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.