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.