Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/968

 948 SEGEDA AUGUEINA. SE'GEDA AUGURI'NA, an important town of Hispania Baetica, between the Bactis and the coast. (Pliu. iii. 1. s. 3.) Commonly supposed to he S. larjo delhi flifjiiera near Jaen. [T. H. D.] 'SEGELOC'UM (Itin. Ant. p. 475, called also Agklocum, lb. p. 478), a town in Britannia Ro- mana, on the road from Linduni to Eboracum, ac- cording to Camden (p. 382) Littlehorouyh in Not- iiii'/Iinms/iire. [T. H. D.] SEGE'SAMA (:^eyead,ua, Strah. iii. p. 162), or Segesajio and Segisamo (^Ttin. Ant. pp. 394, 449, 454; Orell. Inscr. no. 4719), and Segisa- JiONEXSES of the inhabitants (Plin. iii. 3. s. 4), a town of the Murbogi or Turmodigi in Hispania Tar- raconensis, on the rcjad from Tarraco to Asturica, now railed Sasnmo, to the W. oi Briviesca. (Florez, Esp. Sagr. vi. p. 419, xv. p. 59.) [T. H. D.] SEGESSERA, in Gallia, is placed in the Table between Corobilium (Coi-beil) and Andomatmium {Langres), and the distance of Segessera from each place is marked xxi. The site of Segessera is not certain. Some fix it at a place named Suzannecourt. [CoROBILIUJI.] [G. L.] SEGESTA (2e'760-Ta: Eth. "Ziyearavos, Seges- tanus : Ru. near Calatojimi), a city of Sicily in the NW. part of the island, about 6 miles distant from the sea, and 34 V. of Panormus. Its name is always written by the Attic and other contemporary Greek writers Egesta {"Eyeara: Eth. 'Eye(rTa7os, Thuc. &c.), and it has hence been frequently asserted that it was first changed to Segesta by the Romans, for the purpose of avoiiling the ill omen of the name of Egesta in Latin. (Fest. s.v. Segesta, p. 340.) This story is, however, disproved by its coins, which prove that consider»ably before the time of Thucy- dides it was called by the inhabitants themselves Segesta, though this form seems to have been softened by the Greeks into Egesta. The origin and foundation of Segesta is extremely obscure. The tradition current among the Greeks and adopted by Thucydides (Thuc. vi. 2 ; Dionys. i. 52 ; Strab. xiii. p. 608), ascribed its foundation to a band of Trojan settlers, fugitives from the destruction of their city; and this tradition was readily welcomed by the Romans, who in consequence claimed a kindred origin with the Segestans. Thucydides seems to have considered the Eiymi, a barbarian tribe in the neighbourhood of Eryx and Segesta, as descended from tJie Trojans in question ; but another account represents the Elymi as a distinct people, already existing in this part of Sicily when the Trojans arrived there and founded the two cities. [Elyjii.] A different story seems also to have been current, according to which Segesta owed its origin to a band of Phocians, who had been among the followers of Philoctetes; and, as usual, later writers sought to reconcile the two accounts. (Strab. vi. p. 272; Thuc. I. £.) Another version of the Trojan story, which would seem to have been that adopted by the inhabitants themselves, ascribed the foundation of the city to Egestus or Aegestus (the Acestes of Virgil), who was said to be the offspring of a Trojan damsel named Segesta by the river god Crimisus. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 550, v. 30.) We are told also that the names of Simois and Scamander were given by the Trojan colonists to two small streams which flowed beneath the town (Strab. xiii. p. 608); and the latter name is mentioned by Diodorus as one still in use at a much later period. (Diod. xx. 71.) It is certain that we cannot receive the statement of the Trojan origin of Segesta as historical; butwhat- SEGESTA, ever be the origin of the tradition, there seems no doubt on the one hand that the city was occupied by a people distinct from the Sicanians, the native race of this part of Sicily, and on the other that it was not a Greek colony. Thucydides, in enumerating the allies of the Athenians at the time of the Pelopon- nesian War, distinctly ca;lls the Segestans barba- rians; and the history of the Greek colonies in Sicily was evidently recorded with sufficient care and accuracy for us to rely upon his authority when he pronounces any people to be non-Hellenic. (Thuc. vii. 57.) At the same time they appear to have been, from a very early period, in close connection with the Greek cities of Sicily, and entering into relations both of hostility and alliance with the Hellenic states, wholly different from the other bar- barians in the island. The early influence of Greek civilisation is shown also by their coins, which are inscribed with Greek characters, and bear the un- questionable impress of Greek art. The first liistorical notice of the Segestans trans- mitted to us represents them as already engaged (as early as b. c. 580) in hostilities with the Selinun- tines, which would appear to prove that both cities had already extended their territories so far as to come into contact with each other. By the timely assistance of a body of Cnidian and Rhodian emi- grants under Pentathlus, the Segestans at this time obtained the advantage over their adversaries. (Diod. V. 9.) A more obscure statement of Diodorus re- lates that again in b. c. 454, the Segestans were engaged in hostilities with the LUyhaeans for the possession of the territory on the river Mazarus. (Id. xi. 86.) The name of the Lilybaeans is here certainly erroneous, as no town of that name existed till long afterwards [Lilybaeum] ; but we know not what people is really meant, though the pre- sumption is that it is the Selinuntines, with whom the Segestans seem to have been engaged in almost perpetual disputes. It was doubtless with a view to strengthen themselves against these neighbours that the Segestans took advantage of the first Athenian expedition to Sicily under Laches (b. c. 426), and concluded a treaty of alliance with Athens. (Thuc. vi. 6.) This, however, seems to have led to no re- sult, and shortly after, hostilities having again broken out, the Selinuntines called in the aid of the Syracusans, with whose assistance they obtained great advantages, and were able to press Segesta closely both by land and sea. In this extremity the Segestans, having in vain applied for assistance to Agrigentum, and even to Carthage, again had recourse to the Athenians, who vrere, without much difficulty, persuaded to espouse their cause, and send a fleet to Sicily, B.C. 416. (Thuc. vi. 6; Diod. xii. 82.) It is said that this result was in part attained by fraud, the Segestans having de- ceived the Athenian envoys by a fallacious display of wealth, and led them to conceive a greatly ex- aggerated notion of their resources. They, how- ever, actually furnished 60 talents in ready money, and 30 more after the arrival of the Athenian ar- mament. (Thuc. vi. 8, 46; Diod. xii. 83, xiii. 6.) But though the relief of Segesta was thus the original object of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily, that city bears little part in the subsequent operations of the war. Nicias, indeed, on arriving in the island, proposed to proceed at once to Se- linus, and compel that people to submission by the display of their fonnidable armament. But this advice was overruled: the Athenians turned their