Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/976

Rh 964 SYNTIPAS. partim autem ab Achmede filio Abrami, nepote Chaletis medici, primum fuit compositum." IbnU- l-Jezzar was a pupil of Ishak Ibn Soleiman Al- Israilf (commonly called Isaac Judaeus)^ and lived at Kairowan in Africa. He died at a great age, A.H. 395 (a. D. lOOf). He was a man of con- siderable eminence, and wrote several works on medicine, metaphysics, history &c., some of which are extant in MS. in different European libraries. The only one of these with which we are here concerned is entitled JUw^Ji t>lj, Zddu-l-Mu- sdfer, "Viaticum Peregrinantiura," and consists of seven books. There is an incomplete Arabic MS. of this work in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Hwit. 302), which the Writer has examined //ar- tiallT/ throughout, more especially the part corre- sponding with the Pseudo-Synesius ; and he finds (as Reiske had done before him,) that it agrees (upon the whole) very exactly with the Greek and Latin translations mentioned above. A more minute examination of the Arabic, Greek, and Latin texts will probably enable some future editor to give some further information respecting the two trans- lations : the Writer can only say of the conjecture that the Latin version was made from the Greek rather than from the original Arabic, that it appears to him to be wholly without foundation, inasmuch as the Latin translation in some places agrees more closely with the Arabic text than with the Greek. Ibnu-l-Jezzar's work was also translated into He- brew by Rabbi Moshe Ben Tibbon (Uri, Catal. MSS. Hebr. Bibl. Bodl. § 413), and thus enjoys the singular honour of having been translated into no less than three languages during the middle ages. (For further information see Bernard's Preface to Synesius ; NicoU and Pusey's Catal. MSS. Arab, liibl. Bodl. p. 587 ; Wiisteiifeld, Gesch.der Arab. Aerzteund Naturforscher., § 120 ; Choulant,//awc^6. der Buclierkunde fur die Aeltere Medidn., §§ 46, 70,90.) [W. A.G.] SYNNOON {'XvvvoSiv), statuary. [Aristo- CLES.] SYNTIPAS, a Persian sage, to whom are attri- buted two works of which we possess Greek trans- lations, which bear the name of Michael Andreo- pulus. One of these works is a romance, or collection of stories, very much on the plan of the 'I'housand and One Nights. By an Arabic author, however, the work is ascribed to one Sendebad, the head of the philosophers of India, who lived somewhere about 100 years before Christ, and wrote a work entitled " The Book of the Seven Counsellors, the Teacher and the Mother of the King." This work was translated into Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac, and it is from this last translation that the Greek translation was made. The Greek translation seems to belong to about the eleventh century. It appears not un- likely that this work became known to Europe through the crusades. In the form in which we at present possess it, the work has been accom- modated to Christian ideas. The Greek text was published by Boissonade {De Syniipa et Cyri FiUo Andreoptili Narraiio, Paris, 1828). The other work attributed to Syntipas, and, like the former, translated into Greek from the Syriac, is a collection of fables (TrapaSnyixaTiKol yoi)» An edition of this work was published by F. Matthaei at Leipzig, in 178L (Scl)oll, GVscA. rf«r Gnfiiih. JMteiatur. voL iii. p. 429, Ai.c.) [C.P. M.] SYPHAX. SY'NTROPHUS, P. RUTI'LIUS, is desig- nated Marmorarius in an extant inscription, found at Cadiz, which records the accomplishment of a vow which he had made to erect in the temple of Minerva a Theostasis decorated with marbles, wrought by his own hand (Muratori, Thes. vol. i. p. cxxv. 2 ; Orelli, Inscrip. Lat. Sd. No. 2507). It is doubtful whether the word Marmorarius sig- nifies a sculptor, or a common worker in marble. Raoul-Rochette quotes a passage from Seneca [Epid. 88), in which it appears to have the former sense ; and, of course, if such be its meaning in this inscription, the name of Syntrophus must be added to the lists of ancient artists. (R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Schorn., pp. 41 1, 412, 2d ed.) [P. S.J SYPHAX (2u<^ai), a Numidian prince, fre- quently called king of Numidia, but properly, or at least originally, only king of the Massaesylians, the westernmost tribe of the Numidians. (Polyb. xvi. 23 ; Liv. xxviii. 17.) The period of his ac- cession is unknown, nor do we learn anytliing of the relations in which he had stood towards the Carthaginians previous to the year b. c. 213, when we find him engaged in hostilities with that people. This circumstance, together with the successes of the Roman arms in Spain at that juncture, induced the two Scipios to enter into friendly relations with him ; they accordingly sent three officers as envoys to him, with promises of assistance from Rome if he persevered in his hostility to their common enemy ; and one of these legates, Q. Sta- torius, even remained in Numidia to instruct him in the art of war. Under his direction Syphax levied a regular army, with which he was able to meet the Carthaginians in the field, and defeat them in a pitched battle. Hereupon they recalled Hasdrubal from Spain to take the command against him, at the same time that they concluded an al- liance with Gala, king of the Massylians, who sent his whole forces, under the command of his son Masinissa, to the support of the Carthaginians. Syphax was unable to contend with their united strength ; he was totally defeated in a great battle (in which 30,000 men are said to have fallen), and compelled to take refuge in Mauritania. Here he soon gathered a fresh force around him, but was pursued and again defeated by Masinissa. (Liv. xxiv. 48, 49 ; Appian. Hisp. 15, 16.) Of his subsequent fortunes we know nothing for some time ; but he appears to have concluded a treaty ol peace with Carthage, by which he apparently re- gained possession of his dominions. In B.C. 210, we find him renewing his overtures to the Romans, and recounting his successes over the Carthaginians (Liv. xxvii. 4), with whom he appears to have been at that time again at war ; but in B. c. 206 he was once more on peaceful, and even friendly terms with the same people. At that time, how- ever, the successes of the young Scipio in Spain led him to cast his eyes towards Africa also, and he sent his friend Laelius on an embassy to Syphax, in the hope of detaching him from the Carthaginian alliance. The Numidian king lent a favourable ear to his overtures, but refused to treat with any one but the Roman general in person. Hereupon Scipio boldly ventured over to Africa, where he was received by Syphax in the n.«sc friendly manner, although he accidentally arrived at the same time with the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal, the son of (jisco. The personal influ- ence of Scipio for a lime obtained tlie ascendancy,