Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1073

 SYBARIS. circumstances of which we are very imperfectly- acquainted. It appears that the government had previously been in the hands of an oligarcliy, to which such persons as Smindyrides and Alcimenes naturally belonged; but the democratic party, headed by a demagogue named Telys, succeeded in over- throwing their power, and drove a considerable number of the leading citizens into exile. Telys hereupon seems to have raised himself to the position of despot or tyrant of the city. The exiled citizens took refuge at Crotona; but not content with their victory, Telys and his partisans called upon the Crutoniats to surrender the fugitives. This they refused to do, and the Sybarites hereupon declared war on them, and marched upon Crotona with an army said to have amounted to 300,000 men. They were met at the river Traeis by the Crotoniats, whose army did not amount to more than a third of their numbers; notwithstanding which they obtained a complete victory, and put the greater part of the Sybarites to the sword, continuing the pursuit to the very gates of the city, of which they easily made llieniselves masters, and which they determined to destroy so entirely that it should never again be inhabited. For this purpose they turned the course of the river Crathis, so that it inundated the site of the city and buried the ruins tinder the deposits that it brought down. (Diod. xii. 9, 10; Strab. vi. p. 2G.3; Herod, v. 44; Athenae. xii. p. 521; Scymn. Ch. 337 — 360.) This catastrophe occurred in B.C. C)[0, and seems to have been viewed by many of the Greeks as a divine vengeance upon the Sybarites for their pride and arrogance, caused by their exces- sive prosperity, more especially for the contempt they had shown for the great festival of the Olympic Games, which they are said to have attempted to supplant by attracting the principal artists, athletes, &c., to their own public games. (Scymn. Ch. 350 — 360; Athen. I. c.) It is certain that Sybaris was never restored. The surviving inhabitants took refuge at Laiis and Scidrus, on the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea. An attempt was indeed made, 58 years after the de- struction of the city, to establish them anew on the ancient site, but they were quickly driven out by the Crotoniats, and the fugitives afterwards com- l)ined with the Athenian colonists in the foundation of Thurii. [Tiiiniii.] At the present day the site is utterly desolate, and even the exact position of the ancient city caimot be determined. The whole plain watered by the rivers Coscile and Craii (the ancient Sybaris and Crathis), so renowned in aruient times for its fertility, is now a desolate swampy tract, pestilential from malaria, and fre- quented only by vast herds of buffaloes, the usual accompaniment in Southern Italy of all such pesti- ferous regions. The circumstance mentioned hy Strabo that the river Crathis had been turned from its cour.se to inundate the city, is confirmed by the accidental mention in Herodotus of the dry channel ot the Crathis " Qirapa rhv ^r)pou Kpadtv, Herod, v. 44): and this would sufHi-iently account for the disappearance of all traces of the city. Swinburne indeed tells us that some " degradeil fragments of aiiueducts and tombs " were still visible on the pi'iiinsula formed by the two rivers, and were pointed out as the ruins of Sybaris, but these, as he justly observes, being built of brick, are probably of Honian times, and have no connection with the ancient city. Keppel Craven, on the other hand, speaks of " a wall sometimes vi.'>ible in the bed of the Crathis when the SYCAMINA. lori.'i waters are very low" as being the only remaining relic of the ancient Sybaris. (Swinburne's Travels vol. i. pp. 290—292; Craven's SonfJiern Tour, pp.' 217, 218.) The ruins marked on Zannoni's large map as VAnlica Sibari are probably those of Thurii [Thukii.] But it is certain that the locality has never yet been thoroughly examined, and it is pro- b.able that some light may even yet be thrown ujjou the site of this celebrated city: especially if the marshy plain in which it is situated should ever he reclaimed and cultivated. There is no doubt that if this were done, it would again be a tract of surpass- ing fertility: it is cited as such by Varro, who tells us that "in Sybaritano" wheat was s:iid to produce a hundred-fold. (Varr. R. R. i. 44.) Even at the present day the drier spots produce very rich crops of corn. (Swinburne, I. c.) The river Sybaris was said to be so named by the Greek colonists from a fountain of that name at Bura in Achaia (Strab. viii. p. 386): it had the property, according to some authors, of making horses shy that drank of its waters. (Pseud. Arist. Mi- rah. 169 ; Strab. vi. p. 263.) It is a considerable stream, and has its sources in the Apennines near 3/u7-ano, flows beneath Castrovilluri, and receives several minor tributary streams before it joins tho Crathis. [E. 11. P..] COIN OF SYBARIS. SY'BOTA. [CoKCYRA, p. 670.] SYBRITA {tuSpna, Scyl. p. 18 ; :S,ov€ptTci, Ptol. iii. 17. § 10; ^uv§piTO?, Ilierocles; ^iSupTus, Polyb. ap. Steph. B. s. v.: Eih. "ZiSpvrios, lilickh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. p. 637), a town of Crete, 8 M. P. from Eleutherna (Pcut. Tab.), and famous for its numerous and beautiful silver coins, which, though some of them belong to a very early period, are the finest specimens of the Cretan mint; the types are always connected with the worship of Dionysus or Hermes. (Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 320.) [E. B. J.] SYCAjMINA (^^uKa/xivwi' TToAis), a city of Pales- tine, placed by Strabo between Acre ("A/crj) and Caesareia Palaestinae (ST^arajfoy TTvpyu^),{hv. name of which alone rcmaineil in his time. There were, lie says, many such ; of which he specifies this and Bu- colon (BuvKoAuv) and Crocodeilou (K/xKcoSeiAoif). (Strab. xvi. p. 7.58.) It was here that Ptolemy I,.i- thyrus, son of Cleopatra, landed the army of 30,(100 men wlioin he had brought from Cyprus to besietre Ptulemais, which would imjiiy that it was not far distant from Acre (.Inseplius, lib. xiii. 13. § 3). The Itinerary of Antoninus makes it xxiv. M. P. fioiu Ptolemais. xx. M. P. from Caesareia ; the Jerusiilciii Itinerary xv. M.P. from Ptolemaic, xvi. from Caesareia. (Wesseling, ])p. 149. .■j84.) The last-nameil authority places it at Mount Carmel, tiiereliy justifying its iden- tification with the modern Kaipha w JJiiijii, followed by Pcichard, Maiiiiert, and Kieiiert, rather than willi A tin, suggested by Lapie. Indeed the testimony uf Eusebius would seem to be conclusive on this poinl,