Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1032

 1(112 SIUACELLAK. mountain, there once existed, according to tradition, an ancient city, called Taiitali.s, afterwards Sipyjus, the capital of the Maeonians, which was believed to have been swallowed up by an earthquake, and plunged into a crater, afterwards filled by a lake, which bore the name of Sale or Saloe (Strab. i. p. 58, xii. p. 579; Steph. B. s. v.; I'lin. v. 31; Puus. vii. 24. § 7). Pliny relates that the spot once occupied by Sipylus was successively occupied by other towns, which he calls Arehaeopolis, Colpe and Lebade. Pau«inias (v. 13. § 4) calls the lake the marah of Tantalus, and adds that his tomb was conspicuous near it, and that the throne of Pelops was shown on the summit of the mountain above the temple of (Cybele) Plastene. The tops of the houses of Sipylus were believed to have been seen under the water for some time after (Pans. vii. 24. § 7); and some modern travellers, mistaking the ruins of old Smyrna for those of Sipylus, imagine that they have dis- covered both the remains of Sipylus .and the tomb of Tantalus. Chandler ( Travels in Asia Jlinor, p. 33 1 ) thought that a small lake of limpid water at the north-eastern foot of Mount Sipylus, not far from a sepulchre cut in the rock, might be the lake Sale; but Hamilton (Researches, i. p. 49, foil.) has shown that the lake must be sought for in the marshy district of Manissa. In speaking of Jlount Sipylus, we cannot pass over the story of Niobe, alluded to by the poets, who is said to have been metamorpho.sed into stone on that mountain in her grief at the loss of her children. (Horn. /I. xxiv. 614; Soph. Antiij. 822; Ov. Met. vi. 310; Apollod. iii. 5; Paus. viii. 2. § 3.) Pausanias (i. 21. § 5) relates that he himself went to Mount Sipylus and saw the figure of Niobe formed out of the natural rock; when viewed close he saw only the rock and precipices, but nothing resembling a woman either weeping or in any other posture ; but standing at a distance you fancied you saw a woman in tears and in an attitude of grief. This phantom of Niobe, says Chandler (p. 331), whose observation has been confirmed by subsequent travellers, may be defined as an etfect of a certain portion of light and shade on a part of Sipylus, perceivable at a particular point of view, ilount Sipylus now bears the name of Sahomidji Dagh or Sipuli Dagh. [L. S.] SIKACELLAE {Itin. Ant. p. 332 ; Jh. p. 333, Siracelle; It. IJier. p. 602. Sirogellae ; Tab. J'eut. Syrascellae; and in Geog. Kav. iv. 6, and v. 12, Sy- rascele), a place in Thrace, on the road from Trajari- opolis to Callipolis, and on the main ro.ad to Constan- tinople. Its distance from Trajanopolis is variously given in the Itin. Ant., and the readings of the MSS. (litfer, — one stating the distance to be as much as .59,000 paces, another as little as 50,000. Accord- ing to Mannert (vii. p. 205), its site is near the modern Chachan or Rusqueur ( ?) of P. Lucas ( Trois Vmj. p. 47); but Richard pl.ices it near Zei-na, and Lapie near Malffara or Micjalgara; the uncertainly of the Itinerary above mentioned being probably the cause of this discrepancy. [J. R.] SIKACE'NE. [SiRoc] SlKACE'Nl {■S.tt>aKt)voi, Ptol.v.9. §§ 17, 19), a great and mighty people of Asiatic Sarmatia on the east shore of the Maeotis, beyond the Rlia and on the Achardeus, in the (iistrict called by Straho (xi. 504) Siracene. They appear under various names. Thus Strabo (xi. p. 506) and Mela (i. 19) call them Siraccs; Tacitus {Ann. xii. 15, seq.) Siraci (in Strabo, xi. p. 492, Sipaicoi); and in an inscription (Bockii, ii. p. 1009) we find the form 'S.ipdxoi. SIRIS. They were governed by their own kings, and the Romans were engaged in a war with them, a. d. 50. (Tae. /. c; Strab. ib. p. 504.) [T. H. D.l SIRAE or SEIRAE. [Psophis.] SIRAE, in Macedonia. [Siuis.] SIRANGAE {'S.ipdyyai or 'S.-qpa-yyai, Ptol. iv. 6. § 17), a tribe in the interior of Libya. [T. H. D.] SIRBES. [X.VNTHUS.] SIRBI. [Serbi.] SIRBITUM, a city of Aethiopia, above which the mountains cease, and at a distance of 14 days' sail from Meroe. (Plin. vi. 30. s. 35.) From the.^e particulars Mannert (x. pt. i. p. 171) is induced to regard it as the modern Senaar. [T. H. D.] SIRBO'NISLACUS (?; Sif^Soim or Sipgoji'i'Sos Kiixv-n, Herod, ii. 6; Diodor.i. 30; Ptol. iv. 5. §§ 12, 20; Strab. i. pp. 50, 65, xvii. 760—763; XipSov, Steph. B. s. v.; Phn.v. 12. s. 14: Sebahet-Bardoil), was a vast tract of morass, the centre of which formed the Sirbonian lake, lying between the eastern angle of the Delta, the Islhimis of Suez, Jlount Casius, and the Mediterranean sea. With the latter it was at one time connected by a natural channel (rb eKpeyna), running through bars of quicksand and shingle (to 0dpa6pa), which separated the sea from the morass. The limits of the Serbonian bog have, however, been much contracted in later ages by the elevation of the sea-borde and the drifting of the sands, and the lake is now of inconsiderable extent. The Sirbonian region is celebrated in his- tory for having been the scene of at least the partial destruction of the Persian army in b. c. 350, when Darius Ochus was leading it. after the storming of Sidon, to Aegypt, in order to restore the authority of Persia in that kingdom. Diodorus (i. 30) has pro- bably exaggerated the serious disaster into a total annihilation of the invading host, and Milton (P. L. ii. 293) h.as adopted the statement of Diodorus, when he speaks of that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old Where armies whole have sunk." The same Persian army, however, afterwards took Pelusium, Bubastis, and other cities of tlie Delta. The base of the Deltaic triangle of Aegypt was reckoned by Herodotus (ii. 6) from the bay of Plin- thine to the lake of Serbouis. [W. B. D.] SIRENU'SAE I'NSULAE. [Minervae Pko- montorium]. SIRIC.-E, a place in Cappadocia on the road from Comana to Jlelitene, and 24 miles NW. of the first. (/till. Ant. pp. 210, 211.) According to Lajiie, near the Benbodagh. [T. H. D.] SIRIO, in Gallia, is placed by the Itins. on a road from Burdigala (Bordeaux) to Aginnum (Agen). The distance is probably corrupt in the Table, which places Sirio x. from Bordeaux; for the true distance is XV. or xvi. Gallic leagues. D'Anville fixes Sirio (the Po7it de Si7-oji) near tiie point where the small liver Siron or Ciron joins the Garonne on the left bank. ■ [G. L.] SIRIS (Srpis: Eth. :S,ip(r-qs, but also SipTyo? ; Sirites), an ancient city of Magna Graecia, situated at the mouth of the river of the same name flowing into the Tarentine gulf, and now called the Sinno. There is no doubt that Siris was a Greek colony, and that at one time it attained to a great amount of wealth and prosperity; but its history is extremely obscure and uncertain. Its first origin was generally ascribed to a Trojan colony ; and, as a proof of this,