Part 176

The early name given to the principality of Transylvania, and having reference to seven forts erected within it.

_J. Samuelson, Roumania, page 182._

SIENA: Start--------

SIENA: The mediæval factions.

"The way in which this city conducted its government for a long course of years [in the Middle Ages] justified Varchi in calling it 'a jumble, so to speak, and chaos of republics, rather than a well-ordered and disciplined commonwealth.' The discords of Siena were wholly internal. They proceeded from the wrangling of five factions, or Monti, as the people of Siena called them. The first of these was termed the Monte de' Nobili; for Siena had originally been controlled by certain noble families. … The nobles split into parties among themselves. … At last they found it impossible to conduct the government, and agreed to relinquish it for a season to nine plebeian families chosen from among the richest and most influential. This gave rise to the Monte de' Nove. … In time, however, their insolence became insufferable. The populace rebelled, deposed the Nove, and invested with supreme authority 12 other families of plebeian origin. The Monte de' Dodici, created after this fashion, ran nearly the same course as their predecessors, except that they appear to have administered the city equitably. Getting tired of this form of government, the people next superseded them by 16 men chosen from the dregs of the plebeians, who assumed the title of Riformatori. This new Monte de' Sedici or de' Riformatori showed much integrity in their management of affairs, but, as is the wont of red republicans, they were not averse to bloodshed. Their cruelty caused the people, with the help of the surviving patrician houses, together with the Nove and the Dodici, to rise and shake them off. The last governing body formed in this diabolical five-part fugue of crazy statecraft received the name of Monte del Popolo, because it included all who were eligible to the Great Council of the State. Yet the factions of the elder Monti still survived; and to what extent they had absorbed the population may be gathered from the fact that, on the defeat of the Riformatori, 4,500 of the Sienese were exiled. It must be borne in mind that with the creation of each new Monte a new party formed itself in the city, and the traditions of these parties were handed down from generation to generation. At last, in the beginning of the 16th century, Pandolfo Petrucci, who belonged to the Monte de' Nove, made himself in reality, if not in name, the master of Siena, and the Duke of Florence later on in the same century [1557]) extended his dominion over the republic."

_J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots, chapter 3._

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SIENA: A. D. 1460. War with Florence and victory at Montaperti.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1248-1278.

SIENA: End--------

SIENPI, The.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 376.

SIERRA LEONE.

"During the war of the [American] Revolution a large number of blacks, chiefly runaway slaves, ranged themselves under the British banner. At the close of the war a large number of these betook themselves to Nova Scotia with the view of making that their future home; while others followed the army, to which they had been attached, to London. It was soon ascertained that the climate of Nova Scotia was too severe for those who had gone there; and those who followed the army to London, when that was disbanded, found themselves in a strange land, without friends and without the means of subsistence. In a short time they were reduced to the most abject want and poverty; and it was in view of their pitiable condition that Dr. Smeathman and Granville Sharp brought forward the plan of colonizing them on the coast of Africa. They were aided in this measure by the Government. The first expedition left England in 1787, and consisted of 400 blacks and about 60 whites, most of whom were women of the most debased character. … On their arrival at Sierra Leone a tract of land of 20 miles square was purchased from the natives of the country, and they immediately commenced a settlement along the banks of the river. In less than a year their number was reduced more than one half, owing, in some measure, to the unhealthiness of the climate, but more perhaps to their own irregularities. Two years afterward they were attacked by a combination of natives, and had nigh been exterminated. About this time the 'Sierra Leone Company' was formed to take charge of the enterprise. Among its directors were enrolled the venerable names of Wilberforce, Clarkson, Thornton, and Granville Sharp. The first agent sent out by the Company to look after this infant colony found the number of settlers reduced to about 60. In 1791 upward of 1,100 colored emigrants were taken from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. About the same time as many as a hundred whites embarked in England for the same place. … In 1798 it is said that Free-town had attained to the dimensions of a full-grown town. … About the same time the colony was farther reinforced by the arrival of more than 500 Maroons from the Island of Jamaica. These Maroons were no better in character than the original founders of the colony, and no little disorder arose from mixing up such discordant elements. These were the only emigrations of any consequence that ever joined the colony of Sierra Leone from the Western hemisphere. Its future accessions … came from a different quarter. In 1807 the slave-trade was declared piracy by the British Government, and a squadron was stationed on the coast for the purpose of suppressing it. About the same time the colony of Sierra Leone was transferred to the Government, and has ever since been regarded as a Crown colony. The slaves taken by the British cruisers on the high seas have always been taken to this colony and discharged there; and this has been the main source of its increase of population from that time."

_J. L. Wilson, Western Africa, part 4, chapter 2._

SIEVERSHAUSEN, Battle of (1553).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1552-1561.

SIEYES, Abbé, and the French Revolution.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1789 (JUNE); 1790; 1791 (OCTOBER); 1795 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); 1799 (NOVEMBER), and (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

SIFFIN, Battle of.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 661.

SIGAMBRI, SICAMBRI.

See USIPETES; also, FRANKS: ORIGIN, and A. D. 253.

SIGEBERT I., King of the Franks (Austrasia), A. D. 561-575.

SIGEBERT II., King of the Franks (Austrasia), 633-650.

SIGEL, General Franz. Campaign in Missouri and Arkansas.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI); 1862 (JANUARY-MARCH: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

Command in the Shenandoah.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).

SIGISMUND, SIGMUND, King of Hungary, A. D. 1386-1437; King of Germany, 1410-1437; Emperor, 1433-1437; King of Bohemia, 1434-1437.

Sigismund, King of Sweden, 1522-1604.

Sigismund I., King of Poland, 1507-1548.

Sigismund II., King of Poland, 1548-1574.

Sigismund III., King of Poland, 1587-1632.

SIGNORY, The Florentine.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1378-1427.

SIGURD I., King of Norway, A. D. 1122-1130.

SIGURD II., King of Norway, 1136-1155.

SIKANS. SIKELS.

See SICILY: THE EARLY INHABITANTS.

SIKHS, The.

"The founder of the Sikh religion was Nanak [or Nanuk], son of a petty Hindu trader named Kalu. Nanak was born in the vicinity of Lahor in the year 1469. A youth much given to reflection, he devoted himself at an early period of his life to a study of the rival creeds then prevailing in India, the Hindu and the Muhammadan. Neither satisfied him. … After wandering through many lands in search of a satisfying truth, Nanak returned to his native country with the conviction that he had failed. He had found, he said, many scriptures and many creeds; but he had not found God. Casting off his habit of an ascetic, he resumed his father's trade, married, became the father of a family, and passed the remainder of his life in preaching the doctrine of the unity of one invisible God, of the necessity of living virtuously, and of practising toleration towards others. He died in 1539, leaving behind him a reputation without spot, and many zealous and admiring disciples eager to perpetuate his creed. The founder of a new religion, Nanak, before his death, had nominated his successor—a man of his own tribe named Angad. Angad held the supremacy for twelve years, years which he employed mainly in committing to writing the doctrines of his great master and in enforcing them upon his disciples. Angad was succeeded by Ummar Das, a great preacher. He, and his son-in-law and successor, Ram Das, were held in high esteem by the emperor Akbar. But it was the son of Ram Das, Arjun, who established on a permanent basis the new religion. … He fixed the seat of the chief Guru, or high priest of the religion, and of his principal followers, at Amritsar, then an obscure hamlet, but which, in consequence of the selection, speedily rose into importance. {2909} Arjun then regulated and reduced to a systematic tax the offerings of his adherents, to be found even then in every city and village in the Panjab and the cis-satlaj territories. … The real successor of Arjun was his son, Hur Govind. Hur Govind founded the Sikh nation. Before his time the followers of the Guru had been united by no tie but that of obedience to the book. Govind formed them into a community of warriors. He did away with many of the restrictions regarding food, authorised his followers to eat flesh, summoned them to his standard, and marched with them to consolidate his power. A military organisation based upon a religious principle, and directed by a strong central authority, will always become powerful in a country the government of which is tainted with decay. The ties which bound the Mughul empire together were already loosening under the paralysing influence of the bigotry of Aurangzile, when, in 1675, Govind, fourth in succession to the Hur Govind to whom I have adverted, assumed the mantle of Guru of the Sikhs. … Govind still further simplified the dogmas of the faith. Assembling his followers, he announced to them that thenceforward the doctrines of the 'Khalsa,' the saved or liberated, alone should prevail. There must be no human image or resemblance of the One Almighty Father; caste must cease to exist; before Him all men were equal; Muhammadanism was to be rooted out; social distinctions, all the solaces of superstition, were to exist no more; they should call themselves 'Singh' and become a nation of soldiers. The multitude received Govind's propositions with rapture. By a wave of the hand he found himself the trusted leader of a confederacy of warriors in a nation whose institutions were decaying. About 1695, twelve years before the death of Aurangzile, Govind put his schemes into practice. He secured many forts in the hill-country of the Panjab, defeated the Mughul troops in several encounters, and established himself as a thorn in the side of the empire." But more than half a century of struggle with Moghul, Afghan and Mahratta disputants was endured before the Sikhs became masters of the Panjab. When they had made their possession secure, they were no longer united. They were "divided into 12 confederacies or misls, each of which had its chief equal in authority to his brother chiefs, … and it was not until 1784 that a young chieftain named Maha Singh gained, mainly by force of arms, a position which placed him above his fellows." The son of Maha Singh was Ranjit Singh, or Runjet Singh, who established his sovereignty upon a solid footing, made terms with his English neighbors (see INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816), and extended his dominions by the capture of Multan in 1818, by the conquest of Kashmere in 1819-20, and by the acquisition of Peshawar in 1823.

_G. B. Malleson, The Decisive Battles of India, chapter 11._

The wars of the Sikhs with the English, in 1845-6, and 1848-9, the conquest and annexation of their country to British India, and the after-career in exile of Dhuleep Singh, the heir, are related under INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849, and 1849-1893.

ALSO IN: _J. D. Cunningham, History of the Sikhs._

_Sir L. Griffin, Ranjit Singh._

SIKSIKAS, SISIKAS.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: BLACKFEET.

SIKYON.

See SICYON.

SILBURY HILL.

See ABURY.

SILCHESTER, Origin of.

See CALLEVA.

SILESIA: Start--------

SILESIA: Origin of the name:

See LYGIANS.

SILESIA: 9th Century. Included in the kingdom of Moravia.

See MORAVIA: 9TH CENTURY.

SILESIA: A. D. 1355. Declared an integral part of Bohemia.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1355.

SILESIA: A. D. 1618. Participation in the Bohemian revolt.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1620.

SILESIA: A. D. 1633. Campaign of Wallenstein.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1632-1634.

SILESIA: A. D. 1648. Religious concessions in the Peace of Westphalia.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1648.

SILESIA: A. D. 1706. Rights of the Protestants asserted and enforced by Charles XII. of Sweden.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1701-1707.

SILESIA: A. D. 1740-1741. Invasion and conquest by Frederick the Great.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1740-1741.

SILESIA: A. D. 1742. Ceded to Prussia by the Treaty of Breslau.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1742 (JUNE).

SILESIA: A. D. 1748. Cession to Prussia confirmed.

See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE: A. D. 1748.

SILESIA: A. D. 1757. Overrun by the Austrians. Recovered by Frederick the Great.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1757 (JULY-DECEMBER).

SILESIA: A. D. 1758. Again occupied by the Austrians.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1758.

SILESIA: A. D. 1760-1762. Last campaigns of the Seven Years War.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1760; and 1761-1762.

SILESIA: A. D. 1763. Final surrender to Prussia.

See SEVEN YEARS WAR: A. D. 1763.

SILESIA: End--------

SILESIAN WARS, The First and Second.

The part which Frederick the Great took in the War of the Austrian Succession, in 1740-1741, when he invaded and took possession of Silesia, and in 1743-1745 when he resumed arms to make his conquest secure, is commonly called the First Silesian War and the Second Silesian War.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1740-1741; 1743-1744; and 1744-1745.

SILESIAN WARS, The Third.

The Seven Years War has been sometimes so-called.

See PRUSSIA: A. D. 1755-1756.

SILINGI, The.

See SPAIN: A. D. 409-414.

SILISTRIA: A. D. 1828-1829. Siege and capture by the Russians.

See TURKS: A. D. 1826-1829.

SILK MANUFACTURE; transferred from Greece to Sicily and Italy.

See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1146.

SILLERY, The Mission at.

See CANADA: A. D. 1637-1657.

SILO, King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, A. D. 774-783.

SILOAM INSCRIPTION, The.

A very ancient and most important inscription which was discovered in 1880 on the wall of a rock-cut channel leading into the so-called Pool of Siloam, at Jerusalem. It relates only to the excavating of the tunnel which carries water to the Pool, "yet its importance epigraphically and philologically is immense. … It shows us that several centuries must have elapsed, during which the modifications of form which distinguish the Phoenician, the Moabite and the Hebrew scripts gradually developed, and that the Hebrews, therefore, would probably have been in possession of the art of writing as early at least as the time of Solomon."

_C. R. Conder, Syrian Stone-Lore, page 118._

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SILPHIUM.

See CYRENAICA.

SILURES, The.

An ancient tribe in southern Wales, supposed by some to represent a mixture of the Celtic and pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain.

See IBERIANS, THE WESTERN; also, BRITAIN, TRIBES OF CELTIC.

The conquest of the Silures was effected by Claudius.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 43-53.

SILVER-GRAYS.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.

SILVER QUESTION, in America, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1873, 1878, 1890-1893; also MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893, and 1853-1874.

SILVER QUESTION, in India, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 1893.

SIMNEL, Lambert, Rebellion of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1487-1497.

SIMPACH, Battle of.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743.

SIN. SINÆ.

See CHINA: THE NAMES OF THE COUNTRY.

SINDH.

See SCINDE.

SINDMAN, The.

See COMITATUS.

SINGARA, Battle of (A. D.348).

See PERSIA: A. D. 226-627.

SINGIDUNUM.

See BELGRADE.

SINIM.

See CHINA: THE NAMES OF THE COUNTRY.

SINITES, The.

A Canaanite tribe whose country was the mountain chain of Lebanon.

SINSHEIM, Battle of (1674).

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1674-1678.

SION.

See JERUSALEM: CONQUEST AND OCCUPATION BY DAVID.

SIOUX, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

SIPPARA, The exhumed Library of.

See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT: BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

SIRBONIS LAKE.

See SERBONIAN BOG.

SIRIS. SIRITIS. THURII. METAPONTIUM. TARENTUM.

"Between the point [on the Tarentine gulf, southeastern Italy] where the dominion of Sybaris terminated on the Tarentine side, and Tarentum itself, there were two considerable Grecian settlements—Siris, afterwards called Herakleia, and Metapontium. The fertility and attraction of the territory of Siris, with its two rivers, Akiris and Sins, were well-known even to the poet Archilochus (660 B. C.). but we do not know the date at which it passed from the indigenous Chonians, or Chaonians into the hands of Greek settlers. … At the time of the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, the fertile territory of Siritis was considered as still open to be colonised; for the Athenians, when their affairs appeared desperate, had this scheme of emigration in reserve as a possible resource. … At length, after the town of Thurii had been founded by Athens [B. C. 443, under the administration of Perikles; the historian Herodotus and the orator Lycias being among the settlers], in the vicinity of the dismantled Sybaris, the Thurians tried to possess themselves of the Siritid territory, but were opposed by the Tarentines. According to the compromise concluded between them, Tarentum was recognised as the metropolis of the colony, but joint possession was allowed both to Tarentines and Thurians. The former transferred the site of the city, under the new name Herakleia, to a spot three miles from the sea, leaving Siris as the place of maritime access to it. About twenty-five miles eastward of Siris, on the coast of the Tarentine gulf, was situated Metapontium, a Greek town, … planted on the territory of the Chonians, or Œnotrians; but the first colony is said to have been destroyed by an attack of the Samnites, at what period we do not know. It had been founded by some Achæan settlers. … The fertility of the Metapontine territory was hardly less celebrated than that of the Siritid. Farther eastward of Metapontium, again at the distance of about twenty-five miles, was situated the great city of Taras, or Tarentum, a colony from Sparta founded after the first Messenian war, seemingly about 707 B. C. … The Tarentines … stand first among the Italiots, or Italian Greeks, from the year 400 B. C. down to the supremacy of the Romans."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 22._

SIRKARS, OR CIRCARS, The Northern.

See INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.

SIRMIUM.

Sirmium (modern Mitrovitz, on the Save) was the Roman capital of Pannonia, and an important center of all military operations in that region.

SIRMIUM: Ruined by the Huns.

See HUNS: A. D. 441-446.

SIRMIUM: Captured by the Avars.

See AVARS.

SISECK, Siege and Battle of (1592).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1567-1604.

SISINNIUS, Pope, A. D. 708, January to February.

SISSETONS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

SISTOVA, Treaty of (1791).

See TURKS: A. D. 1776-1792.

SITABALDI HILLS, Battle of the (1817).

See INDIA: A. D. 1816-1819.

SITVATOROK, Treaty of (1606).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1595-1606.

SIX ACTS, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

SIX ARTICLES, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1539.

SIX HUNDRED, The Charge of the.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

SIX NATIONS OF INDIANS.

See FIVE NATIONS.

SIXTEEN OF THE LEAGUE, in Paris, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.

SIXTUS IV., Pope, A. D. 1471-1484.

SIXTUS V., Pope, 1585-1590.

SKALDS.

See SCALDS.

SKINNERS.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

SKITTAGETAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SKITTAGETAN FAMILY.

SKOBELEFF, General, Campaigns of.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1869-1881; and TURKS: A. D. 1877-1878.

SKODRA (Scutari).

See ILLYRIANS.

SKRÆLINGS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ESKIMAUAN FAMILY.

SKUPTCHINA.

The Servian parliament or legislature.

{2911}

SKYTALISM.

See SCYTALISM.

SLAVE: Origin of the servile signification of the word.

The term slave, in its signification of a servile state, is derived undoubtedly from the name of the Slavic or Sclavic people. "This conversion of a national into an appellative name appears to have arisen in the eighth century, in the Oriental France [Austrasia], where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian (exclaims Jordan), but of Sorabian race. From thence the word was extended to general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of the last Byzantines."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 55, foot-note._

See, also, AVARS; and SLAVONIC PEOPLES.

SLAVE OR MAMELUKE DYNASTY OF INDIA, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.

SLAVE RISING UNDER SPARTACUS.

See SPARTACUS; and ROME: B. C. 78-68.

SLAVE TRADE, First measures for the suppression of the.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1792-1807.

SLAVE WARS IN SICILY AND ITALY.