Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/952

 932 SCIRITIS. The evidence of Jornandes makes them Alans (" Sciri et Satagariiet ceteri Alanorum," Ri^b. Get. 49), evidence which is important, since Peria, the notary i)f the Alan kingCandax,was the writer'sf;randfather. They are made by Sidonius {Cai-m. vii. 322) part of Attila's army, by Jornandes subjects of Oduacer, by Procopius members of the Goth and Alan alli- ance. They were, almost certainly, a Scythian tribe of Kherson, who during the period of the Greek settlements harassed Olbia, and, during the Byzantine period, joined with the other barbarians of the Lower Danube againts Eonie. Of these, the chief confederates were the Heruli and Turci- lingi; with whom they found their way as far west as Bavaria. The present country of Sti/7'ia (^Stt/ei-- mark)=the March of the Stiri or Sciri, the change from 5c to St being justified by the Bavarian Count Vun Schiern in one part of a document of the 10th century being made a Comes cle Stli'a in another. Add to this the existence of a Nenius Sclrorum in Bavaria. (See Zeuss, s. v. Sciri'), The Sciri of the later writers were probably a portion of the Scythians of the parts between the Danube and J>on, under a newer and more spe- cific name. The transplantation into Styria along with an inroad of Uldis, king of the Huns, seems to liHve broken up the name and nation. Sozomenes saw the remnants of them labouring as slaves in the mines of Mount Olympus in Bithynia (ix. 5). [R. G. L,] SCIRriTS (ji ^.Kiplris : Eth. ^Kip'nris, fern. S^fipiTis), a rugged and barren mountainous dis- trict, in the north of Laconia, between the upper Eurotas on the west and the Oenus on the east, and extending north of the highest ridge of the moun- tains, which were the natural boundary between Laconia and Arcadia. The name probably expressed the wild and rugged nature of the country, for the word signified hard and rugged {cKlpov, crKetpov, rTKrip6v, Hesych.). It was bounded by the Jlae- nalians on the north, and by the Parrhasians on the west, and was originally part of Arcadia, but was conquered at an early period, and its inhabitants reduced to the condition of Lacedaemonian Perioeci. (Steph. B. s. V. 'SKipos ; Thuc. v. 33.) According to Xenophon they were subjected to Sparta even before the time of Lycurgus, (Z'e Rep. Lac. c. 12.) They were distinguibhed above all the other Perioeci for their bravery; and their contingent, called the 2KipcT77s iix°^i GOO in number, usually occupied the extreme left of the Lacedaemonian wing. (Tliuc. V. 67, 68.) They were frequently placed in the post of danger, and sometimes remained with the king as a body of reserve. (Xen. Cyr. iv. 2. § 1, Jlell. v. 2. § 24, V. 4. § .52 ; Diod. xv. 32.) On the first invasion of Laconia by the Thebans theSciritae, together with the Perioeci of Caryae and Sellasia, revolted from Sparta, in consequence of which their country was subsequently ravaged by the Lacedae- monians. (Xen. Hell. vii. 24. § 1.) The only towns in the Sciritis appear to have been Sciuus and Oeum, called lum by Xenophon. The latter is the oidy place in the district mentioned in liistorical times [Oeum]. Scirus may perhaps have been the same as Scirtonium (^^KipTconov), in the district of Aegytis. (Paus. viii. 27. § 4 ; Steph. B. s. v.) The i-oad from Sparta to Tegea, which is the same as the present road from Sparta to TripoUtzu, led through the Sciritis. (Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 28; Boblaye, Rccherrhes. cjV. p. 7.5; Ross, Rekcn im Peloponnes, p. 178; Curtius, PelopuHnesos, vol. ii. p. 263.) SCOLUS. SCIRO'XIA SAXA. [Megara, p. 316, b.] SCIRRL [SciKi.] SCIRTIA'NA, a station on the Egnatian road, between Brucida (^Presba') and Castra or Parembole. The name is no doubt connected with that of the SciRTOXES (2KipToves), whom Ptolemy (iii. 17. § 8) couples with the Dassaretian Pirustae as Ulyrian tribes near JMacedonia. [E. B. J.] SCFRTONES. [SciuTiANA.] SGIRTO'XIUIL [Sciritis.] SCIRTUS (^Kipros, Procop. de Aed. ii. 7), a river of Mesopotamia, a western tributary of the Chaboras (^Chahur). It flowed from 25 sources, and ran past Edessa. (Chron. Edess. in Asseman, Bihl. Or. i. p. 388.) Its name, which signifies the skipping or jumping (from ffKiprdco), is said to have been derived from its rapid course and its frequent overflowings; and its present name of Daisanmeuus the same thing. [T. H. D.] SCIRUM. [Attica, p. 326, a.] SCISSUJL [CissA.] SCI'TTIUM. [SOTIATES.] SCODRA (v 2/cd5pa, Ptol. ii. 16.(17.) § 12; Sfco'Spai, Hierocl. p. 656: Eth. Scodrenses, Liv. xlv. 26), one of the more important towns of Roman Illyricum {Montenegro'), the capital of the Labeafes, seated at the southern extremity of the lake La- beatis, between two rivers, the Clausula on the E., and the Barbanna on the W. (Liv. xliv. 31), and at a distance of 17 miles from the sea-coast (Plin. iii. 22. 8. 26). It was a very strong place, and Gen- tius, king of the Illyrians, attempted to defend it against the Romans, B.C. 168, but was defeated in a battle under the walls. Pliny erroneously places it on the L)riIo (l. c). At a later period it became the chief city of the province Praevalitana. It is the present Scutari, which is also the name of the lake Labe.itis. (Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Monte- negro, vol. i. p. 476.) fT. H. D.] SCOLLIS (2«dAAis), a mountain between Ells and Achaia, now called Sandameriot'iko, 3333 feet high, from which the river Larisus rises, that forms the boundary between Achaia and Elis. Strabo describes it as adjacent to JIount Lampeia, which was connected with the range of Eryman- thus. (Strab. viii. p. 341.) Strabo also identifies it with the " Olenian Rock " of Homer. {II. ii. 617 ; Strab. viii. p. 387 : Leake, Morea, vol. ii. pp. 184, 230; Peloponnes iaca, p. 203.) SCOLOTI. [SCYTHIA.] SCOLUS (SukAos, Thuc. v. 18 ; Strab. ix. p. 408), a town of Chalcidice near Olynthus, m^n- tioned together with Spartolus, in the treaty between Athens and Sparta in the tenth year of the Pelo- ponnesian War. [E. B. J.] SCOLUS CZkccXos: Eth. S^ciAioj, SKwAieus), a town of Boeotia, mentioned by Homer {11. ii. 497), and described by Strabo as a village of the Pura- sopia below Cithaeron (ix. p. 408). Pausanias, in his de.scrij^ition of the route from Plataea to Thebes, says, that if the traveller were, instead of crossing the Asopus, to follow that river for about 40 stadia, he would arrive at the ruins of Scolus, where there was an unfinished teiuple of Demeter and Core (ix. 4. § 4). Mardonius in his march from Tanagra to Plataea passed through Scolus. (Herod, ix. 15.) When the Lacedaemonians were preparing to invade Boeotia, B. c. 377, the Thebans threw up an iii- trenciunent in front of Scolus, which probably ex- tended from Wt. Cithaeron to the Asopr.s. (Xen, Jlell. V. 4. § 49, Agesil. 2.) Strabo say.s that