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.