Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1022

 1002 SIMUNDU. Cotylus, which passed by Ilion, joineJ the Scamander helow that city. This river is frequently spoken of in the Iliad, and described as a rapid mountain torrent. {II. iv. 47.'), V. 774, xii. 22, xxi. 308; comp. Acschyl. ^<7«;«. 692; Strab. xiii. p. 597; I'tol. v. 2. § 3; Steph. B. s. v. Pomp. Mela, i, 18; Plin. v. 33; and Scabiander.) Its present name is IJum- breh Chai, and at present its course is so altered that it is no longer a tributary of the Scamander, but flows directly into the Hellespont. [L. S.] SIMUXDU. [Tai-kobane.] SIJIYLLA (:S,inva, Ptol. vii. 1. § 6), a com- mercial entrepot on the western coast of Bindostan, in the district called 'ApiaKo, SaSu'wi'. It is noticed in the I'eriplus by the name of 2^;ituAo, and was probably at or near Bassein, a little N. of Bom- hay. [V.] SI'MYRA {'S.ifxvpa.), a maritime city of Phoenicia mentioned by Pliny in connection with Marathus and Antaradus, N. of Tripolis, Orthosia, and the river Eleutherus (v. 20). It is placed by Ptolemy between the mouth of the Eleutherus and Orthosia, and, if the figures can be trusted, 10' west of the former, 14' north; in the same latitude with Or- thosia (i. e. 34° 40'), but 40' east of it, which would seem either to imply an ignorance of the coast, or to intimate that Simyra lay at some dis- tance from the shore, and that the Eleutherus ran southward to the sea. Strabo says that it was oc- cupied by the Aradians, together with the neigh- bouring Marathus (xvi. p. 7.53), apparently placing it north of the Eleutherus. In addition to what has been said under Marathus, and in confirmation of the identification there attempted, the following may be cited from Shaw, and will serve to illustrate the situation of Simyra: " The ancient Marathus may be fixed at some ruins near the Serpent Fountain, . which make, with Rou-tcadde and Tortosa, almost an equilateral triangle. About 5 miles frum the river Ahlcer, and 24 to the SSE. of Tortosa, there are other considerable ruins knijwn by the name of Snmrah, with several rich plantations of mulberry and other fruit trees growing in and round about them. These, from the very name and situation, can be no other than the remains of the ancient Simyra . . . the seat formerly of the Zemarites. Pliny V. 20) makes Simyra a city of Coelesyria, and ac- quaints us that Mount Libanus ended there to the northward; but as Sumrah lies in the Je?/?!e (i.e. the great plain), 2 leagues distant from that mountain, this circumstance will better fall in with Area, where Mount Libanus is remarkably broken otr and discontinued." (TVai'cfe, pp. 268, 2G9.) The ruins of Area are 5 miles E. of Sumrah, and 2 leagues WSW. of Area is the Nahr-el-Berd, the Cold Piver, which Shaw and others identify with the Eleu- therus. It is manifest how irreconcilable all this is with Ptolemy and other ancient geographers. [Eleutherus; Orthosia; JIarathus.] [G.W.] SIN A. [Sena.] SINAE {ot 27fai, Ptol. vii. 3, Sec), the ancient nation of the Chinese, whose land is first described by Ptolemy (/. c.) and Marcianus (p. 29, seq.), but in an unsatisfactory manner. Indeed, the whole knowledge of it possessed by the Greeks and Romans rested on the reports of individual merchants who had succeeded in gaining admittance among a people who then, as in modern times, isolated themselves as much as possible from the rest of the world. For tlic^ assumption which Deguignes sought to es- tablish, that a political alliance was formed between SINAE. Rome and China, and that the emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus sent a formal embassy thither in the year 166, rests solely on the name of Yan-Tun, which that writer discovered in some ancient Chi- nese annals, and must therefore be regarded with great suspicion. (See Bohlen, das Alte Indien, i. p. 71.) According to the description of Ptolemy, the country of the Sinae extended very far to the S., and was connected with the E. coast of Africa by an unknown land, so that the Indian Ocean formed a large mediterranean sea. He does not venture to define its eastern boundaiy, but finishes his account of the known earth with the 180th degree of longi- tude, without, however, denying that there were tracts of unknown land still farther to the E. But Cosmas Indicopleustes (ap. Montfaucon, N. Coll. Patmm, ii. p. 337), who calls the country of the Sinae T^lnrfa, was the first who laid down its correct boundary by the ocean on the E. On the N. it was bounded by Senca, and on the S. and W. by India extra Gangem, from which it was divided by the river Aspithra (probably the Bangpa-Kmig) and the Semanthine mountains. Thus it embraced the southern half of China, and the eastern part of Further India, as Tonrjquin, Cochin-China, Cani- boja, &c. Ptolemy mentions several large bays and promontories on the coast. At the extreme NE. of the Indian Ocean, where the land of the Sinae abutted on Further India, was the great gulf (of Siaiii), which on the coast of the Sinae was formed by the South Cape (jh Hdrtov 6.Kpov) (probably Cape Camboja), and on the side of India by another large promontory (perhaps Cape A'o- mania). To the S. of South Cape, and between it and the Cape of the Satyrs (^aTvpwf aKpov), Ptolemy and Marcianus (p. 30) place another large bay called Theriodes (©rjpiwS?;? koAttos) ; and to the S. of the Cape of Satyrs, again, and between it and the mouth of the river Cottiaris, the Bay of the Sinae (^ivwv k6-kos). These very vague and in- correct accounts do not permit us to decide with any confidence respecting the places indicated by Ptolemy; but it has been conjectured that the Cape of the Satyrs may hare been Cape St. James, the Theriodes Sinus the bay between it and the mouth of the river Camboja or Maykiang, and the Bay of the Sinae the gulf of Tongquin. Among the mountains of the country Ptolemy names only the Montes Semanthini {^-qixavOivhv Cpos), which formed its NW. boundary. Among the rivers indicated are the Aspithra (^ha-riBpa), rising in the moun- tains just mentioned, to which we have already al- luded; the Ambastus ("A/xSoo-tos), probably the Camboja, which fell into the Great Bay between the towns of Bramma and Ehabana; the Senos or Sainos (Se'fox or Sai'cor) more to the S. ; and fur- ther still in the same direction the Cottiaris (Kot- Ti'apis), which emptied itself into the bay of the Sinae to the N. of the town of Cattigara. The last may perhaps be the Si Kiang, which discharges it- self at Canton. Respecting the nation of the Sinae themselves, we have no information, though Ptolemy mentions several subdivisions of them; as in the N. the Semanthini, on the like named mountains ; S. of them the Acadorae, with a town called Acadra, and again to the S. the Aspithrae, on the Aspithra, and having a city of the same name as the river. SE. of the latter, on the Great Bay, and dwelling on the river Ambastus, were the Ambastae. Lastly, in a still more siuithern district between the bay of Theriodes and that uf the Sinae, were the Aethiopes