Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1009

 SICULT. onr scanty knowledge goes, therefore, we must conclude that the two shores of the Sicilian strait were at one period peopled by the same tribe, who were known to the Greeks by the name of Sicels or Siculi; and that this tribe was probably a branch of the Oenotrian or Pelasgic race. The legends which connected these Siculi with those who were expelled from Latium seem to have been a late invention, as we may infer from the circumstance that Sicelus, •who is represented by Antiochus as taking refuge with Morges, king of Italia, was called a fugitive from Rome. (Dionys. i. 73.) 3. The Siculi or Siceli were the people who oc- cupied the greater part of the island of Sicily when the Greek colonies were first established there, and continued throughout the period of the Greek domi- nation to occupy the greater part of the iuterior, especially the more rugged and mountainous tracts of the island. [Sicilia.] The more westerly portions were, however, occupied by a people called Sicani, whom the Greek writers uniformly distinguish from the Siculi, notwithstanding the resemblance of the two names. These indeed would seem to have been in their origin identical, and we find Roman writers using them as such ; so that Virgil more than once employs the name of Sicani, where he can only mean the ancient Latin people called by Dionysius Siculi. {yirg. Aen. viii. 795, xi. 317.) 4. The traces of the Siculi on the western shores of the Adriatic are more uncertain. Pliny indeed tells us distinctly that Numana and Ancona were founded by the Siculi (Plin. iii. 13. s. 18); but it is by no means improbable that this is a mere con- fusion, as we know that the latter city at least was really founded by Sicilian Greehs, as late as the time of Dionysius of Syracuse [Ancona]. When, however, he tells us that a considerable jiart of this coast of It.'ily was held by the Siculians and Libur- nians, before it was conquered by the Umbrians (/&. 14. s. 19), it seems probable that he nmst have some other authority for this statement; Pliny is, liowever, the only author who mentions the Siculi in this part of Italy. From these statements it is very difficult to arrive at any definite conclusion with regard to the ethno- graphic affinities of the Siculi. On the one hand, the notices of them in Southern Italy, as already observed, seem to bring them into close connection with the Itali and other Oenotrian tribes, and would lead us to assign tliem to a Pelasgie stock : but on the other it must be admitted that Dionysius dis- tinctly separates them from the Pelasgi in Latium, and represents them as expelled from that country by the Pelasgi, in conjunction with the so-called Aborigines. Hence the opinions of modern scholars have been divided; Kiebuhr distinctly receives the Siculi as a Pelasgie race, and as forming the Pelas- gie or Greek element of the Latin people; the same view is adopted by 0. Miiller (Eirusker, pp. 10 — 16, &c.) and by Aijeken {Mittel Italien, p. .5); while Grotefend (^Alt Italien,yo. iv. pp. 4 — 6), fol- lowed by Forbiger and others, regards the Siculi as a Gaulish or Celtic race, who had gradually wandered southwards through the peninsula of Italy, till they finally crossed over and established themselves in the inland of Sicily. This last hypothesis is, however, purely conjectural. We have at least some foun- dation for supposing the Siculi as well as the Oeno- trians to be of Pelasgie origin : if this be rejected, we are wholly in the dark as to their origin or affinities. [K. H. B.] SICYON. 9Sd SI'CULUM JIARE (jh :S.iKeKiKlv -neXayos, Pol. Strab. &c.), was the name given in ancient times to that portion of the Mediterranean sea which bathed the eastern shores of Sicily. But like all similar appellations, the name was used in a somewhat vague and fluctuating manner, so that it is difficult to fix its precise geographical linjits. Thus Strabo describes it as extending along the eastern shore of Sicily, from the Straits to Cape Pachynus, with the southern shore of Italy as far as Locri, and again to the eastward as far as Crete and the Peloponnese; and as filling the Corinthian Gulf, and extending northwards to the lapygian promontory and the mouth of the Ionian gulf. (Strab. ii. p. 123.) It is clear, therefore, that he included under the name the whole of the sea between the Peloponnese and Sicily, which is more commonly known as the Ionian sea [loxiuJi Mare], but was termed by later writers the Adriatic [Adeiaticum Mare]. Poly- bius, who in one passage employs the name of Ionian sea in this more extensive sense, elsewhere uses that of the Sicilian sea in the same general manner as Strabo, since he speaks of the island ot Cephallenia as extending out towards the Sicilian sea (v. 3); and even describes the Ambracian gulf as an inlet or arm of the Sicilian sea (iv. 63, v. 5). Eratosthenes also, it would appear from Pliny, ap- plied the name of Siculum JIare to the whole extent from Sicily to Crete. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10.) The usage of Pliny himself is obscure; but Mela distin- guishes the Sicilian sea from the Ionian, applying the former name to the western part of the broad sea, nearest to Sicily, and the latter to its more easterly portion, nearest to Greece. (Mel. ii. 4. § 1.) But tills distinction does not seem to have been generally adopted or continued long in use. Indeed the name of the Sicilian sea seems to have fallen much into disuse. Ptolemy speaks of Sicily itself as bounded on the N. by the Tyrrhenian sea, on the S. by the African, and on the E. by the Adriatic; thus omit- ting the Sicilian sea altogether (Ptol. iii. 4. § 1); and. this seems to have continued under the liomau Empire to be the received nomenclature. Strabo tells us that the Sicilian sea was the same which had previously been called the Ausonian (Strab. ii. p. 133, v. p. 233); but it is probable that that name was never applied in the more extended sense in which he uses the Sicilian sea, but was con- fined to the portion more immediately adjoining the southern coasts of Italy, from Sicily to the lapygian promontory. It is in this sense that it is employed by Pliny, as well as by Polybius, whom he cites as his authority. (Plin. 7. c.) [E. H. P..] SICUM (Si/cow, Ptol. ii. 16. § 4; Plin. iii. 22; Siclis, rent. Tab.), a town of Dalmatia, to the E. of Tragurium, on the road to Salona, where Claudius, is said to have quartered the veterans. (Plin. I.e.} From its position it cannot be Sclenico, with which it has been identified, but may be represented by tho vestiges of a Konan station to the NW. of Casiel Vettiiri, on the Riviere dei Castelli, where a column with a dedicatory inscription to M. Julius Phili]ipus has been lately found, as well as much pottery and Koman tiles. (Wilkinson, Bulmatia, vol. i. p. 176.) [E.B.J.] SrCYON (6 and ri 'S.iKvdv, also ItKvdiv, Bckker, yln«'</. p. .5,5.'): Eth. "S.mvwvios : the territory 2i- Kvwvia: Vasilikd.') 1. Situation. — Sicyon w.as an important cily of Peloponnesus, situated upon a table-height of no great elevation, at the distance of about 2 miles from the