Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/955

 SCYLAX. UIBALIS.] In B. c. 124 the Romans, at the insti- gation of C. Gracchus, sent a colony to Scylacium, which appears to have assumed the name of Jliner- vium or Colmiia ilinervia. (Veil. Pat. i. 15; Momm-- sen, in Berkhte der Sdchsischen Geselhchaft da- Wissetisc/icrftm, 1849, pp. 49 — 51.) The iwme is written by 'elleiu.s " Scolatium ; " and the form " Sco- laciuni" is found also in an inscription of the reign of Antoninus Pius, from which it ajjpears that the place must have received a fresh colonyunder Nerva. (Orell Jiiscr. 136; Munmiscn, I.e.). Scylacium appears to have become a considerable town after it received the Koman colony, and continued such throughout the Roman Empire. (Jlel. ii. 4. § 8; Plin. iii. 10. s. 15; Ptol. iii. 1. § 11.) Towards the close of this period it was distinguished as the birthplace of Cassiodonis, who has left us a detailed but rhetorical description of the beauty of its situation, and fertility of its territory. (Cassiod. Far. xii. 15.) The modern city of Squlllace is a poor place, with only about 4000 inhabitants, though retaining its episcopal see. It stands niton a liill about 3 miles from the sea, a position according with the descrip- tion given by Cassiodorus of the ancient city, but it is probable that tliis occupied a site nearer the sea, where considerable ruins are said still to exi.vt, though they have not been described by any modern traveller. The ScYLLETicvs Sinus (2/ci'AAr;TiK^s kSattos), or Gulf of Squillace, was always regarded as dan- gerous to mariners ; hence Virgil calls it " navifra- gum Scylaceum." (^Aen. iii. 553.) There is no natural port tiiroughout its whole extent, and it still bears an evil reputation for shipwrecks. The name is found in Aristotle as well as Antiochus of Syracuse, but would seem to have been unknown to Thucydides; at least it is difficult to explain other- wise the peculiar manner in which he speaks of the Terinaean gulf, while relating the voyage of Gy- lippus along the E. coast of Bruttiurn. (Thuc. vi. 104; Arist. Fol. vii. 10; Antioch. cip. Strah. vi. p. 254.) [E. H. B.] SCYLAX (S/ci^AaO, the chief tributary of the Tris in Pontus; it had its sources in the east of Galatia, and flowing in a north-western direction, emptied itself into the Iris near Eupatoria or Mag- nopolis. (Strah. xii. p. 547.) Its modern name is Tchoterlek Irmak. (Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. pp. 365, 374.) [L. S.] SCYLLAE {Tab.Peut. Geogr. Rav. iv. 6, v. 12), a town of Thrace, on the Euxine, where the long wall, erected by the emperor Anastasius Dicorus for the defence of Constantinople, terminated. This wall commenced at Selymbria, on the Propontis, and was carried across the narrow part of Thrace, at the distance of about 40 miles from Constan- tinople, its length being 2 day.s' journey (Pro- cop, de Aed. iv. 9 ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 40.) [J.R.] SCYLLAEUM (rh 2/cuAoioj': Scilla), a pro- montory, and town or fortress, on the W. coast of Bnittium, about 15 miles N. of Ehegium, and almost exactly at the entrance of the Sicilian strait. The promontory is well desciibcd by Strabo (vi. p. 257) as a projecting rocky headland, jutting out boldly into the sea, and united to the mainland by a narrow neck or isthmus, so as to form two small but well sheltered bays, one on each side. Theie can bo no doubt that this rocky promontory was the one which became the subject of so many fables, and ■which was rejiresented by Homer and other poets as SCYROS. G35 the abode of the monster Scylla. (Horn. Od. xii. 73, &c., 235, &c.; Bioffr. Diet. art. Scylla.) But the dangers of the rock of Scylla were far nmre fabulous than those of its neighbour Charybdis, and it is difficult to understand how, even in the infancy of navigation, it could have offered any obstacle more formidable than a hundred other headlands whose names are unknown to fame. (Senec. Ep. 79; Smyth's Sicili/, p. 107.) At a later period Anaxi- las, the despot of Rhegium, being struck with the natural strength of the position, fortified the rock, and established a naval station there, for the pur- pose of checking the incursions of the Tyrrhenian pirates. (Strab. vi. p. 257.) In consequence of this a small town grew up on the spot; and hence Pliny speaks of an " oppidum Scyllaeum; " but it was pro- bably always a small place, and other writers speak only of the promontory. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Jlel. ii. 4. § 8; Ptol. iii. 1. § 9.; Stejih. Byz. s. v.) At the present day the rock is still occupied by a fort, which is a post of considerable strength, while a small town stretches down the slopes towards the two bays. The distance from the castle to the op- posite point of the Sicilian coast, marked by the Torre del Faro, is stated by Capt. Smyth at 6047 yards, or rather less than 3-^ Eng. miles, but the strait afterwards contracts considerably, so that its width between the Punta del Pezzo (Caenys Prom.) and the nearest point of Sicily does not exceed 3971 yards. (Smyth's Sicihj, p. 108.) [E. H. B.J SCYLLAEUM {liKvWaiov), a promontory of Troezenia, and the most easterly point of the Pelo- ponnesus, is said to have derived its name from Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, who, after betraying Wegara and Nisaea to Minos, was thrown by the latter into the sea, and was wa.shed ashore on this promontory. Scyllaeum fonned, along with the opposite promontory of Sunium in Attica, the en- trance to the Saronic gulf. It is now called Kuvo- Shjli; but as Pausanias, in the paraplus from Scyl- laeum to Hermione, names Scyllaeum first, and then Bucephala, v-ith three adjacent islands, it is neces- sary, as Leake has observed, to divide the extremity now known as Kavo-Shjli into two parts; the bold round promontory to the N. being the true Scyl- laeum, and the acute cape a mile to the S. of it; Bucephala, since the three islands are adjacent to the latter.' (Paus. ii. 34. §§7,8; Scylax, p. 20, Hudson; Strab. viii. p. 373; Thuc. v. 63; Plin. iv. 5. s. 9; Mela, ii. 3; Leake, lilorea, vol. ii. p. 462, Peloponnesiuca, p. 282; Boblaye, Fecherches, p. 59; Curtius, Felnpomiesos, vol. ii. p. 452.) SCYLLE'TICUS SINUS. [Scylacium.] SCYRAS. [Laconia, p. 1 1 4, b,] SCYRUS or SCYRUS (2/n"pos: Eth. :S.Kvpios: Shjro), an island in the Aegaean sea, and one of the northern Sporades, was so called from its rnggcd- ness. It lay east of Euboea, and contained a town of the same name (Strab. ix. p. 436; Scylax. p. 23; Ptol. iii. 13. § 47), and a river called Cejthi.ssus. (Strab. ix. p. 424.) Scyros is fre(]ucntly mentioned in the stories of the mythical period. Here Thetis concealed licr son Achilles in woman's attire among the daughters of Lycomcdes, in order to save him from the fate which awaited him under the walls of Troy. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 8 ; Paus. i. 22. § 6: Strab. ix. ji. 436.) It was liere also that Pyrrlius, the son of Deidamia by Achilles, was brought up, and was fetched from thence by Ulysses to tho Trojan War. (Hotn. //. xix. 326, Od. xi. 507; Soph. Phil. 239, seq.) According to another tradi- 3o 4