Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1042

 1022 SONTIUS. SO'NTIUS (homo), one of the most considerable of the rivers of Venetia, which has its sources in the Alps, at the foot of the lofty Mt. Terglou, and has from thence a course of above 75 miles to the sea, which it enters at the inmost bi<;ht of the Adriatic, between Aquileia and the Tiinuvus. It receives at the present day the waters of tbe Natisone and Torre, the ancient Natiso and Tukuis, both of which in ancient times pursued independent courses to the sea under the walls of Aquileia, and from the E. those of the Wippach or Vipao, called by the ancients the Fluvius Fkigidus. Though so important a stream, the name of the Sontius is not mentioned by any of the geographers; but it is found in the Tabula, which places a station called Ponte Sonti (Ad Pontem Sontii) 14 miles from Aquileia on the highroad to Aemona (Lm/bach). This bridge, which lay on the main entrance into Italy on this side, was a military point of considerable importance. It checked for a time the march of the emperor JIaximin when advancing upon Aquileia, in a. d. 238 (Herodian, viii. 4; C A)it. Maximin. 22); and at a later period it was here that Odoacer took up his position to oppose the advance of Theod-sius, by whom he was, however, defeated in a decisive battle, a. d. 489 (Cassiod. C'hron. p. 472; Id. Var. i. 18; Jornand. Get. 57). The Sontius is correctly described by Herodian, though he does not mention its name, as a large and formidable stream, especially in spring and summer, when it is fed by the melting of the Alpine snows. [E. II. !>.] SONUS (Sii'oy, AiTian, Ind. c. 4; Plin. vi. 18. s. 22), a principal aflluent of the Grwges, which flows in a NE. direction to it from the Vindhya Mountains. Its modern name is Soane. There is no doubt that it has been contracted from the San- scrit Suvarna, golden. The Soas (2was) of Ptolemy (vii. 1. § 30) is certainly the same river. [V.] SOPHE'NE (2a.'(|)7)i'7), Strab. et alii ; ^u)(pavrii'ri, Dion Cass, xx.^vi. 3G ; Procop. de Aedif. iii. 2, B. Pers. i. 21 : Eth. 2u)<|)r)vds), a district of Armenia, lying between Antitaurus and Mount Masius, sepa- rated by the Euphrates from IMelitene in Armenia Minor, and by Antitaurus from Mesopotamia. Its capital was Carcathiocerta, (Strab. xi. pp. 521, 522, 527.) It formed at one time, with the neigh- bouring districts, a separate west Armenian kingdom, governed by the Sophenian Artanes, but was annexed to the east Armenian kingdom by Tigranes. So- pheiie was taken away from Tigranes by Pompey. (Strab. xi. p. 532; Dion Cass, xsxvi. 26; Plut. Lucull. 24, Pomp. 33.) Nero gave Sophene as a separate kingdom to Sobaemus. (Tac. Aim. xiii. 7.) SOPIA'NAE, a town in the central part of Lower Pannonia, on the road from Mursa to Sabaria (It. Ant. pp. 231, 232, 264, 267), was according to Ammianus Maixelliiuis (xxviii. 1) the birthplace of the emperor Maximinus. Its site is occupied by the modern Funfkirchen. [L. S.] S0RA(2£ipa: FJli. Soranus: Sora), a city of La- tiuni, situated in the valley of the Liris, on the right hank of that river, about 6 miles to the N. of Ar- pinum. Though included in Latium in the more extended sense of that term, as it was understood under the Roman Empire, vSora was originally a Volscian city (Liv. x. 1), and apparently the most northerly possessed by that people. It was wrested from them by the Romans in b. c. 345, being sur- prised by a sudden attack by the consuls Fabius Dorso and Ser. Sulpicius. (Liv. vii. 28.) It was subsequently occupied by the Romans with a colony : SORA. the establishment of this is not mentioned by Livy, but in u. c. 315 he tells us the inhabitants had revolted and joined the Samnites, putting to death the Roman colonists. (Id. ix. 23; Diod. six. 72.) The city was in consequence besieged by the dic- tator C. Fabius, and, notwithstanding the great de- feat of the Romans at Lautulae, the siege was con- tinued into the following year, when the city was at length taken by the consuls C. Sulpicius and M. Poetelius ; the citadel, which was in a very strong and inaccessible position, being betrayed into their hands by a deserter. The leaders of the de- fection were sent to Rome and doomed to execution ; the other inhabitants were spared. (Liv. ix. 23, 24.) Sora was now occupied by a Roman garrison ; but notwithstanding this it again fell into the hands of the Samnites in b. c. 306, and it was not recovered by the Romans till the following year. (Id. ix. 43, 44; Diod. sx. 80, 90.) Alter the close (if the Second Samnite War it was one of the points which the Romans determined to secure with a colony, and a body of 4000 colonists was sent thither in B. c. 303. (Id. x. 1.) From this time Sora became one of the ordinary " coloniae Latinae " and is mentioned in the Second Punic War among the refractory colonies, which in b. c. 209 refused any further contributions. (Liv. xxvii. 9,xxix. 15. The text of Livy gives Cora in the first passage, and Sora in the second, but the same place is necessarily meant in both passages, and it is pro- kible that Sora is the true reading.) From this time we hear little more of Sora, which lapsed into the condition of an ordinary municipal town. (Cic. pro Plane. 9). Its rank of a Colonia Latina was merged in that of a municipium by the Lex Julia; but it received a fresh colony under Augustus, con- sisting, as we learn from an inscription, of a body of veterans from the 4th legion. (Lib. Colon, p. 237 ; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Orell. Inscr. 3681.) Juvenal speaks of it as a quiet country town, where houses were cheap (Juv. iii. 223); and it is mentioned by ai; the geographers among the towns of this part of Italy. (Strab. v. p. 238; Ptol. iii. 1. § 63; Sil. Ital. viii. 394; Orell. /;wrt-. 3972.) Nothing more is heard of it under the lioman Empire, but it sur- vived the fall of the Western Empire, and continued throughout the middle ages to be a place of con- sideration. Sora is still an episcopal see, and much the most important place in this part of Italy, with about 10,000 inhabitants. The modern town un- doubtedly occupies the same .site with the ancient one, in the plain or broad valley of the Liris, resting upon a bold and steep hill, crowned by the ruins of a mediaeval ca.stle. The ancient citadel, described by Livy, stood on a hill at the back of this, called the Rocca di S. Angela, where some remains of the ancient walls, constructed of massive polygonal blocks, are still visible. No remains of Roman times are preseiTed, except a few inscriptions, and some foundations, supposed to be those of a temple. (Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 362 — 366; Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. i. pp. 299—302.) [E. H. B.] SORA (2opo or 2ipa), a town of Paphlagonia, noticed only by the latest writers of antiquity, and of unknown site. (Constant. Porph. Them. i. 7; Norellae, xxix. 1; Hierocl. p. 695; Cone. Nicaen. ii. p. 52 ; Cone. Chalced. p. 664. where it is called Sura.) [L. S.] SORA (2i/)a, Ptol. vii. 1. § 68), a town in the southern part of India, between M. Bettigo and Adeisathron. It was the capital of a nomad race