Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/905

Rh SPENDIUS. Appian, B.CA. 116—12], B. Mlthr.]{iQ ; Front. Stmt. i. 5. §§ 20—23. 7. § 6, ii. 4. § 7, 5. § 34 ; Siill. Fragm. Hist. iii. No, 1 67, p. 254, ed. Gerlach ; Cic. pro Leg. Man. 11. § 50, Verr. v. 2. § 5, ad J it. vi. 2, Philipp. iv. 6, Parad. iv, 2, //an ^e.sT). J 2 ; Varr. Fragm. p. 250, Bip. ed. ; Lucan. Phars. ii, 554 ; Themist. Or. ix, ; Hor, Carm. iii, 14. 1.9, FJpod. 16. 5 ; Augustin. C Dei, iii. 26 ; Paneg. Vet, ; Sidon. Apollin, Carm. ix. 253 : Plin, //. N. xxxiii. 14 ; Diod, xxxviii. 21.) [W. B,D.] SPARTI ('ZirapToi), from the verb (TTreipco, and accordingly signifies " the sown men;" it is the name given to the armed men who sprang from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, and were believed to be the ancestors of the live oldest families at Thebes, (Apollod, iii, 4, § 1 ; Pans, ix, 5, § 1, 10, § 1 ; Schol, ad Apollon. Rhod. iii, 1179, ad Find. Istlim. i. 41, at/ Enrip. Plioen. 670, «(/ Soph. Antig. 128 ; Ov. Met. iii. 101, &c. ; comp. Cadmus), [L. S,] SPARTIA'NUS, DE'LIUS, one of the six "Scriptoros Historiae Augustae" (see Capitoli- Nus), His name is prefixed to biographies of, 1. Ha- drianus and Aelius Verus ; 2. Didiiis Julianus ; 3. Severus ; 4. Pescennius Niger ; 5. Caracalla ; 6. Geta ; of which the first four are inscribed to Dio- cletian, the fifth to no one, the sixth to Con- stantino, and hence the last two are believed l)y many to be from a different hand. He repeatedly informs us that he had composed the lives of all the emperors down to Hadrian, beginning, as we must infer from his words, with Julius Caesar, and that he intended to continue the work to his own time. The whole of the first portion of his labours has however perished, the collection which bears the title of the Augustan History com- mencing, as we have pointed out in a former ar- ticle [Capitolinus], with Hadrianus, and it seems very doubtful if he ever completed his design, since Vopisciis (Aurelian. init.) expressly declares that he was acquainted with no work in the Latin language which contained an account of tlie career of Aurelian. We have already observed [Capitolinus] that there is much difficulty in assigning the pieces which form this series to their proper authors. Salraasius found in the Palatine MS. the whole from Hadrianus to Alexander Severus attributed to Spartianus, and those from the two Maximini to Balbinus under the name of Capitolinus, and hence was led to form the pro- bable conjecture that Spartianus and Lampridius [Lampridius] were one and the same person, whose name in full was Aelius Lampridius Spar- tianus. For the editions, translations, &c. of Spar- tianus see Capitolinus. f W. R.] SPARTON (:S,irdpTa}u), the name of two my- thical personages, the one a son of Phoroneus (Paus. ii. 16. § 3), and the other a son of Tisa- menus. (Paus. vii. 6. § 2). [L. S.] SPEIO CSneici), one of the Nereids. CHora. //. xviii. 40 ; Hes. TJieog. 245.) [L. S.] SPE'NDIUS (STTffSjos), one of the chief leaders of the Carthaginian mercenaries in their insurrection, after the close of the First Punic War, B. c. 241. He was a Campanian by birth, but had been a slave under the Romans, and having made his escape entered the service of the Carthaginians as a mercenary soldier, whei'e he rose to a distin- guished place by his great personal strength and daring. After the close of the war he became ap- prehensive lest he should be given up to the Romans, and hence exerted himself to the utmost SPEUS:PPUS. 893 in fomenting the discontents of his brother mer- cenaries, and preventing them from coming to any agreement with their Carthaginian masters. For this reason, when the troops at length broke out into open mutiny, he was chosen, together with an African of the name of Matho, to be their leader. The proceedings of the two joint commanders during the war which followed, have been already related under Matho. Spendius was at length taken prisoner by Hamilcar Barca [Hamilcar, No. 8, p. 329], and crucified by his orders before the walls of Tunis : his body afterwards fell into the power of Matho, who caused the Carthaginian general Hannibal to be suspended in its place upon the same cross. (Polyb. i. 69, Sic, 85, 86 ; Diod. XXV. Focc. Vales, p. 567, Em. Vat. p. 55.) [E.H.B.] SPENDON (STreVSojj/), of Sparta, one of those early musicians whose paeans were sung by the Spartan youths at the Gyninopaedeia, with those of Thaletas and Alcman, (Plut, Lye. 28.) [P, S,] SPERA'TUS, JU'LIUS, We possess an elegy, extending to thirteen couplets, in praise of the nightingale, which was first published by Pithou, and afterwards with greater care by Gol- dastus (Opuscula Erot. et Amat. p, 74), who made use of four MSS. Of these, three gave no indi- cation regarding the author, but the fourth, which belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, bore the title Versus Julii Sperati de Philomela. We know notliing whatsoever of this personage, nor of the age to which he belongs, except that the piece in question was imitated by Paulus Alvarus of Cor- duba, a monk of the ninth century. The lines will be found in Wernsdorf, Pott. Lat. Minoi: vol. vi. part ii. p. 403 ; comp. vol. vi. part i. p. 255, and in Burmann, Anthol. Lat. v. 149, or No, 392, ed. Meyer. [W. R,] SPERCHEIUS {'2.TTfpx^i6s), a Thessalian river- god, became the father of Menesthius by Polydora, the daughter of Peleus, (Horn. //, xvi, 174, xxiii. 142 ; Apollod, iii. 14. § 4 ; Paus. i, 37, § 2 ; Herod, vii, 198). [L. S.] SPERTHIAS. [BuLis.] SPES, the personification of hope, was wor- shipped at Rome, where she had several temples, the most ancient of which had been built in B, c. 354, by the consul Atilius Calatinus, near the Porta Carmentalis (Liv. ii, 5l,xxi. 62, xxiv. 47, xxv. 7, xh 51; Tac. Ann. ii. 49). The Greeks also wor- shipped the personification of hope, Elpis, and they relate the beautiful allegorjs that when Epimetheus opened the vessel brought to him by Pandora, from which all manner of evils were scattered over the earth, Hope (Elpis) alone remained behind (Hes. Op. et D. 9Q; Theognis, 1135). Hope was re- presented in works of art as a youthful figure, lightly walking in full attire, holding in her right hand a flower, and with the left lifting up her gar- ment. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. p. 100 ; Muller, Anc. Art and its Rem. $ 406,) [L, S,] SPEUSIPPUS (SiTfufftTrTTos), the distinguished disciple of Plato, was a native of Athens, and the son of Eurymedon and Potone, a sister of Plato (Diog, Laert. iv. 1 ; Suid. s. v.). We hear nothing of his personal history till the time when he ac- companied his uncle Plato on his third journev to Syracuse, where he displayed considerable ability and prudence, especially in his amicable relations with Dion (Plut, Dion, c. 22, 17). His moral worth is recognised even by the sillographer Timon,