) 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.
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.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
net/2027/uva.
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hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? SEKVIUS.
SE 8
eighty-nine (or ninety-three) centuries, the first class
? lone contained eighty, to which must be added the
eighteen centuries of cguites, and that the last class had
either only one voice or none at all, it is easy to see
that Servius, if in effect he made this arrangement,
substituted an aristocracy of wealth for the former pa-
trician preponderance in the curia. As in these times
the property of land was for the most part in the hands
of the patricians, they of course retained preponder-
ance in the new aristocracy likewise. But this was
re-. dental, and soon ceased to be the case. --The war-
like undertakings of Servius were principally directed
against the Etrurians. He is said to have carried on
war, for twenty years, with the citizens of Veii, Cere,
Tarquinii, and, lastly, with the collective force of the
Etruscans, till all allowed the pre-eminence of Home
and her king. --Servius enlarged the city, so as to
bring within its compass the Viminal and Esquiline
Hills; he finished the work begun by Tarquinius, by
building the walls of the city of hewn stone; and, for
the purpose of consolidating more firmly the union of
the races of which the nation was composed, he erect-
ed the temple of Diana on the Aventine Hill, which was
to be the chief abode of the Latin population recently
brought to Rome. --The horrible tale of the last Tar-
quin's accession to the throne might be regarded as
incredible, were it not that Italian history in the mid-
dle ages affords us many similar examples. The nar-
rative in question is as follows: The two daughters
of Sorvius were married to the two sons of the elder
Taiquin. The one murdered her husband Aruns, and
her sister, with the aid of the other son of Tarquin,
and paved the way to the throne for herself and her
new husband by the murder of her father. --The per-
sonal existence of Servius Tullius is regarded by
many recent writers as involved in considerable doubt.
The constitution of the classes and centuries is as
real as Magna Charta, or the Bill of Rights, in Eng-
jsh hUtorj , yet its pretended author seems scarcely
a more historical personage than King Arthur. We
do not iven know with certainty his name or his race;
atill less can we trust the pretended chronology of the
common story. The last three reigns, according to
Livy, occupied a space of 107 years; yet the king,
who, at the end of this period, is expelled in mature,
nut not in declining age, is the eon of the king who
ascends the throne a grown man, in the vigour of life,
at the beginning of it: Servius marries the daughter
of Tarquinius a short time before he is made king, ;et
immediately after his accession he is the father of two
grown-up daughters, whom he marries to the brothers
of his own wife. The sons of A ncus Marcius wait pa-
tiently cight-and-thirty years, and then murder Tar-
quinius to obtain a throne which they had seen him so
iong quietly occupy. Still, then, we are, in a manner,
upon enchanted ground; the unreal and the real are
strangely mixed up together; but, although some real
elements exist, yet the general picture before us is a
mere fantasy: single trees and buildings may bo cop-
ied from nature, but their grouping is ideal, and they
are placed in the midst of fairy palaces and fairy be-
ings, whose originals this earth never witnessed. (Liv. ,
1, 41, seqq. --Hethcrtngton's History of Rome, p. 23,
seqq. --Arnold's Roman History, vol. 1, p. 48, seqq. )
-- II. Sulpitius Rufus, an eminent Roman jurist and
statesman, descended from an illustrious family. He
was contemporary with Cicero, and probably born about
? ? ? century B. C. He cultivated polite literature from a
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? &KSOSTRIS.
SESOSTRIS.
edifice on the western side of the river, which corre-
sponds with singular, if not perfect, exactness to the
magnificent palace of Osymandyas described by Dio-
Jorus, is so covered with his legends as to bo named
by Chainpollion, without the least hesitation, the
Rhameseion. --The dale of the accession of Sesostris,
as the head of the nineteenth dynasty, is of great im-
portance, but, like all such points, involved in much
difficulty. M. Champollion Figeac, by an ingenious
argumen*. deduced from the celebrated Sothic period
T 1460 years, reckoned according to data furnished
by Censorinus, and a well-known fragment of Theon
of Alexandrea, makes out the date of 1473 B. C. Dr.
Young assumes 1424. Mr. Mure maintains that it
cannot be placed higher than 1410, nor lower than
1400. {Remarks on the Chronology of the Egyptian
Dynasties, Loud. , 1829. ) M. Champollion Figeac's
argument is unsatisfactory, and chiefly from the un-
certainty of fixing the reign of Menophres, which is the
basis of the whole system, and which is altogether a
gratuitous assumption. It appears, however, that the
question may be brought to a short, if not precise, con-
clusion. The first date which approximates to cer-
tainty is the capture of Jerusalem by Scsac or Se-
sonchosis; the first of the twenty-second dynasty, in
tho yr. ar 971, or, at the earliest, 975 B. C. What,
then, was the intervening time between this event and
the accession of the nineteenth dynasty 1 The reigns
of the three series, as given by Mr. Mure from the va-
rious authorities, stand thus: and fust from Euscbius
m the Latin text of Jerome:
Nineteenth Dynasty 1M
Twentieth" 178
Twenty first" IN
SOS
Add date of capture of Jerusalem . . 971
1473
Next from Eusebius, according to the Greek text
(Syncj'. hs--Scaliger):
Nineteenth Dynasty . . . . 209 (194)
Twentieth" 178
Twenty first" ISO
110
Add as Defers . . . 971
1481
Next from Eusebius, according lo the Armenian text:
Nineteenth Dynasty . . . . 194
Twentieth" 178
Twenty-flrst" 130
49ft
4,dd 971
1407
Next from Africanus (Syncellus):
Nineteenth Dynasty SIO (204)
Twentieth" 135
Twenty-first" . . . 130
475
Add . . . . . 971
1444
And, lastly, from the Old Chrc. cle:
Nineteenth Dynasty . . . . 194
Twentieth" <*>s
Twenty-first" m
MS
Wl . . 97|
1. M4
The question resolves itself into the relative degrees of
? ? weight attached to Africanus, Eusebius, or the Old
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? SESOSTRIS.
SESOSTRIS
lf>> the Great, curious vestiges of Egyptian conquest
in the Arabian peninsula have been brought to light,
ami Arabah (the Red Earth) is described as under the
feet of Rameses Meiamoun, in one of those curious
representation* of his conquests said to line th< walls
ti Medinet-Abou. It was on s height overlook/ ig the
narrow strait which divides Africa from Arabia that
Scsostlis, according to Strabo, erected one of his col-
nmni. The wars between the later Abyssinian kings
md the sovereigns of Yemen, in the centuries prece-
ding Mohammed, may illustrate these conquests. The
naUed or terror of the sea attributed 10 the later
Egyptians was either unknown to or disdained, as the
monuments clearly prove, by the great Theban kings;
more than one regular naval engagement, as well as
descents from invading fleets, being represented in
the sculptures. On the Red Sea, Sesostris, according
to history, fitted out a navy of four hundred sail; but
whither did he or his admirals sail! Did they com-
mit themselves to the trade-winds, and boldly stretch
across towards the land of gold and spice 1 Are some
of the hill-forts represented in the sculptures those of
India! Did his triumphant arms pass the Ganges 1
Do the Indian hunches on the cattle, noticed by Mr.
Hamilton, confirm the legend so constantly repeated
of his conquests in that land of ancient fable 1 Or,
according to the modest account of Herodotus, did
they coast cautiously along, and put back when they
encountered some formidable shoals 1 Did they fol-
low the course of the Persian Gulf, assail the rising
monarchies of the Assyrians and Medes, or press on
to that groat kingdom of Bactria, which dimly arises
? mid the gloom of the earliest ages, the native place
ol Zoroaster, rid the cradle of the Magian religion 1
Champollion boldly names Assyrians, Medes, and
Bactrians as exhibited on the monuments; but the
strange and barbarous appellations which he has read,
is fir as we remember, bear no resemblance to those
cf tr. j ci 'he Oriental tribes; earlier travellers, how-
>>ver, have observed that the features, costume, and
trms of the nations with which the Egyptians join
battle are clearly Asiatic; the long, flowing robes, the
line of facs, the beards, the shields, in many respects
ire remarkably similar to those on the Babylonian cyl-
inders and the sculptures of Persepolis. "The do-
minions of Sesostris," our legend proceeds, " spreads
orer Armenia and Asia Minor. His images were stilt
to be seen in the days of Herodotus, one on the road
between Ephesus and Phocsea, and another between
Smyrna and Sardis. They were five palms high,
armed in the Egyptian and Ethiopian manner, and
held a javelin in one hand and a bow in the other;
across the breast ran a line, with an inscription:
'This region I conquered by my strength (lit. my
? boulders). ' They were mistaken for statues of Mem-
non. " This universal conqueror spread his dominion
into Europe; but Thrace was th# limit of his victo-
ries. On the eastern shore of the Euxine he left, ac-
cording to tradition, a part of his army, the ances-
tors of the circumcised people, the Colchians. But
his most formidable enemies were the redoubted
Scythian-i. Pliny and other later writers assert that
he was vanquished by them, and fled. But Egyptian
pride either disguised or had reason to deny the defeat
of her hero. There is a striking story in Herodotus, that
when the victorious Darius commanded that his statue
should take the place of that of Sesostris, the priests
? ? boMly interfered, and asserted the superiority of their
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? SESOSTRIS.
SESOSTR1S.
t
basis ot this calculation. Our authors likewise adopt
M. Champollion Eigeac's date, 1473, for the access-
ion of Sesostris, and the common term of two hun-
dred and fifteen years for the residence of the Israel-
ites in Egyp*. Joseph might thus have been sold under
Mceris; Jacob and his family entered Egypt under his
successor, Miphre-Thoutmosis, and departed in the
third year of Ainenophis Rhamses, father of Sesostris.
Several curious incidental points make in favour of this
system. At a period assigned to the ministry of Jo-
seph, clearly, the native princes were on the throne;
tlie priesthood were in honour and power, particularly
those of Phre. The obelisk raised by Mceris Miphra,
at Heliopolis, will be remembered: his son likewise
bore the title of Miphre. Now Joseph was married to
the daughter of Pet-e-phre, the priest of Phre, at On or
Heliopolis. At this period, too, the shepherds were re-
cently expelled, and, therefore, an " abomination to the
Egyptians," and the land of Goahen was vacant by
their expulsion. Diodorus, it may be observed, gives
seven generations between Mceris and Sesostris, which,
at three for a century, amounts nearly to the date of
the residence of the Israelites in Egypt. Towards
the close of the period the race of Rhamses ascended
the throne; and Raamses is the name of one of the
cities built by the oppressed Israelites. Such are the
curious incidental illustrations of this system, the same,
we may observe, with that of Usher and Bishop Cum-
in-Hand; but we must not dissemble the difficulties.
The Exodus, according to the dates adopted, took
? lace seventeen years before the death of Ainenophis;
le, therefore, could not have been the Pharaoh drowned
in the Red Sea; a difficulty rendered still more start-
ling by the very interesting description of the sepul-
chral cave of thia Amenophis V. by Champollion, and
which seems clearly to intimate that this Pharaoh re-
posed with his ancestors in the splendid excavation
of Biban-el-Malook. Here, however, M. Greppo moves
a previous question. --Have we distinct authority in
tha Hebrew Scriptures for the death of Pharaoh?
In the contemporary descriptions it is the host, the
chariots, the horsemen of Pharaoh which are swal-
lowed up; and there is no expression that intimates,
with any degree of clearness, the death of the mon-
arch; the earliest apparently express authority for
the death of the king is a poetic passage in the one
hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm (v. IS), which is gen-
erally considered to have been written after the cap-
tivity, and even this may, perhaps, bear a different
construction. There is a second difficulty still more
formidable. --The scene of the Mosaic narrative is un-
doubtedly laid in Lower Egypt, and seems to fix the
residence of the kings in some part of the northern re-
gion; but it seems equally clear that Thebes was the
usual dwelling-place of this Ammonian race of sover-
eigns. Tradition agreea with the general impression
of the narrative; it hovers between Tanis and Mem-
phis, with a manifest predilection for the former. The
I'amtic branch of the Nile is said to be that on which
Moses was exposed; and the "wonders in the field
of Zoan" indicate the same scenes on much higher au-
ihority. The LXX. and the Chaldce paraphrast ren-
der Zoan by Tanis. We are aware that Champollion
will not " bear a rival near the throne" of his magnifi-
cent Pharaohs, and other opponents mav object the
"all Egypt" of the Scriptures. As to the latter ob-
? ? iecfioc, i'. may certainly be r^estioncd whether "all
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? Sfc s
egend ol Rhairses the Great. This has been found
at Nahar-clkclb, in Syria, near the ancient Berytus.
In fact, while Phoenicia, already perbips mercantile,
might attract an Egyptian conqueror, Palestine, only
rich in the fruits of the soil, which Egypt produced in
the utmost abundance, was a conquest which might
flatter the pride, but would ofler no advantage to the
sovereign of the Nile. Herodotus, indeed, expressly
asserts, that he bad seen one of his obscene trophies of
victory raised among those nations which submitted
without resistance in Syria Palaastina. I. archer has
already observed on the loose way in which the bound-
aries of Palestine were known by the Greeks, and has
urged the improbability that the magnificent sovereigns
of Judaea, David and Solomon, would suffer such a
monument of national disgrace to stand; he supposes,
therefore, that it might be in the territory of Ascalon.
We are somewhat inclined lo suspect that many of
these pillars might be no more than the symbols of
the worship of Baal-Peor. Was Herodotus likely to
read a hieroglyphic inscription without the assistance
of his friends, the priests of Egypt 1 Be this as it
may, after all, if we can calmly consider the nature of
the Jewish history in the Bible, all difficulty, even if
we suppose the peaceful submission to the great con-
queror, ceases at once. The Book of Judges, in about
fourteen chapters, from the third to the sixteenth, con-
tains the history of between three and four centuries.
Its object appears to be to relate the successive calam-
ities of the nation, and the deliverances wrought "by
men raised by the Lord. " But the rapid march of
Sesostris through the unresisting territory, as it might
exercise no oppression, would demand no deliverance.
More particularly, if it took place during one of the
periods of servitude, when masters and slaves bowed
together beneath the yoke, it would have added no-
thing to the ignominy or burden of slavery. (Quar-
terly Review, vol. 43, p. 141, seqq. )
Skstos, a city of Thrace on tiro shores of the Hel-
lespont, nearly opposite to Abydos, which lay some-
what to the south. From the situation of Sesto<< it
was always regarded as a most important city, as it
commanded in a great measure the narrow channel on
which it stood. (Theopomp. , 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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? SEKVIUS.
SE 8
eighty-nine (or ninety-three) centuries, the first class
? lone contained eighty, to which must be added the
eighteen centuries of cguites, and that the last class had
either only one voice or none at all, it is easy to see
that Servius, if in effect he made this arrangement,
substituted an aristocracy of wealth for the former pa-
trician preponderance in the curia. As in these times
the property of land was for the most part in the hands
of the patricians, they of course retained preponder-
ance in the new aristocracy likewise. But this was
re-. dental, and soon ceased to be the case. --The war-
like undertakings of Servius were principally directed
against the Etrurians. He is said to have carried on
war, for twenty years, with the citizens of Veii, Cere,
Tarquinii, and, lastly, with the collective force of the
Etruscans, till all allowed the pre-eminence of Home
and her king. --Servius enlarged the city, so as to
bring within its compass the Viminal and Esquiline
Hills; he finished the work begun by Tarquinius, by
building the walls of the city of hewn stone; and, for
the purpose of consolidating more firmly the union of
the races of which the nation was composed, he erect-
ed the temple of Diana on the Aventine Hill, which was
to be the chief abode of the Latin population recently
brought to Rome. --The horrible tale of the last Tar-
quin's accession to the throne might be regarded as
incredible, were it not that Italian history in the mid-
dle ages affords us many similar examples. The nar-
rative in question is as follows: The two daughters
of Sorvius were married to the two sons of the elder
Taiquin. The one murdered her husband Aruns, and
her sister, with the aid of the other son of Tarquin,
and paved the way to the throne for herself and her
new husband by the murder of her father. --The per-
sonal existence of Servius Tullius is regarded by
many recent writers as involved in considerable doubt.
The constitution of the classes and centuries is as
real as Magna Charta, or the Bill of Rights, in Eng-
jsh hUtorj , yet its pretended author seems scarcely
a more historical personage than King Arthur. We
do not iven know with certainty his name or his race;
atill less can we trust the pretended chronology of the
common story. The last three reigns, according to
Livy, occupied a space of 107 years; yet the king,
who, at the end of this period, is expelled in mature,
nut not in declining age, is the eon of the king who
ascends the throne a grown man, in the vigour of life,
at the beginning of it: Servius marries the daughter
of Tarquinius a short time before he is made king, ;et
immediately after his accession he is the father of two
grown-up daughters, whom he marries to the brothers
of his own wife. The sons of A ncus Marcius wait pa-
tiently cight-and-thirty years, and then murder Tar-
quinius to obtain a throne which they had seen him so
iong quietly occupy. Still, then, we are, in a manner,
upon enchanted ground; the unreal and the real are
strangely mixed up together; but, although some real
elements exist, yet the general picture before us is a
mere fantasy: single trees and buildings may bo cop-
ied from nature, but their grouping is ideal, and they
are placed in the midst of fairy palaces and fairy be-
ings, whose originals this earth never witnessed. (Liv. ,
1, 41, seqq. --Hethcrtngton's History of Rome, p. 23,
seqq. --Arnold's Roman History, vol. 1, p. 48, seqq. )
-- II. Sulpitius Rufus, an eminent Roman jurist and
statesman, descended from an illustrious family. He
was contemporary with Cicero, and probably born about
? ? ? century B. C. He cultivated polite literature from a
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? &KSOSTRIS.
SESOSTRIS.
edifice on the western side of the river, which corre-
sponds with singular, if not perfect, exactness to the
magnificent palace of Osymandyas described by Dio-
Jorus, is so covered with his legends as to bo named
by Chainpollion, without the least hesitation, the
Rhameseion. --The dale of the accession of Sesostris,
as the head of the nineteenth dynasty, is of great im-
portance, but, like all such points, involved in much
difficulty. M. Champollion Figeac, by an ingenious
argumen*. deduced from the celebrated Sothic period
T 1460 years, reckoned according to data furnished
by Censorinus, and a well-known fragment of Theon
of Alexandrea, makes out the date of 1473 B. C. Dr.
Young assumes 1424. Mr. Mure maintains that it
cannot be placed higher than 1410, nor lower than
1400. {Remarks on the Chronology of the Egyptian
Dynasties, Loud. , 1829. ) M. Champollion Figeac's
argument is unsatisfactory, and chiefly from the un-
certainty of fixing the reign of Menophres, which is the
basis of the whole system, and which is altogether a
gratuitous assumption. It appears, however, that the
question may be brought to a short, if not precise, con-
clusion. The first date which approximates to cer-
tainty is the capture of Jerusalem by Scsac or Se-
sonchosis; the first of the twenty-second dynasty, in
tho yr. ar 971, or, at the earliest, 975 B. C. What,
then, was the intervening time between this event and
the accession of the nineteenth dynasty 1 The reigns
of the three series, as given by Mr. Mure from the va-
rious authorities, stand thus: and fust from Euscbius
m the Latin text of Jerome:
Nineteenth Dynasty 1M
Twentieth" 178
Twenty first" IN
SOS
Add date of capture of Jerusalem . . 971
1473
Next from Eusebius, according to the Greek text
(Syncj'. hs--Scaliger):
Nineteenth Dynasty . . . . 209 (194)
Twentieth" 178
Twenty first" ISO
110
Add as Defers . . . 971
1481
Next from Eusebius, according lo the Armenian text:
Nineteenth Dynasty . . . . 194
Twentieth" 178
Twenty-flrst" 130
49ft
4,dd 971
1407
Next from Africanus (Syncellus):
Nineteenth Dynasty SIO (204)
Twentieth" 135
Twenty-first" . . . 130
475
Add . . . . . 971
1444
And, lastly, from the Old Chrc. cle:
Nineteenth Dynasty . . . . 194
Twentieth" <*>s
Twenty-first" m
MS
Wl . . 97|
1. M4
The question resolves itself into the relative degrees of
? ? weight attached to Africanus, Eusebius, or the Old
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? SESOSTRIS.
SESOSTRIS
lf>> the Great, curious vestiges of Egyptian conquest
in the Arabian peninsula have been brought to light,
ami Arabah (the Red Earth) is described as under the
feet of Rameses Meiamoun, in one of those curious
representation* of his conquests said to line th< walls
ti Medinet-Abou. It was on s height overlook/ ig the
narrow strait which divides Africa from Arabia that
Scsostlis, according to Strabo, erected one of his col-
nmni. The wars between the later Abyssinian kings
md the sovereigns of Yemen, in the centuries prece-
ding Mohammed, may illustrate these conquests. The
naUed or terror of the sea attributed 10 the later
Egyptians was either unknown to or disdained, as the
monuments clearly prove, by the great Theban kings;
more than one regular naval engagement, as well as
descents from invading fleets, being represented in
the sculptures. On the Red Sea, Sesostris, according
to history, fitted out a navy of four hundred sail; but
whither did he or his admirals sail! Did they com-
mit themselves to the trade-winds, and boldly stretch
across towards the land of gold and spice 1 Are some
of the hill-forts represented in the sculptures those of
India! Did his triumphant arms pass the Ganges 1
Do the Indian hunches on the cattle, noticed by Mr.
Hamilton, confirm the legend so constantly repeated
of his conquests in that land of ancient fable 1 Or,
according to the modest account of Herodotus, did
they coast cautiously along, and put back when they
encountered some formidable shoals 1 Did they fol-
low the course of the Persian Gulf, assail the rising
monarchies of the Assyrians and Medes, or press on
to that groat kingdom of Bactria, which dimly arises
? mid the gloom of the earliest ages, the native place
ol Zoroaster, rid the cradle of the Magian religion 1
Champollion boldly names Assyrians, Medes, and
Bactrians as exhibited on the monuments; but the
strange and barbarous appellations which he has read,
is fir as we remember, bear no resemblance to those
cf tr. j ci 'he Oriental tribes; earlier travellers, how-
>>ver, have observed that the features, costume, and
trms of the nations with which the Egyptians join
battle are clearly Asiatic; the long, flowing robes, the
line of facs, the beards, the shields, in many respects
ire remarkably similar to those on the Babylonian cyl-
inders and the sculptures of Persepolis. "The do-
minions of Sesostris," our legend proceeds, " spreads
orer Armenia and Asia Minor. His images were stilt
to be seen in the days of Herodotus, one on the road
between Ephesus and Phocsea, and another between
Smyrna and Sardis. They were five palms high,
armed in the Egyptian and Ethiopian manner, and
held a javelin in one hand and a bow in the other;
across the breast ran a line, with an inscription:
'This region I conquered by my strength (lit. my
? boulders). ' They were mistaken for statues of Mem-
non. " This universal conqueror spread his dominion
into Europe; but Thrace was th# limit of his victo-
ries. On the eastern shore of the Euxine he left, ac-
cording to tradition, a part of his army, the ances-
tors of the circumcised people, the Colchians. But
his most formidable enemies were the redoubted
Scythian-i. Pliny and other later writers assert that
he was vanquished by them, and fled. But Egyptian
pride either disguised or had reason to deny the defeat
of her hero. There is a striking story in Herodotus, that
when the victorious Darius commanded that his statue
should take the place of that of Sesostris, the priests
? ? boMly interfered, and asserted the superiority of their
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? SESOSTRIS.
SESOSTR1S.
t
basis ot this calculation. Our authors likewise adopt
M. Champollion Eigeac's date, 1473, for the access-
ion of Sesostris, and the common term of two hun-
dred and fifteen years for the residence of the Israel-
ites in Egyp*. Joseph might thus have been sold under
Mceris; Jacob and his family entered Egypt under his
successor, Miphre-Thoutmosis, and departed in the
third year of Ainenophis Rhamses, father of Sesostris.
Several curious incidental points make in favour of this
system. At a period assigned to the ministry of Jo-
seph, clearly, the native princes were on the throne;
tlie priesthood were in honour and power, particularly
those of Phre. The obelisk raised by Mceris Miphra,
at Heliopolis, will be remembered: his son likewise
bore the title of Miphre. Now Joseph was married to
the daughter of Pet-e-phre, the priest of Phre, at On or
Heliopolis. At this period, too, the shepherds were re-
cently expelled, and, therefore, an " abomination to the
Egyptians," and the land of Goahen was vacant by
their expulsion. Diodorus, it may be observed, gives
seven generations between Mceris and Sesostris, which,
at three for a century, amounts nearly to the date of
the residence of the Israelites in Egypt. Towards
the close of the period the race of Rhamses ascended
the throne; and Raamses is the name of one of the
cities built by the oppressed Israelites. Such are the
curious incidental illustrations of this system, the same,
we may observe, with that of Usher and Bishop Cum-
in-Hand; but we must not dissemble the difficulties.
The Exodus, according to the dates adopted, took
? lace seventeen years before the death of Ainenophis;
le, therefore, could not have been the Pharaoh drowned
in the Red Sea; a difficulty rendered still more start-
ling by the very interesting description of the sepul-
chral cave of thia Amenophis V. by Champollion, and
which seems clearly to intimate that this Pharaoh re-
posed with his ancestors in the splendid excavation
of Biban-el-Malook. Here, however, M. Greppo moves
a previous question. --Have we distinct authority in
tha Hebrew Scriptures for the death of Pharaoh?
In the contemporary descriptions it is the host, the
chariots, the horsemen of Pharaoh which are swal-
lowed up; and there is no expression that intimates,
with any degree of clearness, the death of the mon-
arch; the earliest apparently express authority for
the death of the king is a poetic passage in the one
hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm (v. IS), which is gen-
erally considered to have been written after the cap-
tivity, and even this may, perhaps, bear a different
construction. There is a second difficulty still more
formidable. --The scene of the Mosaic narrative is un-
doubtedly laid in Lower Egypt, and seems to fix the
residence of the kings in some part of the northern re-
gion; but it seems equally clear that Thebes was the
usual dwelling-place of this Ammonian race of sover-
eigns. Tradition agreea with the general impression
of the narrative; it hovers between Tanis and Mem-
phis, with a manifest predilection for the former. The
I'amtic branch of the Nile is said to be that on which
Moses was exposed; and the "wonders in the field
of Zoan" indicate the same scenes on much higher au-
ihority. The LXX. and the Chaldce paraphrast ren-
der Zoan by Tanis. We are aware that Champollion
will not " bear a rival near the throne" of his magnifi-
cent Pharaohs, and other opponents mav object the
"all Egypt" of the Scriptures. As to the latter ob-
? ? iecfioc, i'. may certainly be r^estioncd whether "all
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? Sfc s
egend ol Rhairses the Great. This has been found
at Nahar-clkclb, in Syria, near the ancient Berytus.
In fact, while Phoenicia, already perbips mercantile,
might attract an Egyptian conqueror, Palestine, only
rich in the fruits of the soil, which Egypt produced in
the utmost abundance, was a conquest which might
flatter the pride, but would ofler no advantage to the
sovereign of the Nile. Herodotus, indeed, expressly
asserts, that he bad seen one of his obscene trophies of
victory raised among those nations which submitted
without resistance in Syria Palaastina. I. archer has
already observed on the loose way in which the bound-
aries of Palestine were known by the Greeks, and has
urged the improbability that the magnificent sovereigns
of Judaea, David and Solomon, would suffer such a
monument of national disgrace to stand; he supposes,
therefore, that it might be in the territory of Ascalon.
We are somewhat inclined lo suspect that many of
these pillars might be no more than the symbols of
the worship of Baal-Peor. Was Herodotus likely to
read a hieroglyphic inscription without the assistance
of his friends, the priests of Egypt 1 Be this as it
may, after all, if we can calmly consider the nature of
the Jewish history in the Bible, all difficulty, even if
we suppose the peaceful submission to the great con-
queror, ceases at once. The Book of Judges, in about
fourteen chapters, from the third to the sixteenth, con-
tains the history of between three and four centuries.
Its object appears to be to relate the successive calam-
ities of the nation, and the deliverances wrought "by
men raised by the Lord. " But the rapid march of
Sesostris through the unresisting territory, as it might
exercise no oppression, would demand no deliverance.
More particularly, if it took place during one of the
periods of servitude, when masters and slaves bowed
together beneath the yoke, it would have added no-
thing to the ignominy or burden of slavery. (Quar-
terly Review, vol. 43, p. 141, seqq. )
Skstos, a city of Thrace on tiro shores of the Hel-
lespont, nearly opposite to Abydos, which lay some-
what to the south. From the situation of Sesto<< it
was always regarded as a most important city, as it
commanded in a great measure the narrow channel on
which it stood. (Theopomp. , 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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