Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1034

 1014 SIRMIO. the Servian kin<;doni. Stephen Dushan in the 14th century seized on this larjje and flourishing city, and assumed the imperial crown here, where lie esta- blished a court on the Roman or Byzantine model, with the title of Emperor of Romania, Sclavonia, and Albania. (Niceph. Greg. p. 467.) After his death a partition of his dominions took place but the Greeks liave never since been able to recover their former preponderance in the provinces of the Stry- monic valley. Sultan lAIurad took this town from the Servians, and when Sigismund, king of Hungary, was about to invade the Ottoman dominions, Bayezid (Bajazet Ilderim) summoned the Christian princes who were his vassals to liis camp at Serrhae, pre- vious to his victoi-y at Nicopolis, A. D. 1396. (J. von Hammer, Gesch. des Osman. Heickes, vol. i. pp. 193,246, 600.) Besides the Macedonian inscriptions of the Roman empire found by Leake (hiscr. 126) and Cousinery, the only other vestige of the ancient town is a piece of Hellenic wall faced with large quadrangular blocks, but composed within of small stones and mortar forming a mass of extreme solidity. Servian remains are more common. (Leake, Northern Greece, voh iii. pp. 200— 210.) [E. B. J.] Sl'RMIO (Sermiane), a narrow neck or tongue of land, projecting out into the Lake Benacus {^Laijo di Garda), from its southern shore. Though a conspicuous and picturesque object in all views of the lake from its southern shores, it is unnoticed by any of the geographers, and its name would probably liave been unknown to us, but for the circumstance that Catullus, who was a native of the neighbouring Verona, had a villa on its shores, and has sung the ]n-aises of Sirmio in one of the most charming odes in the Latin language (Catull. xxxi.). The name of Sinnio is, however, found in the Itineraries, which place a " Sermione mansio" on the road from Brixia to Verona, and just midway between the two cities, 22 M. P. from each (Itin Ant. p. 127). This must, however, have been situated at the entrance of the peninsula, probably where a road turned oif to it, as it is clear that the highroad could never have turned aside to the promontory itself. Extensive substructions and other remains of an ancient villa are still visible at the extremity of the promontory, where it juts out into the lake: but these undoubtedly belong to an abode on a much more magnificent scale than the villa of Catullus, and probably belong to some villa of the imperial times, which had replaced the humbler dwelling of the poet. [K. H. B.] Sl'RMIUiM (Si'p/uioj'), an important city in the south-eastern part of Lower Fannonia, was an ancient Celtic place of the Taurisci, on the left bank of the Savus, a little below the point where this river is joined by the Bacuntius (I'lin. iii. 28.) Zosimus (ii. 18) is mistaken when he asserts that Sirmiu'.n was surrounded on two sides by a tri- butary of the Ister. The town was situated in a most favourable position, where several roads met {It. Ant. pp. 124, 131; It. Hieros. p. 563), and during the wars against the Dacians and other Danubian tribes, it became the chief depot of all military stores, and gradually rose to the rank of the chief city in Fannonia. (Herodian, vii. 2.) ■Vhether it was ever made a Roman colony is not quite certain, though an inscription is said to exist ciintaining the words Dec. Colon. Sirmien.s. It con- tained a large manufactory of arms, a spacious forum, an imperial palace, and other public build- SISCIA. ings, and was the residence of tlio admiral of the first Flavian fleet on the Danube. (Amm. Marc, xvii. 13, xix. 11; Notit. Imp.) The emperor Fro- bus was bom at Sirmium. (Vopisc. /"roi. 3, 21; comp. Strab. ii. p. 134; Ftol. ii. 16. § 8, viii. 7. § 6; Steph. B. s. v.; Eutrop. ix. 17; Aethicu.s, p. 715, ed. Gronov.; Geog. Rav. iv. 19.) The city is mentioned for the last time by Frocopius (ZJ. Got/i. iii. 33, 34), as being in the hands of the Avari, but when and how it perished are questions which his- tory does not answer. Extensive ruins of it are still found about the modern town of Mitrorilz. (See Orelli, Inscript. n. 3617; Marsili, Damibius, p. 246, f.Il.) [L. S.] SIRNIDES, a group of small islands off the pro- montory Sammonium in Crete. (Plin. iv. 12. s. 20.) SIROC (2ipci/c), a town of Farthyene, noticed by Isidorus. (Stath. Parth. c. 12, ed. Miiller.) It is not clear whether there is any corresponding modern town; but Rennell thinks it is represented by the present Serakhs. {Geog. Herod, p. 297.) Ftolemy places a district which he calls Siracene among the Astabeni, a people who occupied part of Hyrcania (vi. 9. § 5). It is not impossible that Siroc and Siracene may be thus connected. [V.] SISAFON (SKTaTTcii', Strab. iii. p. 142), a con- siderable town in Hispania Baetica. (Cic. Phil. ii. 19; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3.) It lay N. of Corduba, be- tween the Baetis and the Anas, and was celebrated for its silver mines and veins of cinnabar (Strab. I. c: Vitruv. vii. 9; Plin. xxxiii. 7. s. 40; Dioscor. v. 109.) The town of Almaden in the Sierra Mo- reno, with which Sisapon is identified, still possesses a rich mine of quicksilver. " The mine is appa- rently inexhaustible, becoming richer in proportion as the shafts deepen. The vein of cinnabar, about; 25 feet thick, traverses rocks of quartz and slate; and runs towards Almadenejos. Virgin quicksilver occurs also in pyrites and hornstein." " Between 20,000 and 25,000 quintals of mercury are now procured annually." (Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 70 ; comp. Laborde, Itin. ii. p. 133; Dillon's Travels, ii. pp. 72, 77.) The name of this town is variously written It appears on coins as " Sisipo " (Sestini, p. 87), whilst others have the correct name. (Florez, Med. iii. p. 119 ; Jlionnet, i. p. 25, and Supp. i. p. 114.) The form " Sisalone " (Itin. Ant. (p. 444) is probably corrupt. It appears to be the same town called 'Staanwvri by Ftolemy (ii. 6. § 59), who, however, places it in the territory of the Oretani, in Hispania Tarraconensis, on which indeed it borders. [T. H. D.] SISAR. [UsAR.] SISARA (Siffdpa, Ftol. iv. 3. § 17), a lake in Africa Propria, in the neighbourhood of Hippo Diar- rhytus. Now Benizert or Bizerta. [T. H. D.] SISARACA {XiaapaKa, Ftol. ii. 6. § 52), a town of the Murbogi or Turmodigi in Hispania 'I'ar- raconensis. For coins, see Sestini, p. 197. [T.ILD.] SISAURANUM (rb ^luravpdvwv, Procop. Pei-n. ii. 19, de Aedif. ii. 4), a fortress of Mesopotamia, above Dara, noticed by Frocopius. It is not else- where mentioned. [V.] SI'SCIA, SEGESTA, or SEGE'STICA (2io-«/a, Xeyeara, SeyecTTiKr)), a great town in the south of Upper Fannonia, on the southern bank of the Savus, on an island formed by that river and two others, the Colapis and Odra, a canal dug by Tiberius com- pleting the island. (Dion Cass. xlis. 37.) It was situated on the great road from Aemoua to Sirmium.