where he for some time distinguished himself, till he retired from
Rome more particularly to consecrate his time to study. He was consul
the year that Nero was murdered. Pliny has observed, that when Trajan
was invested with the imperial purple, Silius refused to come to Rome
and congratulate him like the rest of his fellow-citizens, a neglect
which was never resented by the emperor, or insolently mentioned by
the poet. ♦Silius was in possession of a house where Cicero had lived,
and another in which was the tomb of Virgil, and it has been justly
remarked, that he looked upon no temple with greater reverence than
upon the sepulchre of the immortal poet, whose steps he followed,
but whose fame he could not equal. The birthday of Virgil was yearly
celebrated with unusual pomp and solemnity by Silius; and for his
partiality, not only to the memory, but to the compositions of the
Mantuan poet, he has been called the ape of Virgil. Silius starved
himself when labouring under an imposthume which his physicians were
unable to remove, in the beginning of Trajan’s reign, about the 75th
year of his age. There remains a poem of Italicus, on the second
Punic war, divided into 17 books, greatly commended by Martial. The
moderns have not been so favourable in their opinions concerning its
merit. The poetry is weak and inelegant, yet the author deserves to
be commended for his purity, the authenticity of his narrations, and
his interesting descriptions. He has everywhere imitated Virgil, but
with little success. ♦Silius was a great collector of antiquities.
His son was honoured with the consulship during his lifetime. The
best editions of Italicus will be found to be Drakenborch’s in 4to,
Utrecht, 1717, and that of Cellarius, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1695. _Martial_,
bk. 11, ltr. 49, &c.――――Caius, a man of consular dignity, greatly
beloved by Messalina for his comely appearance and elegant address.
Messalina obliged him to divorce his wife, that she might enjoy his
company without intermission. Silius was forced to comply, though
with reluctance, and he was at last put to death for the adulteries
which the empress obliged him to commit. _Tacitus._――_Suetonius._
――_Dio Cassius._――――A tribune in Cæsar’s legions in Gaul.――――A
commander in Germany, put to death by Sejanus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bks. ♠3 & 4.
♦ ‘Silinus’ replaced with ‘Silius’
♠ ‘5’ replaced with ‘3’
=Silphium=, a part of Libya.
=Silpia=, a town of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 12.
=Silvānus=, a rural deity, son of an Italian shepherd by a goat. From
this circumstance he is generally represented as half a man and
half a goat. According to Virgil, he was son of Picus, or, as others
report, of Mars, or, according to Plutarch, of Valeria Tusculanaria,
a young woman, who introduced herself into her father’s bed, and
became pregnant by him. The worship of Silvanus was established
only in Italy, where, as some authors have imagined, he reigned in
the age of Evander. This deity was sometimes represented holding
a cypress in his hand, because he became enamoured of a beautiful
youth called Cyparissus, who was changed into a tree of the
same name. Silvanus presided over gardens and limits, and he is
often confounded with the Fauns, Satyrs, and Silenus. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 10; _Germania_,
bk. 1, li. 20; bk. 2, li. 493.――_Ælian_, _de Natura Animalium_,
bk. 6, ch. 42.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10.――_Horace_, epode 2.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A man who murdered his wife
Apronia, by throwing her down from one of the windows of her
chambers.――――One of those who conspired against Nero.――――An officer
of Constantius, who revolted and made himself emperor. He was
assassinated by his soldiers.
=Silvium=, a town of Apulia, now _Gorgolione_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
――――A town of Istria.
=Silures=, the people of South Wales in Britain.
=Simbrivius=, or =Simbruvius=, a lake of Latium, formed by the Anio.
_Tacitus_, bk. 14, _Annals_, ch. 22.
=Simena=, a town of Lycia near Chimæra. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Simēthus=, or =Symēthus=, a town and river at the east of Sicily,
which served as a boundary between the territories of the people of
Catana and the Leontini. In its neighbourhood the gods Palici were
born. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 584.
=Simĭlæ=, a grove at Rome where the orgies of Bacchus were celebrated.
_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 12.
=Similis=, one of the courtiers of Trajan, who removed from Rome into
the country to enjoy peace and solitary retirement.
=Simmias=, a philosopher of Thebes, who wrote dialogues.――――A
grammarian of Rhodes.――――A Macedonian suspected of conspiracy against
Alexander, on account of his intimacy with Philotas. _Curtius_, bk. 7,
ch. 1.
=Simo=, a comic character in Terence.
=Sĭmois= (entis), a river of Troas, which rises in mount Ida and falls
into the Xanthus. It is celebrated by Homer and most of the ancients
poets, as in its neighbourhood were fought many battles during
the Trojan war. It is found to be but a small rivulet by modern
travellers, and even some have disputed its existence. _Homer_,
_Iliad_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 104; bk. 3, li. 302, &c.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 31, li. 324.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Simosius=, a Trojan prince, son of Anthemion, killed by Ajax. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 473.
=Simon=, a currier of Athens, whom Socrates often visited on account
of his great sagacity and genius. He collected all the information
he could receive from the conversation of the philosopher, and
afterwards published it with his own observations in 33 dialogues.
He was the first of the disciples of Socrates who attempted to give
an account of the opinions of his master concerning virtue, justice,
poetry, music, honour, &c. These dialogues were extant in the age
of the biographer Diogenes, who has preserved their title. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, bk. 2, ch. 14.――――Another who wrote on rhetoric. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, bk. 2, ch. 14.――――A sculptor. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.――――The name of Simon was common among the Jews.
=Sĭmōnĭdes=, a celebrated poet of Cos, who flourished 538 years B.C.
His father’s name was Leoprepis, or Theoprepis. He wrote elegies,
epigrams, and dramatical pieces, esteemed for their elegance and
sweetness, and composed also epic poems, one on Cambyses king of
Persia, &c. Simonides was universally courted by the princes of
Greece and Sicily, and according to one of the fables of Phædrus,
he was such a favourite of the gods, that his life was miraculously
preserved in an entertainment when the roof of the house fell upon
all those who were feasting. He obtained a poetical prize in the
80th year of his age, and he lived to his 90th year. The people
of Syracuse, who had hospitably honoured him when alive, erected a
magnificent monument to his memory. Simonides, according to some,
added the four letters η, ω, ξ, ψ to the alphabet of the Greeks.
Some fragments of his poetry are extant. According to some, the
grandson of the elegiac poet of Cos was also called Simonides. He
flourished a few years before the Peloponnesian war, and was the
author of some books of inventions, genealogies, &c. _Quintilian_,
bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Phædras_, bk. 4, fables 21 & 24.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 1, li. 38.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 102.――_Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, &c.――_Aristotle._――_Pindar_, _Isthmean_, poem 2.
――_Catullus_, bk. 1, poem 39.――_Lucian_, _Macrobii_.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 2.
=Simplicius=, a Greek commentator on Aristotle, whose works were all
edited in the 16th century, and the latter part of the 15th, but
without a Latin version.
=Simŭlus=, an ancient poet, who wrote some verses on the Tarpeian rock.
_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Simus=, a king of Arcadia after Phialus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Simyra=, a town of Phœnicia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Sinæ=, a people of India called by Ptolemy the most eastern nation of
the world.
=Sindæ=, islands in the Indian ocean, supposed to be the _Nicobar_
islands.
=Sindi=, a people of European Scythia, on the Palus Mæotis. _Flaccus_,
bk. 6, li. 86.
=Singæi=, a people on the confines of Macedonia and Thrace.
=Singara=, a city at the north of Mesopotamia, now _Sinjar_.
=Singulis=, a river of Spain falling into the Guadalquiver.
=Singus=, a town of Macedonia.
=Sinis=, a famous robber. _See:_ Scinis.
=Sinnaces=, a Parthian of an illustrious family, who conspired against
his prince, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 31.
=Sinnăcha=, a town of Mesopotamia, where Crassus was put to death by
Surena.
=Sinoe=, a nymph of Arcadia, who brought up Pan.
=Sinon=, a son of Sisyphus, who accompanied the Greeks to the Trojan
war, and there distinguished himself by his cunning and fraud, and
his intimacy with Ulysses. When the Greeks had fabricated the famous
wooden horse, Sinon went to Troy with his hands bound behind his back,
and by the most solemn protestations, assured Priam that the Greeks
were gone from Asia, and that they had been ordered to sacrifice one
of their soldiers, to render the wind favourable to their return,
and that because the lot had fallen upon him, at the instigation
of Ulysses, he had fled away from their camp, not to be cruelly
immolated. These false assertions were immediately credited by the
Trojans, and Sinon advised Priam to bring into his city the wooden
horse which the Greeks had left behind them, and to consecrate it to
Minerva. His advice was followed, and Sinon in the night, to complete
his perfidy, opened the side of the horse, from which issued a number
of armed Greeks, who surprised the Trojans, and pillaged their city.
_Dares Phrygius._――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 8, li. 492; bk. 11, li.
521.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 79, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 27.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 12, &c.
=Sinōpe=, a daughter of the Asopus by Methron. She was beloved by
Apollo, who carried her away to the border of the Euxine sea, in Asia
Minor, where she gave birth to a son called Syrus. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――――A seaport town of Asia Minor, in Pontus, now _Sinah_, founded or
rebuilt by a colony of Milesians. It was long an independent state,
till Pharnaces king of Pontus seized it. It was the capital of Pontus,
under Mithridates, and was the birthplace of Diogenes the cynic
philosopher. It received its name from Sinope, whom Apollo carried
there. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 1, poem 3, li. 67.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 &
12.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――The original name
of Sinuessa.
=Sinorix=, a governor of Gaul, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Sintice=, a district of Macedonia.
=Sintii=, a nation of Thracians, who inhabited Lemnos, when Vulcan fell
there from heaven. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 594.
=Sinuessa=, a maritime town of Campania, originally called _Sinope_.
It was celebrated for its hot baths and mineral waters, which
cured people of insanity, and rendered women prolific. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 715.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 13.――_Martial_, bk. 6, ltr. 42; bk. 11,
ltr. 8.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.
=Sion=, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built.
=Siphnos=, now _Sifano_, one of the Cyclades, situate at the west of
Paros, 20 miles in circumference, according to Pliny, or, according
to modern travellers, 40. Siphnos had many excellent harbours, and
produced great plenty of delicious fruit. The inhabitants were so
depraved, that their licentiousness became proverbial. They, however,
behaved with spirit in the Persian wars, and refused to give earth
and water to the emissaries of Xerxes in token of submission. There
were some gold mines in Siphnos, of which Apollo demanded a tenth
part. When the inhabitants refused to continue to offer part of their
gold to the god of Delphi, the island was inundated, and the mines
disappeared. The air was so wholesome that many of the natives lived
to their 120th year. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 11.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8,
ch. 46.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Sipontum=, =Sipus=, or =Sepus=, a maritime town in Apulia in Italy,
founded by Diomedes after his return from the Trojan war. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 377.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Sipy̆lum= and =Sipy̆lus=, a town of Lydia, with a mountain of the same
name near the Meander, formerly called _Ceraunius_. The town was
destroyed by an earthquake, with 12 others in the neighbourhood,
in the reign of Tiberius. _Strabo_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 20.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.
――_Hyginus_, fable 9.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 47.――――One of
Niobe’s children, killed by Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
fable 6.
=Sirbo=, a lake between Egypt and Palestine, now _Sebaket Bardoil_.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Sīrēnes=, sea nymphs who charmed so much with their melodious voice,
that all forgot their employments to listen with more attention, and
at last died for want of food. They were daughters of the Achelous
by the muse Calliope, or, according to others, by Melpomene or
Terpsichore. They were three in number, called Parthenope, Ligeia,
and Leucosia, or, according to others, Mœolpe, Aglaophonos, and
Thelxiope, or Thelxione, and they usually lived in a small island
near cape Pelorus in Sicily. Some authors suppose that they were
monsters, who had the form of a woman above the waist, and the rest
of the body like that of a bird; or rather that the whole body was
covered with feathers, and had the shape of a bird, except the head,
which was that of a beautiful female. This monstrous form they had
received from Ceres, who wished to punish them, because they had not
assisted her daughter when carried away by Pluto. But, according to
Ovid, they were so disconsolate at the rape of Proserpine, that they
prayed the gods to give them wings that they might seek her in the
sea as well as by land. The Sirens were informed by the oracle, that
as soon as any persons passed by them without suffering themselves
to be charmed by their ♦songs, they should perish; and their melody
had prevailed in calling the attention of all passengers, till
Ulysses, informed of the power of their voice by Circe, stopped the
ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to
the mast of his ship, and no attention to be paid to his commands,
should he wish to stay and listen to their song. This was a salutary
precaution. Ulysses made signs for his companions to stop, but they
were disregarded, and the fatal coast was passed with safety. Upon
this artifice of Ulysses, the Sirens were so disappointed, that they
threw themselves into the sea and perished. Some authors say that the
Sirens challenged the Muses to a trial of skill in singing, and that
the latter proved victorious, and plucked the feathers from the wings
of their adversaries, with which they made themselves crowns. The
place where the Sirens destroyed themselves was afterwards called
_Sirenis_, on the coast of Sicily. Virgil, however, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 864, places the _Sirenum Scoupli_ on the coast of Italy, near
the island of Caprea. Some suppose that the Sirens were a number of
lascivious women in Sicily, who prostituted themselves to strangers,
and made them forget their pursuits while drowned in unlawful
pleasures. The Sirens are often represented holding, one a lyre, a
second a flute, and the third singing. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.
――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12, li. 167.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Ammianus_,
bk. 29, ch. 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 141.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 555; _De Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3,
li. 311.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 33.
♦ ‘sons’ replaced with ‘songs’
=Sirenūsæ=, three small rocky islands near the coast of Campania, where
the Sirens were supposed to reside.
=Siris=, a town of Magna Græcia, founded by a Grecian colony after the
Trojan war, at the mouth of the river of the same name. There was
a battle fought near it between Pyrrhus and the Romans. _Dionysius
Periegetes_, li. 221.――――The Æthiopians gave that name to the Nile
before its divided streams united into one current. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 9.――――A town of Pæonia in Thrace.
=Sirius=, or =Canicŭla=, the dog-star, whose appearance, as the
ancients supposed, always caused great heat on the earth. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 141.
=Sirmio=, now _Sermione_, a peninsula in the lake Benacus, where
Catullus had a villa. _Catullus_, poem 31.
=Sirmium=, the capital of Pannonia, at the confluence of the Savus and
Bacuntius, very celebrated during the reign of the Roman emperors.
=Sisamnes=, a judge flayed alive for his partiality, by order of
Cambyses. His skin was nailed on the benches of the other judges, to
incite them to act with candour and impartiality. _Herodotus_, bk. 5,
ch. 25.
=Sisapho=, a Corinthian, who had murdered his brother, because he had
put his children to death. _Ovid_, _Ibis_.
=Sisapo=, a town of Spain, famous for its vermilion mines, whose
situation is not well ascertained. _Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 7.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Siscia=, a town of Pannonia, now _Sisseg_.
=Sisenes=, a Persian deserter, who conspired against Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Lucius Sisenna=, an ancient historian among the Romans, 91 B.C. He
wrote an account of the republic, of which Cicero speaks with great
warmth, and also translated from the Greek the Milesian fables of
Aristides. Some fragments of his compositions are quoted by different
authors. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 443.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_,
ltrs. 64 & 67.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――――Cornelius, a Roman,
who, on being reprimanded in the senate for the ill conduct and
depraved manners of his wife, accused publicly Augustus of unlawful
commerce with her. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 54.――――The family of the
Cornelii and Apronii received the surname of Sisenna. They are
accused of intemperate loquacity in the Augustan age, by _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 7, li. 8.
=Sisigambis=, or =Sisygambis=, the mother of Darius the last king of
Persia. She was taken prisoner by Alexander the Great at the battle
of Issus, with the rest of the royal family. The conqueror treated
her with uncommon tenderness and attention; he saluted her as his
own mother, and what he had sternly denied to the petitions of his
favourites and ministers, he often granted to the intercession of
Sisygambis. The regard of the queen for Alexander was uncommon, and,
indeed, she no sooner heard that he was dead, than she killed herself,
unwilling to survive the loss of so generous an enemy; though she
had seen, with less concern, the fall of her son’s kingdom, the ruin
of his subjects, and himself murdered by his servants. She had also
lost, in one day, her husband and 80 of her brothers, whom Ochus
had assassinated to make himself master of the kingdom of Persia.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 9; bk. 10, ch. 5.
=Sisimithræ=, a fortified place of Bactriana, 15 stadia high, 80 in
circumference, and plain at the top. Alexander married Roxana there.
_Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Sisocostus=, one of the friends of Alexander, entrusted with the care
of the rock Aornus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Sisy̆phus=, a brother of Athamas and Salmoneus, son of Æolus and
Enaretta, the most crafty prince of the heroic ages. He married
Merope the daughter of Atlas, or, according to others, of Pandareus,
by whom he had several children. He built Ephyre, called afterwards
Corinth, and he debauched Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, because
he had been told by an oracle that his children by his brother’s
daughter would avenge the injuries which he had suffered from the
malevolence of Salmoneus. Tyro, however, as Hyginus says, destroyed
the two sons whom she had by her uncle. It is reported that Sisyphus,
mistrusting Autolycus, who stole the neighbouring flocks, marked
his bulls under the feet, and when they had been carried away by the
dishonesty of his friend, he confounded and astonished the thief by
selecting from his numerous flocks those bulls which, by the mark,
he knew to be his own. The artifice of Sisyphus was so pleasing to
Autolycus, who had now found one more cunning than himself, that he
permitted him to enjoy the company of his daughter Anticlea, whom a
few days after he gave in marriage to Laertes of Ithaca. After his
death, Sisyphus was condemned in hell to roll to the top of a hill
a large stone, which had no sooner reached the summit than it fell
back into the plain with impetuosity, and rendered his punishment
eternal. The causes of this rigorous sentence are variously reported.
Some attribute it to his continual depredations in the neighbouring
country, and his cruelty in laying heaps of stones on those whom he
had plundered, and suffering them to expire in the most agonizing
torments. Others, to the insult offered to Pluto, in chaining Death
in his palace, and detaining her till Mars, at the request of the
king of hell, went to deliver her from confinement. Others suppose
that Jupiter inflicted this punishment because he told Asopus where
his daughter Ægina had been carried away by her ravisher. The more
followed opinion, however, is, that Sisyphus, on his death-bed,
entreated his wife to leave his body unburied, and when he came
into Pluto’s kingdom, he received the permission of returning upon
earth to punish this seeming negligence of his wife, but, however,
on promise of immediately returning. But he was no sooner out of the
infernal regions, than he violated his engagements, and when he was
at last brought back to hell by Mars, Pluto, to punish his want of
fidelity and honour, condemned him to roll a huge stone to the top
of a mountain. The institution of the Pythian games is attributed
by some to Sisyphus. To be of the blood of Sisyphus was deemed
disgraceful among the ancients. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 592.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 616.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 459; bk. 13, li. 32; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 175; _Ibis_, li. 191.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 60.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode
14, li. 20.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――A son of Marcus Antony,
who was born deformed, and received the name of Sisyphus, because
he was endowed with genius and an excellent understanding. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 3, li. 47.
=Sitalces=, one of Alexander’s generals, imprisoned for his cruelty and
avarice in the government of his province. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
――――A king of Thrace, B.C. 436.
=Sithnĭdes=, certain nymphs of a fountain in Megara. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 40.
=Sithon=, a king of Thrace.――――An island in the Ægean.
=Sithŏnia=, a country of Thrace between mount Hæmus and the Danube.
Sithonia is often applied to all Thrace, and thence the epithet
_Sithonis_, so often used by the poets. It received its name from
king Sithon. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 18, li. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 6, li. 588; bk. 7, li. 466; bk. 13, li. 571.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 122.
=Sitius=, a Roman who assisted Cæsar in Africa with great success. He
was rewarded with a province of Numidia. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_,
ch. 21.
=Sitones=, a nation of Germany, or modern Norway, according to some.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 45.
=Sittace=, a town of Assyria. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Smaragdus=, a town of Egypt on the Arabian gulf, where emeralds
(_smaragdi_) were dug. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Smenus=, a river of Laconia rising in mount Taygetus, and falling into
the sea near Hypsos. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Smerdis=, a son of Cyrus, put to death by order of his brother
Cambyses. As his execution was not public, and as it was only known
to one of the officers of the monarch, one of the Magi of Persia, who
was himself called Smerdis, and who greatly resembled the deceased
prince, declared himself king, at the death of Cambyses. This
usurpation would not, perhaps, have been known, had not he taken too
many precautions to conceal it. After he had reigned for six months
with universal approbation, seven noblemen of Persia conspired to
dethrone him, and when this had been executed with success, they
chose one of their number to reign in the usurper’s place, B.C. 521.
This was Darius the son of Hystaspes. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 30.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Smilax=, a beautiful shepherdess who became enamoured of Crocus. She
was changed into a flower, as also her lover. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 283.
=Smilis=, a statuary of Ægina in the age of Dædalus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7.
=Smindyrides=, a native of Sybaris, famous for his luxury. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 24, & bk. 12, ch. 24.
=Smintheus=, one of the surnames of Apollo in Phrygia, where the
inhabitants raised him a temple, because he had destroyed a number
of rats that infested the country. These rats were called σμινθαι, in
the language of Phrygia, whence the surname. There is another story
similar to this related by the Greek scholiast of _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 1, li. 39.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 585.