Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/562

 534 SWOKD FISH SYBEL tlie tongs in any required direction as it is held in a sort of fork standing in the anvil. After this it is ground upon a stone with a face adapted to that of the sword, flat or otherwise ; is slightly heated to restore the temper impaired by grinding ; and is finally polished with emery and crocus. The small sword used in fencing is a slender weapon for the thrust only, and is the court dress sword. The broad sword, called sometimes the back sword, has but one edge. SWORD FISH, the name of the xiphiidce, a family of marine spiny-rayed fishes, allied to the mackerels, so called from the prolongation of the snout into a long, horizontally flattened, sword-like weapon. The sword consists of the vomer and intermaxillary bones, supported at the base by the frontals, nasal, and upper jaw. In form this fish resembles the mackerel ; the scales are very small; the jaws proper, and sometimes the sword, are crowded with small, acute teeth, often hardly perceptible ; the lam- in of each branchial arch are united into a band-like organ, with only superficial marks of separation, as in no other bony fishes ; branchi- ostegal rays in the typical genus xiphias (Linn.) seven. The spinous dorsal begins near the head, high and sickle-shaped, extending nearly to the tail, and followed by a small soft fin ; the anal is similar, but much shorter ; ventrals wanting, or represented only by a pair of spi- nous rays on the throat ; caudal deeply forked, on the sides having one or two large cutane- ous folds ; the pyloric appendages are collected into bundles and connected by areolar tissue, the branches forming two trunks inserted into the intestine close to the pylorus ; the stomach caecal and conical, and the air bladder large ; the lower jaw in the young is proportionally longer than in the adult ; the sclerotic forms a bony box, with a circular opening in the front for the cornea, rendering the eyes very mova- ble. They are very swift swimmers, and feed on mackerel and other fishes collecting in shoals. The common sword fish (X. gladius, Linn.) attains a length of 12 to 20 ft., and is found in the Mediterranean and on both sides of the Atlantic ; it uses its sword to destroy its enemies, and sometimes strikes at vessels, burying its weapon deep in their timbers. There are no ventral fins, and the sword is Common Sword Fish (Xiphias gladius). about three tenths as long as the body. It oc- curs on the North American coast from Nova Scotia to New York, being common in the summer in Vineyard sound and between No Man's Land and Block island ; it is silvery white below, and tinged above with blackish blue, the sword dark brown above and lighter below. It is fond of pursuing the shoals of mackerel, and may be detected by the dorsal fin projecting above the water. They are taken by means of harpoons. The flesh is esteemed as food, both fresh and salted. SYBARIS, an ancient Greek city of Lucania, in S. Italy, on the W. shore of the Tarentine gulf, between the rivers Crathis (now Crati) and Sybaris (Coscile), a short distance from the sea. It was founded by an Achaean col- ony about 720 B. C. The surrounding coun- try was very fertile, and having large acces- sions from native Italian tribes, freely admit- ted to citizenship, the city rose rapidly to great wealth and power. When most pros- perous, about 200 years after its foundation, Strabo says it was 50 stadia in circumference, ruled over 25 subject cities, and could muster an army of 300,000 men ; while the knights in their religious processions numbered 5,000, or four times as many as the same class of citizens in Athens. Sybaris founded Posido- nia, Laus, and Scidrus, and traded extensive- ly. Its citizens were famed for effeminacy and love of luxury. Athena3us said no craft was permitted in the city which made a noise that might disturb the citizens; yet the arts conducive to pleasurable life were amply fos- tered. The aristocracy ruled till about 510 B. 0., when Telys, a demagogue heading a demo- cratic party, drove out the wealthier citizens and rulers, and raised himself to the position of tyrant. Of the exiled nobles 500 took ref- uge at Crotona, and Telys demanded their sur- render. This was refused, and a war ensued in which a large army of Sybarites was beaten by one third the number of the Crotoniats, who sacked Sybaris, and turned the course of the river Crathis so that the city was inunda- ted and buried in the deposits that the river brought down. Sybaris was never restored; its site is now a malarious marsh, and its ex- act position cannot be determined. Its sur- viving inhabitants, after remaining for many years at Laus and Scidrus, founded near it, with Athenian colonists, the city of Thurii. SYBEL, Heinrich von, a German historian, born in Dusseldorf, Dec. 2, 1817. He studied in Berlin under* Eanke, graduated in 1841 at Bonn, and was professor there in 1844-'6, then at Marburg till 1856, and subsequently at Munich, where he founded the first histori- cal seminary established in Germany. He re- sumed his chair at Bonn in 1861, and in 1875 was appointed director of the archives at Ber- lin. In 1862-'6 he was a member of the Prus- sian chamber, and in 1867 of the constituent Reichstag of the North German confederation. His works include GescMchte der Revolutions- zeit 1789-'95 (3 vols., Dusseldorf, 1853-7; English translation by Perry, London, 1868; new ed., continued to 1800, 5 vols., Diissel- dorf, 1874 et seq.}; Khine historische ScTirif- ten (2 vols., Munich, 1862-'9); Die deuUchen und auswdrtigen Universitaten (enlarged ed.,