Scio, Chio, or Khio (anc. Chios). An island belonging to Asiatic Turkey, lying in the Grecian Archipelago, off the coast of Asia Minor. Chios became a member of the Ionian confederation of twelve states on the Asiatic islands and coast. Its insular position protected it against the Lydian, and for a time against the Persian power. But in the Ionian revolt the Chians lent their assistance to their fellow-countrymen by furnishing ships to the fleet, which was totally defeated by the Persians off Miletus, 494 B.C. The conquerors in consequence landed on the island, and ravaged it with fire and sword. The battle of Mycale, in 479, liberated Chios from the Persian yoke, but only to become a dependency of Athens. To this power it remained faithful till after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war; but as that disastrous contest proceeded, and the fortune of war began to prove adverse to Athens, the Chians attempted to assert their liberty. They suffered several defeats from the Athenians, who laid waste the island, but could not conquer the capital. At a later period Chios was again subject to Athens, and again revolted, and seems to have maintained its independence for some time. It gave assistance to the Romans in their war with Antiochus, 190 B.C.; and afterwards, when allied with Mithridates, that monarch, suspecting the people of a bearing towards the Romans, sent a lieutenant, who carried the inhabitants away from the island, 86 B.C. They were restored by the Romans; and, in consideration of this calamity, the island was made a free state and an ally of Rome. Early in the 14th century, the Turks conquered the capital, and perpetrated a general massacre of its inhabitants; but from 1346 to 1566 Scio was held by the Genoese. In the latter year it was conquered by Solyman the Magnificent; and since that time, with the exception of a short period when the Venetians possessed it, the island has belonged to the Ottoman empire. In 1822, during the Greek insurrection, a number of Samians landed in Scio, and persuaded or forced its peaceful inhabitants to rise against the Turks. They did not succeed in mastering the castle, and soon an army was landed from Asia, who renewed the ancient calamities of the island. The plunder and massacre that ensued was so unsparing that in a short time only 2000 Christians were left out of a population of 110,000.
Scione. The chief town in the Macedonian peninsula of Pallene, on the western coast. It revolted from the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war, but was retaken by Cleon, whereupon all the men were put to death, the women and children sold as slaves, and the town given to the Platæans.
Scirtis. A wild and mountainous district in the north of Laconia, on the borders of Arcadia, with a town called Scirus, which originally belonged to Arcadia. Its inhabitants, the Sciritæ, formed a special division of the Lacedæmonian army. This body, which, in the time of the Peloponnesian war, was 600 in number, was stationed in battle at the extreme left of the line, formed on march the vanguard, and was usually employed on the most dangerous kinds of service.
Sconce. In fortification, is a term applied to any small redoubt or fort, detached from the main works for some local object, as the defense of a pass or fort, etc. The word is not now often used.
Scopetin (Fr.). A rifleman was formerly so called who was armed with the escopette.
Scordisci. A people in Pannonia Superior, who are sometimes classed among the Illyrians, but were the remains of an ancient and powerful Celtic tribe. They dwelt between the Savus and Dravus.
Scorpion (Fr.). A small kind of catapult, or large cross-bow, which threw heavy arrows by means of a steel bow, which was bent by a double-handed roller turned by one man.
Scorpion (Fr.). An ancient gun, whose dolphins represented the scorpion. Also the name of an implement used by the ancients for laying hold of the enemy’s battering ram.
Scotch Brigade. A brigade of Scotchmen, gentlemen, and others, who served under the elector of Bavaria in the reign of James I., and subsequently under Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years’ War.
Scotland. The northern division of the island of Great Britain. An account has been given under the article [Picts] (which see) of the early inhabitants of the country which has long been known by the name of Scotland. The original Scotia, or Scotland, was Ireland, and the Scoti, or Scots, at their first appearance in history were the people of Ireland. The original seat of the Scots in Northern Britain was in Argyle, which they acquired by colonization and conquest before the end of the 5th century, and from whence they spread themselves along the western coast from the Firth of Clyde to the modern Ross. The first prince of the British Scots mentioned in authentic annals was Fergus, son of Eric, who crossed over to Britain about the year 503. His great-grandson, Conal, was king of the British Scots when Columba began the conversion of the Northern Picts. His nephew, Aidan, who succeeded him was a powerful prince, and more than once successfully invaded the English border, but toward the end of his reign he received a severe defeat from the Northumbrian sovereign Ethelfrid at the battle of Degsestan. The history of Aidan’s successors is obscure. Their kingdom was overshadowed by the more powerful monarchy of the Picts, with which, as well as with its neighbors in the south,—the Britons of Cumbria,—it was engaged in almost unceasing conflict. The Scots were for some time under some sort of subjection to the English of Northumbria, but recovered their independence on the defeat and death of King Egfried in battle with the Picts at Nechtansmere in 685. In the middle of the 9th century, the Scots acquired a predominance in Northern Britain. Kenneth, son of Alpin, succeeded his father as king of the Scots. The Pictish kingdom was weakened by civil dissensions and a disputed claim to the crown. The Picts and Scots, each speaking a dialect of the Celtic tongue, gradually coalesced into one people. The reign of Constantine, son of Aodh, who succeeded in 904, was a remarkable one. Even before the establishment of the kingdom of the Picts and Scots in the person of Kenneth, Northern Britain had experienced the attacks of a new enemy, the Scandinavian invaders, generally spoken of under the name of Danes. Constantine resisted them bravely, but towards the end of his reign, he entered into an alliance with them in opposition to the English. A powerful army, composed of Scots, Picts, Britons, and Danes, disembarked on the Humber, and was encountered at Brunanburgh by Athelstan, king of England. A battle was fought there, the first of a series of unfortunate combats by Scottish princes on English ground. The confederate army was defeated, but Constantine escaped, and died 953. During the reign of Malcolm I., a portion of the Cumbrian kingdom was bestowed by Edmund, king of England, on the Scottish sovereign. The northern kingdom was still further increased in the reign of Kenneth, son of Malcolm, by the acquisition of Lothian and of Northern Cumbria, or Strathclyde. Alexander III. employed the period of his reign well; by a treaty with the king of Norway, he added to his kingdom Man and the other islands of the Western Sea. The reigns of David II. and his successors, Robert II. and Robert III., were the most wretched period of Scottish history. In the year 1411, half of the kingdom would have become barbarous if the invasion of the Lord of the Isles had not been repulsed at [Harlaw] (which see). The vigorous rule of James I. had restored a tranquillity to which his kingdom had long been unaccustomed; but strife and discord were again brought back on his assassination. The reigns of Charles II. and James VII. were more corrupt and oppressive than any which Scotland had experienced since the regencies in the minority of James VI.; the natural result was the revolution, which seated William and Mary on the throne. Under James VI., who succeeded to the throne of England, the kingdoms became united, from which period (1603) the annals of the two kingdoms became almost identical, though they both retained their independence, and continued to be ruled by separate titles till the Act of Union in 1707.