Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/945

 SAUEOJIATAE. tnmus (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9), and was crossed by tlie j Ajipian Way, a few miles from its mouth, by a bridge called the Pons Campauus, from its forming the frontier of that country. [E. H. B.] SAURO'MATAE CZavpo/xaTai), probably the form which the root Sarmat- took in the languages from which the information of the Greeks of the parts about Olbiopohs was derived. It is the only form found in Herodotus, who knows nothing of the later name Sarmatae. Wlien this latter term, however, came into use, Sauromatae, especially with the Koman writers, became archaic and poetical, or exotic. This is the case in the line — " Ultra Sauromatas, fugere Line libet," &c. (Juv. Sat. ii. 1), and elsewhere. The Greeks of the Black Sea would take the name from either the Scythians or the Getae; and it is probably to the language of the latter, that the form belonged. Hence, it is a form of Samar- tae, taken from one of the eastern dialects of Dacia by the Greeks (possibly having passed tlirough a Scythian medium as well) as opposed to Sarmatae, which is from the western parts of the Dacian area, and adopted by the Romans. Its first and most convenient application is to the Aiiialic branch of the Sarmatians. These may be called Sarmatians as well, as they are by Ptolemy. On the contrary, it is rare, even in a Greek author, to apply Sauromatae to the Sarmatians of the Panno- nian frontier. The evidence as to the identity of the words is superabundant. Besides the internal probability, there is the statement of Pliny — " Sar- matae, Graecis Sauromatae" (iv. 25). With the writers of the Augustan age the use of the two forms fluctuates. It is exceptional, how- ever, for a Greek to write Sarmatae, or a Roman Sauromatae. Exceptional, however, as it is, the change is frequent. Diodorus writes Sauromatae (ii. 44), speaking of the Asiatic branch; Strabo writes Sauromatae under the same circumstances; also when following Greek authorities. For the western tribes he writes Sarmatae. Ovid uses the term that best suits his metre, giving Sarmatae the preference, caeteris imrihus. " Sarmaticae major Geticaeque frequentia gentes." (Trist. V. 7. 13.) " Jam didici Getice Sarmaticeque loqui." ^Ibid. V. 12. 58.) " Stridula Sauromates p/austra bubulcus agit." {Ibid. iii. 12. 30.) The Sauromatae of Herodotus were the occupants of a Aa|if, a word evidently used in a technical sense, and perhaps the term by which his informants trans- lated tlie Scythian or Sarmatian equivalents to our word March ; or it may = street. The Bashkir country, at the present moment, is divided into four streets, roads, or ways, according to the countries to which they lead. The number of these Ad^tes were two ; the first being that of the Sauromatae, bounded on the south anil west by the Tanais and Maeotis, and extending northwards fifteen days' journey. The country was treeless. The second Aa|iy, that of the Budini, followed. This was a wooded country. There is no necessity for con- necting the Budini with Sarmatae, on the strength of their both being occupants of a Ad|ir. All that comes out of the text of Herodotus is, that the SAXA RUBRA. 925 Scythians near Olbiopolis knew of a Adfis of the Sauromatae and a Ad|ij of the Budini. The former seems to have been the north-eastern part of the Bon Kozak country, with a portion of Saratov (iv. 21). When Darius invaded Scythia,the Sauromatae, Ge- loni, and Budini acted together, and in opposition to the Agathyrsi, Neuri, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, and Tauri ; the former agreeing to help the Scythians, the latter to leave them to their fate. This suggests the probability that, politically, the Admits were con- federate districts (Herod, iv. 119). The language of the Sauromatae was Scythian with solecisms, a statement which leads to the strange story of the Amazons (iv. 110 — 116), with wiiom the Sauromatae were most especially con- nected (iv. 117). The women amongst them re- mained unmarried until they had slain an enemy. The account of Hippocrates is substantially that of Herodotus, except that he especially calls the Sauromatae European and Scythian; though, at the same time, ditlerent from other nations. He makes the number, too, of enemies that the virgins must slay before they can marry, three. For further details, see Saematia. [R. G. L.] SAVUS (2dos or 'S.dovos: Save), a great and navigable tributary of the Danube; it has its sources in the Carnian Alps (Plin. iii. 28; Jornand. de Reh. Get. 56), and, flowing in an eastern direction almost parallel with the more northern Dravus, reaches the Danube at Singidunnm. A portion of its upper course foiTns the boundary between No- ricum and Pannonia, but the whole of the lower part of the river belongs to the southern part of Pannonia, and some of the most important towns of that country, as Siscia, Servitium, and Sirmium, were situated on its banks. (Strab. iv. p. 207, vii. p. 314; Appian, iii. 22; Ptol. ii. 16. § 1, iii.9.§ 1; Justin, xxsii. 3, 8, 16; Claud, de Laud. Slilich. ii. 192.) [L. S.] SAXA RUBRA {Prima Porta), a village and station on the Flaminian Way, 9 miles from Rome. It evidently derived its name from the redness of the tufo rocks, which is still conspicuous in the neighbourhood of Prima Porta. The name is written " Ad Rubras " in the Tabula, while Martial calls the place simply "Eubrae;" and this form is found also in the Jerusalem Itinerary. (Martial, iv. 64. 15; Itin. Hier. p. 612.) But the proper form of it seems to have been Saxa Rubra, which is used both by Livy and Cicero. Theformermentions it during the wars of the Romans with the Veientes, in connection with the operations on the Cremera (Liv. ii. 49); and Cicero notices it as a place in the immediate vicinity of Rome, where M. Antonius halted before entering the city. (Cic. Phil. ii. 31.) It was there also that Antonius, the general of Vespasian, arrived on his march upon Kome, when he learnt the successes of the Vitellians and the death of Sabinus. (Tac. Uist. iii. 79.) At a much later peiiod also (b. o. 32) it was the point to which Maxentius advanced to meet Constantino previous to the battle at the Milvian bridge. (Vict. Cues. 40. § 23.) We learn from Martial (I. c), that a village hail grown up on the spot, as would naturally be the case with a station so innnediately in the neighbour- hood of the city. On a hill on the right of the Via Flaminia, a little beyond Prima Porta, are considerable ruins, which are believed to be those of the villa of Livia, known by the name of " Ad Gallinas," which waa