Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/830

818 Augusto bis consuli, extending to 548 hexameters, with a prologue in fifteen and an epilogue in five elegiac couplets. Delivered 468. The plan in each of these complimentary harangues is precisely the same. Each contains an account of the ancestors of the personage whom it celebrates, of his education and early career, of the feats which he had performe'd, and of the honours which he had won. Besides the above, we have two Epithalamia; a description in 235 hexameters of the town of Burgus (Bourg sur mer), situated on the Dronne, near its confluence with the Garonne ; 512 hendecasyllabics in praise of Narbo (Narbonne); Excusatorium ad V. C. Felicem in 350 hendecasyllabics; Euchaiisticum ad Faustum Reiensem episcopum in 128 hexameters; Propempticon ad Libellum in 101 hendecasyllabics, and several short epigrams.

II. Epistolarum Libri IX., containing 147 letters, many of them interspersed with pieces of poetry. They are addressed to a wide circle of relatives and friends upon topics connected with politics, literature, and domestic occurrences, but seldom touch upon ecclesiastical matters.

The writings of Sidonius are characterised by great subtlety of thought, expressed in phraseology abounding with harsh and violent metaphors. Hence he is generally obscure, and not unfrequently unintelligible; but his works throughout bear the impress of an acute, vigorous, and highly cultivated intellect. In poetry Claudian appears to have been the object of his imitation, but he is immeasurably inferior to his model, while in his epistles he avowedly strove to tread in the footsteps of the younger Pliny and Symmachus. In so far as Latinity is concerned, his verse, although deformed by numerous metrical solecisms, is far superior to his prose, which probably approached much more nearly to the language of ordinary life, and abounds in barbarisms. On the other hand, his frigid poems are totally destitute of interest, except in so for as the panegyrics afford some data for the historical events of an epoch regarding which trustworthy sources of information are singularly deficient, while his letters are frequently very amusing and instructive from the glimpses which they afford of domestic usages and social habits in the fifth century among persons in the upper ranks of life.

The editio Princeps of Sidonius was published at Milan fol. 1498, with notes by Joannes Baptista Pius; the best edition is that of Sirmond, 4 to. Paris, 1652. See also the collected works of Sirmond, vol. i. p. 464, ed. Venet.; the Bibliotlieca Patrum Max. Lugdun. fol. 1677, vol. vi. p. 1075, and the BMotJteca Patrum of Galland, fol. Venet. 1788, tom. X. p. 463.

(The materials for the life of Sidonius are derived chiefly from his own writings. In consequence of the ambiguous nature of the expressions employed, some of the minor details are doubtful. See Gregor. Turonensis, Histor. Franc, ii. 21 ; Gennad. de Viris Illustr. c. 92 ; Trithem. de Script. Eccles. c. 179 ; Alex. Germain, Essai littéraire et historique sur Apollinaire Sidoine, 8vo. Montpell. 1840.) [W. R.]

SIDONIUS CITE'RIUS. [Citerius.]

SIGOVE'SUS. [Ambigatus.]

SILA'NA, JU'NIA, the husband of C. Silius, whom the latter was obliged to put away in 47, when Messalina fell in love with him. Silaua is described by Tacitus as distinguished by her birth, her beauty, and her wantonness. She had formerly been an intimate friend of Agrippina, but afterwards quarrelled with her, because Agrippina had prevented Sextius Africanus from marrying her. Accordingly when Agrippina displeased her son Nero in A. d, 55, Silana endeavoured to have her revenge by accusing Agrippina of having in- tended to marry Rubellius Plautus, and then to raise him to the throne in the place of Nero. But Agrippina had not yet lost all her influence over her son; and Silana, in consequence of her accusation, was driven into exile. She returned to Italy when the power of Agrippina was declining, but died at Tarentuni before the murder of the latter in a. d. 59 (Tac. Ann. xi. 12, xiii. 19,22, xiv. 12). Tacitus does not mention the father of this Junia Silana. She may, however, have been the daughter of M, Silanus, consul, 19 [Silanus, Junius, No. 8], and the sister of Junia Claudilla, who married the emperor Caligula,

SILA'NION, a distinguished Greek statuary in bronze, is mentioned by Pliny among the contemporaries of Lysippus at 01. 114, B.C. 324 (H.N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19). He probably belonged, however, not to the school of Lysippus, but to the later Attic school ; for we learn from Pausanias (vi. 4. § 3) that he was an Athenian. The passage of Pliny as commonly understood, represents Silanion as a wonderful instance of a self-taught artist ; but perhaps the words "in hoc mirabile, quod nullo doctore nohilis fuit," may be referred to Lysippus, rather than to Silanion. So, also, in the next clause, "ipse discipubim habuit Zetixiadem," there is a doubt left, whether Zeuxiades was the disciple of Silanion or of Lysippus. It should here be observed that the word Zeuxiadem, which is the reading of all the best MSS., is corrupted, in the inferior MSS. and the common editions, into Zeuxin et ladem. (See Sillig, Cat. Artif. s. V. and edition of Pliny: the reading Zeusiadem., which some of the best MSS. give, is the same thing, for it is extremely common to find s for the Greek .)

The statues of Silanion belong to two classes, ideal and actual portraits ; the former again including heroes and men. Of these the most celebrated was his dying Jocasta, in which a deadly paleness was given to the face by the mixture of silver with the bronze ; a remarkable example of the technical refinement, and of the principle of actual imitation which characterised the art of this period. We cannot conceive of Pheidias or Polycleitus descending to such an artifice (Plut. de Aud. Poet. 3, Quaest. Conv. v. 1 ; comp. de Pyth. Or. 2; respecting the general subject of the colouring of bronze statues, see Müller, Archäol. d. Kunst, § 306. n. 3, ed. Welcker). He also made a fine statue of Achilles (Plin. l. c. § 21), and one of Theseus (Plut. Thes. 4). Tatian ascribes to him statues of the lyric poetesses Sappho and Corinna (Tatian. ad Graec. 52, pp. 113, 114, ed. Worth; where by Tatian undoubtedly means the poetess and not, as some fancy, another person, a courtezan of Eresos, of whose existence there is no proof ; see, p. 708, a.). His statue of Sappho stood in the prytaneium at Syracuse in the time of Verres, who carried it off; and Cicero alludes to it in terms of the highest praise (Verr. iv. 57).

Silanion also made a statue of Plato, which