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tual affection. He expired at York, A.D. 211, a the sixty-sixth year of his age, having reigned nearly eighteen years.-It is difficult to obtain from the ges of ancient writers a fair or consistent represents tion of the character of Severus. One of the authen of the Augustan history applies to him an expression which was suggested by the effects which the condect of the first Roman emperor (Augustus) had upon the fortunes of his country, namely, that it would have been well for the state if he had never been born, or had never died. (Spartian., c. 18.) This remark has in it, perhaps, more point than truth; for, though Severus was no ordinary man, he nevertheless rather followed than directed the general current of events. He considered the Roman world as his property, and had no sooner secured the possession, than he bestow ed the utmost care on the cultivation and improvement of so valuable an acquisition. Judicious law, executed with firmness, soon corrected most of the abuses which, since the time of Marcus Aurelius, had infected every department of the state. Yet in his maxims of government he often displayed, not the le gislator, but the mere soldier. Harsh, unpitying, and suspicious, although generous to those for whom he had conceived an attachment, it was perhaps fortunate for Rome that the operations of distant warfare en

er part of his reign.-His taste for public buildings and magnificent spectacles recommended him very greatly to the Roman people. He also showed b self a patron of literature. The habits of a life spent chiefly in the camp were, no doubt, quite incompatibe with any distinguished progress in science or in let ters; but his taste, notwithstanding, induced him to spend his hours of leisure in the study of philosophy. He was much devoted, however, to that perversion of natural knowledge which was known by the 2cients under the name of magic. Astrology also came

Prætorian guards, who had murdered Pertinax and sold | sons, whom he once more exhorted to union and mithe empire to Didius, were disbanded by the new monarch, and a triumphal pageant witnessed the entrance of Severus into the Roman capital. Next followed the overthrows of Niger and Albinus, the two competitors with Severus for the empire (vid. Niger and Albinus); and these events were succeeded by the death of many nobles of Gaul and Spain, and also of twenty-nine senators of Rome, who were accused of having been the abetters of Albinus. Meanwhile the Parthians, under Vologeses, availing themselves of the absence of Severus, had overrun Mesopotamia, and besieged Lætus, one of his lieutenants, in Nisibis. The emperor resolved to march against them, and it was his intention to establish 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 carried off 100,000 inhabitants alive, with the women and treasures 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-gaged his principal thoughts, and employed the greatphis, and explored the Nile. His return to Rome was celebrated by a combat of 400 wild beasts in the amphitheatre, and by the nuptials of his son Bassianus Caracalla with the daughter of Plautianus. (Vid. Plautianus.) After a short residence in his capital, a period marked by increased severity on the part of the emperor, and a degree of tyranny rendered the more odious from its being the result of a naturally suspicious temper, Severus took refuge from the dissensions between his two sons, Geta and Caracalla, and from the intrigues of state, in the stirring scenes of a foreign war. He passed over into Britain, accom-in for its share of his attention; and he is said to have panied by his sons, with the view of securing the northern boundaries of the Roman province against the incursions of the Caledonians, and of the other barbarous tribes who dwelt between the wastes of Northumberland and the Grampian Mountains. He had hoped, also, that the love of military glory might exalt the ambition of his sons, and chase from their breasts those malignant passions, which at once disturbed his domestic 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 difficulties which he had to overcome, however, were very great, and must have conquered the resolution of a mind less firm than that of Severus. He was 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 intrigues 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, Severus 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 (I.,

6, 57, seqq.), his fixed resolution to exterminate them from the face of the earth. But death soon put an end to his sufferings and to all his plans for revenge. Having returned as far as York (Eboracum), he was attacked with a disease which he himself foresaw would, at no distant period, terminate his career; and, in the expectation of this event, he called for both his

been determined in his choice of a second wife by the discovery that a young Syrian lady, whose name was Julia, had been born with a royal nativity.-Se verus wrote Memoirs of his own Life, in Latin; a work of which Aurelius Victor praises the style not less than the fidelity. But Dio Cassius, who had better means for forming a correct judgment, insinuates that Severus did not, on all occasions, pay the strictest regard to truth, and that, in his attempts to vindicate himself from the charge of cruelty, he laid greater stress on hidden motives and refined views of policy, than on the palpable facts which met the eye of the public. (Spartian., Vit. Did. Jul.—Id., Vu. Par cenn. Nig. Id., Vit. Albin.— Id., Vit. Sev.-Do Cass., lib. 74, seq.-Herodian, 2, 9, 2, &c.)—II. A exander or Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus, an tive of Syria, and cousin to the Emperor Heliogaba lus. Masa, grandmother of the latter, perceiving his folly and grossly vicious disposition, thought of co ciliating the Romans by prevailing upon her dissolute grandson to associate Alexander Severus with him self in the empire. But Heliogabalus becoming a terward jealous of him, and wishing to put him out of the way, spread a false report of Alexander's death, whereupon the prætorians broke out into open mutiny, Heliogabalus was slain, and Alexander Severus succeeded to the empire. The new emperor was of a character diametrically opposite to that of his prede cessor. Among the first acts of his sovereignty, be banished all the guilty and abandoned creatures of Heliogabalus, restored the authority of the senate, and chose his counsellors and ministers of state of the best members of that body, and revoked, also, all the persecuting edicts that had been issued by his predeces sor against the Christians. This just and mercifu procedure is thought to have been adopted by the ad

already lost their warmth, and much of their efficacy, in the time of Augustus. (Liv., Epit., 61.-Strabo, 180.) Marius defeated the Teutones near this place. (Plut., Vit. Mar.-Florus, 3, 3.)

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vice of his mother Mammæa, who maintained an intercourse with some of the most distinguished Christians, among others, the celebrated Origen, and who was, perhaps, herself a convert. But, however desirous 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 productive of consequences deeply important to all Asia. Ardeshir Babegan, or Artaxerxes, who pretended to be descended from the imperial race of ancient Persia, raised a rebellion against the Parthian monarchs, the Arsacide. The Parthian dynasty was overturned, and the ancient Persian restored; and with its restoration 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 Severus 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-Troy, that this city was destined to perish, and that vented from following up his success in consequence of a pestilence breaking out among his troops. The Persians, however, were willing to renounce hostilities 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 invading Gaul. He at once set out to oppose this new enemy, but he encountered another still more formidable. The armies in Gaul had sunk into a great relaxation 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 the change. A conspiracy was formed against him, and the youthful emperor was murdered in his tent, in his 29th year, after a short but glorious reign of thirteen years.-It cannot be denied, that much of what rendered the reign of Alexander Severus truly glorious was owing to the counsels of his mother Mammæa. Ulpian, too, the friend of Papinian, the most rigidly upright man of his time, a man more skilled in jurisprudence than any of his contemporaries, 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 his life in the Augustan History exhausts all his powers of description in the attempt to do it justice. (Lamprid., Vit. Alex. Sev.-Dio Cass., lib. 80.-Herodian, 5, 3, 7, seqq.)-III. Sulpitius, an ecclesiastical historian, who died A.D. 420. The best of his works is his Historia 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 he 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." (Tacit., Annal., 15, 42. — Vid. Nero.)

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SEVO, a ridge of mountains between Norway and Sweden. It assumes various names in different parts of its course; as, the Langfield Mountains, the Dofrafield Mountains, &c. Some suppose the ridge of Sevo to have been the Rhiphæan Mountains of antiquity. (Plin., 4, 15.)

SEXTIE AQUE, now Aix, a town of Gallia Narbonensis, and the metropolis of Narbonensis Secunda. It owed its foundation to Sextius Calvinus, who, in the first expedition of the Romans into Gaul, reduced the Sallavii or Salyes, in whose territory it was situate. It was founded on account of the warm mineral springs in its neighbourhood. These springs, however, had

SIBYLLE, certain females supposed to be inspired by Heaven, who flourished in different parts of the world. According to the received opinion, founded on the authority of Varro, they were ten in number: the first was the Persian Sibyl, of whom Nicanor, one of the historians of Alexander the Great, made mention; the second was the Libyan, alluded to by Euripides in the prologue of one of his lost plays, the Lamia; the third was the Delphian, mentioned by Chrysippus in his lost work on Divination; the fourth was the Cumaan, in Italy, spoken of by Nævius, and other Latin writers, especially Virgil; the fifth was the Erythraan, whom Apollodorus of Erythre claimed as a native of that city, though some made her to have been born in Babylonia. She is said to have predicted to the Greeks, when they were sailing for Homer would compose falsities in relation to it; the sixth was the Samian, of whom Eratosthenes said he found mention in the ancient annals of the Samians the seventh was of Cyma, in Æolis, and was called Amalthea, Demophile, or Herophile; the eighth was the Hellespontine, born at Marpessus, in the Trojan territory. According to Heraclides Ponticus, she flourished in the time of Cyrus and Solon; the ninth was the Phrygian, who gave oracles at Ancyra; the tenth was the Tiburtine, at Tibur, in Italy, and was named Albunea. (Varro, ap. Lactant., 1, 6.—August., Civ. D., 18, 23.) The most celebrated one of the whole number was the Cumaan, the poetic fable relative to whom is as follows: Apollo, having become enamoured of her, offered to give her whatever she should ask. The Sibyl demanded to live as many years as she had grains of sand in her hand, but unfortunately forgot to ask for the enjoyment of health and bloom of which she was then in possession. The god granted her request, but she refused, in return, to listen to his suit; and the gift of longevity, therefore, unaccompanied by freshness and beauty, proved a burden rather than a benefit. She had already lived about 700 years when Æneas came to Italy, and, as some have imagined, she had six centuries more to live before her years were as numerous as the grains of sand which she had held in her hand. At the expiration of this period she was to wither quite away, and become converted into a mere voice. (Ovid, Met., 14, 104.Serv. ad Virg., Æn., 6, 321.) This was the Sibyl that accompanied Eneas to the lower world. It was usual with her to write her predictions on leaves, and place them at the entrance of her cave; and it required great caution on the part of those who consulted her to take up these leaves before the wind drove them from their places, and, by mingling them together, broke the connexion, and rendered their meaning unintelligible.-According to a well-known Roman legend, one of the Sibyls came to the palace of Tarquin the Second with nine volumes, which she offered to sell for a very high price. The monarch declined the offer, and she immediately disappeared, and burned three of the volumes. Returning soon after, she asked the same price for the remaining six books; and, when Tarquin again refused to buy them, she burned three more, and still persisted in demanding the same sum of money for the three that were left. This extraordinary behaviour astonished the monarch, and, with the advice of the augurs, he bought the books; upon which the Sibyl immediately disappeared, and was never seen after. These books were preserved with great care, and called the Sibylline verses. A college of priests was appointed to have charge of them, and they were consulted with the greatest solemnity when the state seemed to be in danger. When the Capitol

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was burned in the troubles of Sylla, the Sibylline ver- of Lydia. It is almost superfluous, moreover, to reses, which were deposited there, perished in the con- mark, that, with regard to Rome, at least, this predicflagration; and, to repair the loss which the republic tion was contradicted by subsequent events.- -The seemed to have sustained, commissioners were im- second prophecy preserved for us in Roman history is mediately sent to different parts of Greece to collect the one that was applied to the case of Ptolemy ABwhatever could be found of the inspired writings of the letes. This prince having solicited aid from the seaSibyls. Thus far the common account. It is gen- ate against his rebellious subjects, the Sibylline books erally conceded, however, that what the ancients tell were consulted, and the following answer was found us respecting these prophetesses is all very obscure, in them: "If a king of Egypt come to ask aid of fabulous, and full of contradictions. It appears that you, refuse him not your alliance, but give him no the name Sibylla is properly an appellative term, and troops." The turbulence and faction of the day resdenotes an inspired person;" and the etymology of der it extremely probable that this prediction was a the word is commonly sought in the Eolic or Doric mere forgery. What we have remaining under the Σιός, for θεός, " a god,” and βουλή, "advice" or title of Sibylline Oracles were evidently fabricated "counsel."—As regards the final fate of the Sibylline by the pious fraud of the early Christians, ever antverses, some uncertainty prevails. It would seem, how-ious to discover traces of their faith in pagan my bel ever, according to the best authorities, that the Emper- ogy. St. Clement of Rome himself is not free from or Honorius issued an order, A.D. 399, for destroying the suspicion of having participated in the falsifica them; in pursuance of which, Stilicho burned all these tion, or else of having attached credit too readily to a prophetic writings, and demolished the temple of Apol- corrupted text. According to St. Justin, this potif lo in which they had been deposited. Nevertheless, had cited, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, the Sib there are still preserved, in eight books of Greek verse, ylline predictions, for the purpose of confirming by a collection of oracles pretended to be Sibylline. Dr. their means the truths which he was announcing Cave, who is well satisfied that this collection is a for- the pagans. (Quæst. ad Orthod. Resp. ad quest, gery, supposes that a large part of it was composed in lxxiv.) A contemporary of St. Clement's, the hist the time of Hadrian, about A.D. 130; that other parts rian Josephus, refers to passages in these same er were added in the time of the Antonines, and the cles, where allusion is made to the tower of Babel whole completed in the reign of Commodus. Dr. Pri- (Antiq. Jud., 1, 5), a circumstance, by-the-way, which deaux says that this collection must have been made proves the early falsification of these predictions. between A.D. 138 and 167. Some of the Christian Celsus, in express terms, accused the Christians of fathers, not regading the imposition, have often cited forging the Sibylline collection. (Orig. adr. Cat, the books of the Sibyls in favour of the Christian reli- lib. 7.) The fathers of the Church in the second, and, gion; and hence Celsus takes occasion to call the still more frequently, those in the third century, refet Christians Sibyllists. Dr. Lardner states his convic- to passages evidently interpolated, as if they were tion that the Sybilline oracles quoted by St. Clement genuine. (Thorlacii libri Sibyllistarum, &c., Hofxd, and others of the Greek fathers are the forgeries of 1615, 8vo.)-The Sibylline collection, as it exists at some Christian. Bishop Horsley has ably supported the present day, is composed of eight books. In the the opinion, however, that the Sibylline books con- first book, the subjects are, the Creation, the Fall, and tained records of prophecies vouchsafed to nations ex- the Deluge. It is apparent not only that this book is traneous to the patriarchal families and the Jewish taken from Genesis, but also that its author made commonwealth, before the general defection to idola- of the Greek translation of the Septuagint. The try. Although the books were at last interpolated, subject of the second book is the Last Judgment. In yet, according to the views taken of the subject by the the third Antichrist is announced. The fourth prelearned bishop, this was too late to throw discredit on dicts the fall of divers monarchies. The fifth is 80the confident appeal made to them by Justin.-The cupied with the Romans down to Lucius Verus. In first ancient writer that makes mention of the Sibyl- the sixth the Baptism of our Saviour by St. John line verses appears to have been Heraclitus. (Creu- made the subject. The seventh is devoted to the zer, ad Cic., N. D., 2, 3, p. 221.) The leading pas- Deluge, and the fall of various States and Monarchies, sage, however, in relation to them, is that of Dionysius The eighth relates to the Last Judgment and the De of Halicarnassus (4, 62). The most ancient Sibylline struction of Rome.-A manuscript discovered by prophecy that has been preserved for us is that men- Maio in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, contains a tioned by Pausanias (10, 9), and which the Athenians fourteenth book, in 334 verses; the books, however, applied to the battle of Egospotamos, because it between and the eighth are lost. This last-mer speaks of a fleet destroyed through the fault of its tioned book, the fourteenth, speaks of a destruction of commanders. Another Sibylline prediction is found Rome so complete that the traveller will find no tre in Plutarch (Vit. Demosth. Op., ed. Reiske, vol. 4, ces of the city remaining, and its very name will de p. 723), and which relates to a bloody battle on the appear. The prophetess then goes on to enumerate a banks of the Thermodon. The Athenians applied this long series of princes under whom Rome shall be re oracle to the battle of Charonea. Plutarch states that built.-The most complete edition of the Sibylline orthere was no river of this name, in his time, near acles is that of Gallæus, which appeared at Amster Charonea, and he conjectures that a small brook, fall- dam in 1688-9, 2 vols. 4to, to which must be added ing into the Cephissus, is here meant, and which his the 14th book, published by Maio, at Milan, 1917. 10. fellow townsmen called Aluor (Hamon), or "the-In relation to the Sibylline oracles generally, con bloody" brook. Pausanias (9, 19) speaks of a small stream in Boeotia called Thermodon; but he places it some distance from Charonea.-The history of Rome has preserved for us two Sibylline predictions, not, indeed, in their literal form, but yet of a very definite nature. One of these forbade the Romans to extend their sway beyond Mount Taurus. Were it well ascertained that this prohibition, with which we are made acquainted by Livy (38, 18), actually formed part of the Sibylline books, it would suffice to show that these books were not composed for the Romans; a prophecy

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which fixes Mount Taurus as the eastern limit of an empire, could only have been made for the monarchs

sult the remarks of Niebuhr (Rom. Hist., vol. 1, P 441, seqq., Cambridge transl.).

SICAMBRI OF SYGAMBRI, a powerful German tribe, whose original seats were around the Rhine, the Sieg and the Lippe. They were dangerous foes to the Romans, who finally conquered them under the leading of Drusus. Tiberius transferred a large part of this people to the left or southern bank of the Rhine, where they reappear under the name of Gugemt (Flor., 42, 12.-Cas., B. G., 4, 16.-Dio Cassias, 54, 32.-Tac., Ann., 2, 26.—Id. ibid., 4, 12.)

SICANI, an ancient nation of Sicily. (Vid. remarks under the article Sicilia.)

war.

SICANIA, an ancient name of Sicily. (Vid. Sicilia.) | from it and pursues a southern direction, and out of SICCA VENEREA, a city of Numidia, on the banks this Etna rears its lofty head. From the same Monof the river Bagradas, and at some distance from the tes Nebrodes another chain runs through the middle coast. We are first made acquainted with the exist- of the island, called Montes Heræi ('Hpała opŋ), and ance of this place in the history of the Jugurthine dividing at one time the territories of the Siculi from (Sall., Bell. Jug., 3, 56.) Pliny styles it a those of the Sicani. (Diod. Sic., 4, 84.)-Sicily has colony (5, 3); and, though no other writer gives it this no large rivers; the moderate extent of the island, title, yet, from the way in which it is represented on and the mountainous character of the country, prethe Peutinger table, as well as from Ptolemy's having venting this. The only considerable streams are the selected it for one of his places of astronomical cal- Symæthus and the Himera. The former of these reculation, we see plainly that it must have been an im-ceives most of the small rivers that flow from the portant city. It received the appellation of Venerea eastern side of the Heraan Mountains: the Himera from a temple of Venus which it contained, and also is swelled by numerous smaller streams in its where, in accordance with a well-known Oriental cus- course through the island.-A country like Sicily, lytom, the young maidens of the place were accustomed ing between the 36th and 38th parallels of latitude, to prostitute their persons, and thus obtain a dowry for and, consequently, belonging to the southernmost remarriage. (Val. Max., 2, 6.) Bochart and De Bros-gions of Europe, and which is well supplied with ses derive the name of Sicca from the Punic Succoth streams of water from its numerous mountain chains, Benoth (" tabernacula puellarum"), and make Benoth must, of course, be a fertile one. Such, indeed, was ("puella") the origin of the name Venus among the the character of the island throughout all antiquity; Romans.-Shaw regarded the modern Kaff as near and the Romans, while they regarded it as one of the the site of the ancient city, having found an inscrip- granaries of the capital, placed it, in point of producttion there with the Ordo Siccensium on it. But Man-iveness, by the side of Italy itself, or rather regarded nert thinks the stone was brought to Kaff from some other quarter, a circumstance by no means uncommon in these parts. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 10, pt. 2, p. 322, seqq.)

ver,

SICHÆUS. Vid. Acerbas.

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it as a portion of that country. The staple of Sicily was its excellent wheat. The Romans found it growing wild in the extensive fields of Leontini, and, when cultivated, it yielded a hundred fold; that which grew in the plains of Enna was regarded as decidedly SICILIA, the largest, most fruitful, and populous isl- the best. It was natural enough, therefore, in the and of the Mediterranean, lying to the south of Italy, early inhabitants of the island to regard it as the pafrom which it is separated by the Fretum Siculum, rent-country of grain; and they had a deity among the strait or faro of Messina, which, in the narrowest them whom they considered as the patroness of fertility, part, is only two miles wide. Its short distance from and the discoverer of agriculture to man. In this godthe mainland of Italy gave rise to an hypothesis, dess the Greeks recognised their Ceres, and they made among the ancient writers, that it once formed part Minerva, Diana, and Proserpina to have spent their of that country, and was separated from it by a pow-youth here, and the last mentioned of the three to have erful flood. (Compare the authorities cited by Clu-been carried off by Pluto from the rich fields of Enna. Sicil, 1, 1.) This theory, however, is a very-It has been already remarked, that the Romans reimprobable one, the more particularly as the point garded Sicily as one of their granaries. They obtained where the mountains commence on the island by no from it, even at an early period, the necessary supplies means corresponds with the termination of the chain when their city was suffering from scarcity. King of the Apennines at the promontory of Leucopetra, Hiero II., also, frequently bestowed very acceptable now Capo dell' armi, but is many miles to the north. presents of grain on these powerful neighbours of his; It is more natural to suppose, therefore, that, in the and how many and extensive demands were made by first formation of our globe, the waters, finding a hol- the Romans in later days on the resources of the island, low here, poured themselves into it.-The island is a after had fallen by right of conquest into their hands, three-cornered one, and this shape obtained for it its will plainly appear from a passage of Cicero (in Verr., earliest name among the Grecian mariners, Toivakía 2, 2). The earliest inhabitants of Sicily, accord(Trinakia, i. e., "three-cornered"). This name, and, ing to the Grecian writers, were the Cyclopes and consequently, the acquaintance which the Greeks had Læstrygones. Homer, seems, had spoken of these with the island, must have been of a very early date, giant-races, and subsequent writers could find no more since Homer was already acquainted with the "island probable place for their abode than an island where Thrinakia" (Opivakín vñoos—Od., 12, 135), with the the strange phenomenon presented by Ætna seemed herds of Helios that pastured upon it, and places in to point to an equally strange race of inhabitants. its vicinity the wonders of Scylla and Charybdis, to Homer, it is true, had not made these two races neighgether with the islands which he terms Plangkta bours to each other, nor had he placed them both in (IIλaykrai), or "the Wanderers." The later Greek his island of Thrinakia; the expounders of his mywriters, and almost all the Latin authors, make a slight thology, however, regardless of geographical difficulalteration in the name, calling it Trinacria, and Pliny ties, considered the point as accurately settled, and (3, 8) translates the term in question by Triquetra, here, therefore, according to them, dwelled the Cya form which frequently appears in the poets. The clopes and Læstrygones. Thucydides alone (6, 2), name Trinacria very probably underwent the change after mentioning the common tradition, honestly con just alluded to, in order to favour its derivation from fesses that he cannot tell what has become of these the Greek Tpeis (three), and åkpa (a promontory), in giant-races. Other writers, however, were better inallusion to its three promontories; though, in fact, formed, it seems, and made the Cyclopes disappear only one of them, that of Pachynus namely, is de- from view in the bowels of Etna, and amid the cavserving of the appellation. Homer's name Õpivakía, erns of the Lipari isles.-From actual inquiry, the on the other hand, or rather that of Tpivakia, is much Greeks became acquainted with the fact of the existmore appropriate, since the root is άký, "a point."- ence of two early tribes in this island, the Sicani and The island of Sicily is indebted for its existence to a Siculi. They knew, also, that the former of these chain of mountains, which commences in the vicinity lived at a much earlier period than the latter; but of the Fretum Siculum, runs towards the west, keep- they were divided in their opinions as to the origin of ing constantly at only a small distance from the north-the more ancient people. The most of them, with ern coast, and terminating on the northwestern coast, near the modern Capo di St. Vito. The name of this range is Montes Nebrodes. A side chain issues

Thucydides at their head (6, 2), derive the Sicani from Iberia, and make them to have been driven by the Ligyes (Ligures) from their original seats in that

the possession of the island. This was Carthage, and the first serious demonstration was made when Xez es was prosecuting his invasion of Greece. The Carthaginians, who, as Diodorus asserts, were in leagu with the Persian monarch, landed with a large armya Panormus, and threatened Himera. The pretext in this movement on the part of Carthage was furnisted by a quarrel with Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum; and according to the usual practice of the Carthaginians the armament had been strengthened from many bar barous nations, the Tuscan fleet being also joined to i by treaty. But Gelon, monarch of Syracuse, marches to the assistance of Theron, leaving the command a his fleet to his brother Hiero; and Hiero defeated the Carthaginian and Tuscan fleet, while, about the same time, the Carthaginian land force was complete ly broken at Himera by the united armies of Syracuse and Acragas. It is said by some authors that Ge lon's victory took place on the same day with the bastle of Salamis. No farther conquest was attemp in Sicily by Carthage for many years after, though she still remained in possession of the old Phonic settlements, and could therefore make a descent the island whenever she might again feel inclined. It was not till after the termination of the contest be tween the Athenians and Syracusans, when the latter.

country, around the river Sicanus, to the island which, from them, received the name of Sicania. But, on a more intimate acquaintance with Iberia, the Greeks found no river there of the name of Sicanus; they therefore conceived it to be identical with the Sicoris, a tributary of the Iberus. No Ligurians, however, ever settled in Spain, and therefore no Sicani could ever have been driven by them from that country. The only solution of this difficulty is, that as the Iberians settled also along the coast of Gaul, the Sicanus was a river of southern Gaul, which subsequently changed its name, and could not afterward be identified. But another difficulty presents itself. In what way did the Sicani, after being thus expelled, reach the island of Sicily? The nearest and readiest route was by sea; but where could these rude children of nature have obtained a fleet? Did they proceed by land? This path would be, if possible, still more arduous, as they would have to cut their way through various branches of their very conquerors, the Ligures, and then encounter many valiant tribes in central and southern Italy. Virgil seems to have been startled by the difficulties of this hypothesis, since he makes the Sicani inhabitants of Latium, or, rather, with the license of a poet, confounds them with the Siculi. (En., 7, 795; 8, 342) Other writers, however, whom Diodorus Siculus (5, 2) considers most worthy of reli-notwithstanding their success, remained greatly enfee ance, declared themselves against this wandering of bled by the struggle, that Carthage again sought an op the Sicani, and made them an indigenous race in Sici- portunity of invading the island. This was soon af ly. The chief argument in favour of this position was forded by the disputes between Selinus and Egesta deduced from the traditions of the people themselves, the Carthaginians landed at Motya, took Selinus, and who laid claim to the title of Autochthones. (Thu-established themselves over the entire western half of cyd., 6, 2.) This opinion found a warm supporter in Sicily. They would have spread themselves farther. Timæus, as we are informed by Diodorus (5, 6).—To had it not been for the power of Dionysius of Sma these primitive inhabitants came the Siculi. These cuse; and to this man, with all his tyrannical qua were an Italian race from Latium (vid. Siculi), and, ties, the Greeks of Sicily were mainly indebted in previously to their settlement in Sicily, they had es- their deliverance from the yoke of Carthage. He was tablished themselves, for a time, among the Morgetes, often defeated, it is true, but as often found the means in what is now called Calabria. On their crossing of withstanding his opponents anew; until at last it over into the island, the Siculi took possession of the was agreed between the contending parties that the country in the vicinity of Etna. They met with no river Himera should form the limit between the Syr opposition at first from the Sicani, for that people had acusan and Grecian territories on the east, and the long before been driven away by an eruption from the Carthaginian dependencies on the west. The peace mountain, and had fled to the western parts of the isl- that ensued was, however, of short duration, and Cas and. (Diod., 5, 6.) As the Siculi, however, extend-thage sought every opportunity of advancing her ed themselves to the west, they could not fail eventu-er, afforded by the internal dissensions of the Greeks ally of coming in contact with the Sicani. Wars en- as often as these occurred. From time to time, sued, until they regulated by treaty their respective true, there arose at Syracuse men of eminent abites, limits. (Diod., 5, 6) According to Thucydides, how- such as a Timoleon and an Agathocles, who kept ever, the Siculi defeated in battle the Sicani, and check the aspiring power of Carthage; yet it was it drove and confined them to the southern and western too apparent that this power was gaining a decided parts of the island.-Sicily received accessions also to ascendancy, when the Romans, alarmed at the more the number of its inhabitants from other sources. 1. ments of so powerful a neighbour, were induced The Cretans; these, according to traditions half his- interfere (vid. Messana), and, after a protracted stru torical and half mythological, came to this island along gle of twenty-four years, succeeded in making the with Minos, when in pursuit of Dedalus. After the selves masters of the whole of Sicily. (Vid Po death of their king, they settled in the territories of nicum Bellum.) It must not be supposed. bowCocalus, a monarch of the Sicani. They subsequent-ever, that, during these contests of the Carthagin ly became blended with the Siculi. 2. The Elymi with the Greeks in the first instance, and afterward According to Thucydides, a number of Trojans escaping to Sicily, and settling in the country bordering on the Sicani, they both together obtained the name of Elymi. 3. The Phoenicians, too, formed settlements around the whole of Sicily, taking in the promontories and little islands adjacent. These settlements were not, however, meant as colonies, but only commercial stations. After, however, the Greeks had come over in great numbers, they abandoned the greater part of their settlements, and drew together the rest, occupying Motya, Solois, and Panormus, near the Elymi, both in reliance on their assistance, and because from this part of Sicily was the shortest passage to Carthage. (Thuryd., 6, 2.) An account of the Grecian settlements is given in Thucydides (6, 3), and they had already attained a flourishing maturity before a new power developed itself and entered the lists with them for

of the former with the Romans, the early inhabitants of the country were merely idle spectators. In what relation the Sicani, in the western part of the island, stood to the Greeks, we have no means of ascertain ing. When the Carthaginians appeared there ther submitted without a struggle; though at times, as Syracusan leaders penetrated into their territories, they assumed a brief attitude of independence. The st tion of the Siculi, in the eastern quarter of the island, was different from this. They acknowledged the sway of Gelon, and also of his two brothers; but when, on the expulsion of the latter of these, intestine dissen sions arose in Syracuse, an individual of commanding character among the Siculi, by name Duketus, 800ceeded in forming a union among the petty states of his countrymen, and placed himself at the bead of the confederacy. The effort was, however, only short

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