Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1074

 10.54 SYCE. a.s he speaks of a village of tliis name (^vKafxivuv TToXis') on the coast between Ptolemais and Caesaieia, near Jlount Carmel, called also Hepha ('H<pd) in his day. {Onomcisl. s.v. 'la.(pfd.) Dr. Wilson, however, thinks that the modern Ihti/a " more probably oc- cupies the site of the ' Mutatio Caiamon,' given in the Jerusalem Itinerary as 12 Roman miles from Ptolemais, while the ' JIansio Sicamenos ' of the same ■work was 3 miles farther on. Ruins have been dis- covered along tl;e shore, about 2 Roman miles to the the W. of Haifa ; . . . these ruins may have been those of Sycaminos." (^Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 241.) Haifa is a small walled town to the S. of the Buy of Acre, at the northern base of the pro- montory of Mount Carmel, distant about 10 miles from Ptolemais (.4 eve); a distance far too small to .satisfy the statement of the Itinerary of Antoninus, or even that of the Jerusalem Itinerary. But, not- withstanding this, its identity with Sycamina seems to be sufficiently established by the testimony of Eusebius, joined to the hiiitorical fact recorded by Josephus, which better suits this than any other place on the coast, being in fact the very place where Ibraiiim Pasha, when engaged in a similar enterprise against Acre, landed some of his troops and concen- trated his army, in 1831, preparatory to forming the siege of the town. (Alderson, Notes on Acre, pp. 23, 24.) [G. W.] SYCE (Sy/v'ij), a town of Cilicia, which accord- ing to the Ravenna Geographer, who calls it Sycae (i. 17), was situated between Arsinoii and Celenderis. (Athen. iii. 5; Steph. B. s. v. 'ZvKo.i.) Leake (^Asia Minor, p. 202) looks for its site near the moder KizUman. [L. S.] SYCKON, a town of Galatia, situated at the point where the river Siberis flowed into the Sangarius. (Procop. de Aed. v. 4 ; Vit. Theod. Syceotae, 2 ; Wessel. ad Hierocl. p. 697.) [L. S.] SYCU'RIUJI, a town of Thessaly in the district Pelasgiotis, at the foot of Mt. Ossa, which Leake identifies with jl/«ni!rt/7«?!i. (Liv. xlii. 54; Leake, N'orthern Greece, vol. iii. p. 374.) SYEBI MONIES (to 2u7?ga oprj, Ptol. vi. 14. § 8). a mountain chain in Scythia, running from the Tapuri mountains in a jS'E. direction towards Imaus. ^ [T. H. D.] SYEDRA (2uf5po: Eih. SueSpeus), a coast-town in the west of Cilicia, between Coracesium and Selinus (Strab. xiv. p. 669, where the common but erroneous reading is Arsinoii ; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptol. V. 8. § 1; Hierocl. p. 683; Lucan, viii. 259; Flor. iv. 2.) It should, however, be observed that Stephanus B. calls it a town of Isauria, and that Hierocles assigns it to Pamphylia. Beaufort (^Karamania, p. 178) observed some ruins on a steep hill in that district, which he thinks may mark the site of Syedra; and Mr. Hamilton, in his map of Asia Minor, also marks the ruins of Sydre on the same spot, a little to the south-east of Alaya, the ancient Coracesium. [L. S.] SYE'xME {'Zvy]vn, Herod, ii. 30; Strab. ii. p. 133, xvii. p. 797, seq. ; Steph. B. s. v. ; Ptol. vii. 5. § 15. viii. 15. § 15 ; Phn. ii. 73. s. 75, v. 10. s. 11, vi. 29. s. 34; It. Ant. p. 164), the modern Assouan, was the frontier town of Aegypt to the S. Syene stood upon a peninsula on the right bank of the Nile, immediately below the Great Falls, which ex- tend to it from Philae. It is supposed to have de- rived its name from Suan, an Aegyptian goddess, the llithya of the Greeks, and of which the import is "the opener;" and at Syene Upper Aegypt was SYMAETHUS. in all ages, conceived to open or begin. The quarries of Syene were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the marble called Syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and mono- lithal shrines which are found throughout Aegypt; and the traces of the quarrymen who wrought in these 3000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road, 4 miles in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae. Syene was equally important as a military station and as a place of traffic. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here were levied toll and custom on all boats passing southward and northward. The latitude of Syene — 24° 5' 23" — was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice a vertical stalf cast no shadow, and the sun's disc was reflected in a well at noonday. This statement is indeed incorrect ; the ancients were not acquainted with the true tropic: yet at the summer-solstice the length of the shadow, or :}5gth of the staff, could scarcely be dis- cerned, and the northern limb of the sun's disc would be nearly vertical. The Nile is nearly 3000 yards wide above Syene. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Aegypt it flows for more than 750 miles without bar or cataract. The voyage from Syene to Alexandria usually occupied between 21 and 28 davs in favourable weather. [W. B. D.] SYGAMBlil. [SiCAMBRi.] SYLINA INSULA. [Silura.] SYLLIUM {-^vWiov), a fortified town of Pamphylia, situated on a lofty height between Aspendus and Side, and between the rivers Euryme- don and Cestrus, at a distance of 40 stadia from the coast. # (Strab. xiv. p. 667; Arrian, Anah. i. 25; Scylax, p. 40; Ptol. v. 5. § 1; Hierocl. p. 679; Polyb. xxii. 1 7 ; Steph. B. mentions it under the name '2,viiov, while in other passages it is called 'S.v- Kaiov, l.vWov, and 2iAoyoi'.) Sir C. Fellows (^Asia Minor, p. 200) thinks that the remains of a Greek town which he found in a wood on the side of a rocky hill near Bokascooe belong to the ancient Syllium; but from his description they do not appear to exist on a lofty height. [L. S.J SYMAETHUS (SvfiaiBoi: Simetoy, one of the most considerable rivers of Sicily, which rises in the chain of Mons Nebrodes, in the great forett now called the Bosco di Caronia, and flows from thence in a southerly direction, skirting the base of Aetna, till it turns to the E. and flows into the sea about 8 miles S. of Catania. In the lower part of its course it formed the boundary between the territory of Leontini and that of Catana. (Thuc. vi. 65.) It receives in its course many tributaries, of which the most considerable are, the Fiume Salso, flowing from the neighbourhood of Nicosia and Traina, probably the Cyamosorus ot' Polybius (i. 9), which he describes as flowing near Centuripa {Centoi-bi), and the Diitaino, which rises in the hills near Asaro, the ancient Assorus. This is undoubtedly the stream called in ancient times Cukysas. Stephanus of Byzantium apparently gives the name of Adranus to the upper part or main branch of the Symaethus itself, which flows under the walls of Adranum (^Ademb'). This part of the river is still called the Simeto ; but in the lower part of its course, where it approaches the sea, it is now known as the Giarrelta. Such differences of name are common in modern, as well as in ancient times. The Syinae-