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.