jicans corresponds with the
termination
of the chain
of the Apennines at the promontory of Lcucopetra,
now Capo delV armi, but is many miles to the north.
of the Apennines at the promontory of Lcucopetra,
now Capo delV armi, but is many miles to the north.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
, ap.
Strab.
, 591.
) It
appears to have been founded at an early period by
some jEolians. (Scymnus, ch. 708. ) The story of
Hero and Leander, and still mere the passage of the
vast armament of Xerxes, have rendered Sestos cele-
brated in ancient history. Sestos is said by Herodo-
tus to have been strongly fortified; and, when besieged
by the Greek naval force, after the battle of Mycale,
it made an obstinate defence; the inhabitants beiug
reduced to the necessity of eating the thongs which fast-
ened their beds. The barbarians at length abandoned
the place, which surrendered to the besiegers. (Herod. ,
9,115. --Thucyd. , 1,89. ) The Athenians, when at the
height of their power, justly attached the greatest value
to the possession of Sestos, which enabled them to com-
mand the active trade of the Euxine; hence they were
wont to call it ihe corn-chest of the Piraeus. (Aristot. ,
Rhet. , 3, 10, 7. ) After the battle of ^Egospotamos,
Sestos recovered its independence with the rest of
the Chersonese; but the Athenians, many years after,
having resolved to recover that fertile province, sent
Chares to the Hellespont with a considerable force
to attempt its conquest. The Seetians were sum-
moned to surrender their town, and, on their refusal,
were speedily besieged; after a short resistance the
? ? place was taken by assault, when Chares barbarously
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? SEVERUS
? "rsalorian guards, who had murdered Pertinax and sold
ihe empire to Didius, were disbanded by the new mon-
arch, and a triumphal pageant witnessed the entrance of
ficverus into the Roman capital. Next followed the
overthrows of Niger and Albinus, the two competitors
wilh Severus for the empire (md. Niger and Albinus);
and these events were succeeded by the death of many
uobles of Gaul and Spain, and also of twenty-nine sena-
tors of Rome, who were accused of having been the
abetters of Albinus. Meanwhile the Parthians, under
Vtlogescs, availing themselves of the absence of Seve-
rus, had overrun Mesopotamia, and besieged l^elus, one
of his lieutenants, in Nisibis. The emperor resolved
to march against them, and it was his intention to es-
tablish the power of Rome beyond the Euphrates on
a much firmer foundation than it had enjoyed since the
days of Trajan. The Parthians retired at his approach:
he ascended the Euphrates with his barks, while the
army marched along its banks; and having occupied
Seleucia and Babylon, and sacked Ctesiphon, he car-
ried off 100,000 inhabitants alive, with the women and
treasurca of the court. Leading his army, after this,
against the Atreni, through the desert of Arabia, his
foragers were incessantly cut off by the light cavalry
of the Arabs ; and after lying before Atra twenty days,
and making an ineffectual attempt to storm, he was
compelled to raise the siege and retire into Palestine.
Hence he made the tour through Egypt, visited Mem-
phis, and explored the Nile. His return to Home was
celebrated by a combat of 400 wild beasts in the am-
phitheatre, and by the nuptials of his son Bassianus
Caracalla with the daughter of Plautianus. (Fir/.
Plautianus. ) After a short residence in his capital,
a period marked by increased severity on the part of
the emperor, and a degree of tyianry rendered the
more odious from ita being the result of a naturally
suspicious temper, Severus took refuge from the dis-
sensions between his two sons, Geta and Caracalla,
and from the intrigues of state, in the stirring acenes
of a foreign war. He passed over into Britain, accom-
panied by his sons, wilh the view of securing the north-
ern boundaries of the Roman province against the in-
cursions of the Caledonians, and of the other barba-
-Mis tribes who dwelt between the wastes of Northum-
berland and the Grampian Mountains. Pic had hoped,
also, that the love of military glory might exalt the
ambition of his sons, and chase from their breasts those
malignant paasions, which at once disturbed his do-
nestic repose, and ever and anon threatened to tear
the commonwealth in pieces. His success against the
foreign enemy was much more complete than his
scheme for restoring fraternal concord. The difficul-
ties which he had to overcome, however, were very
great, and must have conquered tho resolution of a
mind less firm than that of Severus. He waa obliged
to cut down forests, level mountains, construct bridges
over rivers, and form roads through fens and marshes.
His triumph, such as it was, was soon disturbed by
the restless spirit of the Caledonians, and by the in-
trigues of his ungrateful son Caracalla. This young
prince, after failing in an attempt to excite the soldiers
to mutiny, is said to have drawn his own sword against
the person of his father. Irritated by such conduct,
on the part of his friends as well as of his enemies,
Soverut allowed himself to fall a prey to the corroding
feelings of anger and disappointment. He invited his
son to complete his act of meditated parricide; while
in respect to the revolted Britons, who had abused his
? ? clemency, he expressed, in the words of Homer {II. ,
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? SEX
s ia
vice of his muthcr Mamtnea, who maintained an inter-
course with some of the most distinguished Chris-
tians, among others, the celebrated Ongen, and who
was, perhaps, herself a convert. But, however de-
sirous of peace, that he might prosecute his schemes
of reform, Alexander was soon called to encounter
the perils and toils of war. A revolution in the East,
which began in the fourth year of his reign, was pro-
ductive of consequences deeply important to all Asia.
Ardeshir Bsbegan, or Artaxerxes, who pretended to be
descended from the imperial race of ancient Persia,
raised a rebellion against the Parthian monarch*, the
Arsacidoe. The Parthian dynasty was overturned,
and the ancient Persian restored; and with its resto-
ration was renewed its claims to the sovereignty of
all Asia, which it had formerly possessed. This claim
gave rise to a war against the Romans, and Alexander
Scverus led his troops into the East, to maintain the
imperial sway over the disputed territories. In the
army he displayed the high qualities of a warrior, and
gained a great victory over the Persians, but was pre-
vented from following up his success in consequence
of a pestilence breaking out among his troops. The
Persians, however, were willing to renounce hostili-
ties for a time, and the emperor returned to Rome in
triumph. Scarcely had Alexander tasted repose from
his Persian war, when he received intelligence that
the Germans had crossed the Rhine and were inva-
ding Gaul. He at once set out to oppose this new
enemy, but he encountered another still more formi-
dable. The armies in Gaul had sunk into a great re-
laxation of the rigid discipline necessary for even their
own preservation. Alexander began to restore the
ancient military regulations, to enforce discipline, and
to reorganize such an army as might be able to keep
the barbarians in check. The demoralized soldiery
could not endure tho change. A conspiracy was
formed against him, and the youthful emperor was
murdered in his tent, . . . his 29th year, after a short
but glorious reign of thi'. teen years. --It cannot be de-
nied, (hat much of what rendered the reign of Alexan-
der Severus truly glorious was owing to the counsels
of his mother Mammaea. Ulpian, too, the friend of
Papinian, the most rigidly upright man of his time, a
man more skilled in jur , -udence than any of his con-
temporaries, was the friend of Alexander, and the only
person with whom he was accustomed to converse in
strict confidence. This alone may be regarded as the
young emperor's highest praise. The character of
Alexander presented so many points worthy of praise,
that the writer of hia life in the Augustan History
exhausts all his powers of description in the attempt
Vo do it justice. (Lamp-', Vit. Alex. Sev. --Dio
Cass. , lib. 80. -- Herodian, a, 3, 7, seqq. )--III. Sul-
pitius, an ecclesiastical historian, who died A. D. 420.
The best of his works is his Wstoria Sacra, from the
creation of the world to the consulship of Stilicho, the
style of which is superior to that of the age in which
be lived. The best edition is in 2 vols. 4to, Patavii,
1741. --IV. A celebrated architect, employed, with
another architect named Celer, in erecting Nero's
"Golden House. " {TaciA, Anna! . , 15, Vl. -- Vid.
Nero. )
Sevo, a ridge of mountains between Norway and
Sweden. It assumes various names in different parts
of its course; as, the Langfield Mountains, the Do-
frafield Mountains, &c. Some suppose the ridge of
? ? Sevo to have been the Rhiphsan Mountains of anti-
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? SIBYM. ^E.
31ft
was burned in the troubles of Sylla, the Sibylline ver-
ses, which were deposited there, perished in the con-
flagration; and, to repair the loss which the republic
seemed to have sustained, commissioners were im-
mediately sent to different parts of Greece to collect
whatever could be found of the inspired writings of the
Sibyls. --Thus far the common account. It is gen-
erally conceded, however, that what the ancients tell
as respecting these prophetesses is all very obscure,
fabulous, and full of contradictions. It appears that
the name Sibylla is properly an appellative term, and
denotes " an inspired person;" and the etymology of
the word is commonly sought in the /Eoiic or Doric
2:oc, for #eoc, "a god," and /? ou? . ! 7, "advice" or
"counsel. "--As regards the final fate of the Sibylline
verses, some uncertainty prevails. It would seem, how-
ever, according to the best authorities, that the Emper-
or Honorius issued an order, A. D. 399, for destroying
them; in pursuance of which, Stilicho bufned all these
prophetic writings, and demolished the temple of Apol-
lo in which they had been deposited. Nevertheless,
there are still preserved, in eight books of Greek verse,
a collection of oracles pretended to be . Sibylline. Dr.
Cave, who is well satisfied that this collection is a for-
gery, supposes that a large part of it was composed in
the time of Hadrian, about A. D. 130; that other parts
were added in the time of the Antonines, and the
whole completed in the reign of Coramodus. Dr. Pri-
deaux says that this collection must have been made
between A. D. 138 and 167. Some of the Christian
fathers, no: regading the imposition, have often cited
the books of the Sibyls in favour of the Christian reli-
gion; and hence Celsus takes occasion to call the
Christians Sibyllists. Dr. Lardner states his convic-
tion that the Sybilline oracles quoted by St. Clement
and others of the Greek fathers are the forgeries of
some Christian. Bishop Horsley has ably supported
the opinion, however, that the Sibylline books con-
tained records of prophecies vouchsafed to nations ex-
traneous to the patriarchal families and the Jewish
commonwealth, before the general defection to idola-
try. Although the books were at last interpolated,
j A, according to the views taken of the subject by the
learned bishop, this was too late to throw discredit on
the confident appeal made to them by Justin. --The
first ancient writer that makes mention of the Sibyl-
line verses appears to have been Heraclitus. (Creu-
zer, ad Cic, N. D. , 2, 3, p. 221. ) The leading pas-
sage, however, in relation to them, is that of Dionysius
of Halicarnassus (4, 62). The most ancient Sibylline
prophecy that has been preserved for us is that men-
tioned by Pausanias (10, 9), and which the Athenians
applied to the battle of . Egospotamos, because it
speaks of a fleet destroyed through the fault of its
commanders. Another Sibylline prediction is found
in Plutarch (Vit. Dcmosth. -- Op. , ed. Retake, vol. 4,
p. 723), and which relates to a bloody battle on the
banks of the Thermodon. The Athenians applied this
oracle to the battle of Chseronea. Plutarch states that
there was no river of this name, in his time, near
Chxronea, and he conjectures that a small brook, fall-
ing into the Cephissus, is here meant, and which his
fellow-townsmen called Al/iuv (Hctmon), or "the
bloody" brook. Pausanias (9, 19) speaks of a small
stream in Bceotia called Thermodon; but he places it
some distance from Chaironea. --The history of Rome
has preserved for us two Sibylline predictions, not, in-
? ? deed, in their literal form, but yet of a very definite
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? SI c
5ICILIX.
Si. 'axia, an ancient name of Sicily. (Kid. Sicilia. )
Sicca Vknekka, a cily of Numidia, on the banks
jf the river Bagradas, and at some distance from the
toast. We are first made acquainted with the exist-
ince of (his place in the history of the Jugurthine
war. (. Sail. , Bell. Jug. , 3, 56. ) Pliny styles it a
colony (5, 3); and, though no other writer gives it this
title, yet, from the way in which it is represented on
the Peutmger table, as well as from Ptolemy's having
selected it for one of his places of astronomical cal-
culation, we see plainly that it must have been an im-
portant city. It received the appellation of Venerea
from a temple of Venus which it contained, and
where, in accordance with a well-known Oriental cus-
tom, the young maidens of the place were accustomed
to prostitute their persons, and thus obtain a dowry for
marriage. (Vol. Max. , 2, 6. ) Bochart and De Bras-
ses derive the name of Sicca from the Punic Succoth
Benolh (" tabernacula puellarum"), and make Benoth
(" puclla") the origin of the name Venus among the
Romans. --Shaw regarded the modern Kaff as near
the site of the ancient city, having found an inscrip-
tion there with the Ordo Siccensium on it. But Man-
Deri thinks the stone was brought to Kaff from some
other quarter, a circumstance by no means uncom-
mon in these parts. (Manntrt, Geogr. , vol. 10, pt. 2,
p. 322, seqq. )
SiatiKus. Vid. Acerbas.
Sicilia, the largest, most fruitful, and populous isl-
and of the Mediterranean, lying to the south of Italy,
from which it is separated by the Fretum Siculum,
the strait or faro of Marina, which, in the narrowest
part, is only two miles wide. Its short distance from
the mainland of Italy gave rise to an hypothesis,
a'l. ong the ancient writers, that it once formed part
of that country, and was separated from it by a pow-
erful flood. (Compare the authorities cited by Clu-
ter, Sicil. , 1, 1. ) This theory, however, is a very
improbable one. the more particularly as the point
where the mountains commence on the island by no
?
jicans corresponds with the termination of the chain
of the Apennines at the promontory of Lcucopetra,
now Capo delV armi, but is many miles to the north.
It u more natural to suppose, therefore, that, in the
first formation of our globe, the waters, finding a hol-
low here, poured themselves into it. --The island is a
three-cornered one, and this shape obtained for it its
earliest name among the Grecian mariners, Tptvaida
(Trinakia, i. e," three-cornered"). This name, and,
consequently, the acquaintance which the Greeks had
with the island, must have been of a very early date,
since Homer was already acquainted with the " island
Tbrinakia" (OptvaKin viiooc--Od. , 12, 135), with the
herds of Helios that pastured upon it, and places in
its vicinity the wonders of Scylla and Charyhdis, to-
ge her with the islands which he terms I'langkla
(TlXaynToi), or " the Wanderers. " The later Greek
writers, and almost all the Latin authors, make a slight
alteration in the name, calling it Trinacria, and Pliny
(3, 8) translates the term in question by Triquelra,
a form which frequently appears in tho poets. The
name Trinacria very probably underwent the change
just alluded to, in order to favour its derivation from
the Greek rpeic (three), and uupa (a promontory), in
allusion to its three promontories; though, in fact,
only one of them, that of Pachynus namely, is de-
serving of the appellation. Homer's name Opivaxia,
? ? on the other hand, or rather that of T/iivanta, is much
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? SI<'iUA. .
SICIL1A.
rouutry, arount the river Sicanus, to vhe island which,
I'oni them, received the name of Sicania. Dut, on a
more intimate acquaintance with Iberia, the Greeks
ound no river there of the name of Sicanus; they
iherefore conceived it to be identical with the Sicoris,
? tributary of the Iberus. No Ligurians, however,
ever settled in Spain, and therefore no Sicani could
ever have been driven by them from that country.
rh( only solution of this difficulty is, that as the Ibe-
lians settled also along the coast of Gaul, the Sicanus
was a river of southern Gaul, which subsequently
changed its name, and could not afterward be identified.
But another difficulty presents itself. In what way
did the Sicani, after being thus expelled, reach the isl-
and of Sicily 1 The nearest and readiest route was
by sea; but where could these rude children of nature
have obtained a fleet 1 Did they proceed by land 1
This path would be, if possible, still more arduous, as
they would have to cut their way through various
branches of their very conquerors, the Ligures, and
then encounter many valiant tribes in central and
southern Italy. Virgil seems to have been startled by
the difficulties of this hypothesis, since he makes the
Sicani inhabitants of Latium, or, rather, with the li-
cense of a poet, confounds them with the Siculi. (. E<<. ,
7, 795 ; 8, 342 ) Other writers, however, whom Di-
odorus Siculus (5, 2) considers most worthy of reli-
ance, declared themselves against this wandering of
the Sicani, and made them an indigenous race in Sici-
ly. The chief argument in favour of this position was
deduced from the traditions of the people themselves,
who laid claim to the title of Autochthones. (Thu-
cyd. , 6, 2. ) This opinion found a warm supporter in
Timseus, as we are informed by Diodorus (5, 6). --To
these primitive inhabitants came the Siculi. These
were an Italian race from Latium (ml. Siculi), and,
previously to their settlement in Sicily, they had es-
tablished themselves, for a time, among the Morgetes,
in what is now called Calabria. On their crossing
over into the island, the Siculi took possession of the
jountry in the vicinity of /Etna. They met with no
opposition at first from the Sicani, for that people had
long before ')een driven away by an eruption from the
mountain, and had fled to the western parts of the isl-
and. (Diod. , 5, G. ) As the Siculi, however, extend-
ed themselves to the west, they could not fail eventu-
ally of coming in contact with the Sicani. Wars en-
sued, u-til they regulated by treaty their respective
limits. (Diod. ,5, 6. ) According to Thucydidcs, how-
ever, the fiiculi defeated in battle the Sicani, and
drove and confined them to the southern and western
parts of the island. --Sicily received accessions also to
the number of its inhabitants from other sources. 1.
The Cretans; these, according to traditions half his-
torical and half mythological, came to this island along
with Minos, when in pursuit of Daedalus. After the
death of their king, they settled in the territories of
Cocalus, a monarch of the Sicani. They subsequent-
ly became blended with the Siculi. 2. The Elymi.
According to Thucydidcs, a number of Trojans es-
caping to Sicily, and settling in the country bordering
on the Sicani, they both together obtained the name of
Elymi. 3. The Phoenicians, too, formed settlements
around the whole of Sicily, taking in the promontories
and little islands adjacent. These settlements were
not, however, meant as colonies, but only commercial
ntattons. After, however, the Greeks had come over
? ? in great numbers, they abandoned tha greater part of
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? S[ c
s . u
Wed. After some successes he was compelled to
? urreiider to the Syracusans, who sent him to Corinth
in exile. Here, however, he soon raised new forces,
returned to Sicily, and, landing on the northern coast,
at a point where the Grecian arms had not reached,
lb jnded there a city called Colacta. Death frustrated
the schemes which he had again formed for the union
of the Siculi, and the latter were reduced once more
beneath the sway of Syracuse: hut they did not long
continue in this state of forced obedience. We find
them appearing as the enemies of the Syracusans at
the time of the Athenian expedition; and also as the
allies of the Carthaginians when the latter had be-
gun to establish themselves in the island. Dionysius,
however, again reduced them; and Timoleon after-
waid restored to them their freedom, and they con-
tinued for some time-subsequently either in the en-
joyment of a brief independence, or subject to that
power which chanced to have the ascendancy in the
island, whether Syracusan or Carthaginian, until the
whole of Sicily fell into the hands of the Romans.
Under this new power, the cities on the coast of the
island were seriously iiijuieu, ootn because the Ro-
man policy was not very favourable to commerce,
and the conquerors were unwilling that the Greek
colonies in Sicily should again become powerful.
With some exceptions, however, the Sicilian cities
were allowed the enjoyment of their civil rights as far
as regarded the form and administration of their gov-
ernments, and hence the mention so often made by
Cicero of a Senatus Popitlusque in many cities of the
island. Hence, too, the power they enjoyed of regu-
lating their own coinage. As, however, collisions
arose between this conceded power and the magis-
trates sent to govern them from Rome, we read of a
commission of ten individuals, at the head of which
was the prajtor Publius Rutitius, by whom a perma-
nent form of government was devised, which the Si-
cilians ever after regarded as their palladium against
the tyranny of Roman magistrates. At a later pe-
riod, Julius Cassar extended to the whole island the
Jus Lulu, and, by the last will of the dictator, as An-
tony pretended, though brought about, in fact, by a
large sum of money paid to the latter, all the inhabi-
tants of Sicily were admitted to the rights of Roman
citizens. (Cie. , Ep. adAlt. , 14,18. ) It would seem,
however, to have been a personal privilege,- and not 10
have extended to their lands, since we find Augustus
establishing in the island the five Roman colonies of
Messana, Tauromenium, Catana, Syracuse, and Ther-
mae. (Ptin. , 1,38. -Dib Cass. , 54, 7. ) Slrabo names
also as a Roman colony the city of Panormus. (Slra-
bo, 272. --Manner! , Geofrr. , vol. 9. pt. 2. p 235, scqq. )
--The Romans remained in possession of Sicily until
Genseric, king of the Vandals, conquered it in the
fifth century of our era. Belisarius, Justinian's gen-
eral, drove out the Vandals, AD. 535, and it remained
in the hands of the Greek emperors nearly three cen-
tories, when it was taken by the Saracens, A. D. 827.
The Normans, who ruled in Naples, conquered Sicily
A. D. 1072, and received it from the pope as a papal
fief. Roger, a powerful Norman prince, took the title
'if King of Sicily in 1102, and united the island with
the kingdom of Naples, under the name of the King-
dom of the two Sicilies.
Sicixfcs. Dkntatits L. , a tribune of Rome, cele-
brated for his valour, and the honours he obtained in
? ? the field of battle during the period of 40 years, in
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? SICYON.
Si V
msiitas, and . Egialus, * classification introduced by the
Dorians, and adopted, as we learn from Herodotus (6,
68), by the Argivea. How long a connexion subsisted
between the two statea we are not informed; but it
appears that when Clisthenes became tyrant of Sicyon,
they were independent of each other, since Herodotus
relates that, while at war with Argos, he changed the
names of the Sicyonian tribes, which were Dorian, that
they might not be the same as those of the adverse
city; and in order to ridicule the Sicyonians, the his-
torian adds that he named them afresh, after such an-
imals as pigs and asses; sixty years after his death
the former appellations were, however, restored. Si-
cyon continued under the dominion of tyrants for the
apace of one hundred years; such being the mildness
of their rule, and their observance of the existing laws,
that the people gladly beheld the crown thus transmit-
ted from one generation to another. (Anslot. , Polit. ,
8, 12. --Slrab. , 382. ) It appears, however, from Thu-
eydides, that, at the time of the Peloponnesisn war, it
had been changed to an aristocracy. In that contest,
the Sicyonians, from their Dorian origin, naturally es-
poused the cause of Sparta, and the maritime situa-
tion of their country not unfrequentlv exposed it to
the ravages of the naval force of Athena. (. \V<<. ,
Hill. Gr. , 4, 4, 7. ) After the battle of I. euctra, we
learn from Xenophon that Sicyon once more became
subject to a despotic government, of which Euphron,
one of its principal citizens, had placed himself at the
head, with the assistance of the Argives and Arcadi-
ans. (Xen , Hist. Gr. , 7, 1, 32 ) His reign, howev-
er, was not of long duration, he being waylaid at
Thehes, whither he went to conciliate the favour of
that power, by a party of Sicyonian exiles, and mur-
iered in the very citadel. {Xen. , Hist. Gr. , 7, 3, 4. )
--On the death of Alexander the Great, Sicyon fell
into the hands of Alexander, son of Polysperchon; but,
an his being assassinated, a tumult ensued, in which
the inhabitants of the city attempted to regain their
liberty. Such, however, was the courage and firmness
displayed by Cratesipolis, his wife, that they were
finally overpowered. Not long after this event, De-
metrius Poliorcctcs made himself master of Sicyon,
and, having persuaded the inhabitants to retire to the
, acropolis, he levelled to the ground all the lower part
of the city which connected the citadel with the port.
A new lower was then built, to which the najne of
Demetrius was given. This, as Strabo reports, was
placed on a fortified hill dedicated to Ceres, and dis-
tant about 12 or 20 stadia from the sea. (Strob. , 382.
--Compare Pausan. , 2, 7. ) The change which was
thus effected in the situation of this city does not ap-
pear to have produced any alteration in the character
and political sentiments of the people. For many
years after they still continued to be governed by a
succession of tyrants, until Aratus united it to the
Achaean league. By the great abilities of this its dis-
tinguished citizen, Sicyon was raised to a high rank
among the other Achaean states, and, being already
celebrated as the first school of painting in Greece,
continued to flourish under his auspices in the cultiva-
tion of all the finest arts; it being suid, as Plutarch
reports, that the beauty of tho ancient style had there
alone been preserved pure and uncorrupted. (Plut. ,
Vit. Aral. --Strabo, 382 -- Plin. , 35, 12. ) Aratus
died at an advanced age, after an active and glorious
life, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by
? ? order of Philip, king of Macedon. He was interred at
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? SI u
SID
'Modern Traveller,' as quoted from Captain Beaufort's
? Jmirable survey, show how essential it is to know
upon what standard a description1 is formed. It would
have piven Captain Beaufort much pleasure to have
gonn inland for a few miles, and to have seen the the-
atres and towns in perfect preservation as compared
with Side, and of so much liner architecture. From
Cm account which ho gives, I was led to expect that
this would form the climax of the many cities of Asia
Miurr, but I found its remains among the least inter-
esting. " (Fellows' Journal of an Excursion in Asia
Minor in 1838, p. 203, seq. y-- In the middle ages the
? it i of this place bore the name of Scandelor or Can-
deloro, but it is now commonly called Esky Adalia.
(Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 2, p. 283. )--II. A town
pf Pontus, to the east of the mouth of the Thermodon,
and giving name*to the adjacent plain (Sidene). The
river Sidm, which flows at the present day in this same
quarter, recalls the ancient name of the town. (Cra-
mer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 271. )
SiDiciNOM, or, more correctly, Tcanutn Sidicinum,
a town of the Stdicini, in Campania. 'Vid. Teanum. )
--The territory of the Sidicini was situate to the east
of that of the Aurunci. They were once apparently
an independent people, but included afterward under
the common name of Campani. This nation was of
Oscan origin, and powerful enough lo contend with
the neighbouring Samnites, and even to afford em-
ployment to a large Roman force. The period of
their reduction by the Romans is not mentioned.
(Cramer's Ancient Italy, vol. 2, p. 193. )
Sidon, in Scripture Tzidon, the oldest and most
"powerful city of Phoenicia, five geographical miles
north of Tyrus, on the seacoast. It is supposed to
k. ivc been founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan,
which will carry up its origin to about 2000 years be-
fore Christ. (Gen. , 10,15--Rosenm. ad Gen. , 1.
appears to have been founded at an early period by
some jEolians. (Scymnus, ch. 708. ) The story of
Hero and Leander, and still mere the passage of the
vast armament of Xerxes, have rendered Sestos cele-
brated in ancient history. Sestos is said by Herodo-
tus to have been strongly fortified; and, when besieged
by the Greek naval force, after the battle of Mycale,
it made an obstinate defence; the inhabitants beiug
reduced to the necessity of eating the thongs which fast-
ened their beds. The barbarians at length abandoned
the place, which surrendered to the besiegers. (Herod. ,
9,115. --Thucyd. , 1,89. ) The Athenians, when at the
height of their power, justly attached the greatest value
to the possession of Sestos, which enabled them to com-
mand the active trade of the Euxine; hence they were
wont to call it ihe corn-chest of the Piraeus. (Aristot. ,
Rhet. , 3, 10, 7. ) After the battle of ^Egospotamos,
Sestos recovered its independence with the rest of
the Chersonese; but the Athenians, many years after,
having resolved to recover that fertile province, sent
Chares to the Hellespont with a considerable force
to attempt its conquest. The Seetians were sum-
moned to surrender their town, and, on their refusal,
were speedily besieged; after a short resistance the
? ? place was taken by assault, when Chares barbarously
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? SEVERUS
? "rsalorian guards, who had murdered Pertinax and sold
ihe empire to Didius, were disbanded by the new mon-
arch, and a triumphal pageant witnessed the entrance of
ficverus into the Roman capital. Next followed the
overthrows of Niger and Albinus, the two competitors
wilh Severus for the empire (md. Niger and Albinus);
and these events were succeeded by the death of many
uobles of Gaul and Spain, and also of twenty-nine sena-
tors of Rome, who were accused of having been the
abetters of Albinus. Meanwhile the Parthians, under
Vtlogescs, availing themselves of the absence of Seve-
rus, had overrun Mesopotamia, and besieged l^elus, one
of his lieutenants, in Nisibis. The emperor resolved
to march against them, and it was his intention to es-
tablish the power of Rome beyond the Euphrates on
a much firmer foundation than it had enjoyed since the
days of Trajan. The Parthians retired at his approach:
he ascended the Euphrates with his barks, while the
army marched along its banks; and having occupied
Seleucia and Babylon, and sacked Ctesiphon, he car-
ried off 100,000 inhabitants alive, with the women and
treasurca of the court. Leading his army, after this,
against the Atreni, through the desert of Arabia, his
foragers were incessantly cut off by the light cavalry
of the Arabs ; and after lying before Atra twenty days,
and making an ineffectual attempt to storm, he was
compelled to raise the siege and retire into Palestine.
Hence he made the tour through Egypt, visited Mem-
phis, and explored the Nile. His return to Home was
celebrated by a combat of 400 wild beasts in the am-
phitheatre, and by the nuptials of his son Bassianus
Caracalla with the daughter of Plautianus. (Fir/.
Plautianus. ) After a short residence in his capital,
a period marked by increased severity on the part of
the emperor, and a degree of tyianry rendered the
more odious from ita being the result of a naturally
suspicious temper, Severus took refuge from the dis-
sensions between his two sons, Geta and Caracalla,
and from the intrigues of state, in the stirring acenes
of a foreign war. He passed over into Britain, accom-
panied by his sons, wilh the view of securing the north-
ern boundaries of the Roman province against the in-
cursions of the Caledonians, and of the other barba-
-Mis tribes who dwelt between the wastes of Northum-
berland and the Grampian Mountains. Pic had hoped,
also, that the love of military glory might exalt the
ambition of his sons, and chase from their breasts those
malignant paasions, which at once disturbed his do-
nestic repose, and ever and anon threatened to tear
the commonwealth in pieces. His success against the
foreign enemy was much more complete than his
scheme for restoring fraternal concord. The difficul-
ties which he had to overcome, however, were very
great, and must have conquered tho resolution of a
mind less firm than that of Severus. He waa obliged
to cut down forests, level mountains, construct bridges
over rivers, and form roads through fens and marshes.
His triumph, such as it was, was soon disturbed by
the restless spirit of the Caledonians, and by the in-
trigues of his ungrateful son Caracalla. This young
prince, after failing in an attempt to excite the soldiers
to mutiny, is said to have drawn his own sword against
the person of his father. Irritated by such conduct,
on the part of his friends as well as of his enemies,
Soverut allowed himself to fall a prey to the corroding
feelings of anger and disappointment. He invited his
son to complete his act of meditated parricide; while
in respect to the revolted Britons, who had abused his
? ? clemency, he expressed, in the words of Homer {II. ,
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? SEX
s ia
vice of his muthcr Mamtnea, who maintained an inter-
course with some of the most distinguished Chris-
tians, among others, the celebrated Ongen, and who
was, perhaps, herself a convert. But, however de-
sirous of peace, that he might prosecute his schemes
of reform, Alexander was soon called to encounter
the perils and toils of war. A revolution in the East,
which began in the fourth year of his reign, was pro-
ductive of consequences deeply important to all Asia.
Ardeshir Bsbegan, or Artaxerxes, who pretended to be
descended from the imperial race of ancient Persia,
raised a rebellion against the Parthian monarch*, the
Arsacidoe. The Parthian dynasty was overturned,
and the ancient Persian restored; and with its resto-
ration was renewed its claims to the sovereignty of
all Asia, which it had formerly possessed. This claim
gave rise to a war against the Romans, and Alexander
Scverus led his troops into the East, to maintain the
imperial sway over the disputed territories. In the
army he displayed the high qualities of a warrior, and
gained a great victory over the Persians, but was pre-
vented from following up his success in consequence
of a pestilence breaking out among his troops. The
Persians, however, were willing to renounce hostili-
ties for a time, and the emperor returned to Rome in
triumph. Scarcely had Alexander tasted repose from
his Persian war, when he received intelligence that
the Germans had crossed the Rhine and were inva-
ding Gaul. He at once set out to oppose this new
enemy, but he encountered another still more formi-
dable. The armies in Gaul had sunk into a great re-
laxation of the rigid discipline necessary for even their
own preservation. Alexander began to restore the
ancient military regulations, to enforce discipline, and
to reorganize such an army as might be able to keep
the barbarians in check. The demoralized soldiery
could not endure tho change. A conspiracy was
formed against him, and the youthful emperor was
murdered in his tent, . . . his 29th year, after a short
but glorious reign of thi'. teen years. --It cannot be de-
nied, (hat much of what rendered the reign of Alexan-
der Severus truly glorious was owing to the counsels
of his mother Mammaea. Ulpian, too, the friend of
Papinian, the most rigidly upright man of his time, a
man more skilled in jur , -udence than any of his con-
temporaries, was the friend of Alexander, and the only
person with whom he was accustomed to converse in
strict confidence. This alone may be regarded as the
young emperor's highest praise. The character of
Alexander presented so many points worthy of praise,
that the writer of hia life in the Augustan History
exhausts all his powers of description in the attempt
Vo do it justice. (Lamp-', Vit. Alex. Sev. --Dio
Cass. , lib. 80. -- Herodian, a, 3, 7, seqq. )--III. Sul-
pitius, an ecclesiastical historian, who died A. D. 420.
The best of his works is his Wstoria Sacra, from the
creation of the world to the consulship of Stilicho, the
style of which is superior to that of the age in which
be lived. The best edition is in 2 vols. 4to, Patavii,
1741. --IV. A celebrated architect, employed, with
another architect named Celer, in erecting Nero's
"Golden House. " {TaciA, Anna! . , 15, Vl. -- Vid.
Nero. )
Sevo, a ridge of mountains between Norway and
Sweden. It assumes various names in different parts
of its course; as, the Langfield Mountains, the Do-
frafield Mountains, &c. Some suppose the ridge of
? ? Sevo to have been the Rhiphsan Mountains of anti-
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? SIBYM. ^E.
31ft
was burned in the troubles of Sylla, the Sibylline ver-
ses, which were deposited there, perished in the con-
flagration; and, to repair the loss which the republic
seemed to have sustained, commissioners were im-
mediately sent to different parts of Greece to collect
whatever could be found of the inspired writings of the
Sibyls. --Thus far the common account. It is gen-
erally conceded, however, that what the ancients tell
as respecting these prophetesses is all very obscure,
fabulous, and full of contradictions. It appears that
the name Sibylla is properly an appellative term, and
denotes " an inspired person;" and the etymology of
the word is commonly sought in the /Eoiic or Doric
2:oc, for #eoc, "a god," and /? ou? . ! 7, "advice" or
"counsel. "--As regards the final fate of the Sibylline
verses, some uncertainty prevails. It would seem, how-
ever, according to the best authorities, that the Emper-
or Honorius issued an order, A. D. 399, for destroying
them; in pursuance of which, Stilicho bufned all these
prophetic writings, and demolished the temple of Apol-
lo in which they had been deposited. Nevertheless,
there are still preserved, in eight books of Greek verse,
a collection of oracles pretended to be . Sibylline. Dr.
Cave, who is well satisfied that this collection is a for-
gery, supposes that a large part of it was composed in
the time of Hadrian, about A. D. 130; that other parts
were added in the time of the Antonines, and the
whole completed in the reign of Coramodus. Dr. Pri-
deaux says that this collection must have been made
between A. D. 138 and 167. Some of the Christian
fathers, no: regading the imposition, have often cited
the books of the Sibyls in favour of the Christian reli-
gion; and hence Celsus takes occasion to call the
Christians Sibyllists. Dr. Lardner states his convic-
tion that the Sybilline oracles quoted by St. Clement
and others of the Greek fathers are the forgeries of
some Christian. Bishop Horsley has ably supported
the opinion, however, that the Sibylline books con-
tained records of prophecies vouchsafed to nations ex-
traneous to the patriarchal families and the Jewish
commonwealth, before the general defection to idola-
try. Although the books were at last interpolated,
j A, according to the views taken of the subject by the
learned bishop, this was too late to throw discredit on
the confident appeal made to them by Justin. --The
first ancient writer that makes mention of the Sibyl-
line verses appears to have been Heraclitus. (Creu-
zer, ad Cic, N. D. , 2, 3, p. 221. ) The leading pas-
sage, however, in relation to them, is that of Dionysius
of Halicarnassus (4, 62). The most ancient Sibylline
prophecy that has been preserved for us is that men-
tioned by Pausanias (10, 9), and which the Athenians
applied to the battle of . Egospotamos, because it
speaks of a fleet destroyed through the fault of its
commanders. Another Sibylline prediction is found
in Plutarch (Vit. Dcmosth. -- Op. , ed. Retake, vol. 4,
p. 723), and which relates to a bloody battle on the
banks of the Thermodon. The Athenians applied this
oracle to the battle of Chseronea. Plutarch states that
there was no river of this name, in his time, near
Chxronea, and he conjectures that a small brook, fall-
ing into the Cephissus, is here meant, and which his
fellow-townsmen called Al/iuv (Hctmon), or "the
bloody" brook. Pausanias (9, 19) speaks of a small
stream in Bceotia called Thermodon; but he places it
some distance from Chaironea. --The history of Rome
has preserved for us two Sibylline predictions, not, in-
? ? deed, in their literal form, but yet of a very definite
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? SI c
5ICILIX.
Si. 'axia, an ancient name of Sicily. (Kid. Sicilia. )
Sicca Vknekka, a cily of Numidia, on the banks
jf the river Bagradas, and at some distance from the
toast. We are first made acquainted with the exist-
ince of (his place in the history of the Jugurthine
war. (. Sail. , Bell. Jug. , 3, 56. ) Pliny styles it a
colony (5, 3); and, though no other writer gives it this
title, yet, from the way in which it is represented on
the Peutmger table, as well as from Ptolemy's having
selected it for one of his places of astronomical cal-
culation, we see plainly that it must have been an im-
portant city. It received the appellation of Venerea
from a temple of Venus which it contained, and
where, in accordance with a well-known Oriental cus-
tom, the young maidens of the place were accustomed
to prostitute their persons, and thus obtain a dowry for
marriage. (Vol. Max. , 2, 6. ) Bochart and De Bras-
ses derive the name of Sicca from the Punic Succoth
Benolh (" tabernacula puellarum"), and make Benoth
(" puclla") the origin of the name Venus among the
Romans. --Shaw regarded the modern Kaff as near
the site of the ancient city, having found an inscrip-
tion there with the Ordo Siccensium on it. But Man-
Deri thinks the stone was brought to Kaff from some
other quarter, a circumstance by no means uncom-
mon in these parts. (Manntrt, Geogr. , vol. 10, pt. 2,
p. 322, seqq. )
SiatiKus. Vid. Acerbas.
Sicilia, the largest, most fruitful, and populous isl-
and of the Mediterranean, lying to the south of Italy,
from which it is separated by the Fretum Siculum,
the strait or faro of Marina, which, in the narrowest
part, is only two miles wide. Its short distance from
the mainland of Italy gave rise to an hypothesis,
a'l. ong the ancient writers, that it once formed part
of that country, and was separated from it by a pow-
erful flood. (Compare the authorities cited by Clu-
ter, Sicil. , 1, 1. ) This theory, however, is a very
improbable one. the more particularly as the point
where the mountains commence on the island by no
?
jicans corresponds with the termination of the chain
of the Apennines at the promontory of Lcucopetra,
now Capo delV armi, but is many miles to the north.
It u more natural to suppose, therefore, that, in the
first formation of our globe, the waters, finding a hol-
low here, poured themselves into it. --The island is a
three-cornered one, and this shape obtained for it its
earliest name among the Grecian mariners, Tptvaida
(Trinakia, i. e," three-cornered"). This name, and,
consequently, the acquaintance which the Greeks had
with the island, must have been of a very early date,
since Homer was already acquainted with the " island
Tbrinakia" (OptvaKin viiooc--Od. , 12, 135), with the
herds of Helios that pastured upon it, and places in
its vicinity the wonders of Scylla and Charyhdis, to-
ge her with the islands which he terms I'langkla
(TlXaynToi), or " the Wanderers. " The later Greek
writers, and almost all the Latin authors, make a slight
alteration in the name, calling it Trinacria, and Pliny
(3, 8) translates the term in question by Triquelra,
a form which frequently appears in tho poets. The
name Trinacria very probably underwent the change
just alluded to, in order to favour its derivation from
the Greek rpeic (three), and uupa (a promontory), in
allusion to its three promontories; though, in fact,
only one of them, that of Pachynus namely, is de-
serving of the appellation. Homer's name Opivaxia,
? ? on the other hand, or rather that of T/iivanta, is much
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? SI<'iUA. .
SICIL1A.
rouutry, arount the river Sicanus, to vhe island which,
I'oni them, received the name of Sicania. Dut, on a
more intimate acquaintance with Iberia, the Greeks
ound no river there of the name of Sicanus; they
iherefore conceived it to be identical with the Sicoris,
? tributary of the Iberus. No Ligurians, however,
ever settled in Spain, and therefore no Sicani could
ever have been driven by them from that country.
rh( only solution of this difficulty is, that as the Ibe-
lians settled also along the coast of Gaul, the Sicanus
was a river of southern Gaul, which subsequently
changed its name, and could not afterward be identified.
But another difficulty presents itself. In what way
did the Sicani, after being thus expelled, reach the isl-
and of Sicily 1 The nearest and readiest route was
by sea; but where could these rude children of nature
have obtained a fleet 1 Did they proceed by land 1
This path would be, if possible, still more arduous, as
they would have to cut their way through various
branches of their very conquerors, the Ligures, and
then encounter many valiant tribes in central and
southern Italy. Virgil seems to have been startled by
the difficulties of this hypothesis, since he makes the
Sicani inhabitants of Latium, or, rather, with the li-
cense of a poet, confounds them with the Siculi. (. E<<. ,
7, 795 ; 8, 342 ) Other writers, however, whom Di-
odorus Siculus (5, 2) considers most worthy of reli-
ance, declared themselves against this wandering of
the Sicani, and made them an indigenous race in Sici-
ly. The chief argument in favour of this position was
deduced from the traditions of the people themselves,
who laid claim to the title of Autochthones. (Thu-
cyd. , 6, 2. ) This opinion found a warm supporter in
Timseus, as we are informed by Diodorus (5, 6). --To
these primitive inhabitants came the Siculi. These
were an Italian race from Latium (ml. Siculi), and,
previously to their settlement in Sicily, they had es-
tablished themselves, for a time, among the Morgetes,
in what is now called Calabria. On their crossing
over into the island, the Siculi took possession of the
jountry in the vicinity of /Etna. They met with no
opposition at first from the Sicani, for that people had
long before ')een driven away by an eruption from the
mountain, and had fled to the western parts of the isl-
and. (Diod. , 5, G. ) As the Siculi, however, extend-
ed themselves to the west, they could not fail eventu-
ally of coming in contact with the Sicani. Wars en-
sued, u-til they regulated by treaty their respective
limits. (Diod. ,5, 6. ) According to Thucydidcs, how-
ever, the fiiculi defeated in battle the Sicani, and
drove and confined them to the southern and western
parts of the island. --Sicily received accessions also to
the number of its inhabitants from other sources. 1.
The Cretans; these, according to traditions half his-
torical and half mythological, came to this island along
with Minos, when in pursuit of Daedalus. After the
death of their king, they settled in the territories of
Cocalus, a monarch of the Sicani. They subsequent-
ly became blended with the Siculi. 2. The Elymi.
According to Thucydidcs, a number of Trojans es-
caping to Sicily, and settling in the country bordering
on the Sicani, they both together obtained the name of
Elymi. 3. The Phoenicians, too, formed settlements
around the whole of Sicily, taking in the promontories
and little islands adjacent. These settlements were
not, however, meant as colonies, but only commercial
ntattons. After, however, the Greeks had come over
? ? in great numbers, they abandoned tha greater part of
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? S[ c
s . u
Wed. After some successes he was compelled to
? urreiider to the Syracusans, who sent him to Corinth
in exile. Here, however, he soon raised new forces,
returned to Sicily, and, landing on the northern coast,
at a point where the Grecian arms had not reached,
lb jnded there a city called Colacta. Death frustrated
the schemes which he had again formed for the union
of the Siculi, and the latter were reduced once more
beneath the sway of Syracuse: hut they did not long
continue in this state of forced obedience. We find
them appearing as the enemies of the Syracusans at
the time of the Athenian expedition; and also as the
allies of the Carthaginians when the latter had be-
gun to establish themselves in the island. Dionysius,
however, again reduced them; and Timoleon after-
waid restored to them their freedom, and they con-
tinued for some time-subsequently either in the en-
joyment of a brief independence, or subject to that
power which chanced to have the ascendancy in the
island, whether Syracusan or Carthaginian, until the
whole of Sicily fell into the hands of the Romans.
Under this new power, the cities on the coast of the
island were seriously iiijuieu, ootn because the Ro-
man policy was not very favourable to commerce,
and the conquerors were unwilling that the Greek
colonies in Sicily should again become powerful.
With some exceptions, however, the Sicilian cities
were allowed the enjoyment of their civil rights as far
as regarded the form and administration of their gov-
ernments, and hence the mention so often made by
Cicero of a Senatus Popitlusque in many cities of the
island. Hence, too, the power they enjoyed of regu-
lating their own coinage. As, however, collisions
arose between this conceded power and the magis-
trates sent to govern them from Rome, we read of a
commission of ten individuals, at the head of which
was the prajtor Publius Rutitius, by whom a perma-
nent form of government was devised, which the Si-
cilians ever after regarded as their palladium against
the tyranny of Roman magistrates. At a later pe-
riod, Julius Cassar extended to the whole island the
Jus Lulu, and, by the last will of the dictator, as An-
tony pretended, though brought about, in fact, by a
large sum of money paid to the latter, all the inhabi-
tants of Sicily were admitted to the rights of Roman
citizens. (Cie. , Ep. adAlt. , 14,18. ) It would seem,
however, to have been a personal privilege,- and not 10
have extended to their lands, since we find Augustus
establishing in the island the five Roman colonies of
Messana, Tauromenium, Catana, Syracuse, and Ther-
mae. (Ptin. , 1,38. -Dib Cass. , 54, 7. ) Slrabo names
also as a Roman colony the city of Panormus. (Slra-
bo, 272. --Manner! , Geofrr. , vol. 9. pt. 2. p 235, scqq. )
--The Romans remained in possession of Sicily until
Genseric, king of the Vandals, conquered it in the
fifth century of our era. Belisarius, Justinian's gen-
eral, drove out the Vandals, AD. 535, and it remained
in the hands of the Greek emperors nearly three cen-
tories, when it was taken by the Saracens, A. D. 827.
The Normans, who ruled in Naples, conquered Sicily
A. D. 1072, and received it from the pope as a papal
fief. Roger, a powerful Norman prince, took the title
'if King of Sicily in 1102, and united the island with
the kingdom of Naples, under the name of the King-
dom of the two Sicilies.
Sicixfcs. Dkntatits L. , a tribune of Rome, cele-
brated for his valour, and the honours he obtained in
? ? the field of battle during the period of 40 years, in
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? SICYON.
Si V
msiitas, and . Egialus, * classification introduced by the
Dorians, and adopted, as we learn from Herodotus (6,
68), by the Argivea. How long a connexion subsisted
between the two statea we are not informed; but it
appears that when Clisthenes became tyrant of Sicyon,
they were independent of each other, since Herodotus
relates that, while at war with Argos, he changed the
names of the Sicyonian tribes, which were Dorian, that
they might not be the same as those of the adverse
city; and in order to ridicule the Sicyonians, the his-
torian adds that he named them afresh, after such an-
imals as pigs and asses; sixty years after his death
the former appellations were, however, restored. Si-
cyon continued under the dominion of tyrants for the
apace of one hundred years; such being the mildness
of their rule, and their observance of the existing laws,
that the people gladly beheld the crown thus transmit-
ted from one generation to another. (Anslot. , Polit. ,
8, 12. --Slrab. , 382. ) It appears, however, from Thu-
eydides, that, at the time of the Peloponnesisn war, it
had been changed to an aristocracy. In that contest,
the Sicyonians, from their Dorian origin, naturally es-
poused the cause of Sparta, and the maritime situa-
tion of their country not unfrequentlv exposed it to
the ravages of the naval force of Athena. (. \V<<. ,
Hill. Gr. , 4, 4, 7. ) After the battle of I. euctra, we
learn from Xenophon that Sicyon once more became
subject to a despotic government, of which Euphron,
one of its principal citizens, had placed himself at the
head, with the assistance of the Argives and Arcadi-
ans. (Xen , Hist. Gr. , 7, 1, 32 ) His reign, howev-
er, was not of long duration, he being waylaid at
Thehes, whither he went to conciliate the favour of
that power, by a party of Sicyonian exiles, and mur-
iered in the very citadel. {Xen. , Hist. Gr. , 7, 3, 4. )
--On the death of Alexander the Great, Sicyon fell
into the hands of Alexander, son of Polysperchon; but,
an his being assassinated, a tumult ensued, in which
the inhabitants of the city attempted to regain their
liberty. Such, however, was the courage and firmness
displayed by Cratesipolis, his wife, that they were
finally overpowered. Not long after this event, De-
metrius Poliorcctcs made himself master of Sicyon,
and, having persuaded the inhabitants to retire to the
, acropolis, he levelled to the ground all the lower part
of the city which connected the citadel with the port.
A new lower was then built, to which the najne of
Demetrius was given. This, as Strabo reports, was
placed on a fortified hill dedicated to Ceres, and dis-
tant about 12 or 20 stadia from the sea. (Strob. , 382.
--Compare Pausan. , 2, 7. ) The change which was
thus effected in the situation of this city does not ap-
pear to have produced any alteration in the character
and political sentiments of the people. For many
years after they still continued to be governed by a
succession of tyrants, until Aratus united it to the
Achaean league. By the great abilities of this its dis-
tinguished citizen, Sicyon was raised to a high rank
among the other Achaean states, and, being already
celebrated as the first school of painting in Greece,
continued to flourish under his auspices in the cultiva-
tion of all the finest arts; it being suid, as Plutarch
reports, that the beauty of tho ancient style had there
alone been preserved pure and uncorrupted. (Plut. ,
Vit. Aral. --Strabo, 382 -- Plin. , 35, 12. ) Aratus
died at an advanced age, after an active and glorious
life, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by
? ? order of Philip, king of Macedon. He was interred at
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? SI u
SID
'Modern Traveller,' as quoted from Captain Beaufort's
? Jmirable survey, show how essential it is to know
upon what standard a description1 is formed. It would
have piven Captain Beaufort much pleasure to have
gonn inland for a few miles, and to have seen the the-
atres and towns in perfect preservation as compared
with Side, and of so much liner architecture. From
Cm account which ho gives, I was led to expect that
this would form the climax of the many cities of Asia
Miurr, but I found its remains among the least inter-
esting. " (Fellows' Journal of an Excursion in Asia
Minor in 1838, p. 203, seq. y-- In the middle ages the
? it i of this place bore the name of Scandelor or Can-
deloro, but it is now commonly called Esky Adalia.
(Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 2, p. 283. )--II. A town
pf Pontus, to the east of the mouth of the Thermodon,
and giving name*to the adjacent plain (Sidene). The
river Sidm, which flows at the present day in this same
quarter, recalls the ancient name of the town. (Cra-
mer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 271. )
SiDiciNOM, or, more correctly, Tcanutn Sidicinum,
a town of the Stdicini, in Campania. 'Vid. Teanum. )
--The territory of the Sidicini was situate to the east
of that of the Aurunci. They were once apparently
an independent people, but included afterward under
the common name of Campani. This nation was of
Oscan origin, and powerful enough lo contend with
the neighbouring Samnites, and even to afford em-
ployment to a large Roman force. The period of
their reduction by the Romans is not mentioned.
(Cramer's Ancient Italy, vol. 2, p. 193. )
Sidon, in Scripture Tzidon, the oldest and most
"powerful city of Phoenicia, five geographical miles
north of Tyrus, on the seacoast. It is supposed to
k. ivc been founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan,
which will carry up its origin to about 2000 years be-
fore Christ. (Gen. , 10,15--Rosenm. ad Gen. , 1.
