Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1021

 SILOAM. St. Jerome places it xii. M. P. from Neapolis (=She- chem == Nablus), in the toparchy of Acrabattena. (^Onomast. s. v.) Its ruins were shown, and the remains of the altar amonj; them, in his day. {Com- ment, in Sophon. i. 14, Epitaph. Paulae.') From these notes the site is easily identified with the modern Siliui, on the east of the Nahh'is road, about four hours south of that town, situated over against a village named El-Lebban (Lebonah), which lends its name also to a Khan on the road-side. SiJlin is merely a heap of ruins lying on a hill of moderate elevation at the south-eastern extremity of a valley through which passes the great north road from .Tudaea to Galilee. " Among the ruins of modern houses are traces of buildings of greater antiquity, and at some distance, towards the east, is a well of good water, and in the valleys many tombs ex- cavated in the rock.'' (Robinson, Bihl. Res. vol. iii. pp. 86 — 89.) Among the tombs of Shiloh, if Re- iand's conjecture is correct, is to be sought the very slender authority on which the pagans rested their assertion that their demigod Silenus was buried in the country of the Hebrews; and the fact of the effigy of this deity being found on the coins of Flavia Neapolis, certainly lends countenance to his ingenious hypothesis that the fable originated in the imaginary correspondence between this name and the town of Ephraim. (^Palaeslina, p. 1017.) But the error which he has copied from Benjamin of Tudela, of placing the tomb of Samuel in Shiloh, is obviously attributable to a lapse of memory on the part of that writer, as no one has ever identified Shiloh with the modern Nebi Samicil. The error is corrected by Asher. (^Itinerary of R. Benjamin of Tudela, ed. A. Asher, vol. i. p. 78, vol. ii. p. 95.) [G. W.] SILOAM. [Jerusalem, p. 28, b.] SI'LPIA, a town in Hispania Baetica, N. of the Baetis, and apparently in the Sierra Morena. (Liv. xxviii. 12.) Vn>hahy Linares. [T. II. D.] SI'LSILIS (^Not. Imp.), a fort situated on the right bank of the Nile, between Ombos and Apolli- nopolis JIagna in Upper Aegypt. The original name of this place is nearly preserved in the modern Silili. The fort of Silsilis stood at the foot of the mountain now called Gebel Selsilek, or " hill of the chain," and was one of the points which commanded the passage of the river. For at this spot the Arabian and Libyan hills approach each other so nearly that the Nile, contracted to about half its ordinaiy width, seems to flow between two perpen- dicular walls of sandstone. Silsilis was one of the principal .seats for the worship of the Nile itself, and Ranieses II. con.secrated a temple to it, where it was worshipped under the emblem of a crocodile and the appellation of Hapimoou. The stone quarries of Silsilis were also celebrated for their durable and beautiful stone, of which the great temples and monuments of the Thebaid were for the most part built. (Wilkinson, Mod. Egypt and Thebes, vol. ii. p. 28.3.) [W. B. D.] SILVANECTES. This name occurs in the Notitia of the Provinces of Gallia, where the chief town is called Civitas Silvanectium. In the Notit. Iiiil). the Silvanectes arc placed in Belgica Secunda, but the name there denotes a town, according to the usage then established of giving to the capital towns the names of their people. It appears almost certain that the Subanecfi of Ptolemy (ii. 9. § 11) is the same name as Silvanectae or Silvanectes. Ptolemy places the Subanecti east of the Seine, and makes SBIOIS. 1001 Ratomagus their capital. But this Ratomagus is' conjectured to be the same as the Augustomagus of' the Itin. and of the Table, which is Senlis [Au- gustomagus], Pliny (iv. c. 17) mentions the Ulmanetes in Gallia Belgica: " Suessiones liberi, Ulmanetes liberi, Tungri." It is possible that this too may be a cor- rupted form of Silvanectes, for the modern name Senlis confirms the form Silvanectes, and the name Ulmanetes is otherwise unknown. [G. L.] SI'LVIA, a place in lllyria, on the road from Sirmium to Salona. (^Itln. Ant. p. 269.) It is probably the same town as the Salvia of Ptolemy [SALaA]. It is identified with Keupris by La- pie. [T. H. D.] SI'LVIUM (SiXomov: Eth. Silvinus: Garagnone), a town of Apulia in the interior of the country. Ifc is noticed by Strabo (vi. p. 283) as the frontier town of the Peucetii, and its name is noticed by Pliny among the municipal towns of Apulia (Piin. iii. 11. s. 16). But at a much earlier period it is mentioned by Diodorus as an Apulian town, which was wrested from tlie Samnites by the Romans in b. c. 306 (Diod. XX. 80). Our only clue to its position is derived from the Itineraries, which place it 20 miles from Venusia, on the branch of the Appian Way which led direct to Tarentum. This distance coin- cides with the site of a town (now destroyed) called Garagnone, situated about midway between Spinaz- zolo and Poggio Orsino, and nearly due E. of Venosa (Pratilli, ViaAppia, iv. 6. p. 478; Romanelli, vol. ii p. 188). [E.H. B.] SILURA, an island of Britain, separated only by a narrow strait from the coast of the Dumnonii, who inhabited the most SW. point of Britannia. (Solin. c. 22.) It is probably the same island which Sul- picius Severus (ii. 51) calls Sylina, and seems to mean the Scilly Islands. [T. H. D.] SI'LURES (SiAvpej, Ptol. ii. 3. § 24), a powerful and warlike people in the W. part of Britannia Ro- mana, whose territory was bounded on the S. by the estuary of the Sabrina. The important towns of Isca and Venta belonged to them. Tacitus {Agr. 1 1 ) calls them descendants of the Iberi of Spain, and states that they had emigrated from Ireland into Britain; but there seems to be no foimdation for this opinion. (Cf. Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 202.) Although subjugated by the Romans, they caused them continual alarm; and they were the only people of Britain who, at a later period, main- tained their independence against the Saxons. (Beda, Hist. Ecc. i. 12, scq.; cf. Tac. Ann. xii. 2, 31; Plin. iv. 16. s. 30.) [T. H. D.] SIME'NA(2iV')": -E^'- Siyurjfew), a town on the coast of Lycia, 60 stadia from Apcrlac (Plin. v. 27 ; Steph. B. s. v.; Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. §§ 239, 240, where it is called Somena, ScijUTji-a ; comi). Leake Asia Minor, p. 188; Spratt and Forbes, Travels m Lijcia, v(j1. i. p. 137, vol. ii. pp. 86, 274.) [L. S.] SI'MENI. [IcENi.] SIMEON. [Palaestina, p. 529. b.] SIMITTU {^in'i(T6ov,YuA. iv.3. § 29), called by Pliny (v. 4. § 4) Simittuenho Ojipidum, a Roman colony in the interior of Nuniidia, on the road from Cirta to Carthago, 7 miles to the W. of Bulla Regia. (//m. Ant. p. 43.) There were some mineral waters 5 miles E. of the town {lb.). It lay on the site of the present Ain Semit, cii the Qiud-el-Bidl, 2 leagues to the W. of Z)';.//. [T. II. I).] SIMOIS (2iA<oeis), a small river of I'roas, having its source in Jlount Ida, or more accurately in Slouut