. When the capitol was burnt in the troubles of Sylla, the Sibylline verses, which were deposited there, perished in the conflagration; and to repair the loss which the republic seemed to have sustained, commissioners were immediately sent to different parts of Greece, to collect whatever verses could be found of the inspired writings of the Sibyls. The fate of the Sibylline verses, which were collected after the conflagration of the capitol, is unknown. There are now eight books of Sibylline verses extant, but they are universally reckoned spurious. They speak so plainly of our Saviour, of his sufferings, and of his death, as even to surpass far the sublime prediction of Isaiah in description, and therefore from this very circumstance, it is evident that they were composed in the second century, by some of the followers of christianity, who wished to convince the heathens of their error, by assisting the cause of truth with the arms of pious artifice. The word Sibyl seems to be derived from σιου, Æolice for Διος, Jovis, and βουλη, consilium. Plato, Phædras.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12, ch. 35.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 12, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, lis. 109 & 140.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 445; bk. 6, li. 36.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 564.—Pliny, bk. 13, ch. 13.—Florus, bk. 4, ch. 1.—Sallust.—Cicero, Against Catiline, ch. 3.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 8, ch. 15, &c.

Sica, a man who showed much attention to Cicero in his banishment. Some suppose that he is the same as the Vibius Siculus mentioned by Plutarch, Cicero.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 8, ltr. 12; Letters to his Friends, bk. 14, chs. 4, 15.

Sĭcambri, or Sicambria, a people of Germany, conquered by the Romans. They revolted against Augustus, who marched against them, but did not totally reduce them. Drusus conquered them, and they were carried away from their native country to inhabit some of the more westerly provinces of Gaul. Dio Cassius, bk. 54.—Strabo, bk. 4.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 2, li. 36; ode 14, li. 51.—Tacitus, bk. 2, Annals, ch. 26.

Sicambria, the country of the Sicambri, formed the modern provinces of Guelderland. Claudian, Against Eutropius, bk. 1, li. 383.

Sĭcāni, a people of Spain, who left their native country and passed into Italy, and afterwards into Sicily, which they called Sicania. They inhabited the neighbourhood of mount Ætna, where they built some cities and villages. Some reckoned them the next inhabitants of the island after the Cyclops. They were afterwards driven from their ancient possessions by the Siculi, and retired into the western parts of the island. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bks. 5 & 13.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 10; Æneid, bk. 7, li. 795.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Horace, epode 17, li. 32.

Sĭcānia and Sīcănia, an ancient name of Italy, which it received from the Sicani, or from Sicanus their king, or from Sicanus, a small river in Spain, in the territory where they lived, as some suppose. The name was more generally given to Sicily. See: [Sicani].

Sicca, a town of Numidia at the west of Carthage. Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 56.

Sicĕlis (Sīcĕlĭdes, plural), an epithet applied to the inhabitants of Sicily. The Muses are called Sicelides by Virgil, because Theocritus was a native of Sicily, whom the Latin poet, as a writer of Bucolic poetry, professed to imitate. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 4.

Sichæus, called also Sicharbas and Acerbas, was a priest of the temple of Hercules in Phœnicia. His father’s name was Plisthenes. He married Elisa the daughter of Belus, and sister to king Pygmalion, better known by the name of Dido. He was so extremely rich, that his brother-in-law murdered him to obtain his possessions. This murder Pygmalion concealed from his sister Dido; and he amused her by telling her that her husband had gone upon an affair of importance, and that he would soon return. This would have perhaps succeeded had not the shades of Sichæus appeared to Dido, and related to her the cruelty of Pygmalion, and advised her to fly from Tyre, after she had previously secured some treasures, which, as he mentioned, were concealed in an obscure and unknown place. According to Justin, Acerbas was the uncle of Dido. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 347, &c.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Justin, bk. 18, ch. 4.

Sicĭlia, the largest and most celebrated island in the Mediterranean sea, at the bottom of Italy. It was anciently called Sicania, Trinacria, and Triquetra. It is of a triangular form, and has three celebrated promontories, one looking towards Africa, called Lilybæum; Pachynum looking towards Greece; and Pelorum towards Italy. Sicily is about 600 miles in circumference, celebrated for its fertility, so much that it was called one of the granaries of Rome, and Pliny says that it rewards the husbandman an hundredfold. Its most famous cities were Syracuse, Messana, Leontini, Lilybæum, Agrigentum, Gela, Drepanum, Eryx, &c. The highest and most famous mountain in the island is Ætna, whose frequent eruptions are dangerous, and often fatal to the country and its inhabitants, from which circumstance the ancients supposed that the forges of Vulcan and the Cyclops were placed there. The poets feign that the Cyclops were the original inhabitants of this island, and that after them it came into the possession of the Sicani, a people of Spain, and at last of the Siculi, a nation of Italy. See: [Siculi]. The plains of Enna are well known for their excellent honey; and, according to Diodorus, the hounds lost their scent in hunting on account of the many odoriferous plants that profusely perfumed the air. Ceres and Proserpine were the chief deities of the place, and it was there, according to poetical tradition, that the latter was carried away by Pluto. The Phœnicians and Greeks settled some colonies there, and at last the Carthaginians became masters of the whole island till they were dispossessed of it by the Romans in the Punic wars. Some authors suppose that Sicily was originally joined to the continent, and that it was separated from Italy by an earthquake, and that the straits of the Charybdis were formed. The inhabitants of Sicily were so fond of luxury, that Siculæ mensæ became proverbial. The rights of citizens of Rome were extended to them by Marcus Antony. Cicero, bk. 14, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 12; Against Verres, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 9, &c.—Justin, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 414, &c.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 11, &c.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 8, &c.——The island of Naxos in the Ægean, was called Little Sicily on account of its fruitfulness.

Lucius Sicinius Dentātus, a tribune of Rome, celebrated for his valour and the honours he obtained in the field of battle, during the period of 40 years, in which he was engaged in the Roman armies. He was present in 121 battles: he obtained 14 civic crowns, three mural crowns, eight crowns of gold, 83 golden collars, 60 bracelets, 18 lances, 23 horses with all their ornaments, and all as the reward of his uncommon services. He could show the scars of 45 wounds, which he had received all in his breast, particularly in opposing the Sabines when they took the capitol. The popularity of Sicinius became odious to Appius Claudius, who wished to make himself absolute at Rome, and therefore, to remove him from the capital, he sent him to the army, by which, soon after his arrival, he was attacked and murdered. Of 100 men who were ordered to fall upon him, Sicinius killed 15, and wounded 30; and, according to Dionysius, the surviving number had recourse to artifice to overpower him, by killing him with a shower of stones and darts thrown at a distance, about 405 years before the christian era. For his uncommon courage Sicinius has been called the Roman Achilles. Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 2.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 8.——Vellutus, one of the first tribunes in Rome. He raised cabals against Coriolanus, and was one of his accusers. Plutarch, Coriolanus.——Sabinus, a Roman general who defeated the Volsci.

Sicīnus, a man privately sent by Themistocles to deceive Xerxes, and to advise him to attack the combined forces of the Greeks. He had been preceptor to Themistocles. Plutarch.——An island, &c.

Sicŏrus, now Segre, a river of Hispania Tarraconensis, rising in the Pyrenean mountains, and falling into the Iberus, a little above its mouth. It was near this city that Julius Cæsar conquered Afranius and Petreius, the partisans of Pompey. Lucan, bk. 4, lis. 14, 130, &c.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 3.

Sicŭli, a people of Italy, driven from their possessions by the Opici. They fled into Sicania, or Sicily, where they settled in the territories which the Sicani inhabited. They soon extended their borders, and after they had conquered their neighbours the Sicani, they gave their name to the island. This, as some suppose, happened about 300 years before Greek colonies settled in the island, or about 1059 years before the christian era. Diodorus, bk. 5.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—Strabo.

Sicŭlum fretum, the sea which separates Sicily from Italy, is 15 miles long, but in some places so narrow, that the barking of dogs can be heard from shore to shore. This strait is supposed to have been formed by an earthquake, which separated the island from the continent. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 8.

Sicyon, now Basilico, a town of Peloponnesus, the capital of Sicyonia. It is celebrated as being the most ancient kingdom of Greece, which began B.C. 2089, and ended B.C. 1088, under a succession of monarchs of whom little is known, except the names. Ægialeus was the first king. Some time after, Agamemnon made himself master of the place, and afterwards it fell into the hands of the Heraclidæ. It became very powerful in the time of the Achæan league, which it joined B.C. 251, at the persuasion of Aratus. The inhabitants of Sicyon are mentioned by some authors as dissolute and fond of luxury, hence the Sicyonian shoes, which were once very celebrated, were deemed marks of effeminacy. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Lucretius, bk. 1, li. 1118.—Livy, bk. 32, ch. 16; bk. 33, ch. 15.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 54.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 519.

Sicyonia, a province of Peloponnesus, on the bay of Corinth, of which Sicyon was the capital. It is the most eminent kingdom of Greece, and in its flourishing situation, not only its dependent states, but also the whole Peloponnesus, were called Sicyonia. The territory is said to abound with corn, wine, and olives, and also with iron mines. It produced many celebrated men, particularly artists. See: [Sicyon].

Side, the wife of Orion, thrown into hell by Juno, for boasting herself fairer than the goddess. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 4.——A daughter of Belus.——A daughter of Danaus.——A town of Pamphylia. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 23.—Cicero, bk. 3, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 6.

Sidēro, the stepmother of Tyro, killed by Pelias.

Sidicīnum, a town of Campania, called also Teanum. See: [Teanum]. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 727.

Sidon, an ancient city of Phœnicia, the capital of the country, with a famous harbour, now called Said. It is situate on the shores of the Mediterranean, at the distance of about 50 miles from Damascus and 24 from Tyre. The people of Sidon were well known for their industry, their skill in arithmetic, in astronomy, and commercial affairs, and in sea voyages. They, however, had the character of being very dishonest. Their women were peculiarly happy in working embroidery. The invention of glass, of linen, and of a beautiful purple dye, is attributed to them. The city of Sidon was taken by Ochus king of Persia, after the inhabitants had burnt themselves and the city, B.C. 351; but it was afterwards rebuilt by its inhabitants. Lucan, bk. 3, li. 217; bk. 10, li. 141.—Diodorus, bk. 16.—Justin, bk. 11, ch. 10.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 26.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 15, li. 411.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 12.

Sidoniorum insulæ, islands in the Persian gulf. Strabo, bk. 16.

Sidōnis, is the country of which Sidon was the capital, situate at the west of Syria, on the coast of the Mediterranean. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, fable 19.——Dido, as a native of the country, is often called Sidonis. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 80.

Sidonius Caius Sollius Apollinaris, a christian writer, born A.D. 430. He died in the 52nd year of his age. There are remaining of his compositions, some letters and different poems, consisting chiefly of panegyrics on the great men of his time, written in heroic verse, and occasionally in other metre, of which the best edition is that of Labbæus, Paris, 4to, 1652.——The epithet of Sidonius is applied not only to the natives of Sidon, but it is used to express the excellence of anything, especially embroidery or dyed garments. Carthage is called Sidonia urbs, because built by Sidonians. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 682.

Siena Julia, a town of Etruria. Cicero, Brutus, ch. 18.—Tacitus, bk. 4, Histories, ch. 45.

[♦]Siga, now Ned-Roma, a town of Numidia, famous as the residence of Syphax. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 11.

[♦] ‘Sida’ replaced with ‘Siga’

Sigæum, or Sigēum, now cape Incihisari, a town of Troas, on a promontory of the same name, where the Scamander falls into the sea, extending six miles along the shore. It was near Sigæum that the greatest part of the battles between the Greeks and Trojans were fought, as Homer mentions, and there Achilles was buried. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 312; bk. 7, li. 294.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 71.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 962.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 18.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 5, ch. 12.

Signia, an ancient town of Latium, whose inhabitants were called Signini. The wine of Signia was used by the ancients for medicinal purposes. Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 116.——A mountain of Phrygia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.

Sigovessus, a prince among the Celtæ, in the reign of Tarquin. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 34.

Sigȳni, Sigunæ, or Sigynnæ, a nation of European Scythia, beyond the Danube. Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 9.

Sila, or Syla, a large wood in the country of the Brutii near the Apennines, abounding in much pitch. Strabo, bk. 6.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 713.

Silāna Julia, a woman at the court of Nero, remarkable for her licentiousness and impurities. She married Caius Julius, by whom she was divorced.

Decimus Silānus, a son of Titus Manlius Torquatus, accused of extortion in the management of the province of Macedonia. The father himself desired to hear the complaints laid against his son, and after he had spent two days in examining the charges of the Macedonians, he pronounced on the third day his son guilty of extortion, and unworthy to be called a citizen of Rome. He also banished him from his presence, and so struck was the son at the severity of his father, that he hanged himself on the following night. Livy, bk. 54.—Cicero, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 8.——Caius Junius, a consul under Tiberius, accused of extortion, and banished to the island of Cythere. Tacitus.——Marcus, a lieutenant of Cæsar’s armies in Gaul.——The father-in-law of Caligula. Suetonius, Caligula, ch. 22.——A propretor in Spain, who routed the Carthaginian forces there, while Annibal was in Italy.——Turpilius, a lieutenant of Metellus against Jugurtha. He was accused by Marius, though totally innocent, and condemned by the malice of his judges.——Torquatus, a man put to death by Nero.——Lucius, a man betrothed to Octavia the daughter of Claudius. Nero took Octavia away from him, and on the day of her nuptials, [♦]Silanus killed himself.——An augur in the army of the 10,000 Greeks, at their return from Cunaxa.

[♦] ‘Salinus’ replaced with ‘Silanus’

Sĭlărus, a river of Picenum, rising in the Apennine mountains, and falling into the Tyrrhene sea. Its waters, as it is reported, petrified all leaves that fell into it. Strabo, bk. 5.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 146.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 103.—Silius Italicus, bk. 2, li. 582.

Silēni, a people on the banks of the Indus. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 20.

Silēnus, a demi-god, who became the nurse, the preceptor, and attendant of the god Bacchus. He was, as some suppose, son of Pan, or, according to others, of Mercury, or of Terra. Malea in Lesbos was the place of his birth. After death he received divine honours, and had a temple in Elis. Silenus is generally represented as a fat and jolly old man, riding on an ass, crowned with flowers, and always intoxicated. He was once found by some peasants in Phrygia, after he had lost his way, and could not follow Bacchus, and he was carried to king Midas, who received him with great attention. He detained him for 10 days, and afterwards restored him to Bacchus, for which he was rewarded with the power of turning into gold whatever he touched. Some authors assert that Silenus was a philosopher, who accompanied Bacchus in his Indian expedition, and assisted him by the soundness of his counsels. From this circumstance, therefore, he is often introduced speaking with all the gravity of a philosopher concerning the formation of the world, and the nature of things. The Fauns in general, and the Satyrs, are often called Sileni. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 25; bk. 6, ch. 24.—Philostratus, bk. 23.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 191.—Diodorus, bk. 3, &c.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 48.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 3, ch. 18.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 6, li. 13.——A Carthaginian historian who wrote an account of the affairs of his country in the Greek language.——An historian who wrote an account of Sicily.

Silicense, a river of Spain.

Silicis mons, a town near Padua.

Silis, a river of Venetia in Italy, falling into the Adriatic. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 18.

Catius Silius Italĭcus, a Latin poet, who was originally at the bar, where he for some time distinguished himself, till he retired from Rome more particularly to consecrate his time to study. He was consul the year that Nero was murdered. Pliny has observed, that when Trajan was invested with the imperial purple, Silius refused to come to Rome and congratulate him like the rest of his fellow-citizens, a neglect which was never resented by the emperor, or insolently mentioned by the poet. [♦]Silius was in possession of a house where Cicero had lived, and another in which was the tomb of Virgil, and it has been justly remarked, that he looked upon no temple with greater reverence than upon the sepulchre of the immortal poet, whose steps he followed, but whose fame he could not equal. The birthday of Virgil was yearly celebrated with unusual pomp and solemnity by Silius; and for his partiality, not only to the memory, but to the compositions of the Mantuan poet, he has been called the ape of Virgil. Silius starved himself when labouring under an imposthume which his physicians were unable to remove, in the beginning of Trajan’s reign, about the 75th year of his age. There remains a poem of Italicus, on the second Punic war, divided into 17 books, greatly commended by Martial. The moderns have not been so favourable in their opinions concerning its merit. The poetry is weak and inelegant, yet the author deserves to be commended for his purity, the authenticity of his narrations, and his interesting descriptions. He has everywhere imitated Virgil, but with little success. [♦]Silius was a great collector of antiquities. His son was honoured with the consulship during his lifetime. The best editions of Italicus will be found to be Drakenborch’s in 4to, Utrecht, 1717, and that of Cellarius, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1695. Martial, bk. 11, ltr. 49, &c.——Caius, a man of consular dignity, greatly beloved by Messalina for his comely appearance and elegant address. Messalina obliged him to divorce his wife, that she might enjoy his company without intermission. Silius was forced to comply, though with reluctance, and he was at last put to death for the adulteries which the empress obliged him to commit. Tacitus.—Suetonius.—Dio Cassius.——A tribune in Cæsar’s legions in Gaul.——A commander in Germany, put to death by Sejanus. Tacitus, Annals, bks. [♠]3 & 4.

[♦] ‘Silinus’ replaced with ‘Silius’

[♠] ‘5’ replaced with ‘3’

Silphium, a part of Libya.

Silpia, a town of Spain. Livy, bk. 28, ch. 12.

Silvānus, a rural deity, son of an Italian shepherd by a goat. From this circumstance he is generally represented as half a man and half a goat. According to Virgil, he was son of Picus, or, as others report, of Mars, or, according to Plutarch, of Valeria Tusculanaria, a young woman, who introduced herself into her father’s bed, and became pregnant by him. The worship of Silvanus was established only in Italy, where, as some authors have imagined, he reigned in the age of Evander. This deity was sometimes represented holding a cypress in his hand, because he became enamoured of a beautiful youth called Cyparissus, who was changed into a tree of the same name. Silvanus presided over gardens and limits, and he is often confounded with the Fauns, Satyrs, and Silenus. Plutarch, Parallela minora.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 10; Germania, bk. 1, li. 20; bk. 2, li. 493.—Ælian, de Natura Animalium, bk. 6, ch. 42.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10.—Horace, epode 2.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus.——A man who murdered his wife Apronia, by throwing her down from one of the windows of her chambers.——One of those who conspired against Nero.——An officer of Constantius, who revolted and made himself emperor. He was assassinated by his soldiers.

Silvium, a town of Apulia, now Gorgolione. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.——A town of Istria.

Silures, the people of South Wales in Britain.

Simbrivius, or Simbruvius, a lake of Latium, formed by the Anio. Tacitus, bk. 14, Annals, ch. 22.

Simena, a town of Lycia near Chimæra. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.

Simēthus, or Symēthus, a town and river at the east of Sicily, which served as a boundary between the territories of the people of Catana and the Leontini. In its neighbourhood the gods Palici were born. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 584.

Simĭlæ, a grove at Rome where the orgies of Bacchus were celebrated. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 12.

Similis, one of the courtiers of Trajan, who removed from Rome into the country to enjoy peace and solitary retirement.

Simmias, a philosopher of Thebes, who wrote dialogues.——A grammarian of Rhodes.——A Macedonian suspected of conspiracy against Alexander, on account of his intimacy with Philotas. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 1.

Simo, a comic character in Terence.

Sĭmois (entis), a river of Troas, which rises in mount Ida and falls into the Xanthus. It is celebrated by Homer and most of the ancients poets, as in its neighbourhood were fought many battles during the Trojan war. It is found to be but a small rivulet by modern travellers, and even some have disputed its existence. Homer, Iliad.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 104; bk. 3, li. 302, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 31, li. 324.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 18.

Simosius, a Trojan prince, son of Anthemion, killed by Ajax. Homer, Iliad, bk. 4, li. 473.

Simon, a currier of Athens, whom Socrates often visited on account of his great sagacity and genius. He collected all the information he could receive from the conversation of the philosopher, and afterwards published it with his own observations in 33 dialogues. He was the first of the disciples of Socrates who attempted to give an account of the opinions of his master concerning virtue, justice, poetry, music, honour, &c. These dialogues were extant in the age of the biographer Diogenes, who has preserved their title. Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 2, ch. 14.——Another who wrote on rhetoric. Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 2, ch. 14.——A sculptor. Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 2, ch. 14.——The name of Simon was common among the Jews.

Sĭmōnĭdes, a celebrated poet of Cos, who flourished 538 years B.C. His father’s name was Leoprepis, or Theoprepis. He wrote elegies, epigrams, and dramatical pieces, esteemed for their elegance and sweetness, and composed also epic poems, one on Cambyses king of Persia, &c. Simonides was universally courted by the princes of Greece and Sicily, and according to one of the fables of Phædrus, he was such a favourite of the gods, that his life was miraculously preserved in an entertainment when the roof of the house fell upon all those who were feasting. He obtained a poetical prize in the 80th year of his age, and he lived to his 90th year. The people of Syracuse, who had hospitably honoured him when alive, erected a magnificent monument to his memory. Simonides, according to some, added the four letters η, ω, ξ, ψ to the alphabet of the Greeks. Some fragments of his poetry are extant. According to some, the grandson of the elegiac poet of Cos was also called Simonides. He flourished a few years before the Peloponnesian war, and was the author of some books of inventions, genealogies, &c. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Phædras, bk. 4, fables 21 & 24.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 1, li. 38.—Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 102.—Cicero, On Oratory, &c.—Aristotle.—Pindar, Isthmean, poem 2.—Catullus, bk. 1, poem 39.—Lucian, Macrobii.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 8, ch. 2.

Simplicius, a Greek commentator on Aristotle, whose works were all edited in the 16th century, and the latter part of the 15th, but without a Latin version.

Simŭlus, an ancient poet, who wrote some verses on the Tarpeian rock. Plutarch, Romulus.

Simus, a king of Arcadia after Phialus. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 5.

Simyra, a town of Phœnicia. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 12.

Sinæ, a people of India called by Ptolemy the most eastern nation of the world.

Sindæ, islands in the Indian ocean, supposed to be the Nicobar islands.

Sindi, a people of European Scythia, on the Palus Mæotis. Flaccus, bk. 6, li. 86.

Singæi, a people on the confines of Macedonia and Thrace.

Singara, a city at the north of Mesopotamia, now Sinjar.

Singulis, a river of Spain falling into the Guadalquiver.

Singus, a town of Macedonia.

Sinis, a famous robber. See: [Scinis].

Sinnaces, a Parthian of an illustrious family, who conspired against his prince, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 31.

Sinnăcha, a town of Mesopotamia, where Crassus was put to death by Surena.

Sinoe, a nymph of Arcadia, who brought up Pan.

Sinon, a son of Sisyphus, who accompanied the Greeks to the Trojan war, and there distinguished himself by his cunning and fraud, and his intimacy with Ulysses. When the Greeks had fabricated the famous wooden horse, Sinon went to Troy with his hands bound behind his back, and by the most solemn protestations, assured Priam that the Greeks were gone from Asia, and that they had been ordered to sacrifice one of their soldiers, to render the wind favourable to their return, and that because the lot had fallen upon him, at the instigation of Ulysses, he had fled away from their camp, not to be cruelly immolated. These false assertions were immediately credited by the Trojans, and Sinon advised Priam to bring into his city the wooden horse which the Greeks had left behind them, and to consecrate it to Minerva. His advice was followed, and Sinon in the night, to complete his perfidy, opened the side of the horse, from which issued a number of armed Greeks, who surprised the Trojans, and pillaged their city. Dares Phrygius.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 8, li. 492; bk. 11, li. 521.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 79, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 27.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 12, &c.

Sinōpe, a daughter of the Asopus by Methron. She was beloved by Apollo, who carried her away to the border of the Euxine sea, in Asia Minor, where she gave birth to a son called Syrus. Diodorus, bk. 4.——A seaport town of Asia Minor, in Pontus, now Sinah, founded or rebuilt by a colony of Milesians. It was long an independent state, till Pharnaces king of Pontus seized it. It was the capital of Pontus, under Mithridates, and was the birthplace of Diogenes the cynic philosopher. It received its name from Sinope, whom Apollo carried there. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 1, poem 3, li. 67.—Strabo, bks. 2 & 12.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.——The original name of Sinuessa.

Sinorix, a governor of Gaul, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.

Sintice, a district of Macedonia.

Sintii, a nation of Thracians, who inhabited Lemnos, when Vulcan fell there from heaven. Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, li. 594.

Sinuessa, a maritime town of Campania, originally called Sinope. It was celebrated for its hot baths and mineral waters, which cured people of insanity, and rendered women prolific. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 715.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Livy, bk. 22, ch. 13.—Martial, bk. 6, ltr. 42; bk. 11, ltr. 8.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12.

Sion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built.

Siphnos, now Sifano, one of the Cyclades, situate at the west of Paros, 20 miles in circumference, according to Pliny, or, according to modern travellers, 40. Siphnos had many excellent harbours, and produced great plenty of delicious fruit. The inhabitants were so depraved, that their licentiousness became proverbial. They, however, behaved with spirit in the Persian wars, and refused to give earth and water to the emissaries of Xerxes in token of submission. There were some gold mines in Siphnos, of which Apollo demanded a tenth part. When the inhabitants refused to continue to offer part of their gold to the god of Delphi, the island was inundated, and the mines disappeared. The air was so wholesome that many of the natives lived to their 120th year. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 11.—Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 46.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 10.

Sipontum, Sipus, or Sepus, a maritime town in Apulia in Italy, founded by Diomedes after his return from the Trojan war. Strabo, bk. 6.—Lucan, bk. 5, li. 377.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Sipy̆lum and Sipy̆lus, a town of Lydia, with a mountain of the same name near the Meander, formerly called Ceraunius. The town was destroyed by an earthquake, with 12 others in the neighbourhood, in the reign of Tiberius. Strabo, bks. 1 & 2.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 20.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 24.—Hyginus, fable 9.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 47.——One of Niobe’s children, killed by Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, fable 6.

Sirbo, a lake between Egypt and Palestine, now Sebaket Bardoil. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 13.

Sīrēnes, sea nymphs who charmed so much with their melodious voice, that all forgot their employments to listen with more attention, and at last died for want of food. They were daughters of the Achelous by the muse Calliope, or, according to others, by Melpomene or Terpsichore. They were three in number, called Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia, or, according to others, Mœolpe, Aglaophonos, and Thelxiope, or Thelxione, and they usually lived in a small island near cape Pelorus in Sicily. Some authors suppose that they were monsters, who had the form of a woman above the waist, and the rest of the body like that of a bird; or rather that the whole body was covered with feathers, and had the shape of a bird, except the head, which was that of a beautiful female. This monstrous form they had received from Ceres, who wished to punish them, because they had not assisted her daughter when carried away by Pluto. But, according to Ovid, they were so disconsolate at the rape of Proserpine, that they prayed the gods to give them wings that they might seek her in the sea as well as by land. The Sirens were informed by the oracle, that as soon as any persons passed by them without suffering themselves to be charmed by their [♦]songs, they should perish; and their melody had prevailed in calling the attention of all passengers, till Ulysses, informed of the power of their voice by Circe, stopped the ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast of his ship, and no attention to be paid to his commands, should he wish to stay and listen to their song. This was a salutary precaution. Ulysses made signs for his companions to stop, but they were disregarded, and the fatal coast was passed with safety. Upon this artifice of Ulysses, the Sirens were so disappointed, that they threw themselves into the sea and perished. Some authors say that the Sirens challenged the Muses to a trial of skill in singing, and that the latter proved victorious, and plucked the feathers from the wings of their adversaries, with which they made themselves crowns. The place where the Sirens destroyed themselves was afterwards called Sirenis, on the coast of Sicily. Virgil, however, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 864, places the Sirenum Scoupli on the coast of Italy, near the island of Caprea. Some suppose that the Sirens were a number of lascivious women in Sicily, who prostituted themselves to strangers, and made them forget their pursuits while drowned in unlawful pleasures. The Sirens are often represented holding, one a lyre, a second a flute, and the third singing. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 6.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12, li. 167.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Ammianus, bk. 29, ch. 2.—Hyginus, fable 141.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 555; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 3, li. 311.—Silius Italicus, bk. 12, li. 33.

[♦] ‘sons’ replaced with ‘songs’

Sirenūsæ, three small rocky islands near the coast of Campania, where the Sirens were supposed to reside.

Siris, a town of Magna Græcia, founded by a Grecian colony after the Trojan war, at the mouth of the river of the same name. There was a battle fought near it between Pyrrhus and the Romans. Dionysius Periegetes, li. 221.——The Æthiopians gave that name to the Nile before its divided streams united into one current. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 9.——A town of Pæonia in Thrace.

Sirius, or Canicŭla, the dog-star, whose appearance, as the ancients supposed, always caused great heat on the earth. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 141.

Sirmio, now Sermione, a peninsula in the lake Benacus, where Catullus had a villa. Catullus, poem 31.

Sirmium, the capital of Pannonia, at the confluence of the Savus and Bacuntius, very celebrated during the reign of the Roman emperors.

Sisamnes, a judge flayed alive for his partiality, by order of Cambyses. His skin was nailed on the benches of the other judges, to incite them to act with candour and impartiality. Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 25.

Sisapho, a Corinthian, who had murdered his brother, because he had put his children to death. Ovid, Ibis.

Sisapo, a town of Spain, famous for its vermilion mines, whose situation is not well ascertained. Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 7.—Cicero, Philippics, bk. 2, ch. 19.

Siscia, a town of Pannonia, now Sisseg.

Sisenes, a Persian deserter, who conspired against Alexander, &c. Curtius, bk. 3, ch. 7.

Lucius Sisenna, an ancient historian among the Romans, 91 B.C. He wrote an account of the republic, of which Cicero speaks with great warmth, and also translated from the Greek the Milesian fables of Aristides. Some fragments of his compositions are quoted by different authors. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 443.—Cicero, Brutus, ltrs. 64 & 67.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 9.——Cornelius, a Roman, who, on being reprimanded in the senate for the ill conduct and depraved manners of his wife, accused publicly Augustus of unlawful commerce with her. Dio Cassius, bk. 54.——The family of the Cornelii and Apronii received the surname of Sisenna. They are accused of intemperate loquacity in the Augustan age, by Horace, bk. 1, satire 7, li. 8.

Sisigambis, or Sisygambis, the mother of Darius the last king of Persia. She was taken prisoner by Alexander the Great at the battle of Issus, with the rest of the royal family. The conqueror treated her with uncommon tenderness and attention; he saluted her as his own mother, and what he had sternly denied to the petitions of his favourites and ministers, he often granted to the intercession of Sisygambis. The regard of the queen for Alexander was uncommon, and, indeed, she no sooner heard that he was dead, than she killed herself, unwilling to survive the loss of so generous an enemy; though she had seen, with less concern, the fall of her son’s kingdom, the ruin of his subjects, and himself murdered by his servants. She had also lost, in one day, her husband and 80 of her brothers, whom Ochus had assassinated to make himself master of the kingdom of Persia. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 9; bk. 10, ch. 5.

Sisimithræ, a fortified place of Bactriana, 15 stadia high, 80 in circumference, and plain at the top. Alexander married Roxana there. Strabo, bk. 11.

Sisocostus, one of the friends of Alexander, entrusted with the care of the rock Aornus. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 11.

Sisy̆phus, a brother of Athamas and Salmoneus, son of Æolus and Enaretta, the most crafty prince of the heroic ages. He married Merope the daughter of Atlas, or, according to others, of Pandareus, by whom he had several children. He built Ephyre, called afterwards Corinth, and he debauched Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, because he had been told by an oracle that his children by his brother’s daughter would avenge the injuries which he had suffered from the malevolence of Salmoneus. Tyro, however, as Hyginus says, destroyed the two sons whom she had by her uncle. It is reported that Sisyphus, mistrusting Autolycus, who stole the neighbouring flocks, marked his bulls under the feet, and when they had been carried away by the dishonesty of his friend, he confounded and astonished the thief by selecting from his numerous flocks those bulls which, by the mark, he knew to be his own. The artifice of Sisyphus was so pleasing to Autolycus, who had now found one more cunning than himself, that he permitted him to enjoy the company of his daughter Anticlea, whom a few days after he gave in marriage to Laertes of Ithaca. After his death, Sisyphus was condemned in hell to roll to the top of a hill a large stone, which had no sooner reached the summit than it fell back into the plain with impetuosity, and rendered his punishment eternal. The causes of this rigorous sentence are variously reported. Some attribute it to his continual depredations in the neighbouring country, and his cruelty in laying heaps of stones on those whom he had plundered, and suffering them to expire in the most agonizing torments. Others, to the insult offered to Pluto, in chaining Death in his palace, and detaining her till Mars, at the request of the king of hell, went to deliver her from confinement. Others suppose that Jupiter inflicted this punishment because he told Asopus where his daughter Ægina had been carried away by her ravisher. The more followed opinion, however, is, that Sisyphus, on his death-bed, entreated his wife to leave his body unburied, and when he came into Pluto’s kingdom, he received the permission of returning upon earth to punish this seeming negligence of his wife, but, however, on promise of immediately returning. But he was no sooner out of the infernal regions, than he violated his engagements, and when he was at last brought back to hell by Mars, Pluto, to punish his want of fidelity and honour, condemned him to roll a huge stone to the top of a mountain. The institution of the Pythian games is attributed by some to Sisyphus. To be of the blood of Sisyphus was deemed disgraceful among the ancients. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 592.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 616.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 459; bk. 13, li. 32; Fasti, bk. 4, li. 175; Ibis, li. 191.—Pausanias, bk. 2, &c.—Hyginus, fable 60.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 14, li. 20.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 4.——A son of Marcus Antony, who was born deformed, and received the name of Sisyphus, because he was endowed with genius and an excellent understanding. Horace, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 47.

Sitalces, one of Alexander’s generals, imprisoned for his cruelty and avarice in the government of his province. Curtius, bk. 10, ch. 1.——A king of Thrace, B.C. 436.

Sithnĭdes, certain nymphs of a fountain in Megara. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 40.

Sithon, a king of Thrace.——An island in the Ægean.

Sithŏnia, a country of Thrace between mount Hæmus and the Danube. Sithonia is often applied to all Thrace, and thence the epithet Sithonis, so often used by the poets. It received its name from king Sithon. Horace, bk. 1, ode 18, li. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 588; bk. 7, li. 466; bk. 13, li. 571.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 122.

Sitius, a Roman who assisted Cæsar in Africa with great success. He was rewarded with a province of Numidia. Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 21.

Sitones, a nation of Germany, or modern Norway, according to some. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 45.

Sittace, a town of Assyria. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 27.

Smaragdus, a town of Egypt on the Arabian gulf, where emeralds (smaragdi) were dug. Strabo, bk. 16.

Smenus, a river of Laconia rising in mount Taygetus, and falling into the sea near Hypsos. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 24.

Smerdis, a son of Cyrus, put to death by order of his brother Cambyses. As his execution was not public, and as it was only known to one of the officers of the monarch, one of the Magi of Persia, who was himself called Smerdis, and who greatly resembled the deceased prince, declared himself king, at the death of Cambyses. This usurpation would not, perhaps, have been known, had not he taken too many precautions to conceal it. After he had reigned for six months with universal approbation, seven noblemen of Persia conspired to dethrone him, and when this had been executed with success, they chose one of their number to reign in the usurper’s place, B.C. 521. This was Darius the son of Hystaspes. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 30.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 9.

Smilax, a beautiful shepherdess who became enamoured of Crocus. She was changed into a flower, as also her lover. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 283.

Smilis, a statuary of Ægina in the age of Dædalus. Pausanias, bk. 7.

Smindyrides, a native of Sybaris, famous for his luxury. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 24, & bk. 12, ch. 24.

Smintheus, one of the surnames of Apollo in Phrygia, where the inhabitants raised him a temple, because he had destroyed a number of rats that infested the country. These rats were called σμινθαι, in the language of Phrygia, whence the surname. There is another story similar to this related by the Greek scholiast of Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, li. 39.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 585.

Smyrna, a celebrated seaport town of Ionia in Asia Minor, built, as some suppose, by Tantalus, or, according to others, by the Æolians. It has been subject to many revolutions, and been severally in the possession of the Æolians, Ionians, Lydians, and Macedonians. Alexander, or according to Strabo, Lysimachus, rebuilt it 400 years after it had been destroyed by the Lydians. It was one of the richest and most powerful cities of Asia, and became one of the 12 cities of the Ionian confederacy. The inhabitants were given much to luxury and indolence, but they were universally esteemed for their valour and intrepidity when called to action. Marcus Aurelius repaired it after it had been destroyed by an earthquake, about the 180th year of the christian era. Smyrna still continues to be a very commercial town. The river Meles flows near its walls. The inhabitants of Smyrna believed that Homer was born among them, and to confirm this opinion they not only paid him divine honours, but showed a place which bore the poet’s name, and also had a brass coin in circulation which was called Homerium. Some suppose that it was called Smyrna from an Amazon of the same name who took possession of it. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.—Strabo, bks. 12 & 14.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 565.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 8.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 17.——A daughter of Thias, mother of Adonis.——An Amazon.——The name of a poem which Cinna, a Latin poet, composed in nine years, and which was worthy of admiration, according to Catullus, poem 94.

Smyrnæus, a Greek poet of the third century, called also Calaber. See: [Calaber].

Soana, a river of Albania. Ptolemy.

Soanda, a town of Armenia.

Soanes, a people of Colchis, near Caucasus, in whose territories the rivers abound with golden sands, which the inhabitants gather in wool skins, whence, perhaps, arose the fable of the golden fleece. Strabo, bk. 11.—Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 3.

Sōcrătes, the most celebrated philosopher of all antiquity, was a native of Athens. His father Sophroniscus was a statuary, and his mother Phænarete was by profession a midwife. For some time he followed the occupation of his father, and some have mentioned the statues of the graces, admired for their simplicity and elegance, as the work of his own hands. He was called away from this meaner employment, of which, however, he never blushed, by Crito, who admired his genius and courted his friendship. Philosophy soon became the study of Socrates, and under Archelaus and Anaxagoras he laid the foundation of that exemplary virtue which succeeding ages have ever loved and venerated. He appeared like the rest of his countrymen in the field of battle; he fought with boldness and intrepidity, and to his courage two of his friends and disciples, Xenophon and Alcibiades, owed the preservation of their lives. But the character of Socrates appears more conspicuous and dignified as a philosopher and moralist than as a warrior. He was fond of labour, he inured himself to suffer hardships, and he acquired that serenity of mind and firmness of countenance, which the most alarming dangers could never destroy, or the most sudden calamities alter. If he was poor, it was from choice, and not the effects of vanity, or the wish of appearing singular. He bore injuries with patience, and the insults of malice or resentment he not only treated with contempt, but even received with a mind that expressed some concern, and felt compassion for the depravity of human nature. So singular and so venerable a character was admired by the most enlightened of the Athenians. Socrates was attended by a number of illustrious pupils, whom he instructed by his exemplary life, as well as by his doctrines. He had no particular place where to deliver his lectures, but as the good of his countrymen, and the reformation of their corrupted morals, and not the aggregation of riches, was the object of his study, he was present everywhere, and drew the attention of his auditors either in the groves of Academus, the Lyceum, or on the banks of the Ilyssus. He spoke with freedom on every subject, religious as well as civil; and had the courage to condemn the violence of his countrymen, and to withstand the torrent of resentment, by which the Athenian generals were capitally punished for not burying the dead at the battle of Arginusæ. This independence of spirit, and that visible superiority of mind and genius over the rest of his countrymen, created many enemies to Socrates; but as his character was irreproachable, and his doctrines pure, and void of all obscurity, the voice of malevolence was silent. Yet Aristophanes soon undertook, at the instigation of Melitus, in his comedy of the Clouds, to ridicule the venerable character of Socrates on the stage; and when once the way was open to calumny and defamation, the fickle and licentious populace paid no reverence to the philosopher whom they had before regarded as a being of a superior order. When this had succeeded, Melitus stood forth to criminate him, together with Anytus and Lycon, and the philosopher was summoned before the tribunal of the 500. He was accused of corrupting the Athenian youth, of making innovations in the religion of the Greeks, and of ridiculing the many gods whom the Athenians worshipped; yet, false as this might appear, the accusers relied for the success of their cause upon the perjury of false witnesses, and the envy of the judges, whose ignorance would readily yield to misrepresentation, and be influenced and guided by eloquence and artifice. In this their expectations were not frustrated, and while the judges expected submission from Socrates, and that meanness of behaviour and servility of defence which distinguished criminals, the philosopher, perhaps, accelerated his own fall by the firmness of his mind, and his uncomplying integrity. Lysias, one of the most celebrated orators of the age, composed an oration in a laboured and pathetic style, which he offered to his friend to be pronounced as his defence in the presence of his judges. Socrates read it, but after he had praised the eloquence and the animation of the whole, he rejected it, as neither manly nor expressive of fortitude, and comparing it to Sicyonian shoes, which, though fitting, were proofs of effeminacy, he observed, that a philosopher ought to be conspicuous for magnanimity and for firmness of soul. In his apology he spoke with great animation, and confessed that while others boasted that they were acquainted with everything, he himself knew nothing. The whole discourse was full of simplicity and noble grandeur, the energetic language of offended innocence. He modestly said, that what he possessed was applied for the service of the Athenians; it was his wish to make his fellow-citizens happy, and it was a duty which he performed by the special command of the gods, “whose authority,” said he, emphatically to his judges, “I regard more than yours.” Such language from a man who was accused of a capital crime, astonished and irritated the judges. Socrates was condemned, but only by a majority of three voices; and when he was demanded, according to the spirit of the Athenian laws, to pass sentence on himself, and to mention the death he preferred, the philosopher said, “For my attempts to teach the Athenian youth justice and moderation, and render the rest of my countrymen more happy, let me be maintained at the public expense the remaining years of my life in the Prytaneum, an honour, O Athenians, which I deserve more than the victors of the Olympic games. They make their countrymen more happy in appearance, but I have made you so in reality.” This exasperated the judges in the highest degree, and he was condemned to drink hemlock. Upon this he addressed the court, and more particularly the judges who had decided in his favour, in a pathetic speech. He told them that to die was a pleasure, since he was going to hold converse with the greatest heroes of antiquity; he recommended to their paternal care his defenceless children, and as he returned to prison, he exclaimed: “I go to die, you to live; but which is the best the Divinity alone can know.” The solemn celebration of the Delian festivals [See: [Delia]] prevented his execution for 30 days, and during that time he was confined in the prison and loaded with irons. His friends, and particularly his disciples, were his constant attendants; he discoursed with them upon different subjects with all his usual cheerfulness and serenity. He reproved them for their sorrow, and when one of them was uncommonly grieved because he was to suffer, though innocent, the philosopher replied, “Would you then have me die guilty?” With this composure he spent his last days. He continued to be a preceptor till the moment of his death, and instructed his pupils on questions of the greatest importance; he told them his opinions in support of the immortality of the soul, and reprobated with acrimony the prevalent custom of suicide. He disregarded the intercession of his friends, and when it was in his power to make his escape out of prison he refused it, and asked, with his usual pleasantry, where he could escape death. “Where,” says he to Crito, who had bribed the gaoler, and made his escape certain, “where shall I fly, to avoid this irrevocable doom passed on all mankind?” When the hour to drink the poison was come, the executioner presented him the cup with tears in his eyes. Socrates received it with composure, and after he had made a libation to the gods, he drank it with an unaltered countenance, and a few moments after he expired. Such was the end of a man whom the uninfluenced answer of the oracle of Delphi had pronounced the wisest of mankind. Socrates died 400 years before Christ, in the 70th year of his age. He was no sooner buried than the Athenians repented of their cruelty; his accusers were universally despised and shunned. One suffered death, some were banished, and others, with their own hands, put an end to the life which their severity to the best of the Athenians had rendered insupportable. The actions, sayings, and opinions of Socrates have been faithfully recorded by two of the most celebrated of his pupils, Xenophon and Plato, and everything which relates to the life and circumstances of this great philosopher is now minutely known. To his poverty, his innocence, and his example, the Greeks were particularly indebted for their greatness and splendour; and the learning which was universally disseminated by his pupils, gave the whole nation a consciousness of their superiority over the rest of the world, not only in the polite arts, but in the more laborious exercises, which their writings celebrated. The philosophy of Socrates forms an interesting epoch in the history of the human mind. The son of Sophroniscus derided the more abstruse inquiries and metaphysical researches of his predecessors, and by first introducing moral philosophy, he induced mankind to consider themselves, their passions, their opinions, their duties, actions, and faculties. From this it was said that the founder of the Socratic school drew philosophy down from heaven upon the earth. In his attendance upon religious worship, Socrates was himself an example; he believed the divine origin of dreams and omens, and publicly declared that he was accompanied by a dæmon or invisible conductor [See: [Dæmon]], whose frequent interposition stopped him from the commission of evil, and the guilt of misconduct. This familiar spirit, however, according to some, was nothing more than a sound judgment assisted by prudence and long experience, which warned him at the approach of danger, and from a general speculation of mankind could foresee what success would attend an enterprise, or what calamities would follow an ill-managed administration. As a supporter of the immortality of the soul, he allowed the perfection of a supreme knowledge, from which he deduced the government of the universe. From the resources of experience as well as nature and observation, he perceived the indiscriminate dispensation of good and evil to mankind by the hand of Heaven, and he was convinced that none but the most inconsiderate would incur the displeasure of their Creator to avoid poverty or sickness, or gratify a sensual appetite, which must at the end harass their soul with remorse and the consciousness of guilt. From this natural view of things, he perceived the relation of one nation with another, and how much the tranquillity of civil society depended upon the proper discharge of these respective duties. The actions of men furnished materials also for his discourse; to instruct them was his aim, and to render them happy was the ultimate object of his daily lessons. From principles like these, which were enforced by the unparalleled example of an affectionate husband, a tender parent, a warlike soldier, and a patriotic citizen in Socrates, soon after the celebrated sects of the Platonists, the Peripatetics, the Academics, Cyrenaics, Stoics, &c., arose. Socrates never wrote for the public eye, yet many support that the tragedies of his pupil Euripides were partly composed by him. He was naturally of a licentious disposition, and a physiognomist observed, in looking in the face of the philosopher, that his heart was the most depraved, immodest, and corrupted that ever was in the human breast. This nearly cost the satirist his life, but Socrates upbraided his disciples, who wished to punish the physiognomist, and declared that his assertions were true, but that all his vicious propensities had been duly corrected and curbed by means of reason. Socrates made a poetical version of Æsop’s fables, while in prison. Diogenes Laërtius.—Xenophon.—Pluto.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 22.—Plutarch, On the Opinions of the Philosophers, &c.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 54; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 41, &c.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 3, ch. 4.——A leader of the Achæans, at the battle of Cunaxa. He was seized and put to death by order of Artaxerxes.——A governor of Cilicia under Alexander the Great.——A painter.——A Rhodian in the age of Augustus. He wrote an account of the civil wars.——A scholiast born A.D. 380, at Constantinople. He wrote an ecclesiastical history from the year 309, where Eusebius ended, down to 450, with great exactness and judgment, of which the best edition is that of Reading, folio, Cambridge. 1720.——An island on the coast of Arabia.

Sœmias Julia, mother of the emperor Heliogabalus, was made president of a senate of women, which she had elected to decide the quarrels and the affairs of the Roman matrons. She at last provoked the people by her debaucheries, extravagance, and cruelties, and was murdered with her son and family. She was a native of Apamea; her father’s name was Julius Avitus, and her mother’s Masa. Her sister Julia Mammæa married the emperor Septimus Severus.

Sogdiāna, a country of Asia, bounded on the north by Scythia, east by the Sacæ, south by Bactriana, and west by Margiana, and now known by the name of Zagatay, or Usbec. The people were called Sogdiani. The capital was called Marcanda. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 93.—Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 10.

Sogdiānus, a son of Artaxerxes Longimanus, who murdered his elder brother, king Xerxes, to make himself master of the Persian throne. He was but seven months in possession of the crown. His brother Ochus, who reigned under the name of Darius Nothus, conspired against him, and suffocated him in a tower full of warm ashes.

Sol (the sun), was an object of veneration among the ancients. It was particularly worshipped by the Persians, under the name of Mithras; and was the Baal or Bel of the Chaldeans, the Belphegor of the Moabites, the Moloch of the Canaanites, the Osiris of the Egyptians, and the Adonis of the Syrians. The Massagetæ sacrificed horses to the sun on account of their swiftness. According to some of the ancient poets, Sol and Apollo were two different persons. Apollo, however, and Phœbus and Sol, are universally supposed to be the same deity.

Solicinium, a town of Germany, now Sultz, on the Neckar.

Solīnus Caius Julius, a grammarian at the end of the first century, who wrote a book called Polyhistor, which is a collection of historical remarks and geographical annotations on the most celebrated places of every country. He has been called Pliny’s ape, because he imitated that well-known naturalist. The last edition of the Polyhistor is that of Nuremberg, ex editione Salamasii. 1777.

Solis Fons, a celebrated fountain in Libya. See: [Ammon].

Soloe, or Soli, a town of Cyprus, built on the borders of the Clarius by an Athenian colony. It was originally called Æpeia, till Solon visited Cyprus, and advised Philocyprus, one of the princes of the island, to change the situation of his capital. His advice was followed; a new town was raised in a beautiful plain, and called after the name of the Athenian philosopher. Strabo, bk. 14.—Plutarch, Solon.——A town of Cilicia on the sea-coast, built by the Greeks and Rhodians. It was afterwards called Pompeiopolis, from Pompey, who settled a colony of pirates there. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Some suppose that the Greeks, who settled in either of these two towns, forgot the purity of their native language, and thence arose the term Solecismus, applied to an inelegant or improper expression.

Solœis, or Soloentia, a promontory of Libya at the extremity of mount Atlas, now cape Cantin.——A town of Sicily, between Panormus and Himera, now Solanto. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 43.—Thucydides, bk. 6.

Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece, was born at Salamis, and educated at Athens. His father’s name was Euphorion, or Exechestides, one of the descendants of king Codrus, and by his mother’s side he reckoned among his relations the celebrated Pisistratus. After he had devoted part of his time to philosophical and political studies, Solon travelled over the greatest part of Greece, but at his return home he was distressed with the dissensions which were kindled among his countrymen. All fixed their eyes upon Solon as a deliverer, and he was unanimously elected archon and sovereign legislator. He might have become absolute, but he refused the dangerous office of king of Athens, and, in the capacity of lawgiver, he began to make a reform in every department. The complaints of the poorer citizens found redress, all debts were remitted, and no one was permitted to seize the person of his debtor if unable to make a restoration of his money. After he had made the most salutary regulations in the state, and bound the Athenians by a solemn oath that they would faithfully observe his laws for the space of 100 years, Solon resigned the office of legislator and removed himself from Athens. He visited Egypt, and in the court of Crœsus king of Lydia he convinced the monarch of the instability of fortune, and told him, when he wished to know whether he was not the happiest of mortals, that Tellus, an Athenian, who had always seen his country in a flourishing state, who had seen his children lead a virtuous life, and who had himself fallen in defence of his country, was more entitled to happiness than the possessor of riches and the master of empires. After 10 years’ absence Solon returned to Athens, but he had the mortification to find the greatest part of his regulations disregarded by the factious spirit of his countrymen, and the usurpation of Pisistratus. Not to be longer a spectator of the divisions that reigned in his country, he retired to Cyprus, where he died at the court of king Philocyprus, in the 80th year of his age, 558 years before the christian era. The salutary consequences of the laws of Solon can be discovered in the length of time they were in force in the republic of Athens. For above 400 years they flourished in full vigour, and Cicero, who was himself a witness of their benign influence, passes the highest encomiums upon the legislator, whose superior wisdom framed such a code of regulations. It was the intention of Solon to protect the poorer citizens, and by dividing the whole body of the Athenians into four classes, three of which were permitted to discharge the most important offices and magistracies of the state, and the last to give their opinion in the assemblies, but not have a share in the distinctions and honours of their superiors, the legislator gave the populace a privilege which, though at first small and inconsiderable, soon rendered them masters of the republic, and of all the affairs of government. He made a reformation in the Areopagus, he increased the authority of the members, and permitted them yearly to inquire how every citizen maintained himself, and to punish such as lived in idleness, and were not employed in some honourable and lucrative profession. He also regulated the Prytaneum, and fixed the number of its judges at 400. The sanguinary laws of Draco were all cancelled, except that against murder, and the punishment denounced against every offender was proportioned to his crime; but Solon made no law against parricide or sacrilege. The former of these crimes, he said, was too horrible to human nature for a man to be guilty of it, and the latter could never be committed, because the history of Athens had never furnished a single instance. Such as had died in the service of their country were buried with great pomp, and their family was maintained at the public expense; but such as had squandered away their estates, such as refused to bear arms in defence of their country, or paid no attention to the infirmities and distress of their parents, were branded with infamy. The laws of marriage were newly regulated; it became a union of affection and tenderness, and no longer a mercenary contract. To speak with ill language against the dead as well as the living, was made a crime, and the legislator wished that the character of his fellow-citizens should be freed from the aspersions of malevolence and envy. A person that had no children was permitted to dispose of his estates as he pleased, and the females were not allowed to be extravagant in their dress or expenses. To be guilty of adultery was a capital crime, and the friend and associate of lewdness and debauchery was never permitted to speak in public, for, as the philosopher observed, a man who has no shame, is not capable of being intrusted with the people. These celebrated laws were engraven on several tables, and that they might be better known and more familiar to the Athenians, they were written in verse. The indignation which Solon expressed on seeing the tragical representations of Thespis, is well known, and he sternly observed, that if falsehood and fiction were tolerated on the stage, they would soon find their way among the common occupations of men. According to Plutarch, Solon was reconciled to Pisistratus; but this seems to be false, as the legislator refused to live in a country where the privileges of his fellow-citizens were trampled upon by the usurpation of a tyrant. See: [Lycurgus]. Plutarch, Solon.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 29.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 1.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 40.—Cicero.

Solona, a town of Gaul Cispadana on the Utens.

Solonium, a town of Latium on the borders of Etruria. Plutarch, Caius Marius.—Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1.

Solva, a town of Noricum.

Solus (untis), a maritime town of Sicily. See: [Solœis]. Strabo, bk. 14.

Soly̆ma and Soly̆mæ, a town of Lycia. The inhabitants, called Solymi, were anciently called Milyades, and afterwards Termili and Lycians. Sarpedon settled among them. Strabo, bk. 14.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 6.—Pliny, bk. 5, chs. 27 & 29.——An ancient name of Jerusalem. See: [Hierosolyma]. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 543.

Somnus, son of Erebus and Nox, was one of the infernal deities, and presided over sleep. His palace, according to some mythologists, is a dark cave where the sun never penetrates. At the entrance are a number of poppies and somniferous herbs. The god himself is represented as asleep on a bed of feathers with black curtains. The dreams stand by him, and Morpheus, as his principal minister, watches to prevent the noise from awaking him. The Lacedæmonians always placed the image of Somnus near that of death. Hesiod, Theogony.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 14.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 893.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11.

Sonchis, an Egyptian priest, in the age of Solon. It was he who told that celebrated philosopher a number of traditions, particularly about the Atlantic isles, which he represented as more extensive than the continent of Africa and Asia united. This island disappeared, it is said, in one day and one night. Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, &c.

Sontiătes, a people in Gaul.

Sopăter, a philosopher of Apamea, in the age of the emperor Constantine. He was one of the disciples of Iamblicus, and after his death he was at the head of the Platonic philosophers.

Sophax, a son of Hercules and Tinga the widow of Antæus, who founded the kingdom of Tingis, in Mauritania, and from whom were descended Diodorus, and Juba king of Mauritania. Strabo, bk. 3.

Sophēne, a country of Armenia, on the borders of Mesopotamia. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 593.

Sŏphŏcles, a celebrated tragic poet of Athens, educated in the school of Æschylus. He distinguished himself not only as a poet, but also as a statesman. He commanded the Athenian armies, and in several battles he shared the supreme command with Pericles, and exercised the office of archon with credit and honour. The first appearance of Sophocles as a poet reflects great honour on his abilities. The Athenians had taken the island of Scyros, and to celebrate that memorable event, a yearly contest for tragedy was instituted. Sophocles on this occasion obtained the prize over many competitors, in the number of whom was Æschylus, his friend and his master. This success contributed to encourage the poet; he wrote for the stage with applause, and obtained the poetical prize 20 different times. Sophocles was the rival of Euripides for public praise; they divided the applause of the populace, and while the former surpassed in the sublime and majestic, the other was not inferior in the tender and pathetic. The Athenians were pleased with their contention, and as the theatre was at that time an object of importance and magnitude, and deemed an essential and most magnificent part of the religious worship, each had his admirers and adherents; but the two poets, captivated at last by popular applause, gave way to jealousy and rivalship. Of 120 tragedies which Sophocles composed, only seven are extant: Ajax, Electra, Œdipus the tyrant, Antigone, the Trachiniæ, Philoctetes, and Œdipus at Colonos. The ingratitude of the children of Sophocles is well known. They wished to become immediate masters of their father’s possessions, and therefore, tired of his long life, they accused him before the Areopagus of insanity. The only defence the poet made was to read his tragedy of Œdipus at Colonos, which he had lately finished, and then he asked his judges, whether the author of such a performance could be taxed with insanity? The father upon this was acquitted, and the children returned home covered with shame and confusion. Sophocles died in the 91st year of his age, 406 years before Christ, through excess of joy, as some authors report, of having obtained a poetical prize at the Olympic games. Athenæus has accused Sophocles of licentiousness and debauchery, particularly when he commanded the armies of Athens. The best editions of Sophocles are those of Capperonier, 2 vols., 4to, Paris, 1780; of Glasgow, 2 vols., 12mo, 1745; of Geneva, 4to, 1603; and that by Brunck, 4 vols., 8vo, 1786. Cicero, Against Catiline; de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 25.—Plutarch, Cimon, &c.—Quintilian, bk. 1, ch. 10; bk. 10, ch. 1.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 7; bk. 9, ch. 12.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 53.—Athenæus, bk. 10, &c.

Sophonisba, a daughter of Asdrubal the Carthaginian, celebrated for her beauty. She married Syphax, a prince of Numidia, and when her husband was conquered by the Romans and Masinissa, she fell a captive into the hands of the enemy. Masinissa became enamoured of her, and married her. This behaviour displeased the Romans; and Scipio, who at that time had the command of the armies of the republic in Africa, rebuked the monarch severely, and desired him to part with Sophonisba. This was an arduous task for Masinissa, yet he dreaded the Romans. He entered Sophonisba’s tent with tears in his eyes, and told her that, as he could not deliver her from captivity and the jealousy of the Romans, he recommended her, as the strongest pledge of his love and affection for her person, to die like the daughter of Asdrubal. Sophonisba obeyed, and drank, with unusual composure and serenity, the cup of poison which Masinissa sent to her, about 203 years before Christ. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 12, &c.—Sallust, Jugurthine War.—Justin.

Sophron, a comic poet of Syracuse, son of Agathocles and Damasyllis. His compositions were so universally esteemed, that Plato is said to have read them with rapture. Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 7.—Quintilian, bk. 1, ch. 10.

Sophroniscus, the father of Socrates.

Sophronia, a Roman lady whom Maxentius took by force from her husband’s house, and married. Sophronia killed herself when she saw that her affections were abused by the tyrant.

Sophrosy̆ne, a daughter of Dionysius by Dion’s sister.

Sopŏlis, the father of Hermolaus. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 7.——A painter in Cicero’s age. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 4, ltr. 16.

Sora, a town of the Volsci, of which the inhabitants were called Sorani. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 395.—Cicero, For Plancius.

Soractes and Soracte, a mountain of Etruria, near the Tiber, seen from Rome, at the distance of 26 miles. It was sacred to Apollo, who is from thence surnamed Soractis; and it is said that the priests of the god could walk over burning coals without hurting themselves. There was, as some report, a fountain on mount Soracte, whose waters boiled at sunrise, and instantly killed all such birds as drank of them. Strabo, bk. 5.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 93; bk. 7, ch. 2.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 9.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 785.—Silius Italicus, bk. 5.

Sorānus, a man put to death by Nero. See: [Valerius].——The father of Atilia the first wife of Cato.

Sorex, a favourite of Sylla, and the companion of his debaucheries. Plutarch.

Sorge, a daughter of Œneus king of Calydon, by Æthea daughter of Thestius. She married Andremon, and was mother of Oxilus. Apollodorus, bks. 1 & 2.

Soritia, a town of Spain.

Sosia Galla, a woman at the court of Tiberius, banished, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 19.

Sosibius, a grammarian of Laconia, B.C. 255. He was a great favourite of Ptolemy Philopator, and advised him to murder his brother, and the queen his wife, called Arsinoe. He lived to a great age, and was on that account called Polychronos. He was afterwards permitted to retire from the court, and spend the rest of his days in peace and tranquillity after he had disgraced the name of minister by the most abominable crimes, and the murder of many of the royal family. His son, of the same name, was preceptor to king Ptolemy Epiphanes.——The preceptor of Britannicus the son of Claudius. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 1.

Sosĭcles, a Greek who behaved with great valour when Xerxes invaded Greece.

Sosicrătes, a noble senator among the Achæans, put to death because he wished his countrymen to make peace with the Romans.

Sosigĕnes, an Egyptian mathematician, who assisted Julius Cæsar in regulating the Roman calendar. Suetonius.—Diodorus.—Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 25.——A commander of the fleet of Eumenes. Polyænus, bk. 4.——A friend of Demetrius Poliorcetes.

Sosii, celebrated booksellers at Rome, in the age of Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 20, li. 2.

Sosĭlus, a Lacedæmonian in the age of Annibal. He lived in great intimacy with the Carthaginian, taught him Greek, and wrote the history of his life. Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal.

Sosipăter, a grammarian in the reign of Honorius. He published five books of observations on grammar.——A Syracusan magistrate.——A general of Philip king of Macedonia.

Sosis, a seditious Syracusan, who raised tumults against Dion. When accused before the people he saved himself by flight, and thus escaped a capital punishment.

Sosistrătus, a tyrant of Syracuse, in the age of Agathocles. He invited Pyrrhus into Sicily, and afterwards revolted from him. He was at last removed by Hermocrates. Polyænus, bk. 1.——Another tyrant. Polyænus, bk. 1.

Sospis, a consul who followed the interest of Mark Antony.——A governor of Syria.——A Roman consular dignity, to whom Plutarch dedicated his Lives.

Sospĭta, a surname of Juno in Latium. Her most famous temple was at Lanuvium. She had also two at Rome, and her statue was covered with a goat-skin, with a buckler, &c. Livy, bks. 3, 6, 8, &c.—Festus, Lexicon of Festus.

Sosthĕnes, a general of Macedonia, who flourished B.C. 281. He defeated the Gauls under Brennus, and was killed in the battle. Justin, bk. 24, ch. 5.——A native of Cnidos, who wrote a history of Iberia. Plutarch.

Sostrătus, a friend of Hermolaus, put to death for conspiring against Alexander. Curtius, bk. 1, ch. 6.——A grammarian in the age of Augustus. He was Strabo’s preceptor. Strabo, bk. 14.——A statuary.——An architect of Cnidos, B.C. 284, who built the white tower of Pharos, in the bay of Alexandria. He inscribed his name upon it. See: [Pharos]. Strabo, bk. 17.—Pliny, bk. 30, ch. 12.——A priest of Venus at Paphos, among the favourites of Vespasian. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A favourite of Hercules.——A Greek historian, who wrote an account of Etruria.——A poet, who wrote a poem on the expedition of Xerxes into Greece. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 178.

Sotădes, an athlete. A Greek poet of Thrace. He wrote verses against Philadelphus Ptolemy, for which he was thrown into the sea in a cage of lead. He was called Cinædus, not only because he was addicted to the abominable crime which the surname indicates, but because he wrote a poem in commendation of it. Some suppose, that instead of the word Socraticos in the 2nd satire, verse the 10th, of Juvenal, the word Sotadicos should be inserted, as the poet Sotades, and not the philosopher Socrates, deserved the appellation of Cinædus. Obscene verses were generally called Sotadea carmina from him. They could be turned and read different ways without losing their measure or sense, such as the following, which can be read backwards:

Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.

Si bene te tua laus taxat, sua laute tenebis.

Sole medere pede, ede, perede melos.

Quintilian, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 5, ltr. 3.—Ausonius, ltr. 17, li. 29.

Soter, a surname of the first Ptolemy.——It was also common to other monarchs.

Soteria, days appointed for thanksgivings and the offerings of sacrifices for deliverance from danger. One of these was observed at Sicyone, to [♦]commemorate the deliverance of that city from the hands of the Macedonians, by Aratus.

[♦] ‘commemmorate’ replaced with ‘commemorate’

Soterĭcus, a poet and historian in the age of Diocletian. He wrote a panegyric on that emperor, as also a life of Apollonius Thyanæus. His works, greatly esteemed, are now lost, except some few fragments preserved by the scholiast of Lycophron.

Sothis, an Egyptian name of the constellation called Sirius, which received divine honours in that country.

Sotiates, a people of Gaul, conquered by Cæsar. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3, chs. 20 & 21.

Sotion, a grammarian and philosopher of Alexandria, preceptor to Seneca. Seneca, ltrs. 49 & 58.

Sotius, a philosopher in the reign of Tiberius.

Sous, a king of Sparta, who made himself known by his valour, &c.

Sozŏmen, an ecclesiastical historian, who died 450 A.D. His history extends from the year 324 to 429, and is dedicated to Theodosius the younger, being written in a style of inelegance and mediocrity. The best edition is that of Reading, folio, Cambridge, 1720.

Spaco, the name of Cyrus. Justin, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Herodotus.

Sparta, a celebrated city of Peloponnesus, the capital of Laconia, situate on the Eurotas, at the distance of about 30 miles from its mouth. It received its name from Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, who married Lacedæmon. It was also called Lacedæmon. See: [Lacedæmon].

Spartăcus, a king of Pontus.——Another, king of Bosphorus, who died B.C. 433. His son and successor of the same name died B.C. 407.——Another, who died 284 B.C.——A Thracian shepherd, celebrated for his abilities and the victories which he obtained over the Romans. Being one of the gladiators who were kept at Capua in the house of Lentulus, he escaped from the place of his confinement, with 30 of his companions, and took up arms against the Romans. He soon found himself with 10,000 men equally resolute with himself, and though at first obliged to hide himself in the woods and solitary retreats of Campania, he soon laid waste the country; and when his followers were increased by additional numbers, and better disciplined, and more completely armed, he attacked the Roman generals in the field of battle. Two consuls and other officers were defeated with much loss, and Spartacus, superior in counsel and abilities, appeared more terrible, though often deserted by his fickle attendants. Crassus was sent against him, but this celebrated general at first despaired of success. A bloody battle was fought, in which, at last, the gladiators were defeated. Spartacus [♦]behaved with great valour: when wounded in the leg, he fought on his knees, covering himself with his buckler in one hand, and using his sword with the other; and when at last he fell, he fell upon a heap of Romans, whom he had sacrificed to his fury, B.C. 71. In this battle no less than 40,000 of the rebels were slain, and the war totally finished. Florus, bk. 3, ch. 20.—Livy, bk. 95.—Eutropius, bk. 6, ch. 2.—Plutarch, Crassus.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 30.—Appian.

[♦] ‘bahaved’ replaced with ‘behaved’

Spartæ, or Sparti, a name given to those men who sprang from the dragon’s teeth which Cadmus sowed. They all destroyed one another, except five, who survived and assisted Cadmus in building Thebes.

Spartāni, or Spartiātæ, the inhabitants of Sparta. See: [Sparta], [Lacedæmon].

Spartiānus Ælius, a Latin historian who wrote the lives of all the Roman emperors, from Julius Cæsar to Diocletian. He dedicated them to Diocletian, to whom, according to some, he was related. Of these compositions only the life of Adrian, Verus, Didius Julianus, Septimus Severus, Caracalla, and Geta, are extant, published among the Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ. Spartianus is not esteemed as an historian or biographer.

Spechia, an ancient name of the island of Cyprus.

Spendius, a Campanian deserter who rebelled against the Romans and raised tumults, and made war against Amilcar the Carthaginian general.

Spendon, a poet of Lacedæmon.

Sperchīa, a town of Thessaly, on the banks of the Sperchius. Ptolemy.

Sperchīus, a river of Thessaly, rising on mount Œta, and falling into the sea in the bay of Malia, near Anticyra. The name is supposed to be derived from its rapidity (σπερχειν, festinare). Peleus vowed to the god of this river the hair of his son Achilles, if ever he returned safe from the Trojan war. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 198.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 23, li. 144.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 13.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 557; bk. 2, li. 250; bk. 7, li. 230.

Spermatophăgi, a people who lived in the extremest parts of Egypt. They fed upon the fruits that fell from the trees.

Speusippus, an Athenian philosopher, nephew, as also successor, of Plato. His father’s name was Eurymedon, and his mother’s Potone. He presided in Plato’s school for eight years, and disgraced himself by his extravagance and debauchery. Plato attempted to check him, but to no purpose. He died of the lousy sickness, or killed himself, according to some accounts, B.C. 339. Plutarch, Lysander.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 4.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 1.

Sphacteriæ, three small islands opposite Pylos, on the coast of Messenia. They are also called Sphagiæ.

Spherus, an arm-bearer of Pelops son of Tantalus. He was buried in a small island near the isthmus of Corinth, which, from him, was called Sphetia. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 10.——A Greek philosopher, disciple to Zeno of Cyprus, 243 B.C. He came to Sparta in the age of Agis and Cleomenes, and opened a school there. Plutarch, Agis.—Diodorus.

Sphinx, a monster which had the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of a lion, and a human voice. It sprang from the union of Orthos with the Chimæra, or of Typhon with Echidna. The Sphinx had been sent into the neighbourhood of Thebes by Juno, who wished to punish the family of Cadmus, which she persecuted with immortal hatred, and it laid this part of Bœotia under continual alarms by proposing enigmas, and devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them. In the midst of their consternation the Thebans were told by the oracle, that the Sphinx would destroy herself as soon as one of the enigmas she proposed was explained. In this enigma she wished to know what animal walked on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening. Upon this, Creon king of Thebes promised his crown and his sister Jocasta in marriage to him who could deliver his country from the monster by a successful explanation of the enigma. It was at last happily explained by Œdipus, who observed that man walked on his hands and feet when young, or in the morning of life, at the noon of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported his infirmities upon a stick. See: [Œdipus]. The Sphinx no sooner heard this explanation than she dashed her head against a rock, and immediately expired. Some mythologists wish to unriddle the fabulous traditions about the Sphinx, by the supposition that one of the daughters of Cadmus, or Laius, infested the country of Thebes by her continual depredations, because she had been refused a part of her father’s possessions. The lion’s paw expressed, as they observe, her cruelty, the body of the dog her lasciviousness, her enigmas the snares she laid for strangers and travellers, and her wings the despatch she used in her expeditions. Plutarch.—Hesiod, Theogony, li. 326.—Hyginus, fable 68.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Ibis, li. 378.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Sophocles, Œdipus Tyrannus.

Sphodrias, a Spartan who, at the instigation of Cleombrotus, attempted to seize the Piræus. Diodorus, bk. 15.

Sphragidium, a retired cave on mount Cithæron in Bœotia. The nymphs of the place, called Sphragitides, were yearly honoured with a sacrifice by the Athenians, by order of the oracle of Delphi, because they had lost few men at the battle of Platæa. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 3.—Plutarch, Aristeides.

Spicillus, a favourite of Nero. He refused to assassinate his master, for which he was put to death in a cruel manner.

Spina, now Primaso, a town on the most southern mouth of the Po. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.

Spintharus, a Corinthian architect, who built Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 5.——A freedman of Cicero. Letters to Atticus, bk. 13, ltr. 25.

Spinther, a Roman consul. He was one of Pompey’s friends, and accompanied him at the battle of Pharsalia, where he betrayed his meanness by being too confident of victory, and contending for the possession of Cæsar’s offices and gardens before the action. Plutarch.

Spio, one of the Nereides. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 26.

Spitamĕnes, one of the officers of king Darius, who conspired against the murderer Bessus, and delivered him to Alexander. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 5.

Spithobătes, a satrap of Ionia, son-in-law of Darius. He was killed at the battle of the Granicus. Diodorus, bk. 17.

Spithridates, a Persian killed by Clitus as he was going to strike Alexander dead.——A Persian satrap in the age of Lysander.

Spoletium, now Spoleto, a town of Umbria, which bravely withstood Annibal while he was in Italy. The people were called Spoletani. Water is conveyed to the town from a neighbouring [♦]fountain by an aqueduct of such a great height, that in one place the top is raised above the foundation 230 yards. An inscription over the gates still commemorates the defeat of Annibal. Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 20.

[♦] ‘fountani’ replaced with ‘fountain’

Spŏrădes, a number of islands in the Ægean sea. They received their name à σπειρω, spargo, because they are scattered in the sea at some distance from Delos, and in the neighbourhood of Crete. Those islands that are contiguous to Delos, and that encircle it, are called Cyclades. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 2.

Spurīna, a mathematician and astrologer, who told Julius Cæsar to beware of the ides of March. As he went to the senate-house on the morning of the ides, Cæsar said to Spurina, “The ides are at last come.” “Yes,” replied Spurina, “but not yet past.” Cæsar was murdered a few moments after. Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 81.—Valerius Maximus, bks. 1 & 8.

Spurius, a prænomen common to many of the Romans.——One of Cæsar’s murderers.——Latius, a Roman who defended the bridge over the Tiber against Porsenna’s army.——A friend of Otho, &c.

Lucius Staberius, a friend of Pompey, set over Apollonia, which he was obliged to yield to Cæsar, because the inhabitants favoured his cause. Cæsar, Gallic War.——An avaricious fellow, who wished it to be known that he was uncommonly rich. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 89.

Stabiæ, a maritime town of Campania on the bay of Puteoli, destroyed by Sylla, and converted into a villa, whither Pliny endeavoured to escape from the eruption of Vesuvius, in which he perished. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5; bk. 6, ch. 16.

Stabŭlum, a place in the Pyrenees, where a communication was open from Gaul into Spain.

Stagīra, a town on the borders of Macedonia, near the bay into which the Strymon discharges itself, at the south of Amphipolis; founded 665 years before Christ. Aristotle was born there, from which circumstance he is called Stagirites. Thucydides, bk. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 4.—Diogenes Laërtius, Solon.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 3, ch. 46.

Staius, an unprincipled wretch, in Nero’s age, who murdered all his relations. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 19.

Stalēnus, a senator who sat as judge in the trial of Cluentius, &c. Cicero, For Aulus Cluentius.

Staphy̆lus, one of the Argonauts, son of Theseus, or, according to others, of Bacchus and Ariadne. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.

Stasander, an officer of Alexander, who had Aria at the general division of the provinces. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 3.

Staseas, a peripatetic philosopher, engaged to instruct young Marcus Piso in philosophy. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 22.

Stasicrătes, a statuary and architect in the wars of Alexander, who offered to make a statue of mount Athos, which was rejected by the conqueror, &c.

Stasileus, an Athenian killed at the battle of Marathon. He was one of the 10 pretors.

Statilli, a people of Liguria, between the Tænarus and the Apennines. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 7.—Cicero, bk. 11, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 11.

Statilia, a woman who lived to a great age, as mentioned by Seneca, ltr. 77.——Another. See: [Messalina].

Statilius, a young Roman celebrated for his courage and constancy. He was an inveterate enemy to Cæsar, and when Cato murdered himself, he attempted to follow his example, but was prevented by his friends. The conspirators against Cæsar wished him to be in their number, but the answer which he gave displeased Brutus. He was at last killed by the army of the triumvirs. Plutarch.——Lucius, one of the friends of Catiline. He joined in his conspiracy, and was put to death. Cicero, Against Catiline, ch. 2.——A young general in the war which the Latins undertook against the Romans. He was killed, with 25,000 of his troops.——A general who fought against Antony.——Taurus, a proconsul of Africa. He was accused of consulting magicians, upon which he put himself to death. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12, ch. 59.

Statĭnæ, islands on the coast of Campania, raised from the sea by an earthquake. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 88.

Statīra, a daughter of Darius, who married Alexander. The conqueror had formerly refused her, but when she had fallen into his hands at Issus, the nuptials were celebrated with uncommon splendour. No less than 9000 persons attended, to each of whom Alexander gave a golden cup, to be offered to the gods. Statira had no children by Alexander. She was cruelly put to death by Roxana, after the conqueror’s death. Justin, bk. 12, ch. 12.——A sister of Darius the last king of Persia. She also became his wife, according to the manners of the Persians. She died after an abortion, in Alexander’s camp, where she was detained as a prisoner. She was buried with great pomp by the conqueror. Plutarch, Alexander.——A wife of Artaxerxes Memnon, poisoned by her mother-in-law queen Parysatis. Plutarch, Artaxerxes.——A sister of Mithridates the Great. Plutarch.

Statius Cæcilius, a comic poet in the age of Ennius. He was a native of Gaul, and originally a slave. His latinity was bad, yet he acquired great reputation by his comedies. He died a little after Ennius. Cicero, de Senectute.——Annæus, a physician, the friend of the philosopher Seneca. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 64.——Publius Papinius, a poet born at Naples, in the reign of the emperor Domitian. His father’s name was Statius of Epirus, and his mother’s Agelina. Statius has made himself known by two epic poems, the Thebais in 12 books, and the Achilleis in two books, which remained unfinished on account of his premature death. There are, besides, other pieces composed on several subjects, which are extant, and well known under the name of Sylvæ, divided into four books. The two epic poems of Statius are dedicated to Domitian, whom the poet ranks among the gods. They were universally admired in his age at Rome, but the taste of the times was corrupted, though some of the moderns have called them inferior to no Latin compositions except Virgil’s. The style of Statius is bombastic and affected, and he often forgets the poet to become the declaimer and the historian. In his Sylvæ, which were written generally extempore, are many beautiful expressions and strokes of genius. Statius, as some suppose, was poor, and he was obliged to maintain himself by writing for the stage. None of his dramatic pieces are extant. Martial has satirized him, and what Juvenal has written in his praise, some have interpreted as an illiberal reflection upon him. Statius died about the 100th year of the christian era. The best editions of his works are that of Barthius, 2 vols., 4to, Zwickau, 1664, and that of the Variorum, 8vo, Leiden, 1671; and of the Thebais, separate, that of Warrington, 2 vols., 12mo, 1778.——Domitius, a tribune in the age of Nero, deprived of his office when Piso’s conspiracy was discovered. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 17.——A general of the Samnites.——An officer of the pretorian guards, who conspired against Nero.

Stator, a surname of Jupiter, given him by Romulus, because he stopped (sto) the flight of the Romans in a battle against the Sabines. The conqueror erected him a temple under that name. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 12.

Stellates, a field remarkable for its fertility, in Campania. Cicero, On the Agrarian Law, bk. 1, ch. 70.—Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 20.

Stellio, a youth turned into an elf by Ceres, because he derided the goddess, who drank with avidity when tired and afflicted in her vain pursuit of her daughter Proserpine. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 445.

Stena, a narrow passage on the mountains near Antigonia, in Chaonia. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 5.

Stenobœa. See: [Sthenobœa].

Stenocrătes, an Athenian who conspired to murder the commander of the garrison which Demetrius had placed in the citadel, &c. Polyænus, bk. 5.

Stentor, one of the Greeks who went to the Trojan war. His voice alone was louder than that of 50 men together. Homer, Iliad, bk. 5, li. 784.—Juvenal, satire 13, li. 112.

Stentoris lacus, a lake near Enos in Thrace. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 58.

Stephănus, a musician of Media, upon whose body Alexander made an experiment in burning a certain sort of bitumen called naphtha. Strabo, bk. 16.—Plutarch, Alexander.——A Greek writer of Byzantium, known for his dictionary giving an account of the towns and places of the ancient world, of which the best edition is that of Gronovius, 2 vols., folio, Leiden, 1694.

Sterŏpe, one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas. She married Œnomaus king of Pisa, by whom she had Hippodamia, &c.——A daughter of Parthaon, supposed by some to be the mother of the Sirens.——A daughter of Cepheus.——A daughter of Pleuron,——of Acastus,——of Danaus,——of Cebrion.

Sterŏpes, one of the Cyclops. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 425.

Stersichŏrus, a lyric Greek poet of Himera, in Sicily. He was originally called Tisias, and obtained the name of Stersichorus from the alterations which he made in music and dancing. His compositions were written in the Doric dialect, and comprised in 26 books, all now lost, except a few fragments. Some say he lost his eyesight for writing invectives against Helen, and that he received it only upon making a recantation of what he had said. He was the first inventor of that fable of the horse and the stag, which Horace and some other poets have imitated, and this he wrote to prevent his countrymen from making an alliance with Phalaris. According to some, he was the first who wrote an epithalamium. He flourished 556 B.C., and died at Cantana, in the 85th year of his age. Isocrates, Helen.—Aristotle, Rhetoric.—Strabo, bk. 3.—Lucian, Macrobii.—Cicero, in Against Verres, bk. 2, ch. 35.—Plutarch, de Musica.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 19; bk. 10, ch. 26.

Stertinius, a stoic philosopher, ridiculed by Horace, bk. 2, satire 3. He wrote in Latin verse 220 books on the philosophy of the stoics.

Stesagŏras, a brother of Miltiades. See: [Miltiades].

Stesilēa, a beautiful woman of Athens, &c.

Stesilēus, a beautiful youth of Cos, loved by Themistocles and Aristides, and the cause of jealousy and dissension between these celebrated men. Plutarch, Cimon.

Stesimbrŏtus, an historian very inconsistent in his narrations. He wrote an account of Cimon’s exploits. Plutarch, Cimom.——A son of Epaminondas, put to death by his father, because he had fought the enemy without his orders, &c. Plutarch.——A musician of Thasos.

Sthenele, a daughter of Acastus, wife of Menœtius. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 13.——A daughter of Danaus by Memphis. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.

Sthenĕlus, a king of Mycenæ, son of Perseus and Andromeda. He married Nicippe the daughter of Pelops, by whom he had two daughters, and a son called Eurystheus, who was born, by Juno’s influence, two months before the natural time, that he might obtain a superiority over Hercules, as being older. Sthenelus made war against Amphitryon, who had killed Electryon and seized his kingdom. He fought with success, and took his enemy prisoner, whom he transmitted to Eurystheus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 19, li. 91.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4.——One of the sons of Ægyptus by Tyria.——A son of Capaneus. He was one of the Epigoni, and of the suitors of Helen. He went to the Trojan war, and was one of those who were shut up in the wooden horse, according to Virgil. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 18.—Virgil, Æneid, bks. 2 & 10.——A son of Androgeus the son of Minos. Hercules made him king of Thrace. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.——A king of Argos, who succeeded his father Crotopus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 16.——A son of Actor, who accompanied Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons. He was killed by one of these females.——A son of Melas, killed by Tydeus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8.

Sthenis, a statuary of Olynthus.——An orator of Himera in Sicily, during the civil wars of Pompey. Plutarch, Pompey.

Stheno, one of the three Gorgons.

Sthenobœa, a daughter of Jobates king of Lycia, who married Prœtus king of Argos. She became enamoured of Bellerophon, who had taken refuge at her husband’s court, after the murder of his brother, and when he refused to gratify her criminal passion, she accused him before Prœtus of attempts upon her virtue. According to some she killed herself after his departure. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 162.—Hyginus, fable 57.——Many mythologists call her Antæa.

Stilbe, or Stilbia, a daughter of Peneus by Creusa, who became mother of Centaurus and Lapithus by Apollo. Diodorus, bk. 4.

Stilbo, a name given to the planet Mercury by the ancients, from its shining appearance. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 20.

Stĭlĭcho, a general of the emperor Theodosius the Great. He behaved with much courage, but under the emperor Honorius he showed himself turbulent and disaffected. As being of barbarian extraction, he wished to see the Roman provinces laid desolate by his countrymen, but in this he was disappointed. Honorius discovered his intrigues, and ordered him to be beheaded about the year of Christ 408. His family were involved in his ruin. Claudian has been loud in his praises, and Zosimus, Historia Nova, bk. 5, denies the truth of the charges laid against him.

Stilpo, a celebrated philosopher of Megara, who flourished 336 years before Christ, and was greatly esteemed by Ptolemy Soter. He was naturally addicted to riot and debauchery, but he reformed his manners when he opened a school at Megara. He was universally respected, his school was frequented, and Demetrius, when he plundered Megara, ordered the house of the philosopher to be left safe and unmolested. It is said that he intoxicated himself when ready to die, to alleviate the terrors of death. He was one of the chiefs of the Stoics. Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 2.—Seneca, de Constantia.

Stĭmĭcon, a shepherd’s name in Virgil’s fifth eclogue.

Stiphĭlus, one of the Lapithæ, killed in the house of Pirithous. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12.

Stobæus, a Greek writer who flourished A.D. 405. His work is valuable for the precious relics of ancient literature which he has preserved. The best edition is that of Geneva, folio, 1609.

Stobi, a town of Pœonia, in Macedonia. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 19; bk. 40, ch. 21.

Stœchădes, five small islands in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Gaul, now the Hieres, near Marseilles. They were called Ligustides by some, but Pliny speaks of them as only three in number. Stephanus Byzantius.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 515.—Strabo, bk. 4.

Stœni, a people living among the Alps. Livy, bk. 62.

Stoĭci, a celebrated sect of philosophers founded by Zeno of Citium. They received the name from the portico (στυα), where the philosopher delivered his lectures. They preferred virtue to everything else, and whatever was opposite to it, they looked upon as the greatest of evils. They required, as well as the disciples of Epicurus, an absolute command over the passions, and they supported that man alone, in the present state of his existence, could attain perfection and felicity. They encouraged suicide, and believed that the doctrine of future punishments and rewards was unnecessary to excite or intimidate their followers. See: [Zeno].

Strabo, a name among the Romans, given to those whose eyes were naturally deformed or distorted. Pompey’s father was distinguished by that name.——A native of Amasia, on the borders of Cappadocia, who flourished in the age of Augustus and Tiberius. He first studied under Xenarchus the peripatetic, and afterwards warmly embraced the tenets of the Stoics. Of all his compositions nothing remains but his geography, divided into 17 books, a work justly celebrated for its elegance, its purity, the erudition and universal knowledge of the author. It contains an account, in Greek, of the most celebrated places of the world, the origin, the manners, religion, prejudices, and government of nations; the foundation of cities, and the accurate history of each separate province. Strabo travelled over great part of the world in quest of information, and to examine with the most critical inquiry, not only the situation of the places, but also the manners of the inhabitants, whose history he meant to write. In the two first books the author wishes to show the necessity of geography; in the 3rd he gives a description of Spain; in the 4th of Gaul and the British isles. The 5th and 6th contain an account of Italy and the neighbouring islands; the 7th, which is mutilated at the end, gives a full description of Germany, and the country of the Getæ, Illyricum, Taurica, Chersonesus, and Epirus. The affairs of Greece and the adjacent islands are separately treated in the 8th, 9th, and 10th; and in the four next Asia, within mount Taurus; and in the 15th and 16th, Asia without Taurus, India, Persia, Syria, and Arabia; the last book gives an account of Egypt, Æthiopia, Carthage, and other places of Africa. Among the books of Strabo which have been lost, were historical commentaries. This celebrated geographer died A.D. 25. The best editions of his geography are those of Casaubon, folio, Paris, 1620; and of Amsterdam, 2 vols., folio, 1707.——A Sicilian, so clear-sighted, that he could distinguish objects at the distance of 130 miles, with the same ease as if they had been near.

Stratarchas, the grandfather of the geographer Strabo. His father’s name was Dorylaus. Strabo, bk. 10.

Strato, or Straton, a king of the island Aradus, received into alliance by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 1.——A king of Sidon, dependent upon Darius. Alexander deposed him, because he refused to surrender. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 1.——A philosopher of Lampsacus, disciple and successor in the school of Theophrastus, about 289 years before the christian era. He applied himself with uncommon industry to the study of nature, and was surnamed Physicus; and after the most mature investigations, he supported that nature was inanimate, and that there was no god but nature. He was appointed preceptor to Ptolemy Philadelphus, who not only revered his abilities and learning, but also rewarded his labours with unbounded liberality. He wrote different treatises, all now lost. Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 5.—Cicero, Academica, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 4, ch. 38, &c.——A physician.——A peripatetic philosopher.——A native of Epirus, very intimate with Brutus the murderer of Cæsar. He killed his friend at his own request.——A rich Orchomenian who destroyed himself, because he could not obtain in marriage a young woman of Haliartus. Plutarch.——A Greek historian who wrote the life of some of the Macedonian kings.——An athlete of Achaia, twice crowned at the Olympic games. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 23.

Stratŏcles, an Athenian general at the battle of Cheronæ, &c., Polyænus.——A stage-player in Domitian’s reign. Juvenal, satire 3, li. 99.

Straton. See: [Strato].

Stratŏnīce, a daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.——A daughter of Pleuron. Apollodorus.——A daughter of Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, who married Eumenes king of Pergamus, and became mother of Attalus. Strabo, bk. 13.——A daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes, who married Seleucus king of Syria. Antiochus, her husband’s son by a former wife, became enamoured of her, and married her with his father’s consent, when the physicians had told him that if he did not comply, his son’s health would be impaired. Plutarch, Demetrius.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 7.——A concubine of Mithridates king of Pontus. Plutarch, Pompey.——The wife of Antigonus, mother of Demetrius Poliorcetes.——A town of Caria, made a Macedonian colony. Strabo, bk. 14.—Livy, bk. 33, chs. 18 & 33.——Another, in Mesopotamia.——A third, near mount Taurus.

Stratonīcus, an opulent person in the reign of Philip, and of his son Alexander, whose riches became proverbial. Plutarch.——A musician of Athens in the age of Demosthenes. Athenæus, bk. 6, ch. 6; bk. 8, ch. 12.

Stratonis turris, a city of Judea, afterwards called Cæsarea by Herod in honour of Augustus.

Stratos, a city of Æolia. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 11.——Of Acarnania.

Strenua, a goddess at Rome, who gave vigour and energy to the weak and indolent. Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, chs. 11 & 16.

Strongy̆le, now Strombolo, one of the islands called Æolides in the Tyrrhene sea, near the coast of Sicily. It has a volcano, 10 miles in circumference, which throws up flame continually, and of which the crater is on the side of the mountain. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 11.

Strophădes, two islands in the Ionian sea, on the western coasts of the Peloponnesus. They were anciently called Plotæ, and received the name of Strophades from στρεφω, verto, because Zethes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, returned from thence by order of Jupiter, after they had driven the Harpies there from the tables of Phineus. The fleet of Æneas stopped near the Strophades. The largest of these two islands is not above five miles in circumference. Hyginus, fable 19.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 709.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 210.—Strabo, bk. 8.

Strophius, a son of Crisus king of Phocis. He married a sister of Agamemnon, called Anaxibia, or Astyochia, or, according to others, Cyndragora, by whom he had Pylades, celebrated for his friendship with Orestes. After the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and Ægisthus, the king of Phocis educated at his own house, with the greatest care, his nephew, whom Electra had secretly removed from the dagger of his mother and her adulterer. Orestes was enabled, by means of Strophius, to revenge the death of his father. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 29.—Hyginus, fables 1, 17.——A son of Pylades by Electra the sister of Orestes.

Struthophăgi, a people of Æthiopia, who fed on sparrows, as their name signifies.

Struthus, a general of Artaxerxes against the Lacedæmonians, B.C. 393.

Stryma, a town of Thrace, founded by a Thasian colony. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 109.

Strymno, a daughter of the Scamander, who married Laomedon. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.

Strymon, a river which separates Thrace from Macedonia, and falls into a part of the Ægean sea, which has been called Strymonicus sinus. A number of cranes, as the poets say, resorted on its banks in the summer time. Its eels were excellent. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 120; bk. 4, li. 508; Æneid, bk. 10, li. 265.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 251.

Stubera, a town of Macedonia, between the Axius and Erigon. Livy, bk. 31, ch. 39.

Stura, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Po.

Sturni, a town of Calabria.

Stymphālia, or Stymphālis, a part of Macedonia. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 30.——A surname of Diana.

Stymphālus, a king of Arcadia, son of Elatus and Laodice. He made war against Pelops, and was killed in a truce. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.——A town, river, lake, and fountain of Arcadia, which receives its name from king Stymphalus. The neighbourhood of the lake Stymphalus was infested with a number of voracious birds, like cranes or storks, which fed upon human flesh, and which were called Stymphalides. They were at last destroyed by Hercules, with the assistance of Minerva. Some have confounded them with the Harpies, while others pretend that they never existed but in the imagination of the poets. Pausanias, however, supports that there were carnivorous birds like the Stymphalides, in Arabia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.—Statius, Thebaid, bk. 4, li. 298.——A lofty mountain of Peloponnesus in Arcadia.

Stygne, a daughter of Danaus. Statius, Sylvæ, bk. 4, poem 6.—Apollodorus.

Styra, a town of Eubœa.

Stȳrus, a king of Albania, to whom Æetes promised his daughter Medea in marriage, to obtain his assistance against the Argonauts. Flaccus, bk. 3, li. 497; bk. 8, li. 358.

Styx, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She married Pallas, by whom she had three daughters, Victory, Strength, and Valour. Hesiod, Theogony, lis. 363 & 384.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2.——A celebrated river of hell, round which it flows nine times. According to some writers, the Styx was a small river of Nonacris in Arcadia, whose waters were so cold and venomous, that they proved fatal to such as tasted them. Among others, Alexander the Great is mentioned as a victim to their fatal poison, in consequence of drinking them. They even consumed iron, and broke all vessels. The wonderful properties of this water suggested the idea that it was a river of hell, especially when it disappeared in the earth a little below its fountain head. The gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that they always swore by them; an oath which was inviolable. If any of the gods had perjured themselves, Jupiter obliged them to drink the waters of the Styx, which lulled them for one whole year into a senseless stupidity; for the nine following years they were deprived of the ambrosia and the nectar of the gods, and after the expiration of the years of their punishment, they were restored to the assembly of the deities, and to all their original privileges. It is said that this veneration was shown to the Styx, because it received its name from the nymph Styx, who, with her three daughters, assisted Jupiter in his war against the Titans. Hesiod, Theogony, lis. 384, 775.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 10, li. 513.—Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 74.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, lis. 323, 439, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 29, &c.—Lucan, bk. 6, li. 378, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 8, chs. 17 & 18.—Curtius, bk. 10, ch. 10.

Suada, the goddess of persuasion, called Pitho by the Greeks. She had a form of worship established to her honour first by Theseus. She had a statue in the temple of Venus Praxis at Megara. Cicero, Brutus, bk. 15.—Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 22 & 43; bk. 9, ch. 35.

Suana, a town of Etruria.

Suardones, a people of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 40.

Suasa, a town of Umbria.

Subatrii, a people of Germany, over whom Drusus triumphed. Strabo, bk. 7.

Subi, a small river of Catalonia.

Sublicius, the first bridge erected at Rome over the Tiber. See: [Pons].

Submontorium, a town of Vindelicia, now Augsburg.

Subota, small islands at the east of Athos. Livy, bk. 44, ch. 28.

Subur, a river of Mauritania.——A town of Spain.

Suburra, a street in Rome where all the licentious, dissolute, and lascivious Romans and courtesans resorted. It was situate between mount Viminalis and Quirinalis, and was remarkable as having been the residence of the obscurer years of Julius Cæsar. Suetonius, Cæsar.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 8.—Martial, bk. 8, ltr. 66.—Juvenal, satire 3, li. 5.

Sucro, now Xucar, a river of Hispania Tarraconensis, celebrated for a battle fought there between Sertorius and Pompey, in which the former obtained the victory. Plutarch.——A Rutulian killed by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 505.

Sudertum, a town of Etruria. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 23.

Suessa, a town of Campania, called also Aurunca, to distinguish it from Suessa Pometia, the capital of the Volsci. Strabo, bk. 5.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 4.—Livy, bks. 1 & 2.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 775.—Cicero, Philippics, bk. 3, ch. 4; bk. 4, ch. 2.

Suessitani, a people of Spain. Livy, bk. 25, ch. 34.

Suessŏnes, a powerful nation of Belgic Gaul, reduced by Julius Cæsar. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2.

Suessula, a town of Campania. Livy, bk. 7, ch. 37; bk. 23, ch. 14.

[♦]Suetonius Caius Paulinus, the first Roman general who crossed mount Atlas with an army, of which expedition he wrote an account. He presided over Britain as governor for about 20 years, and was afterwards made consul. He forsook the interest of Otho, and attached himself to Vitellius.——Caius Tranquillus, a Latin historian, son of a Roman knight of the same name. He was favoured by Adrian, and became his secretary, but he was afterwards banished from the court for want of attention and respect to the empress Sabina. In his retirement Suetonius enjoyed the friendship and correspondence of Pliny the younger, and dedicated his time to study. He wrote a history of the Roman kings, divided into three books; a catalogue of all the illustrious men of Rome, a book on the games and spectacles of the Greeks, &c., which are all now lost. The only one of his compositions extant, is the lives of the 12 first Cæsars, and some fragments of his catalogue of celebrated grammarians. Suetonius, in his Lives, is praised for his impartiality and correctness. His expressions, however, are often too indelicate, and it has been justly observed, that while he exposed the deformities of the Cæsars, he wrote with all the licentiousness and extravagance with which they lived. The best editions of Suetonius are that of Pitiscus, 4to, 2 vols., Leiden, 1714; that of Oudendorp, 2 vols., 8vo, Leiden, 1751; and that of Ernesti, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1775. Pliny, bk. 1, ltr. 11; bk. 5, ltr. 11, &c.

[♦] ‘Setonius’ replaced with ‘Suetonius’

Suetri, a people of Gaul near the Alps.

[♦]Suevi, a people of Germany, between the Elbe and the Vistula, who made frequent incursions upon the territories of Rome under the emperors. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 51.

[♦] ‘Suovi’ replaced with ‘Suevi’

Suevius, a Latin poet in the age of Ennius.

Suffetala, an inland town of Mauritania.

Suffēnus, a Latin poet in the age of Catullus. He was but of moderate abilities, but puffed up with a high idea of his own excellence, and therefore deservedly exposed to the ridicule of his contemporaries. Catullus, poem 22.

Suffetius, or Suftius. See: [Metius].

Suidas, a Greek writer who flourished A.D. 1100. The best edition of his excellent Lexicon is that of Kuster, 3 vols., folio, Cambridge. 1705.

Publius Suilius, an informer in the court of Claudius, banished under Nero, by means of Seneca, and sent to the Baleares. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, ch. 42, &c.——Cæsorinus, a guilty favourite of Messalina. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 36.

Suiones, a nation of Germany, supposed the modern Swedes. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 44.

Sulchi, a town at the south of Sardinia. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Claudian, Gildonic War, li. 518.—Strabo, bk. 5.

Sulcius, an informer whom Horace describes as hoarse with the number of defamations which he daily gave. Horace, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 65.

Sulga, now Sorgue, a small river of Gaul, falling into the Rhone. Strabo, bk. 4.

Sulla. See: [Sylla].

Sulmo, now Sulmona, an ancient town of the Peligni, at the distance of about 90 miles from Rome, founded by Solymus, one of the followers of Æneas. Ovid was born there. Ovid, passim.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 511.—Strabo, bk. 5.——A Latin chief killed in the night by Nisus, as he was going with his companions to destroy Euryalus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 412.

Sulpitia, a daughter of Paterculus, who married Fulvius Flaccus. She was so famous for her chastity, that she consecrated a temple to [♦]Venus Verticordia, a goddess who was implored to turn the hearts of the Roman women to virtue. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 35.——A poetess in the age of Domitian, against whom she wrote a poem, because he had banished the philosophers from Rome. This composition is still extant. She had also written a poem on conjugal affection, commended by Martial, ltr. 35, now lost.——A daughter of Servius Sulpitius, mentioned in the fourth book of elegies, falsely attributed to Tibullus.

[♦] ‘Venis’ replaced with ‘Venus’

Sulpitia lex, militaris, by Caius Sulpicius the tribune, A.U.C. 665, invested Marius with the full power of the war against Mithridates, of which Sylla was to be deprived.——Another, de senatu, by Servius Sulpicius the tribune, A.U.C. 665. It required that no senator should owe more than 2000 drachmæ.——Another, de civitate, by Publius Sulpitius the tribune, A.U.C. 665. It ordered that the new citizens who composed the eight tribes lately created, should be divided among the 35 old tribes, as a greater honour.——Another, called also Sempronia, de religione, by Publius Sulpicius Saverrio and Publius Sempronius Sophus, consuls, A.U.C. 449. It forbade any person to consecrate a temple or altar without the permission of the senate and the majority of the tribunes.——Another, to empower the Romans to make war against Philip of Macedonia.

Sulpitius, or Sulpicius, an illustrious family at Rome, of whom the most celebrated are:—Peticus, a man chosen dictator against the Gauls. His troops mutinied when he first took the field, but soon after he engaged the enemy and totally defeated them. Livy, bk. 7.——Saverrio, a consul who gained a victory over the Æqui. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 45.——Caius Paterculus, a consul sent against the Carthaginians. He conquered Sardinia and Corsica, and obtained a complete victory over the enemy’s fleet. He was honoured with a triumph at his return to Rome. Livy, bk. 17.——Spurius, one of the three commissioners whom the Romans sent to collect the best laws which could be found in the different cities and republics of Greece. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 10.——One of the first consuls who received intelligence that a conspiracy was formed in Rome to restore the Tarquins to power, &c.——A priest who died of the plague in the first ages of the republic at Rome.——Publius Galba, a Roman consul who signalized himself greatly during the war which his countrymen waged against the Achæans and the Macedonians.——Severus, a writer. See: [Severus].——Publius, one of the associates of Marius, well known for his intrigues and cruelty. He made some laws in favour of the allies of Rome, and he kept about 3000 young men in continual pay, whom he called his anti-senatorial band, and with these he had often the impertinence to attack the consul in the popular assemblies. He became at last so seditious, that he was proscribed by Sylla’s adherents, and immediately murdered. His head was fixed on a pole in the rostrum, where he had often made many seditious speeches in the capacity of tribune. Livy, bk. 77.——A Roman consul who fought against Pyrrhus and defeated him.——Caius Longus, a Roman consul, who defeated the Samnites and killed 30,000 of their men. He obtained a triumph for this celebrated victory. He was afterwards made dictator to conduct a war against the Etrurians.——Rufus, a lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul.——One of Messalina’s favourites, put to death by Claudius.——Publius Quirinus, a consul in the age of Augustus.——Camerinus, a proconsul of Africa, under Nero, accused of cruelty, &c. Tacitus, bk. 13, Annals, ch. 52.——Gallus, a celebrated astrologer in the age of Paulus. He accompanied the consul in his expedition against Perseus, and told the Roman army that the night before the day on which they were to give the enemy battle there would be an eclipse of the moon. This explanation encouraged the soldiers, which, on the contrary, would have intimidated them, if not previously acquainted with the causes of it. Sulpitius was universally respected, and he was honoured a few years after with the consulship. Livy, bk. 44, ch. 37.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 12.——Apollinaris, a grammarian in the age of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He left some letters and a few grammatical observations now lost. Cicero.—Livy.—Plutarch.—Polybius.—Florus.—Eutropius.

Summānus, a surname of Pluto, as prince of the dead, summus manium. He had a temple at Rome, erected during the wars with Pyrrhus, and the Romans believed that the thunderbolts of Jupiter were in his power during the night. Cicero, De Divinatione.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 731.

Sunici, a people of Germany on the shores of the Rhine. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 66.

Sunides, a soothsayer in the army of Eumenes. Polyænus, bk. 4.

Sunium, a promontory of Attica, about 45 miles distant from the Piræus. There was there a small harbour, as also a town. Minerva had there a beautiful temple, whence she was called Sunias. There are still extant some ruins of this temple. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 7, ltr. 3; bk. 13, ltr. 10.

Suovetaurilia, a sacrifice among the Romans, which consisted of the immolation of a sow (sus), a sheep (ovis), and a bull (taurus), whence the name. It was generally observed every fifth year.

Supĕrum mare, a name of the Adriatic sea, because it was situate above Italy. The name of Mare Inferum was applied for the opposite reasons to the sea below Italy. Cicero, For Aulus Cluentius, &c.

Sura Æmylius, a Latin writer, &c. Velleius Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 6.——Lucius Licinius, a favourite of Trajan, honoured with the consulship.——A writer in the age of the emperor Gallienus. He wrote a history of the reign of the emperor.——A city on the Euphrates.——Another in Iberia.——A river of Germany, whose waters fall into the Moselle. Ausonius, Mosella.

Surēna, a powerful officer in the armies of Orodes king of Parthia. His family had the privilege of crowning the kings of Parthia. He was appointed to conduct the war against the Romans, and to protect the kingdom of Parthia against Crassus, who wished to conquer it. He defeated the Roman triumvir, and after he had drawn him perfidiously to a conference, he ordered his head to be cut off. He afterwards returned to Parthia, mimicking the triumphs of the Romans. Orodes ordered him to be put to death, B.C. 52. Surena has been admired for his valour, his sagacity as a general, and his prudence and firmness in the execution of his plans; but his perfidy, his effeminate manners, and his lasciviousness have been deservedly censured. Polyænus, bk. 7.—Plutarch, Crassus.

Surium, a town at the south of Colchis.

Surrentum, a town of Campania, on the bay of Naples, famous for the wine which was made in the neighbourhood. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 17, li. 52.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 710.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 110.

Surus, one of the Ædui, who made war against Cæsar. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 8, ch. 45.

Susa (orum), now Suster, a celebrated city of Asia, the chief town of Susiana, and the capital of the Persian empire, built by Tithonus the father of Memnon. Cyrus took it. The walls of Susa were above 120 stadia in circumference. The treasures of the kings of Persia were generally kept there, and the royal palace was built with white marble, and its pillars were covered with gold and precious stones. It was usual with the kings of Persia to spend the summer at Ecbatana, and the winter at Susa, because the climate was more warm than at any other royal residence. It has been called Memnonia, or the palace of Memnon, because that prince reigned there. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 26, &c.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 49.—Strabo, bk. 15.—Xenophon, Cyropædia.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 13.—Claudian.

Susăna, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 384.

Susarion, a Greek poet of Megara, who is supposed, with Dolon, to be the inventor of comedy, and to have first introduced it at Athens on a movable stage, B.C. 562.

Susiāna, or Susis, a country of Asia, of which the capital was called Susa, situate at the east of Assyria. Lilies grow in great abundance in Susiana, and it is from that plant that the province received its name, according to some, as Susan is the name of a lily in Hebrew.

Susidæ pylæ, narrow passes over mountains, from Susiana into Persia. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 3.

Suthul, a town of Numidia, where the king’s treasures were kept. Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 37.

Sutrium, a town of Etruria, about 24 miles north-west of Rome. Some suppose that the phrase Ire Sutrium, to act with despatch, arises from the celerity with which Camillus recovered the place, but Festus explains it differently. Plautus, Casina, act 3, scen 1, li. 10.—Livy, bk. 26, ch. 34.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 14.—Livy, bk. 9, ch. 32.

Syagrus, an ancient poet, the first who wrote on the Trojan war. He is called Segaris, by Diogenes Laërtius, who adds that he lived in Homer’s age, of whom he was the rival. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 14, ch. 21.

Sybăris, a river of Lucania in Italy, whose waters were said to render men more strong and robust. Strabo, bk. 6.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11; bk. 31, ch. 2.——There was a town of the same name on its banks on the bay of Tarentum, which had been founded by a colony of Achæans. Sybaris became very powerful, and in its most flourishing situation it had the command of four neighbouring nations, of 25 towns, and could send an army of 300,000 men into the field. The walls of the city were said to extend six miles and a half in circumference, and the suburbs covered the banks of the Crathis for the space of seven miles. It made a long and vigorous resistance against the neighbouring town of Crotona, till it was at last totally reduced by the disciples of Pythagoras, B.C. 501. Sybaris was destroyed no less than five times, and always repaired. In a more recent age the inhabitants became so effeminate, that the word Sybarise became proverbial to intimate a man devoted to pleasure. There was a small town built in the neighbourhood about 444 years before the christian era, and called Thurium, from a small fountain called Thuria, where it was built. Diodorus, bk. 12.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 24.—Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 96.—Plutarch, Pelopidas, &c.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.——A friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 363.——A youth enamoured of Lydia, &c. Horace, bk. 1, ode 8, li. 2.

Sybarīta, an inhabitant of Sybaris. See: [Sybaris].

Sybota, a harbour of Epirus. Cicero, bk. 5, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 9.—Strabo, bk. 7.

Sybŏtas, a king of the Messenians in the age of Lycurgus the Spartan legislator. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 4.

Sycinnus, a slave of Themistocles, sent by his master to engage Xerxes to fight against the fleet of the Peloponnesians.

Sycurium, a town of Thessaly at the foot of Ossa. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 54.

Syedra, a town of Cilicia.

Syēne, now Assuan, a town of Thebais, on the extremities of Egypt. Juvenal the poet was banished there on pretence of commanding a pretorian cohort stationed in the neighbourhood. It was famous for its quarries of marble. Strabo, bks. 1 & 2.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 8.—Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 1, poem 5, li. 79; Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 74.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 587; bk. 8, li. 851; bk. 10, li. 234.

Syenesius, a Cilician who, with Labinetus of Babylon, concluded a peace between Alyattes king of Lydia, and Cyaxares king of Media, while both armies were terrified by a sudden eclipse of the sun, B.C. 585. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 74.

Syennesis, a satrap of Cilicia, when Cyrus made war against his brother Artaxerxes. He wished to favour both the brothers by sending one of his sons into the army of Cyrus and another to Artaxerxes.

Sylēa, a daughter of Corinthus.

Syleum, a town of Pamphylia.

Syleus, a king of Aulis.

Sylla Lucius Cornelius, a celebrated Roman of a noble family. The poverty of his early years was relieved by the liberality of the courtesan Nicopolis, who left him heir to a large fortune; and with the addition of the immense wealth of his mother-in-law, he soon appeared one of the most opulent of the Romans. He first entered the army under the great Marius, whom he accompanied in Numidia in the capacity of questor. He rendered himself conspicuous in military affairs; and Bocchus, one of the princes of Numidia, delivered Jugurtha into his hands for the Roman consul. The rising fame of Sylla gave umbrage to Marius, who was always jealous of an equal, as well as of a superior; but the ill language which he might use, rather inflamed than extinguished the ambition of Sylla. He left the conqueror of Jugurtha, and carried arms under Catullus. Some time after he obtained the pretorship, and was appointed by the Roman senate to place Ariobarzanes on the throne of Cappadocia, against the views and interest of Mithridates king of Pontus. This he easily effected: one battle left him victorious; and before he quitted the plains of Asia, the Roman pretor had the satisfaction to receive in his camp the ambassadors of the king of Parthia, who wished to make a treaty of alliance with the Romans. Sylla received them with haughtiness, and behaved with such arrogance, that one of them exclaimed, “Surely this man is master of the world, or doomed to be such!” At his return to Rome, he was commissioned to finish the war with the Marsi, and when this was successfully ended, he was rewarded with the consulship, in the 50th year of his age. In this capacity he wished to have the administration of the Mithridatic war; but he found an obstinate adversary in Marius, and he attained the summit of his wishes only when he had entered Rome sword in hand. After he had slaughtered all his enemies, set a price upon the head of Marius, and put to death the tribune Sulpitius, who had continually opposed his views, he marched towards Asia, and disregarded the flames of discord which he left behind him unextinguished. Mithridates was already master of the greatest part of Greece; and Sylla, when he reached the coast of Peloponnesus, was delayed by the siege of Athens, and of the Piræus. His operations were carried on with vigour, and when he found his money fail, he made no scruple to take the riches of the temples of the gods to bribe his soldiers, and render them devoted to his service. His boldness succeeded. The Piræus surrendered; and the conqueror, as if struck with reverence at the beautiful porticoes where the philosophic followers of Socrates and Plato had often disputed, spared the city of Athens, which he had devoted to destruction, and forgave the living for the sake of the dead. Two celebrated battles at Cheronæa and Orchomenos, rendered him master of Greece. He crossed the Hellespont, and attacked Mithridates in the very heart of his kingdom. The artful monarch, who well knew the valour and perseverance of his adversary, made proposals of peace; and Sylla, whose interest at home was then decreasing, did not hesitate to put an end to a war which had rendered him master of so much territory, and which enabled him to return to Rome like a conqueror, and to dispute with his rival the sovereignty of the republic with a victorious army. Muræna was left at the head of the Roman forces in Asia, and Sylla hastened to Italy. In the plains of Campania, he was met by a few of his adherents, whom the success of his rivals had banished from the capital, and he was soon informed, that if he wished to contend with Marius, he must encounter 15 generals, followed by 25 well-disciplined legions. In these critical circumstances he had recourse to artifice, and while he proposed terms of accommodation to his adversaries, he secretly strengthened himself, and saw, with pleasure, his armies daily increase by the revolt of soldiers whom his bribes or promises had corrupted. Pompey, who afterwards merited the surname of Great, embraced his cause, and marched to the camp with three legions. Soon after he appeared in the field with advantage; the confidence of Marius decayed with his power, and Sylla entered Rome like a tyrant and a conqueror. The streets were daily filled with dead bodies, and 7000 citizens, to whom the conqueror had promised pardon, were suddenly massacred in the circus. The senate, at that time assembled in the temple of Bellona, heard the shrieks of their dying countrymen; and when they inquired into the cause of it, Sylla coolly replied, “They are only a few rebels whom I have ordered to be chastised.” If this had been the last and most dismal scene, Rome might have been called happy; but it was only the beginning of her misfortunes. Each succeeding day exhibited a great number of slaughtered bodies, and when one of the senators had the boldness to ask the tyrant when he meant to stop his cruelties, Sylla, with an air of unconcern, answered, that he had not yet determined, but that he would take it into his consideration. The slaughter was continued; a list of such as were proscribed was daily stuck in the public streets, and the slave was rewarded to bring his master’s head, and the son was not ashamed to imbrue his hands in the blood of his father for money. No less than 4700 of the most powerful and opulent were slain, and Sylla wished the Romans to forget his cruelties in aspiring to the title of perpetual dictator. In this capacity he made new laws, abrogated such as were inimical to his views, and changed every regulation where his ambition was obstructed. After he had finished whatever the most absolute sovereign may do from his own will and authority, Sylla abdicated the dictatorial power, and retired to a solitary retreat at Puteoli, where he spent the rest of his days, if not in literary ease and tranquillity, yet far from the noise of arms, in the midst of riot and debauchery. The companions of his retirement were the most base and licentious of the populace, and Sylla took pleasure still to wallow in voluptuousness, though on the verge of life, and covered with infirmities. His intemperance hastened his end, his blood was corrupted, and an imposthume was bred in his bowels. He at last died in the greatest torments of the lousy disease, about 78 years before Christ, in the 60th year of his age; and it has been observed, that, like Marius, on his death-bed, he wished to drown the stings of conscience and remorse by continual intoxication. His funeral was very magnificent; his body was attended by the senate and the vestal virgins, and hymns were sung to celebrate his exploits and to honour his memory. A monument was erected in the field of Mars, on which appeared an inscription written by himself, in which he said, that the good services he had received from his friends, and the injuries of his enemies, had been returned with unexampled usury. The character of Sylla is that of an ambitious, dissimulating, credulous, tyrannical, debauched, and resolute commander. He was revengeful in the highest degree, and the surname of Felix, or the Fortunate, which he assumed, showed that he was more indebted to fortune than to valour for the great fame which he had acquired. But in the midst of all this, who cannot admire the moderation and philosophy of a man, who when absolute master of a republic, which he had procured by his cruelty and avarice, silently abdicates the sovereign power, challenges a critical examination of his administration, and retires to live securely in the midst of thousands whom he has injured and offended? The Romans were pleased and astonished at his abdication; and when the insolence of a young man had been vented against the dictator, he calmly answered, “This usage may perhaps deter another to resign his power to follow my example, if ever he becomes absolute.” Sylla has been commended for the patronage which he gave to the arts and sciences. He brought from Asia the extensive library of Apellicon the Peripatetic philosopher, in which were the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and he himself composed 22 books of memoirs concerning himself. Cicero, Against Verres, &c.—Cornelius Nepos, Atticus.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 17, &c.—Livy, bk. 75, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 20.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.; bk. 4, ch. 2, &c.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 12, &c.—Polybius, bk. 5.—Justin, bks. 37 & 38.—Eutropius, bk. 5, ch. 2.—Plutarch, Lives.——A nephew of the dictator, who conspired against his country because he had been deprived of his consulship for bribery.——Another relation, who also joined in the same conspiracy.——A man put to death by Nero at Marseilles, where he had been banished.——A friend of Cato, defeated and killed by one of Cæsar’s lieutenants.——A senator banished from the senate for his prodigality by Tiberius.

Syllis, a nymph, mother of Zeuxippus by Apollo. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 6.

Syloes, a promontory of Africa.

Sylŏson, a man who gave a splendid garment to Darius son of Hystaspes, when a private man. Darius, when raised to the throne of Persia, remembered the gift of Syloson with gratitude. Strabo, bk. 14.

Sylvānus, a god of the woods. See: [Silvanus].

Sylvia, or Ilia, the mother of Romulus. See: [Rhea].——A daughter of Tyrrhenus, whose favourite stag was wounded by Ascanius. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 503.

Sylvius, a son of Æneas by Lavinia, from whom afterwards all the kings of Alba were called Sylvii. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 763.

Syma, or Syme, a town of Asia.——A nymph, mother of Chthonius by Neptune. Diodorus, bk. 5.

Symbŏlum, a place of Macedonia, near Philippi, on the confines of Thrace.

Symmăchus, an officer in the army of Agesilaus.——A celebrated orator in the age of Theodosius the Great. His father was prefect of Rome. He wrote against the christians, and 10 books of his letters are extant, which have been refuted by Ambrose and Prudentius. The best editions of Symmachus are that of Geneva, 8vo, 1598, and that of Paris, 4to, 1604.——A writer in the second century. He translated the Bible into Greek, of which few fragments remain.

Symplegădes, or Cyaneæ, two islands or rocks at the entrance of the Euxine sea. See: [Cyaneæ].

Symus, a mountain of Armenia, from which the Araxes flows.

Syncellus, one of the Byzantine historians, whose works were edited in folio, Paris, 1652.

Synesius, a bishop of Cyrene in the age of Theodosius the younger, as conspicuous for his learning as his piety. He wrote 155 epistles, besides other treatises, in Greek, in a style pure and elegant, and bordering much upon the poetic. The last edition is in 8vo, Paris, 1605; inferior, however, to the editio princeps by Dionysius Pectavius, folio, Paris, 1613. The best edition of Synesius de febribus is that of Bernard, Amsterdam, 1749.

Synnalaxis, a nymph of Ionia, who had a temple at Heraclea in Elis. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 22.

Synnas (adis), or Synnada (plural), a town of Phrygia, famous for its marble quarries. Strabo, bk. 12.—Claudian, Against Eutropius, bk. 2.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 77.—Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 5, li. 41.

Synnis, a famous robber of Attica. See: [Scinis].

Synōpe, a town on the borders of the Euxine. See: [Sinope].

Syphæum, a town of the Brutii in Italy. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 19.

Syphax, a king of the Masæsylii in Libya, who married Sophonisba the daughter of Asdrubal, and forsook the alliance of the Romans to join himself to the interest of his father-in-law, and of Carthage. He was conquered in a battle by Masinissa the ally of Rome, and given to Scipio the Roman general. The conqueror carried him to Rome, where he adorned his triumph. Syphax died in prison 201 years before Christ, and his possessions were given to Masinissa. According to some, the descendants of Syphax reigned for some time over a part of Numidia, and continued to make opposition to the Romans. Livy, bk. 24, &c.—Plutarch, Scipio.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Polybius.—Silius Italicus, bk. 16, lis. 171 & 188.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 769.

Syraces, one of the Sacæ, who mutilated himself, and, by pretending to be a deserter, brought Darius, who made war against his country, into many difficulties. Polyænus, bk. 7.

Syracosia, festivals at Syracuse celebrated during 10 days, in which women were busily employed in offering sacrifices.——Another yearly observed near the lake of Syracuse, where, as they supposed, Pluto had disappeared with Proserpine.

Syracūsæ, a celebrated city of Sicily, founded about 732 years before the christian era by Archias, a Corinthian, and one of the Heraclidæ. In its flourishing state it extended 22½ English miles in circumference, and was divided into four districts, Ortygia, Acradina, Tycha, and Neapolis, to which some add a fifth division, Epipolæ, a district little inhabited. These were of themselves separate cities, and were fortified with three citadels, and three-folded walls. Syracuse had two capacious harbours separated from one another by the island of Ortygia. The greatest harbour was about 5000 paces in circumference, and its entrance 500 paces wide. The people of Syracuse were very opulent and powerful, and though subject to tyrants, they were masters of vast possessions and dependent states. The city of Syracuse was well built, its houses were stately and magnificent; and it has been said, that it produced the best and most excellent of men when they were virtuous, but the most wicked and depraved when addicted to vicious pursuits. The women of Syracuse were not permitted to adorn themselves with gold, or wear costly garments, except such as prostituted themselves. Syracuse gave birth to Theocritis and Archimedes. It was under different governments; and after being freed from the tyranny of Thrasybulus, B.C. 446, it enjoyed security for 61 years, till the usurpation of the Dionysii, who were expelled by Timoleon, B.C. 343. In the age of the elder Dionysius, an army of 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, and 400 ships, were kept in constant pay. It fell into the hands of the Romans, under the consul Marcellus, after a siege of three years, B.C. 212. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4, chs. 52 & 53.—Strabo, bks. 1 & 8.—Cornelius Nepos.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Livy, bk. 23, &c.—Plutarch, Marcellus, &c.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 278.

Syria, a large country of Asia, whose boundaries are not accurately ascertained by the ancients. Syria, generally speaking, was bounded on the east by the Euphrates, north by mount Taurus, west by the Mediterranean, and south by Arabia. It was divided into several districts and provinces, among which were Phœnicia, Seleucis, Judæa or Palestine, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Assyria. It was also called Assyria; and the words Syria and Assyria, though distinguished and defined by some authors, were often used indifferently. Syria was subjected to the monarchs of Persia; but after the death of Alexander the Great, Seleucus, surnamed Nicator, who had received this province as his lot in the division of the Macedonian dominions, raised it into an empire, known in history by the name of the kingdom of Syria or Babylon, B.C. 312. Seleucus died after a reign of 32 years, and his successors, surnamed the Seleucidæ, ascended the throne in the following order: Antiochus, surnamed Soter, 280 B.C.; Antiochus Theos, 261; Seleucus Callinicus, 246; Seleucus Ceraunus, 226; Antiochus the Great, 223; Seleucus Philopator, 187; Antiochus Epiphanes, 175; Antiochus Eupator, 164; Demetrius Soter, 162; Alexander Balas, 150; Demetrius Nicator, 146; Antiochus VI., 144; Diodotus Tryphon, 147; Antiochus Sidetes, 139; Demetrius Nicator restored, 130; Alexander Zebina, 127, who was dethroned by Antiochus Grypus, 123; Antiochus Cyzicenus, 112, who takes part of Syria, which he calls Cœlesyria; Philip and Demetrius Eucerus, 93, and in Cœlesyria, Antiochus Pius; Aretas was king of Cœlesyria, 85; Tigranes, king of Armenia, 83; and Antiochus Asiaticus, 69, who was dethroned by Pompey, B.C. 65; in consequence of which Syria became a Roman province. Herodotus, bks. 2, 3 & 7.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, Argonautica.—Strabo, bks. 12 & 16.—Cornelius Nepos, Datames.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Ptolemy, bk. 5, ch. 6.—Curtius, bk. 6.—Dionysius Periegetes.

Syriăcum mare, that part of the Mediterranean sea which is on the coast of Phœnicia and Syria.

Syrinx, a nymph of Arcadia, daughter of the river Ladon. Pan became enamoured of her, and attempted to offer her violence; but Syrinx escaped, and at her own request was changed by the gods into a reed called Syrinx by the Greeks. The god made himself a pipe with the reeds, into which his favourite nymph had been changed. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 691.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 63.

Syrophœnix, the name of an inhabitant of the maritime coast of Syria. Juvenal, satire 8.

Syros, one of the Cyclades in the Ægean sea, at the east of Delos, about 20 miles in circumference, very fruitful in wine and corn of all sorts. The inhabitants lived to a great old age, because the air was wholesome. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 15, li. 504.—Strabo, bk. 10.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A town of Caria. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 26.

Syrtes, two large sand-banks in the Mediterranean on the coast of Africa, one of which was near Leptis, and the other near Carthage. As they often changed places, and were sometimes very high or very low under the water, they were deemed most dangerous in navigation, and proved fatal to whatever ships touched upon them. From this circumstance, therefore, the word has been used to denote any part of the sea of which the navigation was attended with danger, either from whirlpools or hidden rocks. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 7; bk. 2, ch. 7.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 41.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 303.—Sallust, Jugurthine War.

Syrus, an island. See: [Syros].——A son of Apollo by Sinope the daughter of the Asopus, who gave his name to Syria. Plutarch, Lucullus.——A writer. See: [Publius].

Sysigambis, the mother of Darius. See: [Sisygambis].

Sysimethres, a Persian satrap, who had two children by his mother, an incestuous commerce tolerated by the laws of Persia. He opposed Alexander with 2000 men, but soon surrendered. He was greatly honoured by the conqueror. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 4.

Sysinas, the elder son of Datames, who revolted from his father to Artaxerxes.

Sythas, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Sicyonia into the bay of Corinth. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 7.

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