Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/480

LEFT SIBERIAN RAILWAY 416 SICILIES SIBERIAN RAILWAY. See TRANS- Siberian Railway. SIBERT, WILLIAM LUTHER, an American soldier, born at Gadsden, Ala., in 1860. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1884 and was appointed 2nd lieutenant of engineers in the same year. In 1887 he graduated from the Engineering School of Applica- tion. He was appointed captain in 1896, major in 1904, and lieutenant-colonel in 1909. From 1887 to 1892 he was engaged in engineering river work in Kentucky, and from 1892 to 1894 he was engaged in the construction of a ship channel con- necting with the Great Lakes. He was later engaged in engineering work in Ar- kansas and in the Philippines. From 1900 to 1907 he was in cnarge of the engineer- ing of the river and harbor districts, with headquarters at Louisville and Pitts- burgh. In March of the latter year, he was appointed a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and as engineer of the commission he built the Gatun Locks and Dam, the west breakwater, and ex- cavated the channel from Gatun to the Atlantic Ocean. After completion of the Panama Canal, he served in China under the auspices of the American National Red Cross and the Chinese Government, on the board of engineers for flood pre- vention. He was made brigadier-general in 1915, and was extended the thanks of Congress for his work on the Panama Canal. In 1917 he was promoted to be major-general and was appointed com- mander of the 1st Division of the Ameri- can troops in France, under General Pershing. He organized and was the di- rector of the Chemical Warfare Service of the United States Army. He received a Distinguished Service Medal and was made a commander of the Legion of Honor by the French Government. SIBYL, the name by which certain prophetic women were designated in. an- cient times. Their number is variously stated. iElian mentions four — the Ery- thraean, the Samian, the Egyptian, and the Sardian; but it was popularly believed that there were 10 in all. Of these the most famous is the Cumaean, known by the names of Herophile, Demo, Phemonoe, Deiphobe, and Amalthaea. She was con- sulted by iEneas before his descent into the lower world, and accompanied him in his journey through the land of shadows. It was she who appeared before King Tarquin, offering him nine books for sale. The king refused to buy them, whereupon she went away, burnt three, and then re- turned, asking the original price for the remaining six. On his still refusing to purchase them, she again left, destroyed another three, and on her return offered to let him have the remaining three at the price which she had asked for the nine. Tarquin, astonished at such singular con- duct, bought the books ; and the sibyl van- ished. On inspection they were found to contain directions as to the worship of the gods and the policy of the Romans. They were kept with great care in a stone chest in an underground chamber of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, at first by two commissioners, afterward by a col- lege of 10, finally increased by Sulla to 15. These oracle keepers alone consulted them, by special order of the senate, in case of prodigies, dangers, and calamities. In 83 B. C. the temple of Jupiter was burned and the original Sibylline books were destroyed. Ambassadors were ac- cordingly sent to the different towns of Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, to make a fresh collection. This was deposited in the temple when rebuilt. Spurious Sibyl- line books now began to accumulate and circulate in Rome. Augustus, fearing danger to the state from the abuse of them, ordered that all such should be delivered up. Over 2,000 were thus destroyed. Those that were accounted genuine were deposited in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. The writing of these having become faded, Augustus com- manded them to be rewritten. In the con- flagration of Rome in the reign of Nero they were all again destroyed. New col- lections were made, which were publicly and finally burnt by the Christian Em- peror Honorius. The Sybilline oracles to which the Christian Fathers refer are in no sense whatever to be confounded with the older pagan collections. They are "pious frauds," belonging to early ecclesiastical literature. An exhaustive collection of the Sibylline oracles was published by Gal- laeus (1689). Fragments have been edited byAngeloMai (1817) and Struve (1818). SICILIAN VESPERS. Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX., King of France, having seized Sicily by virtue of a grant from Pope Alexander IV., the natives rose against the French the day after Easter, March 30, 1282. The mas- sacre which ensued commenced at Paler- mo, extended to Messina and other parts of the island, and is known in history as the Sicilian Vespers. SICILIES, THE TWO, a former king- dom of Italy, consisting of Naples (or S. Italy) and Sicily. In 1047, while Greeks and Saracens were struggling for the pos- session of lower Italy and Sicily, the 12 sons of Tancred de Hauteville, a count in lower Normandy, came in with their followers. Robert Guiscard, one of these brothers, subdued Apulia and Calabria, taking the title of duke, and his youngest