Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/259

Rh S A L S A L 239 the state of this city just before its fall (De Gub., vii., viii.). He seems to have been still living at Marseilles when Gen- nadius wrote under the papacy of Gelasius (492-496). Of Salvian's writings there are still extant two treatises, entitled respectively De Oubernatione Dei and Ad Ecdesiam, and a series of nine letters. The De Oubernatione, Salvian's greatest work, was published after the capture of Litorius at Toulouse (439), to which he plainly alludes in vii. 10, and after the Vandal conquest of Car- thage in the same year (vi. 12), but before Attila's invasion (450), as Salvian speaks of the Huns, not as enemies of the empire, but as serving in the Roman armies (vii. 9). The words " proximum belluni " seem to denote a year very soon after 439. In this work Salvian deals with the same problem that had moved the eloquence of St Augustine and Orosius. Why were these miseries falling on the empire ? Could it be, as the pagans said, because the age had forsaken its old gods ? or, as the semi-pagan creed of some Chris- tians taught, that God did not constantly overrule the world he had created (i. 1)? With the former Salvian will not argue (iii. 1). To the latter he replies by asserting that, "just as the navigating steersman never looses the helm, so does God never remove his care from the world." Hence the title of the treatise. In books i. and ii. Salvian sets himself to prove God's constant guidance, first by the facts of Scripture history, and secondly by the enumeration of special texts declaring this truth. Having thus "laid the founda- tions " of his work, he declares in book iii. that the misery of the Roman world is all duo to the neglect of God's commandments and the terrible sins of every class of society. It is not merely that the slaves are thieves and runaways, wine-bibbers and gluttons, the rich are worse (iv. 3). It is their harshness and greed that drive the poor to join the Bagaudae and fly for shelter to the barbarian invaders (v. 5 and 6). Everywhere the taxes are heaped upon the needy, while the rich, who have the apportioning of the impost, escape comparatively free (v. 7). The great towns are wholly given up to the abominations of the circus and the theatre, where decency is wholly set at nought, and Minerva, Mars, Neptune, and the old gods are still worshipped (vi. 11 ; cf. vi. 2 and viii. 2). Treveswas almost destroyed by the barbarians ; yet the first petition of its few surviving nobles was that the emperor would re-establish the circus games as a remedy for the ruined city (vi. 15). And this was the prayer of Christians, whose baptismal oath pledged them to renounce "the devil and his works . . . the pomps and shows (spectacula) " of this wicked world (vi. 6). Darker still were the iniquities of Carthage, surpassing even the unconcealed licentious- ness of Gaul and Spain (iv. 5) ; and more fearful to Salvian than all else was it to hear men swear "by Christ" that they would commit a crime (iv. 15). It would be the atheist's strongest argument if God left such a state of society unpunished (iv. 12), especially among Christians, whose sin, since they alone had the Scriptures, was worse than that of barbarians, even if equally wicked, would be (v. 2). But, as a matter of fact, the latter had at least some shining virtues mingled with their vices, whereas the Romans were wholly corrupt (vii. 15, iv. 14). With this iniquity of the Romans Salvian contrasts the chastity of the Vandals, the piety of the Goths, and the ruder virtues of the Franks, the Saxons, and the other tribes to whom, though heretic Arians or unbelievers, God is giving in reward the inheritance of the empire (vii. 9, 11, 21). It is curious that Salvian shows no such hatred of the hetero- dox barbarians as was rife in Gaul seventy years later. Ad Ecdesiam is sufficiently explained by its common title, Contra Avaritiam. It is quoted more than once in the De Gubernatione. Salvian published it under the name of Timothy, and explained his motives for so doing in a letter to his old pupil, Bishop Salonius (Ei). ix. ). This work is chiefly remarkable because in some places it seems to recommend parents not to bequeath anything to their children, on the plea that it is better for the children to suffer want in this world than that their parents should be damned in the next (iii. 4). Salvian is very clear on the duty of absolute self- denial in the case of sacred virgins, priests, and monks (ii. 8-10). Several works mentioned by Gennadius, notably a poem " in morem Graecorum" on the six days of creation (hexaemeron), and certain homilies composed for bishops, are now lost (Genn., 67). The Ad Ecdesiam was first printed in Sichard's Antidoton (Basel, 1528) ; the De Gubernatione by Brassican (Basel, 1530). The two appeared in one volume at Paris in 1575. Pithoeus added variae lectiones and the first seven letters (Paris, 1580); Ritterhusius made various conjectural emendations (Altorf, 1611), and Baluze many more based on MS. authority (Paris, 1663-1669). Numerous other editions appeared from the 16th to the 18th century, all of which are now superssded by the excellent ones of C. Halm (Berlin, 1877) and F. Pauly (Vienna, 1883). The two oldest MSS. of the De Oubernatione belong to the 10th century (Cod. Paris, No. 13,385) and the 13th (Brussels, 10,628) ; of the Ad Ecdesiam to the 10th (Paris, 2172) and the llth (Paris, 2785); of Epistle IX. to the 9th (Paris, 2785) ; of Epistle VIII. to the 7th or 8th century (Paris, 95,569) and to the 9th or 10th century (Paris, 12,237, 12,236). Of the first seven epistles there is only one MS. extant, of which one part is now at Bern (No. 219), the other at Pails (No. 3791). See Histoire Litteraire de France, vol. ii.; Zscliim- mer's Salvianus (Halle, 1875). Salvian's works are reprinted (after Baluze) in Migne's Cursus Patrologix, vol. liii. For bibliography see T. G. Schoenemann's Bibliotheca Patnim (ii. 823) and the prefaces to the editions of Halm and Pauly. Gennadins, St Hilary, and St Eucher may be consulted in Migne, vols. Iviii. and 1. (T. A. A.) SALWIN HILL TRACTS, a district in the Tenasserim division of British Burmah, extending from the northern portion of the province southwards to Kaw-ka-rit on the Salwin river, and occupying the whole of the country between that river on the east and the Poung-loung mountains on the west. The district contains an area of about 4646 square miles, and is bounded on the north by the Kareng-ni state, on the east by Zeng-mai, on the south by Amherst and Shwe-gyeng and on the west by Shwe- gyeng and Toung-gnu. From the annexation of Pegu until 1872 the Hill Tracts formed a subdivision of the Shwe-gyeng district, but in that year it was constituted into a separate jurisdiction. Nearly the whole district is a mass of mountains intersected by deep ravines, the only level land of any considerable extent being found in the valley of the Rwon-za-leng, while every part of the country is covered with dense forest. The Hill Tracts are drained by three principal rivers, the Salwin, Rwon-za-leng, and Bhi-leng, fed by numerous mountain torrents which rush down narrow ravines. The Salwin is the largest river in the Tenasserim division. Its source has never been explored, but it appears to take its rise far north in the Himalayas or in the mountains which form their extension eastward. After traversing the Chinese province of Yunnan and the Shan and Kareng-ni states to the south, it enters British Burmah at its extreme north- eastern corner, and for some distance marks the eastern limits of the province. It has a known course of about 700 miles, but its breadth seldom exceeds 100 yards, and in some parts the bed does not occupy more than 30 yards. The Salwin is greatly obstructed by rapids, and is not navigable by large craft for more than 100 miles from its mouth. The Rwon-za-leng, which rises in the extreme north, is navigable with some difficulty in the dry season as far as Pa-pwon, the administrative headquarters ; the Bhi-leng is not navigable within the_limits of the district except by small boats and rafts. Of the total area of the district only 21 square miles are culti- vated ; the chief crops are rice and betel-nuts. The revenue of Salwin amounted in 1883-84 to only 1964, of which 940 were raised from the land-tax. The population in 1881 was returned at 30,009 (males 15,509, females 14,500). SALZA, HERMANN VON (c. 1180-1239), one of the most illustrious knights of the Teutonic order, was a scion of the house of Langensalza in Thuringia, where he was born about 1180. He was a faithful and influential councillor of the emperor Frederick II., and took a prominent part in the contemporary affairs of the German empire. The events of his life are involved in the history of the TEUTONIC OBDER (q.v.), of which he was elected master in 1210 or 1211. SALZBRUNN, a small German watering-place, visited annually by about 4000 patients, is situated in Silesia, 30 miles to the south-west of Breslau. Its alkalo-saline springs, which are especially efficacious in pulmonary complaints, were known as early as 1316, but afterwards fell into disuse until their merits were once more dis- covered at the beginning of this century. The resident population in 1880 numbered 5777. SALZBURG, capital of the present Austrian crownland and formerly of the archbishopric of the same name, occu- pies a position of singular beauty on the Salzach, 87 miles south-east of Munich, and 154 miles west by south of Vienna. The river, flowing north-west from the glaciers of the Salz- burg Alps to the Bavarian plain, passes at this point between two isolated hills, the Monchsberg (1732 feet) on the left and the Capuzinerberg (2132 feet) on the right; in the lovely valley so formed, and stretching into the plain beyond, lies Salzburg. The picturesque and wooded con- fining hills, the lofty citadel of Hohen-Salzburg, rising like a Greek acropolis above the towers and spires of the city at its foot, and the magnificent background of the Salzburg Alps, overhanging the broad plain, make Salzburg the most beautifully situated town in Austria or Germany. The older and main part of the city lies on the left bank of the Salzach, in a narrow semicircular plain at the base of the