Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/485

LEFT SIDON 421 SIEGE of many-sided achievements outstanding even in that time of houndless activity. As men of all nations had looked to him as a leader and had dedicated to him books in every field of human knowledge, so at his death every nation bore tribute to him. The mere list of the poetical tributes to his memory is without parallel elsewhere. But his greatest achievement was himself. His personality exerted a fascination not only on his contemporaries but on succeeding ages. He won immor- tality, not through his actual work, varied and worthy as that work was, but through himself. SIDON (Hebrew, Zidon), anciently a city of Phoenicia; on the E. coast of the Mediterranean; half way between Tyre and Beyrout. It soon rose, both by its exceptional position and the enterprising character of its inhabitants, to the first position among the cities of Phoenicia, so that the whole country is sometimes desig- nated by the name Sidon. The colonies extended over the coast of Asia Minor, the adjacent islands, Thrace and Euboea, and even some parts of Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, northern Africa, in fact, nearly the whole of the ancient world. The Sido- nian manufactures of glass and linen, purple dye and perfumes, were sources of vast wealth. At length it surrendered to Shalmaneser, King of Assyria. But un- der Assyrian, Chaldean, and Persian dom- ination it retained a kind of independence for its internal affairs, and under the Per- sians reached its highest prosperity. An unsuccessful revolt against Artaxerxes Ochus ended in its temporary ruin (351 B. c). Speedily rebuilt and repeopled, it opened its gates to Alexander the Great (333 B. a), and from that time forth it fell successively into the hands of Syrian, Greek, and Roman rulers. Through the Middle Ages little is heard of it, except that it was taken by the Crusaders. The present town of Saida has 15,000 inhabi- tants, of whom 7,000 are Mohammedans. In the neighborhood are numerous rock- cut burial-places of the ancient Phoeni- cians, in which have been found the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar, King of As- syria, and others. The town was stormed by the allies under Napier in 1840. SIEBENGEBIRGE, a small mountain range of Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine, not far from Bonn. Seven mountains tower above the rest, of which the Drachenfels, close to the Rhine, and presenting a splendid view from the river, is the most beautiful. On all of them are ruins of ancient castles. SIEDLCE, the chief town of the for- mer Russian province of the same name, in Poland; 40 miles E. by S. of Warsaw. The seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, it has a fine palace, girt with beautiful gar- dens, and carries on important industries. Pop. about 30,000. Considerable fighting occurred here during the World War. The province lying between the Vistula and the Bug nearly corresponds to the old palatinate of Polachia, area, 5,534 square miles; pop. province, 1,000,000. It now is part of the republic of Poland. SIEGE, literally a sitting down. When the assault of a fortified place would be too hazardous and costly and its reduction by blockade too slow, recourse is had to the "regular siege or systematic attack." In order to cross the open ground swept by the fire of the fortress with as little loss as possible the besieger makes use of sunken roads or trenches. The revet- ments having been breached by his artil- lery or mines, he continues these roads through the breaches into the place. To prevent these "approaches" being enfi- laded by the guns of the fortress they are made at first in zigzags ; the prolongations of which are directed so as to clear the works of the fronts attacked, and, when a direct advance becomes necessary, they are provided with traverses at short intervals, or "blinded sap" is used — i.e., a trench covered in with timber and earth. Two or three such lines of approach are used. To protect and connect them lateral trenches are formed from which large bodies of troops can fire upon any sortie that may be made. These are termed "parallels," being parallel to the general front of the parts attacked. The ancients used to surround the place attacked with a high bank of earth, called a "line of circumvallation" and protected themselves against attack from the out- side by another called a "line of contra- vallation," and a similar arrangement was in vogue till the middle of the 19th century. Now a covering field army is employed, which by its greater mobility, is able to meet the relieving army many miles from the besieging force, and a chain of fortified localities takes the place of the continuous line of circumvallation. In order that a siege may be safely under- taken the strength of the besieger should be about four times that of the garrison. In 1870 Strasburg, with a garrison of 20,000, was captured by a besieging force of 60,000 strong. Metz was starved into surrender, the presence of so many men (some 170,000) besides the proper garri- son only hastening that result. The "siege parks," or main depots, for the artillery and engineer trains must be out of range of the enemy's guns, con- taining as they do powder, ammunition, guns, and warlike stores of all descrip-