Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1008

 988 SICILIBBA. of strictly maritime route around the southern ex- tremity of the island from A^I■igentum to Syracuse; but with the exception of Fintis, which is probably Phintias {Alicata"), none of the stations can be identified. Lastly, a line of road was in use which crossed the island from Asirigentum direct to Fa- normus (Itlii. Ant. p. 9G), but none of its stations are known, and we are therefore unable to determine even its general course. The other routes given in the Itinerary of Antoninus are only vmimportant variations of the preceding ones. The Tabula gives only the one general line around the island (crossing, however, from Calvisiana on the S. coast direct to Syracuse), and the cross line already mentioned from Thermae to Catana. All discussion of distances along the above routes must be rejected as useless, until the routes themselves can be more accurately determined, which is extremely difficult in so hilly and broken a country as the greater part of the interior of Sicily. The similarity of names, which in Italy is so often a sure guide where all other in- dications are wanting, is of far less assistance in Sicily, where the long period of Arabic dominion has thrown the nomenclature of the island into gi-eat confusion [E- H. B.] COIN OF SICILIA. SICILIBBA or SICILIBRA (in the Geogr. IJav. Siciliba, iii. 5), a place in Africa Propria (ftin. Ant. pp. 2.5, 45), variously identified with Bazilbah and Eaouch Aloulna. [T. H. D.] SrCINOS (SiViros: Eth.'XiKiviTris: Sikino), a. small island in the Aegaean sea, one of the Sporades, Iving between Pholegandros and los, and containing a town of the same name. (Scylax, p. 19; Strab. X. p. 4S4; Ptol. iii. 15. § 31.) It is said to have been originally called Oenoe from its cultivation of the vine, but to have been named Sicinos after a son of Thoas and Oenoe. (Steph. B. s. v. ; ApoU. Rhod. i. 623; Schol. ad foe; Plin. iv. 12. s. 23; Etym. M. p. 712. 49.) Wine is still the chief production of the island. It was probably colonised by lonians. Like most of the other Grecian islands, it submitted to Xerxes (Herod, viii. 4), but it afterwards formed part of the Athenian maritime empire. There are some remains of the ancient city situated upon a lofty and rugtjed mountain, on whose summit stands the church of S. Marina. There is also still extant an ancient temple of the Pythian Apollo, now converted into the church Episkopi (r] 'E-jnaKoir-fi). It stands in a depression between the main range of moun- tains, and the summit lying more to the left, upon which the ruins of the ancient city stand. We learn from an inscription found there by Ross that it was the temple of the Pytliian Apollo. (Ross, Reisen auf den Grieck. Inseln, vol. ii. p. 149, seq.; Fiedler, Keise, vol. ii. p. 151, seq.) SICOR. [Secok.] SrCORIS (2,iKopts, Dion Cass. xli. 20), a tri- butary river of the Iberus in Hispania Tarraconensis. It rose in the Pyrenees in the territory of the Cer- SICULI. retani, and separated the countries of the Ilergetes and Lacetani. It flowed past Ilerda, and according to Vibius Sequester (p. 224, ed. Bipont) bore the name of that town. A little afierwards it received the Cinga, and then flowed into the Iberus near Octogesa. (Caes. B. C. i. 40, 48; Plin. iii. 3. s. 4; Lucan. iv. 13, seq.) Ausonius describes it as flow- ing impetuously (" torreutem," Ejnst. xxv. 59). Now the Segre. [T. H. D.] SrCULI (SiKeXoi), is the name given by ancient writers to an ancient race or people that formed one of the elements iu the primitive population of Italy, as well as Sicily. But the accounts given of them are very confused and uncertain. We find the Siculi mentioned: 1, as among the early inhabitants of Latium; 2, iu the extreme S. of Italy; 3, in Sicily ; 4, on the shores of the Adriatic. It will be convenient to examine these notices separately. 1. The Siculi are represented by Dionysius as the earliest inhabitants of the country subsequently called Latium (i. 9), as well as of the southern part of I'^truria; they were an indigenous race, i. e. one of whose wanderings and origin he had no account. They held the whole country till they were expelled from it by the people whom he calls Aborigines, descending from the mountains of Central Italy [Aborigines], who made war upon them, in con- junction with the Pelasgians; and after a long pro- tracted struggle, wrested from them one town after another (Id^ i. 9, 16). Among the cities that are expressly mentioned by him as having once been occupied by the Siculi, are Tibur, where a part of the city was still called in the days of Dionysius Si/ceAiwi', Ficulea, Antemnae, and Tellenae, as well as Falerii and Fescemiium, in the country after- wards called Etruria (Id. i. 16, 20, 21). The Siculi being thus finally expelled from their posses- sions in this part of Italy, were reported to have migrated in a body to the southern extremity of the peninsula, from whence they crossed over the straits, and established themselves in the island of Sicily, to which they gave the name it has ever since borne. [Sicilia.] (Id. i. 22.) Dionysius is the only author who has left us a detailed account of the conquest and expulsion of the Siculi, but they are mentioned by Pliny among the races that had successively occupied Latium (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9); and this seems to have been an established and received tradition. 2. We find the Siculi frequently mentioned in the southernmost portion of the Italian peninsula, where they appear in close connection with the Oenotrians, ]Iorgetes, and Itali, all of them kindred tiibes, which there are good reasons for assigning to the Pelasgic race. [Oenotria.] It is probable, as suggested by Strabo, that the Siculi, more than once, mentioned by Homer {Odyss. xx. 383, xxiv. 211, &c.), were the inhabitants of the coast of Italy opposite to Ithaca: and the traditions of the Epizephyrian Lo- crians, reported by Polybius, spoke of the Siculi as the people in whose territory they settled, and with whom they first found themselves engaged in war. (Polyb. xii. 5, 6 ) Numerous traditions also, reported by Dionysius (i. 22, 73) from Antiochus, Hella- nicus, and others, concur in bringing the Siculi and their eponymous leader Siculus (SiKeAds) into close connection with Italus and the Itali: and this is confirmed by the linguistic relation which may fairly be admitted to exist between 2i/ceA(5s and 'lras (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 47) though this is not close enough to be in itself conclusive. So far as