Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/981

 SELLEIS. from the foundations of the walls. The latter were from 10 to 11 feet thick, and consist of irregular but very small stones. The northern and smaller half of the city was separated by a wall from the southern half, which was on lower ground. From its position Sellasia was always exposed to the attacks of an invading army. On the first in- vasion of Laconia by the Thebans in b. c. .569, Sel- lasia was pluiidered and burnt (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 27); and because the inhabitants at that time, together with several others of the Perioeci, went over to the enemy, the town was again taken and destroyed f lur years later by the Lacedaemonians themselves, assisted by some auxiliaries sent by the younger Dionysius. (Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 12.) It suffered the same fate a third time after the defeat of Cleomenes, as has been already related. It appears to have been never rebuilt, and was in ruins in the time of Pausanias (iii. 10. § 7). SELLE'IS (2eA.A.^6i$). 1. A river in Elis, mentioned by Homer, upon which Ephyra stood. [Ephvra, No. 2.] 2. A river in Sicyonia, upon which Strabo also places a town Ephyra. [Ephyra, No. 3.] SELLE'TAE (Plin. iv. 11. s. 18, init.), a people of Thrace, whose country was called Selletica {%i)riK'h, Ptol. iii. 11. § 8). It was north of the Haemus, between that range of mountains and the Panysus. [.I. R.J SELLE'TICA. [Selletae.] SELLI or HELLI, an ancient tribe in Epeinis, in whose country, called Hellopia, the oracle of Dodona was situated. [Dodona, p. 782, a.] SE'LLIUM (SeAioj/, Ptol. ii. 5. § 7), a place in Lusitania, lying N. of Scalabis (/im. Ant. p. 421). Identified with Ceice or Seijo. [T. H.D.] SELLUS, according to Avienus {Ora Marit. 507) a high mountain in Hispania Tarraconensis, on which the city of Lebedontia once stood. Ukert (ii. pt. i. p. 484) identifies it with C.Salon. [T.H. D.] SELY'MBRIA (SrjAvgpi'jj, Herod, vi. 33; SijAv- gpi'a, Xen. Anab. vii. 2. § 15, &c.; Strab. vii. p.319; Ptol. iii. 11. § 6; '%yv(j.§p'ia., Dem. de Rhod. lib. p. 198, Reiske), a Thracian town on the Propontis, 22 miles east from Perinthus, and 44 miles west from Constantinople (^Itin. Hier. p. 570, where it is called Salamembria), near the southern end of the wall, built by Anastasius Dicorus for the protection of his capital. (Procop. de Aed. iv. 9; see Scyl- lae). According to Strabo (I. c), its name signi- fies " the town of Selys;" from which it has been inferred that Selys was the name of its founder, or of the leader of the colony from Megara, which founded it at an earlier period than the establish- nient of Byzantium, another colony of the same Grecian state. (Scymn. 714.) In honour of Eu- doxia, the wife of the emperor Arcadius, its name was changed to Eudoxiupolis (Hierocl. p. 632), which it bore for a considerable time ; but its modern name, Sillvri, shows that it subsequently resumed its original designation. Respecting the history of Selymbria, only detached and fragmentary notices occur in the Greek writers. In Latin authors, it is merely named (Mela, ii. 2. § 6 ; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18, xxix. 1. s. 1; in the latter passage it is said to have been the birthplace of Pro- dicus, a disciple of Hippocrates). It was here that Xenophon met Wedosades, the envoy of Seuthes {Anab.vVi. 2. §28), whose forces afterwards en- camped in its neigh bom-hood {lb. 5. § 15). When VOL. II. SEMBRITAE. 061 Alcibiades was commanding for the Athenians in the Propontis (b. c. 410), the people of Selymbria refused to admit his army into the town, but gave him money, probably in order to induce him to ab- stain from forcing an entrance. (Xen. Hell. i. 1. §21.) Some time after this, however, he gained possession of the place through the treachery of some of the townspeople, and, having levied a con- tribution upon its inhabitants, left a garrison in it. (lb. 3. § 10; Plut. Alcib. 30.) Selymbria is men- tioned by Demosthenes (Z. c.) in B. c. 351, as in alli- ance with the Athenians; and it was no doubt at that time a member of the Byzantine confederacy. According to a letter of Philip, quoted in the ora- tion de Corona (p. 251, R.), it was blockaded by him about B.C. 343; but Professor Newman considers that this mention of Selymbria is one of the numerous proofs that the documents inserted in that speech are not authentic. (Class. Mus. vol. i. pp. 153, 154.) [.LR.] SEMACHIDAE. [Atxica, p. 330, b.] SEMA'NA SILVA (STjj.toi'a or 'S.Tf]fjia.vovs OAti), one of the mountain forests of ancient Germany, on the south of Mons Melibucus (Ptol. ii. 1. § 7). is perhaps only a part of the Harz mountain or of the Thilringer Wald. (Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 8 ; Wilhelm, Germanien, p. 38, &c.) [L. S.] SEMANTHINI (S.-nixaveLVoi, Ptol. vii. 3. § 4), a people dwelling in the land of the Sinae E. of tlie Semanthine mountains, which derived their name from them. [T. H. D.] SEMANTHINI MONTES (rb ^vt^avdivhv hfio% Ptol. vii. 2. § 8), a mountain chain intlie country of the Sinae (Chi?ici), which, according to Ptolemy, ex- tended from the .sources of the Aspithra in a NW. di- rection as far as those of the Serus. It is probably the chain which separate.'^ the Chinese province of Yunnan from the districts of 31ien and Lant- schua. [T. H. D.j SEMBRI'TAE (SfM^pTrai, Strab. xvi. pp. 770 — 786; Sembkrritae, Plin. vi 30. s. 35), a pio- ple inhabiting the district of Tenesis in Aethiopia. al- though they seem to have been of Aegyptian oi-igin. The first mention of the Sembritae occurs in Eraio- sthenes {ap. Strab. xvii. p. 786), who says that they occupied an island above Meroe; that their name implies "immigrants;" that they descended from the Aegyptian war-caste, who, in the reign of Psam- mitichus (b. c. 658), abandoned their native land; and that they were governed by a queen, although they were also dependent on the sovereigns of Mei'oij. Artemidorus, also quoted by Strabo (xvi. p. 770), says on the contrary, that they were the ruling order in Meroii: these accounts, however, may be recon- ciled by the supposition that EratObthenes and Arte- midorus described them at different periods. If the Sembritae were the Aegyptian refugees, they weie also the Automoloi (Acr/udx) noticed by Herodotus (ii. 30). Phny (/. c.) speaks of four islands of the Sembritae, each containing one or more towns. These' were therefore not islands in the Nile, or in any of its principal tributaries, the Astapus, or Astaboras, but tracts between rivers, mesopotamian districts like Meroo itself, which in the language of Nubia are still denominated " islands.'' The capital of the Sembritae was, according to Pliny, Sembobis. It stood on the left bank of tiie river, 20 days' jour- ney above Meroe. Pliny i>amcs also, among other of their principal towns, Sai in Arabia, — i. e. on tho right bank of the Nile, for he assumes that river as the bouniary between Lybia and Arabia, — Esar oy 3q