Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/946

 926 SAXETAXmi. situated 9 miles from Rome, on the Via Flaminia. (Plin. XV. 30. s. 40; Suet. Gulb. 1.) [E. H. B.] SAXETANUil, a place in Hispania Baetica {Itin. Ant. p. 405), called Sex (2e'0 by Ptolemy (ii. 4. § 7), Hexi by Jlela (ii. 6), and by Pliny (iii. 3) Sexti Finnum Julium. It is the '^i,iravSiv TToAts of Strabo (iii. p. 156). On the name see Casaubon (ad Strab. i. p. 50), and Tzsclmck {ad Melam, vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 447). It was renowned for its salt-fish. (Strab. iii. p. 156; Athen. iii. p. 121 ; Plin. xxxii. 11. s. 53 ; Mart. vii. 78, &c.) Now most probably Ilotril. (Cf. Florez, £sp. Sagr. xii. p. 101.) [T. H. D.] SA'XONES (Safoj/ey: Saxons), a German tribe, which, though it acted a very prominent part about the beginning and during the early part of the middle ages, yet is not even mentioned in ancient history previous to A. d. 287. In that year, we are told by Eutropius (vii. 13; comp. Oros. vii. 25), the Saxons and Franks infested the coasts of Armorica and Belgica, the protection of which was intrusted to Carausius. The fact that Pliny and Tacitus do not mention them in the country in which we after- wards find them, does not prove that they did not exist there in the time of those writers. For the inhabitants of the Cimbrian Chersonesus, where subsequently we find the Saxons, are mentioned by those writers only under the general appellation of the Cimbri, without noticing any special tribes under separate names. Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 1 1 ; comp. Steph. B. s. V.) is the first authority describing the ha- bitations of the Saxons, and according to him they occupied the narrow neck of the Cimbrian Cherso- nesus, between the river Albis {Elbe) and Chalusus {Trave), that is, the country now called EoUteiti. Their neighbours on the south of the Albis were the Chauci, in the east the Suardones, and in the north the Singulones, Angli, and other smaller tribes of the peninsula. But besides this portion of the continent, the Saxons also occupied three islands, called " Saxon islands," off the coast of Holste'm {'S.ai^ovuiv vijffoi, Ptol. ii. 11. § 31), one of which was no doubt the modern Helgoland ; the two others must either be supposed to have been swallowed up by the sea, or be identified with the islands of Jjyclcsand and Vielschovel, which are nearer the coast than Helgoland. The name Saxones is commonly derived from Sails or Sacks, a battle-knife, but others connect it with seax (earth) or seat, according to which Saxons would describe the people as living in fixed seats or habitations, as opposed to the free or wandering Franlcs. The former, however, is the more probable origin of the name ; for the living in fixed habit;itions was certainly not a characteristic mark of the ancient Saxons. They appear to have gradually spread along the north-western coast of Germany, and to have gained possession of a large extent of country, which the Eavenna Geographer (iv. 17, 18, 23) calls by the name of Saxonia, but which was certainly not in- habited by Saxons exclusively In A. D. 371 the Saxons, in one of their usual ravaging excursions on the coasts of Gaul, were surrounded and cut to pieces by the Roman army under Valentinian (Oros. vii. 32; Amm. Marc, xxviii. 2, 5; comp. xxvi. 4, xxvii. 8; Zosim. iii. 1, G); and about the middle of the fifth century a band of Saxons led by Hengist and Horsa crossed over into Britain, which had been completely given up by tiie Romans, and now fell into the hands of the roving Saxons, who in con- SCAMANDER. nection with other German tribes peiTnanently esta- blished themselves in Britain, and there developed the great features of their national character. (Beda, Hist. Eccles. i. 12). As the Romans never invaded the original country of the Saxons, we know of no towns or places in it, with the exception perliaps of the town of Treva (TpTjoua) mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 1 1. § 27). Besides those already mcntion>^d, there are but few passages in ancient writers in which the Saxons are mentioned, such as Marcian, p. 53 ; Claud. de Laud. Stil. ii. 255; Sidon. Apoll. vii. 90, 369. Among modern writers the reader may consult Kufahl, De Saxonum Origine, Berlin, 1 830, 8vo., and the best works on the early history of England and Ger- many. [L. S.] SA'XONUM I'NSULAE. [Saxones.] SCAIDA'VA, a town in Moesia Inferior, between Kovae and Trimammium. Jtin. Ant. p. 222.) It is called Scedeba (S/ceSeSa) by Procopius {de Aed. iv. 11). Variously identified with liaionou and RusUchuch. [T. H. D.] SCA'LABIS, a town of Lusitania, on the road from Olisipo to Emerita and Bracara. {Itin. Ant. pp. 420, 421.) Pliny (iv. 21. s. 35) calls it a Ro- man colony, with the surname Praesidium Julium, and the seat of one of the three " conventus juri- dici " of Lusitania. It is undoubtedly the same place which Ptolemy (ii. 5. § 7) erroneously calls SfaAagctTKos, which is probably a corruption of S/caAaSi's Ko. {koKwv'kx) The modern Santarem. (Cf. Wesseling, ad Itin. I. c. ; Isidor. de Vir. III. c. 44 ; Florez, Esp. Sagr. xiii. p. 69.) [T. H. D.] SCALDIS {Schelde, Escaut) a river in North Gallia. Caesar {B. G. vi. 33), the first writer who mentions the Scaldis, says, when he was pursuing Ambiorix, that he determined to go " as far as the Scaldis which flows into the Mosa {Maas) and the extremity of the Arduenna " {Ardennes). All the JISS. quoted by Schneider {B. G. vi. 33) have tlin reading " Scaldem," "Schaldem," " Scaldim," and other trifling varieties, except one MS. which has " Sambim ; " so that, as Schneider concludes, we cannot doubt that Caesar wrote " Scaldis " in this passage. Pliny (iv. 17) describes the Scaldis as the boundary between the Gallic and Germanic nations, and says nothing of its union with the Mosa : " A Scalde ad Sequanam Belgica ; '' and " a Scaldi incolunt extera Toxandri pluribus nominibus." Some geographers suppose that the Tabuda of Ptolemy is the Schelde. [Takuda.] The passage of Caesar is most easily explained by supposing that he knew nothing of the lower course of the Schelde, and only reported what he heard. It is possible that the East Schelde was once the chief outlet of the Schelde, and it may have had some communication with the channels about the islands between the East Schelde and the lower course of the Mosa, which communication no longer exists. There is at least no reason for taking, in place of " Scaldim " or " Scaldem," the reading " Sabin " (2a§ji'), from the Greek version of the Commentaries. The Schelde rises in France, in the department of Aisne. Below Antwerp it enters the sea by two aestuaries, the Hmd or West Schelde and tha East Schelde. [G. L.] SCAilANDER (S/cauaj/Spos : Mendere Su, or the river of Bunarhaschi), a famous little stream in the plain of Troy, which according to Homer {II. XX. 74) was called Xanthus by the gods and Scamander by men; though it probably ovred the