Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1043

 SORACTE. called Sorae (Ptol. I. c), and the royal residence of a kiie; named Arcates. The people are evidently the same as the Surae of Pliny (vi. 20. s. 23). Lassen places them in the mountains above Jifadrus (see map). [V.] SORACTE (Monte S. Oreste), a mountain of Ktriiria, situated between Falerii and the Tiber, about 26 miles N. of Rome, from which it forms a conspicuous object. It is detached from the chain of tiie Apennines, from which it is separated by the intervening valley of the Tiber; yet in a geological sense it belongs to the Apennine range, of which it i.s an outlying offset, being composed of the hard Apennine limestone, which at once distinguishes it from the Mons Ciminus and the other volcanic hills by which it is surrounded. Though of no great elevation, being only 2420 feet in height, it rises in a bold and abrupt mass above the surrounding plain (or rather table-land), which renders it a striking and picturesque object, and a conspicuous feature in all views of the Campafjna. Hence the selection of its name by Horace in a well-known ode (Carrn. i. 9) is peculiarly appropriate. It was con- .■■ecrated to Apollo, who had a temple on its summit, [jrobably on the same spot now occupied by the mo- nastery ofS.Silvestro, and was worshipped there with peculiar religious rites. His priests were supposed to possess the power of passing unharmed through fire, and treading on the hot cinders with their bare feet. (Virg. Aen. vii. 69G, xi. 785—790; Sil. Ital. v. 17.5 — 181, vii. 662 ; I'lin. vii. 2.) Its rugged and craggy peaks were in tiie days of Cato still the resort of wild goats. (Varr. R. R. ii. 3. § 3.) Soracte stands about 6 miles from Clvita Castel- lana, the site of the ancient Falerii, and 2 from the Tiber. It derives its modern appellation from the village of Sunt' Oreste, which stands at its S. ex- tremity on a steep and rocky hill, forming a kind of .step or ledge at the foot of the more elcv.ated peaks ot Soracte itself. This site, which bears evident signs of ancient habitation, is supposed to be that of the ancient Feronia or Lucus Fkroniae. (Den- nis's FAruria,yo]. i. p. 179.) [p]. H. B.] SORBIODU'NUiM, or SORaODU'iNfUM, a town of Britannia Eomana, in the territory of the Belgao, {ttin. Ant. pp. 483, 486.) It is identified with Old Sarum, where coins of several Koman emperors have been found, and where the traces of the ancient Roman walls show it to have been about half a mile in circumference. (Camden, p. 113.) [T.H.D.] SORDICE, a lake in Gallia. A river Sordus ran out of the E'lang Sordice, in the country of the Sor- dones tir Sordi. [Soudon'ks.] " Stagnum hie palusquo, quippe diffuse patet, Kt incolae istam Sordicen cognominant." (Avienus, Or. Mar., as I. Vossius reads it.) The Sordice is supposed by some geographers to be the E'tanr/ de Lericate ; but others take it to be an ttnm/ further south, called K'tung de St. Nazaire, and the E'tang de Leucate to be that near Salsulae, which is descril)ed by Strabo, Mela, and others. [Sai.sulak ; Ri^sciNo.] [(J. L.] SORDONES, or SARDONES, as the name has .sonieliuies been written, a people in Gallia. Mila (ii. 5) writes : after the Salsulae funs "is the ora Sordiinimi, and the small streams Tclis and Ticbis ; the Cdloiiia Ruscino, and the virus lllibcris." Pliny (iii. 4) liegins his description of Gallia Narboncn- sis from the foot of the Pyrcmcn. He s;iys ; ''On SOTIATES. 102.? the const is the regio Sordonum or Sardonum, and in the interior the Consuarani ; the rivers Techum, Vernodubrum ; towns, Illiberis and Ruscino." These Sordones are the Sordi of Avienus (Or. Murit. 562): — " Sordus inde dcniquo Popnlus agebat inter avios locos Ac pertinentes usque ad interius mare, Qua pinifertae stunt Pyrenae vertices, Inter ferarum lustra ducebat greges, Et arva late et gurgitem ponti preniit: " as I. Vossius reads the passage in his edition of Meki. The Sordi then occupied the coast of the Mediter- ranean from the Pyrenees northward, and the neigh- bouring part of the interior at the north foot of the Pyrenees. Ptolemy, as D'Auville observes, dues not mention the Sordones, and he has made the territory of the Volcae Tectosages comprehend Illiberis and Ruscino. The Sordones probably occupied the whole of the territory called Roussillon, and they would lie in possession of that pass of the Pyrenees called Col de Pertus, which is defended by the fort of Bellegarde. They bordered on the Consorani. [Con- SORANI.] [G. L.] SORICA'RIA, a place in Hispania Baetica, men- tioned by Hirtius {B. Tlisp. c. 24), and the sanio called also " Soritia" by that author (c. 27). Ukert (ii. pt. i. p. 361) seeks it in the neighbourhood of the Flumen Salsum (the Salado^, S. of the Baetis, and between Osiina and Antequera. [T. H. 1).] SORINGI {S.ipiryoi, Pei-ipl. M. E. p. 34), a people of the southern part of flindostan, who ap- parently dwelt along the banks of the Chaberns (Kavert). Lassen places them below the Sorae, on the slopes of the hills above Madras. [V.] SORITIA. [SOKICAKIA.] SORNUM, {■S.6pvov, Ptol. iii. 8. § 10), a city of Dacia; now Gkritza. [T. H. D.] SORO'RES (AD), a station in Lusitania, N. of Emerita. (/^i"«. ^«^. p. 433.) Variously identified with Montanches and AUseda. [T. II. I).] SOSTOMAGUS, in Gallia, is placed by the Jeru- salem Itin. between Tolosa (^Tovlmtse) and Carcaso (Carcassone), 38 miles from Tovlovse and 24 from Carcassone. The road is nearly direct, and if the distances are correct, we might perhaps find some name like Sosto in the proper place. Some geo- graphers have found Sostomagus near Castelnau- dari. [G. L.] SOTERA, a place in Ariana, mentioned by Am- mianus (xxiii. 6). It is pmbably the .same as that called by Ptolemy 'Zwrapa (vi. 17. § 7). [V.] SOTIA'TES or SONTIA'TES, a people of Aqui- tania. Schneider (Caesar, B. G. iii. 20) who writes " in Sontiatium fines " has a long note on the various forms of this word. Nicolaus Damascenus (quoted by Athenaous, vi. p. 249) writes the name Sotiani, Imt as Caesar was his authority for what lii^ says, he may have altered the form of the word. In Dion •Cassius (xxxix. c. 46) the reading is 'ATridra? (eij. Reimarus); but there arc other variations in tho MSS. In Piinv (iv. 19) wo find among the na- tions of Acpntania " Ausci, l';iusates, Sottiates, s((uidates Campestres." Orosius (vi. 8, ed. llaver- kamp) has Sontiates, but one MS. has Sotiatcs and others have Sociatos. In ]!. €. 50 Caesar .sent P. Cr.assus into Aqui- tania. Crassus came from the north, and alter sum- moning the men of fighting age who were on the muster rolls ol' Toulouse, Carcassone,a,ni Narhonne,