Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/924

 904 SAPAICA. gaeus, in the neighbourhood of Abdera. (Strab. sii. p. 549.) In this passage, however, Strabo calls them Sap-.ie (Sajrai). and assumes their identity with the Sinti, which in another place (x. p. 457) he treats as a mere matter of conjecture. The Via Egnatia ran through their country, and especially through a narrow and difficult defile called by Ap- pian (JS. C. iv. 87, 106; the pass of the Sapaei,and stated by him to be 18 miles from Philippi; so that it must have been nearly nndway between Neapolis and Abdera. The Sapaei are mentioned, and merely mentioned, by Heroilotus (vii. 110) and by Pliny (iv. 11. s. 18). Their town is called Sapaica (SoTToiK^) by Steph. B. («• »•)■ [J- R-J SAPAICA. [Sapaei.] SAPAKNUS (2a7rap!/oy), a small tributary of the Indus, in the ujiper Punjab, noticed by Arrian (Indie, c. 4). It is probably the present Abba- sin. [V.] SAPAUDIA. This name occui-s in Ammianus JIarcellinus (xv. 11), in his description of Gallia. He says of the Rhone that after flowing through the Lake of Geneva " perSapaudiam fertur et Sequanos." In the Notit. Imp. we read: " in Gallia Kipense i)rae- fectus militum Barcariorum Ebruduni Sapaudiae," where Ebrudunum appears to be Yrei'dun, which is at one end of the Lake of Neufcliatel. In another p.issage of the Notit. there occurs : " tribunus cohor- tis primae Sapaudiae Flaviae Calarone," or '• Cula- rone," which is Grenoble [CuLAno]. Thus Sapau- dia extended northward into the country of the Helvetii and southward into the territory of the Allohroges. The came Sapaudia is preserved in Saboia, or Savoy, but in a much more limited signifi- cation ; and in the country now called Savoy there is said to be a canton which bears the particular name of Savoy. (D' Anville, Notice, l^c.) [G. L.] SAPHAR. [Saithar.] SAPHE. [Bezaeda.] SAPHRI (2a!^pi), a small village of Parthyene mentioned by Isidorus {Stath. Partk. c. 12). It may be the same place as that called by Ptolemy 'SSpSa (vi. 9. § 6), which he places in Hyrcania, close to the Astabeni. Forbiger identifies it with the modern Shoffri. [V.] SAPIRI'NE (Plin. vi. 29. s. 33.; :S.aTnreip-nvTi ^ SatTirejpVjj'T) vfjcos, Ptol. iv. 5. § 77; SaTn^eipTji'ij, Steph. B. s. v.), an island in the Arabian gulf, XE. of Myos Hormos and S. of the promontory I'liaran, from which sapphires were obtained according to Stephanus. Now Sheduan. SAPIS (SoTTis, Strab.: Savio), a small river of Cisalpine Gaul, not far from the frontiers of Um- bria. It rises in the Umbrian Apennines, a few miles above Sarsina, flows under the walls of that town, and afterwards, pursuing a course nearly due N., crosses the Aemilian Way close to the town of Cuesena (Ceserea), and falls into the Adriatic about 10 miles S. of Ravenna. (Strab. v. p. 2 1 7 ; Plin. iii. 15. s. 20; Lucan. ii. 406; Sil. Ital. viii. 448; Tab. Pent.) It is called in the Tabula Sabis ; and the name is written Isapis in several editions of Lucan and Strabo; but there seems little doubt that Sapis is the true form of the name. It is still called the Savio. There can be little doubt that the Sa- rrsiA Tribus, mentioned by Livy (xxxi. 2, xxxiii. 37), as one of the tribes or divisions of the Umbrian nation, immediately adjoining the Gaulish tribe of the Boii, derived its name from the Sapis, and must have dwelt on the banks of that river. [E. H B.] SAPPUAK METROPOLIS (5a7r<fapa /trjTpd- SARACENL TroAis), placed by Ptolemy in long. 88° lat. 14° 30'; doubtless the capital of the Sappharitae (2a7r</)a- piTai), whom the same geographer places near the Homeritae (vi. 6. § 25), which Bochart identities with the " Sephar " called by Moses " a mount of the East," and which was the limit of the children of Joktan. {Gen. x. 30 ) This Forster further identifies with the Mount Climax of Ptolemy, wliicii Niebuhr judged to be the Samara or Kakil Sumara of modern Arabia, the highlands of Yemen, on the E. of which that same traveller found some ruins, half a day's journey SW. of Jerim, named Sapfnir, which he says is without doubt Aphar, or lJha~ far. (Forster, Geogr. of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 94, 105, 127 notes, 175, vol. ii. pp. 154, 172.) Aphar was the metropolis of the Sabaeans according to the author of the Periplus ascribed to Arrian, and dis- tant 12 days' journey eastward from Mu.sa on the Arabian gulf; Mr. Forster i-emarks " that the di- rection and the distance correspond with the site of Dhafar'" (vol. ii. p. 166, note *). It is to be re- gretted that this important and well marked site bas not yet been visited and explored. [G. W.j SAPPHARI'TAE. [Sapfhar.] SAPPIRE'NE. [Sapikine.I SAPRA PALUS. [BucEs.]" SARACE'NI (SapaKTji/oi). This celebrated name, which became so renowned and dreaded in Europe, is given to a tribe of Arabia Felix by the classical geographers, who do not, however, very clearly define their po.sition in the peninsula, and indeed the country of Saracene in Ptolemy seems scarcely reconcileable with the situation assigned to the Saraceni by the same geographer. Thus he, consistently with Pliny, who joins them to the Nu- bataei (vi. 28. s. 32), places the Saraceni south of the Scenitae, who were situated in the neighbourhood of the northern mountains of the Arabian peninsula (vi. 7. § 21); but the region Saracene he places to the west of the black mountains {/xeAava opr]) — by which name he is supposed to designate the range of Sinai, as he couples it with the gulf of Pharan — and on the confines of Egypt (v. 17. § 3). St. Jerome also calls this district the " mons et desertum Saracenorum, quod vocatur Pharan " {Onomast. s. v. Xojp^g, Choreb), in agreement ^vith which Eusebius also places Pharan near the Saraceni who inhabit the desert (s. v. ^apdv). According to these writers their country corresponds with what is in Scripture called Midian {Exod. ii.l5, iii. 1; see Midian), which, however, they place incorrectly on the east of the Red Sea; and the people are iden- tified with the Ishmaelites by St. Jerome (Onomast. I. c), elsewhere with Kedar {Comment, in les. xlii. and in Loc. Ileb. ad voc), with the Midianites by St. Augustine (inNmner.), with the Scenitae by Am- mianus Jlarcellinus, who, however, uses the name in a wider acceptation, and extends them from Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile (xiv. 4). Their situa- tion is most clearly described by the author of the Periplus. " They who are called Saraceni inhabit the parts about the neck of Arabia Felix nest to Pe- traea, and Arabia Deserta. They have many names, and occupy a large tract of desert land, bordering on Arabia Petraea and Deserta, on Palaestina and Persis, and consequently on the before-named Ara- bia Felix." (Marcian. apud Geog. Min. vol. i. p. 16, Hudson.) The fact seems to tie that this name, like that of Scenitae (with whom, as we have seen, the Saraceni are sometimes identified), was used either in a laxer or more restricted sense for various