inhabitants of the place divine honours. In the mythology of the Greeks he became one of the companions of Jason. Various accounts, too, are given of the origin of the city's name, one of which traces it to Sinope, daughter of the Asopus. (Compare Apoll. Rhod., 2, 946.-Schol., ad loc.-Plut., Vit. Lucull.Val. Flacc., 5, 108)-The situation of Sinope was extremely well chosen. It was built on the neck of a peninsula; and, as this peninsula was secured from any hostile landing along its outer shores by high cliffs, the city only needed defending on the narrow isthmus connecting it with the mainland, while at the same time it had two convenient harbours, one on either side. The outer part of the peninsula afforded room for spacious suburbs, for gardens and fields, on which the city could easily rely for support in case of any scarcity produced by a siege. (Polyb., 4, 56.-Strabo, 545.) Sinope soon increased in wealth and power, and became possessed of a dependant territory which reached as far as the Halys, and which was inhabited by the Leucosyrii; it became also the parent city of many colonies along the coast. So flourishing a place could not but excite the envy of the people in the interior; and accordingly we find, from scattered hints, that it was occasionally besieged by the neighbouring satraps of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia; and yet at other times, we are informed by Xenophon (Anab., lib. 5 et 6), it stood on a very friendly footing with them. It encountered more danger from the monarchs that arose subsequently to the time of Alexander. Against open attacks from these, however, it was able to make a successful stand (Polyb., 4, 56); but it could not defend itself against a surprise on the part of Pharnaces. (Strabo, l. c.) It lost its freedom, but not its commerce and prosperity, and from this time forward became the residence of the monarchs of Pontus, until Lucullus took it from the last Mithradates. It suffered severely on this occasion, and the Roman commander stripped it of many fine statues and valuable works of art. Among the articles carried off on this occasion Strabo makes mention of the sphere of Billarus. From this period Sinope remained subject to the Roman power, and received, according to Strabo and Pliny (Plin., 6, 2), a Roman colony. This colony was settled there in the year of Julius Cæsar's assassination. Strabo found the city in his time well fortified, and adorned with many handsome edifices both public and private. The commerce of the place, indeed, had somewhat declined, having been drawn off partly to Byzantium, and in part to the cities of the Tauric Chersonese. Still the thunny-fisheries in its immediate vicinity continued to afford a very lucrative branch of trade to Sinope. The city, however, had begun to decline in political importance, and we find, not it, but the city of Amasea the capital of the later province of Hellenopontus. In the middle ages Sinope made part of the petty Greek kingdom of Trapezus; and after this it had independent Christian monarchs of its own, who became conspicuous for their naval power and their piracies. (Abulfeda, p. 318.) The last of this dynasty surrendered his city and power to Mohammed II. in 1461. The modern Sinub is still one of the most important Turkish cities along this coast.-Sinope was the birthplace of the Cynic Diogenes. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 3, p. 11, segg.) -III. An ancient Greek city of Campania. (Vid. Sinuessa.) SINTI, a Thracian community, who appear to have occupied a district on the banks of the Strymon north of the Siropæones. (Thucyd., 2, 98.) Strabo affirms that they once occupied the island of Lemnos, thus identifying them with the Sinties of Homer. (I., 1, 593. Od., 8, 294.-Strab., 231. — Id., 457.—Id., 549. Schol. ad Thucyd., 2, 98. Gatterer, Comment. Soc., Gött., a., 1784, vol. 6, p. 53.) Livy informs us that, on the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans, the Sinti, who then formed part of that em pire, were included in the first region, together with the Bisaltæ; and he expressly states that this part of the region was situated west of the Strymon, that is, on the right bank of that river (45, 29). Ptolemy gives the name of Sintice to the district in question (p. 83.-Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 1, p. 304). — Etymologists derive the name of the Sinties from the Greek verb oivo, "to hurt" (σívrns, “an injurer;" giv TIC, a pirate"), either because they were reputed to have been the inventors of weapons, or from their having been notorious for piracy. Ritter, however, seeks to connect their name, and, consequently, their origin, with that of India. (Vorhalle, p. 162.) SINUESSA, a city of Campania, subsequently of New Latium, on the seacoast, southeast of Minturnæ and the mouth of the Liris. It was said to have been founded on the ruins of Sinope, an ancient Greek city. (Livy, 10, 21. — Pliny, 3, 5. — Mela, 2, 4.) Strabo tells us that Sinuessa stood on the shore of the Sinus Setinus, and derived its name from that circumstance, or, in other words, from the sinuosity of the coast (oivos yàp ỏ KóλпOÇ. —Strab., 234). The same writer, as well as the Itineraries, informs us that it was traversed by the Appian Way. Horace also confirms this. (Sat., 1, 5, 39, seqq.) Sinuessa was colonized together with Minturnæ, A.U.C. 456 (Liv., 10, 21), and ranked also among the maritime cities of Italy. (Id., 27, 38.-Polyb., 3, 91.) Its territory suffered considerable devastation from Hannibal's troops when opposed to Fabius. Cæsar, in his pursuit of Pompey, halted for a few days at Sinuessa, and wrote from that place a very conciliatory letter to Cicero, which is to be found in the correspondence with Atticus (9, 16).-The epithet of tepens, which Silius Italicus applies to this city (8, 529), has reference to some warm sources in its neighbourhood, now called Bagni, while Sinuessa itself answers to the rock of Monte Dragone. The Aqua Sinuessanæ are noticed by Livy (22, 14), Tacitus (Hist., 1, 77.—Ann., 12, 66), Plutarch (Vit. Oth.), Pliny (31, 2), Martial (6, 42), and others. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 133.) SION, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built. (Vid. Hierosolyma.) SIPHNOS, an island in the Ægean Sea, one of the Cyclades, southeast of Seriphus, and northeast of Melos. Herodotus reports that it was colonized by the Ionians (8, 48), and elsewhere speaks of the Siphnians as deriving considerable wealth from their gold and silver mines. In the age of Polycrates their revenue surpassed that of all the other islands, and enabled them to erect a treasury at Delphi equal to those of the most opulent cities; and their own principal buildings were sumptuously decorated with Parian marble. Herodotus states, however, that they afterward sustained a heavy loss from a descent of the Samians, who levied upon the island a contribution of 100 talents (3, 57, seqq.). In Strabo's time it was so poor and insignificant as to give rise to the proverbs Σίφνιον ἀστράγαλον, and Σίφνιος ἀῤῥαβών. (Strab., 44.-Eustath., ad Dion. Perieg., 525.) Pliny makes it twenty-eight miles in circuit (4, 12). Siphnos was famed for its excellent fruit, and its pure and whole some air. The modern name is Siphanto. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 405.-Bondelmonti, Ins. Archipel., p. 82.) SIPONTUM, or, as the Greeks write it, Etrous (gen. -ouvros), a city of Apulia, in the district of Daunia, and to the southwest of the promontory of Garganum. It lay on the Sinus Urias. Sipontum was a place of great antiquity, and unquestionably of Greek origin, even though the tradition which ascribes its foundation to Diomede should be regarded as fabulous. Strabo, who mentions this story, states that the name of this city was derived from the circumstance of great quantities of cuttle-fish (in Greek onía) being thrown up by the sea on its shore. (Strab., 284.) Little is known of the history of Sipontum before its name appears in the annals of Rome. We are told by Livy that it was occupied by Alexander, king of Epirus, when he was invited into Italy to aid the Tarentines against the Bruttii and Lucani (8, 24). Several years after, that is, A.U.C. 558, the same histo-him the more closely; and thus he listened to the acrian informs us that a colony was sent to Sipontum ; but it does not appear to have prospered; for, after the lapse of a few years, it was reported to the senate that the town had fallen into a state of complete desolation, upon which a fresh supply of colonists was sent there (34, 45; 39, 22). Sipontum is said to have been once dependant upon the city of Arpi. In Strabo's time its harbour could still boast of some trade, particularly in corn, which was conveyed from the interior by means of a considerable stream, which formed a lake near its mouth. (Strab., 284.) This river, which Strabo does not name, is probably the Cerbalus of Pliny (3, 11), now Cervaro. The ruins of Sipontum are said to exist about two miles to the west of Manfredonia, the foundation of which led to the final desertion of Sipontum by its inhabitants, as they were transferred by King Manfred to this modern town, which is known to have risen under his auspices. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 279.) and his companions were on their homeward voyage from Ææa, they came first to the island of the Sirens. But they passed in safety; for, by the directions of Circe, Ulysses stopped the ears of his companions with wax, and had himself tied to the mast; so that, although, when he heard the song of the Sirens, he made signs to his companions to unbind him, they only secured cents of the Sirens, and yet, notwithstanding, escaped. (Od., 12, 52, seqq.)-Hesiod describes the mead of the Sirens as blooming with flowers (¿vbɛμócoσa), and their voice, he said, stilled the winds. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod., 4, 892.-Schol. ad Od., 12, 169.) Their names were said to be Aglaiopheme (Clear-voice) and Thelxiepea (Magic-speech); and it was feigned that they threw themselves into the sea with vexation at the escape of Ulysses, an oracle having predicted that, as long as they should arrest the attention of all passengers by the sound of their voice, they should live, but no longer. The author of the Orphic Argonautics, however, places them on a rock near the shore of Etna, and makes the song of Orpheus end their enchantment, and cause them to fling themselves into the sea, where they were changed into rocks. (Orph., Argon., 1284, seqq.-Compare Nonnus, 13, 312.)— It was afterward fabled that they were the daughters of the river-god Achelous by the muse Terpsichore SIPYLUS, I. a mountain in Lydia, rising to the or Calliope, or by Sterope, daughter of Portha on. south of Magnesia, and separated by a small valley (Apoll. Rhod., 4, 895.-Apollod., 1, 3, 4.-Tzetz. ad from the chain of Tmolus to the southeast, and by Lycophr., 712.-Eudocia, 373.) Some said that they another from Mount Mastinsia to the south. Sipylus sprang from the blood which ran from the god of the is celebrated in Grecian mythology as the residence Achelous when his horn was torn off by Hercules. of Tantalus and Niobe, and the cradle of Pelops. Sophocles calls them the daughters of Phoreys (ap. These princes, though more commonly referred to by Plut., Sympos., 9, 14); and Euripides terms them the classical writers as belonging to Phrygia, must, in re- children of Earth. (Hel., 168.) Their number was ality, have reigned in Lydia if they occupied Sipylus; also increased to three, and their names are given not the mountain merely, but a city of the same name, with much variety. One was said to play on the lyre, situate on its slope. (Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, another on the pipes, and the third to sing. (Tzet p. 437.) "It was growing dark," observes Mr. zes ad Lycophron., 712.)-Contrary to the usual proArundell, " For we might have seen, as the traveller by cess, the mischievous part of the character of the Sidaylight may, the abrupt termination of Mount Sipy-rens was afterward left out, and they were regarded as lus at a considerable distance on the left, behind which purely musical beings with entrancing voices. Hence lies the town of Magnesia." It is described by Chis- Plato, in his Republic (10, p. 617), places one of hull as a stupendous precipice, consisting of a naked them on each of the eight celestial spheres, where mass of stone, and rising perpendicularly almost a fur- their voices form what is called the music of the long high. It was here, too, that Chishull saw "a spheres; and when the Lacedæmonians had laid siege certain cliff of the rock, representing an exact niche to Athens (Ol., 94, 1), Bacchus, it is said, appeared and statue, with the due shape and proportion of a hu- in a dream to their general, Lysander, ordering him man body." (Arundell's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 18.) to allow the funeral rites of the new Siren to be celeThe rock just mentioned as the termination of Sipy-brated, which was at once understood to be Sophocles, lus, and also the rock of the Acropolis behind the then just dead. (Pausan., 1, 21, 1.—- Plin, 7, 29.) town of Magnesia, have been supposed to contain Eventually, however, the artists laid hold on the Sirens, some magnetic iron; and the magnet is said to have and furnished them with the feathers, feet, wings, and taken its name from this locality. Mr. Arundell and tails of birds. The ordinary derivation of the word some friends made experiments in this quarter, to test, Siren is from oɛipa, "a chain," to signify their attrac as far as it could be done, the truth of the story, and tive power. The Semitic shir, "song," appears, found clear indications of considerable magnetic in- however, more likely to be the true root; and the fluence. (Arundell's Asia Minor, l. c., in not.)-II. Sirens may be regarded as one of the wonders told of A city of Lydia, situate on the slope of Mount Sipy-by the Phoenician mariners. (Keightley's Mythology, lus. According to traditions preserved in the country, it was swallowed up at an early period by an earthquake, and was plunged into a crater afterward filled by a lake. The existence of this lake, named Sale or Salce, is attested by Pausanias, who reports, that for some time the ruins of the town, which he calls Idea, if the word be not corrupt, could be seen at the bottom. (Pausan., 7, 24.—Siebelis, ad loc.-Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 437.) SIRENES (Lepves), two maidens celebrated in fable, who occupied an island of Ocean, where they sat in a mead close to the seashore, and with their melodious voices so charmed those that were sailing by, that they forgot home and everything relating to it, and abode with these maidens till they perished from the impossibility of taking nourishment, and their bones lay whitening on the strand. As Ulysses p. 269, seqq.) SIRENUSE INSULÆ, three small rocks on the south side of the promontory of Surrentum or Minerva, detached from the island, and celebrated in fable as the islands of the Sirens. (Strabo, 22.-Id., 247.-Mela, 2, 4.-Plin., 3, 5.) SIRIS, a city of Lucania, on the Sinus Tarentinus, at the mouth of a river of the same name, now the Sinno. It was said to have been founded by a Trojan colony, which was afterward expelled by some Ionians, who migrated from Colophon under the reign of Alyattes, king of Lydia; and who, having taken the town by force, changed its name to that of Policeum. (Strabo, 264.) The earliest writer who has mentioned this ancient city is the poet Archilochus, cited by Athenæ us (12, 5). He speaks with admiration of the surrounding country, and in a manner which proves that he was well acquainted with its beauties. In the passage of Athenæus where Archilochus is cited, Athenæus represents the inhabitants of Siris as rivalling in all respects the luxury and affluence of the Sybarites. Siris and Sybaris had reached, about 500 B.C., the summit of their prosperity and opulence. Shortly afterward, according to Justin (20, 2), the former of the two was almost destroyed in a war with Metapontum and Sybaris. When the Tarentines settled at Heraclea they removed all the Sirites to the new town, of which Siris became the harbour. (Diod. Sic., 12, 36. -Strabo, 263.) No vestiges of this ancient colony are now apparent; but it stood probably on the left bank, and at the mouth of the Sinno. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 352.) with the title of mother, and often granted to her mtercession what he had sternly denied to his favourites and ministers. On the death of Alexander, a most touching tribute to his memory was offered by Sisygambis. She who had survived the massacre of her eighty brothers, who had been put to death in one day by Ochus, the loss of all her children, and the entire downfall of her house, now, on the decease of the en emy and conqueror of her line, seated herself on the ground, covered her head with a veil, and, notwithstanding the entreaties of her grandchildren, refused nourishment, until, on the fifth day after, she expired. (Quint. Curt., 3, 3, 22.—Id., 5, 2, 20.-Id., 10, 5, 24. -Thirlwall's Greece, vol. 7, p. 117.) SISYPHUS, I. the son of Eolus, was said to have SIRIUS (Zeipios), a name given to the dog-star. been the founder of Ephyra, or ancient Corinth. He Homer, though he mentions the dog-star twice, does married Merope, the daughter of Atlas, by whom he not employ the term. Hesiod, however, uses the ap- had four sons, Glaucus, Oruytion, Thersandrus, and pellation on several occasions (Op. et D., 417, 587, Halmus. When Jupiter carried off Ægina, the daugh619. Scut. Herc., 397.) But then, in the first of ter of the Asopus, the river-god, in his search, came these passages, he means by Sirius the sun. Nor is after her to Corinth. Sisyphus, on his giving him a this the only instance of such a usage. In Hesychius, spring for Acrocorinthus, informed him who the rav for example, we have, Zcípios, o os, kai ỏ тOÙ KV-isher was. The King of the Gods sent Death to punish vòc dorýp, “Sirius, the sun, and also the dog-star." the informer; but Sisyphus contrived to outwit Death, He then goes on to remark, Zoookλñs tòv ảoтpwov and even to put fetters on him; and there was great κύνα· ὁ δὲ 'Αρχίλοχος τὸν ἥλιον, Ίβυκος δὲ πάντα τὰ dorpa, "Sophocles calls the dog-star so; Archilochus the sun; Ibycus, however, all the stars." Eratosthenes, moreover (c. 33), observes: "Such stars (as Sirius) astronomers call Leipiovç (Sirios) dià Thν This phoyòs κίνησιν, on account of the tremulous motion of their light." It would seem, therefore, that oeipios was originally an appellative, in an adjective form, employed to indicate any bright and sparkling star; but which originally became a proper name for the brightest of the fixed stars. The verb oεipiúɛiv, formed from this, is, according to Proclus, a synonyme of Káμmεiv, "to shine," "to be bright." (Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 239, seqq.) SIRMIO, a peninsula on the shores of the Lacus Benacus (Lago di Garda), now Sirmione, and the favourite residence, in former days, of the poet Catullus. (Catull., 31.) SIRMIUM, an important city of Pannonia Inferior, on the northern side of the Saavus or Save, between Ulmi and Bassiana. Under the Roman sway it was the metropolis of Pannonia. The Emperor Probus was born here. The ruins of Sirmium may be seen at the present day near the town of Mitrowitz. (Plin., 3, 25. Zosim., 2, 18. Herodian, 7, 2.-Amm. Marc., 21, 10.) SISĂPO, a town, or, rather, village of Hispania, in the northern part of Batica, supposed to answer to Almaden, on the southwestern limits of La Mancha. The territory around this place not only yielded silver, but excellent cinnabar; and even at the present day large quantities of quicksilver are still obtained from the mines at Almaden. The Sisapone of Ptolemy (probably the same with the Cissalone of Antoninus) was a different place, and lay more to the northwest of the former, among the Oretani. (Mannert, Ge, ogr., vol. 1, p. 316-Ukert, vol. 2, p. 378) SISENNA, L., a Roman historian, the friend of Pomponius Atticus. He wrote a history, from the taking of Rome by the Gauls down to the wars of Sylla, of which some fragments are quoted in different authors. He was considered superior to all the Roman historians that had preceded him, and hence Varro entitled his own treatise on history Sisenna. This same writer commented on Plautus. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 1, p. 164.) SISIGAMBIS OF SISYGAMBIS, the mother of Darius, the last king of Persia. She was taken prisoner by Alexander the Great, at the battle of Issus, with the rest of the royal family. The conqueror treated her with the greatest kindness and attention, saluted her joy among mortals, for no one died. Pluto, however, Tril., p. 550.) In the legendary history, however, we | find him placed at Corinth, and apparently the representative of the trading spirit of that city. He is, as we have already said, a son of Eolus, probably on account of his name (Alóλoç, “cunning"); or it may be that the crafty trader is the son of the Windman, as the wind enables him to import and export his merchandise. He is married to a daughter of the symbol of navigation, Atlas, and her name would seem to indicate that he is engaged with men in the active business of life (Méрonεs, mortals, from μópoç, death; op being a mere adjectival ending). His children are Glaucus, a name of the sea-god; Ornytion (Quickmover); Thersandrus (Warm-man); and Halmus (Seaman), who apparently denote the fervour and bustle of commerce. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 399, seqq. -Welcker, Tril., p. 550, seqq.-Völcker, Myth. der Iap., p. 118, not.)-II. A dwarf of M. Antony. He was of very small stature, under two feet, but extremely shrewd and acute, whence he obtained the name of Sisyphus, in allusion to the cunning and dexterous chieftain of fabulous times. (Horat., Sat., 1, 3, 47.Compare Heindorf, ad loc.) - twenty-five miles in a straight line from the Red Sea. These mines were formerly visited by Bruce, whose account of them is amply confirmed by the latest travellers. The Smaragdus Mons appears to have been a very short distance from the sea; being that called by the Arabs Maaden Uzzumurud, or the Mine of Emeralds. (Strab., 225-Plin., 37, 5.— Russell's Egypt, p. 418.) SMERDIS, I. a son of Cyrus, put to death by order of his brother Cambyses. The latter, it seems, had become jealous of Smerdis, who had succeeded in partially bending the bow which the Ichthyophagi had brought from the King of Ethiopia, a feat which no other Persian had been able to accomplish. Cambyses had also subsequently dreamed that a courier had come to him from Persia (he was at this period in Egypt) with the intelligence that Smerdis was seated on his throne, and touched the heavens with his head. This vision having filled him with alarm, lest Smerdis might destroy him in order to seize upon the crown, he despatched Prexaspes, a confidential agent, to Persia, with orders to kill Smerdis, which was accordingly done. According to one account, he led the prince out on a hunt, and then slew him; while others said that he brought him to the borders of the Persian Gulf, and there threw him headlong from a precipice. (Herod., 3, 30 )-II. One of the Magi, who strongly resembled Smerdis the brother of Cambyses. As the death of the prince was a state secret, to which, however, some of the Magi appear to have been privy, the false Smerdis declared himself king on the death of Cambyses. This usurpation would not, perhaps, have been known, had he not taken too many precautions to conceal it. Otanes, a Persian noble of the first rank, suspecting at last that there was some imposture, from the circumstance of Smerdis never quitting the citadel, and from his never inviting any of the nobility to his presence, discovered the whole affair through his daughter Phædyma. This female had SITTIUS, P., a Roman knight, a native of Nuceria, been the wife of Cambyses, and, with the other wives and hence called Nucerinus by Sallust (Cat., 21). of the late king, had been retained by the usurper. Having been prosecuted a short time before the dis- At her father's request, she felt the head of Smerdis covery of Catiline's conspiracy, he fled from a trial, while he slept, and discovered that he had no ears. and, being accompanied by a body of followers, betook Otanes, on this, was fully convinced that the pretendhimself to Africa, where he afterward proved of ser-ed monarch was no other than the magus Smerdis, he vice to Julius Cæsar, against Scipio and Juba, and received the city of Cirta as his reward. (Appian, Bell. Civ., 4, 55.-Vid. Cirta.) SITHONIA, the central one of the three promontories which lie at the southern extremity of Chalcidice in Macedonia. As Chalcidice was originally a part of Thrace, the term Sithonia is often applied by the poets to the latter country; hence the epithet Sithonis. The Sithonians are mentioned by more than one writer as a people of Thrace. (Lycophr., 1408, et Schol, ad loc.) Elsewhere the same poet alludes obscurely to a people of Italy descended from the Sithonian giants (v. 1354). SITONES, a German tribe in Scandinavia (Tacitus, Germ., 54), separated by the range of Mount Sevo from the Suiones. Reichard places them on the southern side of Lake Malar, where the old city of Si-turn or Sig-tuna once lay. (Bischoff und Möller, Wörterb. der Geogr., p. 923.) SLAVI, an ancient and powerful tribe in Sarmatia, stretching from the Dniester to the Tauaïs, and called also by the name of Antes. Having united with the Venedi, they moved onward towards Germany and the Danube, and became engaged in war with the Franks that dwelt north of the Rhine. In the reign of Justinian they crossed the Danube, invaded Dalmatia, and finally settled in the surrounding territories, espe.cially in what is now called Slavonia. As belonging to them were reckoned the Bohemani or Bohemi (Bohemians); the Maharenses; the Sorabi, between the Elbe and Saale; the Silesii, Poloni, Cassubii, Rugii, &c. They did not all live under one common rule, but in separate communities. They are represented as large, strong, and warlike, but very deficient in personal cleanliness. Among the descendants of the Slavonic race may be enumerated the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Moravians, Carinthians, &c. (Consult Helmond, Chron. Slavorum.-Karamsin, Histoire de 'Empire de Russie, trad. par St. Thomas, Paris, 1819-26.-Foreign Quarterly, vol. 3, p. 152, seqq.) SMARAGDUS MONS (Zuúpaydos opoç), a mountain of Egypt, to the north of Berenice, where emeralds (smaragdi) were dug. It appears to have been one of a group of mountains, and the highest of the number; and all of them would seem to have contained more or less of this valuable material. The modern name of this mountain is Zubara, and the situation is having been deprived of his ears by Cyrus on account of some atrocious conduct. Upon this discovery, the conspiracy ensued which ended with the death of Smerdis, and the elevation of Darius, son of Hystaspes, to the vacant throne. (Herod., 3, 69, seqq.) A general massacre of the Magi also ensued, which was commemorated by the annual festival called by the Greeks Magophonia. (Consult remarks at the beginning of the article Magi) SMINTHEUS (two syllables), one of the surnames of Apollo. He was worshipped under this name in the city of Chrysa, where he also had a temple called Sminthium. The names Smintheus and Sminthium are said to have been derived from the term oμir Boc, which in the Eolic dialect signifies a rat; and Strabo gives the following legend on the subject, from the old poet Callinus. According to him, the Teucri, migrating from Crete, were told by an oracle to settle in that place where they should first be attacked by the original inhabitants of the land. Having halted for the night in this place, a large number of fieldmice came and gnawed away the leathern straps of their baggage and thongs of their armour. Deeming the oracle fulfilled, they settled on the spot, and raised a temple to Apollo Smintheus. Various other fabulous tales respecting these rats are to be found in Strabo, who observes that there were numerous spots on this coast to which the name of Sminthia was attached. The temple itself was called Sminthium. (Strab., 604, 612.) The same geographer, however, does not allow, as Scylax does (p. 36), that this edi fice, or the Chrysa here mentioned, were those to which Homer has alluded, in the commencement of the first book of the Iliad, as the abode of Chryses, the priest of Apollo. He places these more to the south, and on the Adramyttian Gulf. (Strab., l. c.)-The best explanation, however, of the whole fable appears to be that which makes the rat to have been in Egypt a type of primitive night. Hence this animal, placed at the feet of Apollo's statue, indicated the victory of day over night; and at a later period it was regarded as an emblem of the prophetic power of the god, which read the events of the future, notwithstanding the darkness that enveloped them. (Constant, De la Religion, vol 2, p. 394, in notis.) ans, SMYRNA, a celebrated city of Asia Minor, on the coast of Ionia, and at the head of a bay to which it gave name. The place was said to have derived its name from an Amazon so called, who, having conquered Ephesus, had in the first instance transmitted her appellation to that city. The Ephesians afterward founded the town, to which it has ever since been appropriated; and Strabo, who dwells at length on this point, cites several poets to prove that the name of Smyrna was once applied specifically to a spot near Ephesus, and afterward generally to the whole of its precincts. The same writer affirms that the Ephesian colonists were afterward expelled from Smyrna by the Eolians; but, being aided by the Colophonians, who had received them into their city, they once more returned to Smyrna and retook it. (Strabo, 634.) Herodotus differs from Strabo in some particulars: he states that Smyrna originally belonged to the Foliwho received into the city some Colophonian exiles. These afterward basely requited the hospitality of the inhabitants by shutting the gates upon them while they were without the walls celebrating a festival, and so made themselves masters of the place. (Pausan., 5, 8.) They were besieged by the Eolians, but to no purpose; and at last it was agreed that they should remain in possession of the place upon delivering up to the former inhabitants their private property. (Herod., 1, 149.) Smyrna after this ceased to be an Eolian city, and became a member of the Ionian confederacy. It was subsequently taken and destroyed by Alyattes, king of Lydia, and the inhabitants were scattered among the adjacent villages. (Herod., 1, 16.- Scylax, p. 37.) They lived thus for the space of four hundred years, and the city remained during all this time deserted and in ruins, until Antigonus, one of Alexander's generals, charmed with the situation, founded, about twenty stadia from the site of the old, a new city called Smyrna, on the southern shore of the gulf. Lysimachus completed what Antigonus had begun, and the new city became one of the most beautiful in Lower Asia. (Strabo, 646.) Another account makes Alexander the founder of this city, and Pliny and Pausanias both adopt this opinion; but it is contradicted by the simple fact that Alexander, in his expedition against Darius, never came to this spot, but passed on rapidly from Sardis to Ephesus. (Pliny, 5, 29.-Pausan., 7, 5.)—Smyrna was one of the many places that laid claim to being the birthplace of Homer, and it enjoyed, perhaps, the best title of all to this distinguished honour. In com inemoration of the bard, a beautiful square structure was erected, called Homerion, in which his statue was placed. This same name was given to a brass coin, struck at Smyrna in commemoration of the same event. (Strabo, l. c.- Cic., pro Arch., c. 8.) The Smyrneans also showed a cave, where it was said that Homer composed his verses. Chandler informs us that he had searched for this cavern, and succeeded in discovering it above the aqueduct of the Meles. It is about four feet wide, the roof formed of a huge rock, cracked and slanting, the sides and bottom sandy. Beyond it is a passage cut, leading into a kind of well. (Travels in Asia Minor, p. 91.)-Under the Roman sway Smyrna still continued a flourishing city, though not, as some have supposed, the capital of the province of Asia. Its schools of eloquence and philosophy were in considerable repute. (Aristid, in Smyrn.) The Christian Church flourished also through the zeal and care of Polycarp, its first bishop, who is said to have suffered martyrdom in the stadium of the city, about 166 years after the birth of our Saviour. (Iren., 3, 3, 4, p. 176.) There is also an epistle from Ignatius to the Smyrneans, and another addressed to Polycarp. Smyrna experienced great vicissitudes under the Greek emporors. Having been occupied by Tzachas, a Turkish chief, towards the close of the eleventh century, it was nearly destroyed by a Greek fleet, commanded by John Ducas. It was, however, restored by the Emperor Comnenus, but suffered again severely from a siege which it sustained against the forces of Tamerlane. Not long after this (A.D. 1083), it fell into the hands of the Turks. The Greeks shortly after obtained possession of it anew, only again to lose it; and, under Mohammed I., the city became finally attached to the Turkish empire. It is now called Ismir, and by the Western nations Smyrna, and is the great mart of the Levant trade. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 3, p. 332, seqq.-Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 337, seqq.) SOCRATES, a celebrated philosopher, born at Alopece, a village near Athens, B.C. 469. His parents were of low rank. His father, Sophroniscus, was a statuary; his mother, Phænarete, a midwife. Sophroniscus brought up his son, contrary to his inclination, in his own manual employment; in which Socrates, though his mind was constantly aspiring after higher objects, was not unskilled. While he was a young man, he is said to have made statues of the habited Graces, which were allowed a place in the citadel of Athens. Upon the death of his father he was left with no other inheritance than the small sum of 80 mine (about 1400 dollars), which, through the dishonesty of a relation, to whom Sophroniscus left the charge of his affairs, he soon lost. This laid him under the necessity of supporting himself by labour, and he continued to practise the art of statuary in Athens; at the same time, however, devoting all the leisure he could command to the study of philosophy. Crito, a wealthy Athenian, remarking the strong propensity to study which this young man discovered, and admiring his ingenious disposition and distinguished abilities, took him under his patronage, and intrusted him with the instruction of his children. The opportunities which Socrates by this means enjoyed of attending the public lectures of the most eminent philosophers, so far increased his thirst after wisdom, that he determined to relinquish his occupation, and every prospect of emolument which that might afford, in order to devote himself entirely to his favourite pursuit. His first preceptor in philosophy was Anaxagoras. After this eminent master of the Ionic school left Athens, Socrates attached himself to Archelaus. Under these instructers he diligently prosecuted the study of nature, in the usual manner of the philosophers of the age, and became well acquainted with their doctrines. Prodicus, the sophist, was his preceptor in eloquence, Evenus in poetry, Theodorus in geometry, and Damo in music. Aspasia, a woman no less celebrated for her intellectual than her personal accomplishments, whose house was frequented by the most celebrated characters of the day, had also some share in the education of Socrates. With these endowments, both natural and acquired, Socrates appeared in Athens under the respectable characters of a good citizen and a true philosopher. Being called upon by his country to take up arms in the long and severe struggle between Athens and Sparta, he signalized himself at the siege of Potidea by both his valour |