Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1038

 ttOlS SODOM. ^. v.; Sodwna, -orum, Tertul. Apolug. 40; Sodoma, -ae, Sever. Su!|). i. G ; Sedul- Carm. i. 105; Sodo- iniim, Soliij, 45. § 8 ; Sodnmi, Tertull. Carm. de ■Sodom. 4), the infamous city of Canaan .situated near the Bead Sea in an exceedingly rich and fruit- ful coBntry, culled in its early history " the plain of •Jordan" and described as " well watered everywhere, hefure tlie Lord destroyed Sodom and Goniorr;ih, even -as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou coniest to Zoar." (6'e«. xiii. 10 — 12.) It is also reckoned one of "the cities of the plain" i(xiii. 12. xLx. 29), and was probably the capital of the Pentapolis, which consisted of Sodom, Gonioi-rah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela, afterwards Zoar {Deut. x.xix. 23; Gen. xiv. 8, xix. 22), all of which towns, liowever, had their several jietty kings, who were <-nfedwate together against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and his three allies, Amraphel king of Shinar, Ariocli king of Eliasar, and Tidal king of nations. After Chedorlaomer had succeeded in reducing these iiovereigns to subjectiun, they served him twelve years; in the thirteenth year they revolted, and in the foarteenth yeai- were again vanquished by their northern enemies, when the conquerors were in their turn defeated by Abraham, whose nephew Lot had been carried captive with all his property. The sacred historian has preserved the names of four of the petty kings who at this time ruled the cities of the plain, viz. Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah,
 * Shinab of Admah, and Shemeber of Zeboiim ; and the

scene of the engagement was " the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea" (Cera, xiv.), an expression •which seems clearly to imply that the battle-field, at least, was subsequently submerged; the admission of which fact, however, would not involve the conse- <]ueuc« that no lake had previously existed in the plain ; although this too may be probably inferred from the earlier passage already cited, which seems to de- jicribe a wide plain watered by the river Jordan, as the plain of Egypt is irrigated by the Nile: and as this vale of Siddim was full of slime-pits (beds of bitumen), its subsidence naturally formed the Asphalt Lake. The catastrophe of the cities, as described in the sacred narrative, does not certainly convey the idea that they were submerged, for fire and not water was the instrument of their destruction (Cew. xix.; S. Judti 7); so that the cities need not neces- .sarily have been situated in the middle of the valley, but on the sloping sides of the hills which confined the plain, from which they would still be appropri- ately denominated " cities of the plain." (Keland, Palaestiim, p. 255.) This is remarked in order to remove what has been regarded as a fundamental objection to the hypotheses of a late traveller, who claims to have recovered the sites of all the cities of the Pentapolis, which, as he maintains, are still marked by very considerable ruins of former habi- tations. Whatever value may be attached to the identification of the other four, there is little doubt that the site of Sodom is correctly fixed near the south-western extremity of the lake, where the modern native name Usdom or Esdoni, containing idl the radiciils of the ancient name, is attached to a plain and a hill (otherwise called Khashii or Jebel- el.-Milhh, i. e. the salt hill), which consequently has long been regarded as marking the site of that times exj)lored and described by modern travellers, whose testimony is collected and confirmed by Dr. liobinson {Bibl. Res. vol. ii. p. 481— 483); but it was reserved for the diligence or imagination of M. de SOGDIANA. Saulcy to discover the extensive debris of this an- cient city, covering the small plain and mounds on the north and north-east of the salt-ridge, and extending along the bed of Wady Zuweirah (^Voyaije autour de la Mer Morte, vol. ii. pp. 71 — 74). On the other side of the question M. Van de Velde is the latest authority. (^ Syria and Palesliiic. in 1851. and 1852, pp. 114, 115, note). Lieut. Lynch, of the American exploring expedition, has given a striking view of this salt mountain, illustra- tive of his description of the vicinity of Usdom. {Ex- pedition to the Dead Sea, ])p. 306—308.) [G.W.] SODRAE (SciSpai), a tribe met with by Alex- ander the Great in the lower Pa?y((&, near Pattalene, according to Diodorns (xvii. 102). The name is probably of Indian origin, aud may represent the Cciste of the Sud?'as. [V.] SOGDI {'S.dySot^, one of the smaller tribes noticed by Arrian {Anab. vi. 15) as encountered by Alex- ander in the lower Paiijdb. By their name, they would appear to represent au immigration from the north. [v.] SOGDIA'NA {t] "Zoy^Mvli, Strab. ii. p. 73, xi. p. 510; Ptol. vi. 12, &c.), a widely extending dis- trict of Central Asia, the boundaries of which are not consistently laid down by ancient authors. Generally, it may be stated that Sogdiana lay be- tween the Oxus and the Jaxartes, :is its N. and S. limits, the former separating it from Bactriana and Ariana, the latter from the nomad populations of Scythia. (Strab. xi. pp. 511, 514; Ptol. vi. 12. § 1.) To the W. the province was extended in the direction of the Caspian sea, but, in early times at least, not to it; to the E. were the Sacae and the Seres. The district comprehended the greater part of the present Turkestan,'i the kingdom oi Bok- hara, which bears to this day the name of So<jd. The chai'acter of the country was very diversified ; some part of it heing very mountainous, and some part, as the valley of Bukhara, very fertile and pio- ductive. The larger extent would seem to have been, as at present, a great waste. (Arrian, Amib. iv. 16; Curt. vii. 10. § 1.) At the time when Alexander visited the country, there appear to have been extensive forests, filled with all manner of game, and surrounded, at least in some parts, with walls, as preserves. Alexander is said to have hunted down 4000 wild beasts. (Curt. viii. 1. § 19-) The principal mountain chains are those called the Montes Oxii to the N. (at present the I'amer Mountains,') the Comedarum Jlontes (probably the range of the Ak-tayh or White Mountains) to the S., and the jNIontes Sogdii (the modern name of which is not certain, there being a doubt whether they comprehend the Belur-taijh as well as the Kara-tagh). The two great rivers of the country were those which formed its boundaries; the Oxus {Gihon or Anm-Durja) and the Jaxartes (Sikon w Syr-Darja'). There are, also, besides these main streams, several smaller ones, feeders of the great rivers, as the Demus, Bascatis, and the Polytimetus, the latter, doubtless, the stream which flows beside the town of Sogd. The generic name of the in- habitants of Sogdiana is Sogdii or Sogdiani (Arrian, iv. 16, 18; Plin. vi. 16; Curt. iii. 2. § 9, &c.), a race who, as is stated by Strabo(xi. p. 517), appear, in character at least, to have borne a great resem- blance to their neighbours of Bactriana. Besides these, Ptolemy and other writers have given a list of other names, — those, probably, of local tiibes,
 * iccursed city. This singular ridge has been several