Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1044

 1024 SOZOPOLIS. lie entered tlie territory of the Sotiates, the first of the Aquitanian peoples whom he attUL-keJ. The Sotiates were the neighbours of the Elusates a name represented by the town of Eaiise. A line drawn from A^ich (Ausci) on the Gers to Bazas in the department of Z,« Glronde, passes near Sos, a town which is on the Getise, and in the Cabaret. In the middle ages it was called Solium. Ancient remains have been found at Sos. Here we have an instance of the preservation of ancient names in this part of France, and there are many other instances. D'Anville in determining the position of the Sotiates argues correctly that Crassus having passed through the Santones, a people who had submitted to Caesar (B. G. iii. 12) and would offerno resistance, entered Aquitania by the north, and the Sotiates who were only seven or eight leagues south of the Garonne would be the first tribe on whom he fell. He says that he has evidence of a Roman road very direct from Sos to Eanse ; and he is convinced that this is part of the road described in the Jerusalem Itin. be- tween Vasatae and Elusa. On this road the name Scit- tium occurs in the Itin., and as the distance between Seittium and Elusa corresponds very nearly to the distance between Sos and Eause, he conjectures that this word Seittium is written wrong, and that it should be Sotium. The Sotiates, who were strong in cavalry, attacked the Romans on their march, and a battle took place in which they were defeated. Crassus then assaulted their town, which made a stout resistance. He brought up his vineae and towers to the walls, but the Sotiates drove mines under them, for as they had copper mines in their country they were very skilful in burrowing in the ground. At last they sent to Crassus to propose terms of surrender (S. G. iii. 21). While the people were giving up their arms on one side of the town, Adcantuannus, who was a king or chief, attempted to sally out on another side with his 600 " soldurii." The Romans met him there, and after a hard fight Adcantuannus was driven back into the town; but he still obtained the same easy terms as the rest. These Soldurii were a body of men vfho attached themselves to a chief with whom they enjoyed all the good things without working, so long as the chief lived; but if any violence took off their leader it was their duty to share the same fate or to die by their own hand. This was an Iberian and also a Gallic fashion. The thing is easily understood. A usurper or any desperate fellow seized on power with the help of others like himself ; lived well, and fed his friends ; and when his tyranny came to an end, he and all his crew must kill themselves, if they wished to escape the punishment which they deserved. (Pint. Serlor. c. 14; Caesar, B. G. vii. 40 ; and the pa.ssage in Athenaeus.) The JISS. of Caesar vary in the name of Adcan- tuannus. Schneider writes it Adiatunus, and in Athenaeus it is 'ASifiTOfioi/. Schneider mentions a medal of Pellerin, with REX AALETvnNVS and a lion's head on one side, and on the other SO- TIOGA. Walckenaer (Guoijr. <jc. i. 284) may be speaking of the same medal, when he describes one which is said to have been found at Toulouse, with a head of Adictanus on one side and the word Sotiagae on the other. He thinks it " very suspected ;" and it may be. [G. L.] SOZO'l'OLIS (2ai(,oVoA(s), a town noticed only by late writers as a place in I'isidi;*, on the north of Termessus, in a plain surrounded on all sides by SPARTA. mountains. (Hierocl. p. 672; Evagr. Il'ist. Eccles. iii. 3.3.) It is possibly the same place which Ste- phanus B. notices under the nameof Sozusa. Nicetas {Ann. p. 9) mentions that it was taken by the Turks, but recovered from them by John Comnenus. (Comp. Ann. p. 169 ; Cinnamus, p. 13.) The traveller Paul Lucas {Sec. Voy. vol. i. c. 33) ob- served some ancient remains at a place now called Souzou, south of Afjlasoim, which probably belong to Sozopolis. [L. S.] SOZOT'OLIS, a later name of Apollonia in Thrace. [Voh I. p. 160.] [J. R.] SPALATHRA (Plin. iv. 9. s. 16; SirrfAauepa. Scylax, p. 2.5; STraXtflpr/, Steph. B. «.«'.; Sto- haOpov, Hellanic. aji. Steph. B. s. v. : Eth. Sttk- Xadpoios), a town of Magnesia, in Thessaly, upon the Pagasaean gulf. It is conjectured that this town is meant by Lycophron (899), who describes Prothous, the leader of the Magnetes in the Iliad, as 6 iK Uaavdpwu (^TraAavdpicf). (See Slliller, act Scyl. I. c.) SPALATUM. [Salona.] SPANETA, a town in Lower Pannonia, of un- known site. {It. Ant. p. 268; It. Eieros. p. 563; Geog. Rav. iv. 19, who writes Spaneatis. [L. S.] SPARATA, a place in lloesia Superior, probably on the river Isker. {Itin. Ilkros. p. 567.) By the Geogr. Rav. it is called Sparthou(iv. 7)- [T. H. I).] SPARTA (27rd/)TTj, Dor. 'Z-ndpra. : Eth. 'Zirap- Tiart]s, Spartiates, Spartanus), the capital of La- conia, and the chief city of Peloponnesus. It was also called Lacedaemox (AaKsSoiVo"' : Eth. Aa- Ke5aifxuyios, Lacedaeinonius), which was the ori- ginal name of the country. [See Vol. II. p. 103, a.] Sparta stood at the upper end of the middle vale of the Eurotas, and upon the right bank of the river. The position of this valley, shut in by the mountain ranges of Taygetus and Parnon, its inaccessibility to invaders, and its extraordinary beauty and great fertility, have been described in a previous article [Laconia]. The city was built upon a range of low hills and upon an adjoining plain stretching SK. to the river. These hills are offshoots of Alt. Tay- getus, and rise almost immediately above the river. Ten stadia S. of the point where the Oenus flows into the Eurotas, the latter river is divided into two arms by a small island overgrown with the oleander, where the foundations of an ancient bridge are visible. This is the most important point in the topography of the site of Sparta. Opposite to this bridge the range of hills rises upon which the ancient city stood; while a liollow way (Map,//.) leads through them into the plain to itlar/ula, a village situated about half-way be- tween Mistrii and the island of the Eurotas. Upon emerging from this hollow into the plain, there rises on the left hand a hill, the south-western side of which is occupied by the theatre (Map, A.). The centre of the building was excavated out of the hill ; but the two wings of the cavea were entirely artificial, being built of enormous masses of quadrangular stones. A great part of this masonry still remains ; but the seats have almost entirely disappeared, be- cause they have for many ages been used as a quarry by the iidiabifcints of Mktrd. The extremities of the two wings are about 430 feet from one another, and the diameter or length of the orchestra is about 170 feet; so that this theatre was probably the largest in Greece, with the exception of those of Athens and Megalopolis. There are ti'aces of a wall around this hill, which also embraces a considerable part of the adjoining plain to the east. Within the