[Socrates], Church historian of the 4th century, born at Byzantium; bred to the bar; his "Ecclesiastical History" embraces a period from 306 to 439, a work of no great merit.
[Sodom and Gomorrah], two ancient cities which, for their wickedness were, as the Bible relates, consumed with fire from heaven; they are supposed to have stood near the S. border of the Dead Sea, though they were not, as was at one time supposed, submerged in the waters of it.
[Sofala], a Portuguese maritime district of South-East Africa, stretching from the Zambesi S. to Delagoa Bay, and forming the S. portion of the colony of Mozambique. Sofala (1), chief port on a bay of the same name, is a place of little importance.
[Sofia] (50), capital since 1878 of Bulgaria; is a fortified town, situated in the broad valley of the Isker, a tributary of the Danube, 75 m. NW. of Philippopolis; has recently largely undergone reconstruction, and with hotels, banks, a government palace, &c., presents a fine modern appearance; has a national university; is an important trade emporium, and is on the Constantinople and Belgrade railway; manufactures cloth, silks, leather, &c., and has long been famed for its hot mineral springs.
[Sofronia], a Christian maiden of Jerusalem, who, to avert a general massacre of the Christians by the Mohammedan king, accused herself of the crime for which they were all to suffer, and whose story with the issue is touchingly related in Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered."
[Soissons] (11), a fortified town of North France, dep. Aisne, on the Aisne, 65 m. NE. of Paris; has a 12th-century cathedral and ruins of a famous abbey; chief industries are brewing and the manufacture of various textiles; was a place of much importance in early times, and figures in the wars of Clovis and Pepin, frequently in the Hundred Years' War, and in 1870 was captured by the Germans; is considered the key to Paris from the Netherlands side.
[Sokoto] (11,000), a native kingdom of West Central Africa, within territories administered now by the British Government; lies between the Soudan (N.) and the river Benuë (S.), the main affluent of the Niger; the dominant people are the Fulahs, exercising sway over various native tribes; is a country capable of much agricultural development, and has large deposits of iron. Wurno (15), the capital, is on the Gandi, 18 m. E. of the town of Sokoto.
[Solano], name given to a hot oppressive wind in the Mediterranean.
[Solar Cycle], a period of 28 years, within which the first day of the year passes successively through the same sequence of week-days.
[Solar Myth], a myth, the subject of which is a deified personification of the sun or phenomena connected with it.