Part 931

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER); 1814 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

SCOTT, General Winfield. The Mexican campaign of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

SCOTT, General Winfield. Defeat in Presidential Election.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1852.

SCOTT, General Winfield Retirement from military service.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY-NOVEMBER).

SCOTTI. SCOTS.

See SCOTLAND: THE PICTS AND SCOTS.

SCOTTISH PLOT, The.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1703-1704.

SCOURGE OF GOD, The.

See HUNS: A. D. 451.

SCREW PROPELLER, Invention of the.

See STEAM NAVIGATION: ON THE OCEAN.

SCRIBES, The.

"The Scribes or 'Lawyers,' that is, the learned in the Pentateuch. … It is evident that in the Scribes, rather than in any of the other functionaries of the Jewish Church, is the nearest original of the clergy of later times."

_Dean Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, lecture 44._

"The learned men after Ezra were called 'Sopherim' (singular 'Sopher'), Scribes; because to be a skilled writer was the first criterion of a man of learning. To transcribe the authenticated Law as deposited in the temple was one of the Scribe's occupations. His next occupations were to read, expound and teach it. The text was without vowel points, without divisions of words, verses and chapters; hence it was nearly hieroglyphic, so that the correct reading thereof was traditional, and had to be communicated from master to disciple. As the Great Synod legislated by expounding and extending the Law, these additions also had to be taught orally."

_I. M. Wise, History of the Hebrews' Second Commonwealth, period 1, chapter 4._

SCROOBY, The Separatist Church at.

See INDEPENDENTS: A. D. 1604-1617.

SCRUPULA.

See As.

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SCRUTIN DE LISTE.

A term applied in France to the mode of electing deputies by a general ticket in each department—that is, in groups—instead of singly, in separate districts.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.

SCUTAGE.

The origin of this tax is implied in its title; it was derived from the 'service of the shield' (scutum)—one of the distinguishing marks of feudal tenure—whereby the holder of a certain quantity of land was bound to furnish to his lord the services of a fully-armed horseman for forty days in the year. The portion of land charged with this service constituted a 'knight's fee,' and was usually reckoned at the extent of five hides, or the value of twenty pounds annually."

_K. Norgate, England Under the Angevin Kings, volume 1, chapter 9._

ALSO IN: _W. Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets, page 54._

SCUTARI: A. D. 1473-1479. Stubborn resistance and final surrender to the Turks.

See GREECE: A. D. 1454-1479.

SCUTUM.

A long wooden shield, covered with leather, having the form of a cylinder cut in half, which the Romans are said to have adopted from the Samnites.

_E. Guhl and W. Koner, Life of the Greeks and Romans, section 107._

SCYRI, The.

The Scyri were a tribe known to the Greeks as early as the second century B. C. They were then on the shores of the Black Sea. In the fifth century of the Christian era, after the breaking up of the Hunnish empire of Attila, they appeared among the people occupying the region embraced in modern Austria,—on the Hungarian borders. They seem to have spoken the Gothic language.

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, book 3, chapter 8 (volume 2)._

SCYRIS, The dynasty of the.

See ECUADOR: THE ABORIGINAL KINGDOM.

SCYTALISM AT ARGOS, The.

The city of Argos was the scene of a terrible outbreak of mob violence (B. C. 370) consequent on the discovery of an oligarchical conspiracy to overturn the democratic constitution. The furious multitude, armed with clubs, slew twelve hundred of the more prominent citizens, including the democratic leaders who tried to restrain them. "This was the rebellion at Argos known under the name of the Scytalism (cudgelling): an event hitherto unparalleled in Greek history,—so unprecedented, that even abroad it was looked upon as an awful sign of the times, and that the Athenians instituted a purification of their city, being of opinion that the whole Hellenic people was polluted by these horrors."

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 6, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 78._

SCYTHIANS, The.

"Their name, unnoticed by Homer, occurs for the first time in the Hesiodic poems. When the Homeric Zeus in the Iliad turns his eye away from Troy towards Thrace, he sees, besides the Thracians and Mysians, other tribes, whose names cannot be made out, but whom the poet knows as milk-eaters and mare-milkers. The same characteristic attributes, coupled with that of 'having waggons for their dwelling-houses,' appear in Hesiod connected with the name of the Scythians. … Herodotus, who personally visited the town of Olbia, together with the inland regions adjoining to it, and probably other Grecian settlements in the Euxine (at a time which we may presume to have been about 450-440 B. C.)—and who conversed with both Scythians and Greeks competent to give him information—has left us far more valuable statements respecting the Scythian people, dominion, and manners, as they stood in his day. His conception of the Scythians, as well as that of Hippokrates, is precise and well-defined—very different from that of the later authors, who use the word almost indiscriminately to denote all barbarous Nomads. His territory called Scythia is a square area, twenty days' journey or 4,000 stadia (somewhat less than 500 English miles) in each direction—bounded by the Danube (the course of which river he conceives in a direction from Northwest to Southeast), the Euxine, and the Palus Mæotis with the river Tanais, on three sides respectively—and on the fourth or north side by the nations called Agathyrsi, Neuri, Androphagi and Melanchlæni. … The whole area was either occupied by or subject to the Scythians. And this name comprised tribes differing materially in habits and civilization. The great mass of the people who bore it, strictly Nomadic in their habits—neither sowing nor planting, but living only on food derived from animals, especially mare's-milk and cheese—moved from place to place, carrying their families in waggons covered with wicker and leather, themselves always on horseback with their flocks and herds, between the Borysthenes [the Dnieper] and the Palus Mæotis [sea of Azov]. … It is the purely Nomadic Scythians whom he [Herodotus] depicts, the earliest specimens of the Mongolian race (so it seems probable) known to history, and prototypes of the Huns and Bulgarians of later centuries."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 17._

"The Scythians Proper of Herodotus and Hippocrates extended from the Danube and the Carpathians on the one side, to the Tanais or Don upon the other. The Sauromatæ, a race at least half-Scythic, then succeeded, and held the country from the Tanais to the Wolga. Beyond this were the Massagetæ, Scythian in dress and customs, reaching down to the Jaxartes on the east side of the Caspian. In the same neighbourhood were the Asiatic Scyths or Sacæ, who seem to have bordered upon the Bactrians."

_G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Assyria, chapter 9, footnote._

For an account of the Scythian expedition of Darius, B. C. 508.

See PERSIA: B. C. 521-493.

SCYTHIANS, OR SCYTHÆ, of Athens.

"The Athenian State also possessed slaves of its own. Such slaves were, first of all, the so-called Scythæ or archers, a corps at first of 300, then of 600 or even 1,200 men, who were also called Speusinii, after a certain Speusinus, who first (at what time is uncertain) effected the raising of the corps. They served as gendarmes or armed police, and their guard-house was at first in the market, afterwards in the Areopagus. They were also used in war, and the corps of Hippotoxotæ or mounted archers 200 strong, which is named in the same connection with them, likewise without doubt consisted of slaves."

_G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3._

ALSO IN: _A. Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens: The State, book 2, chapter 11._

SEARCH, The Right of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809; and 1812.

SEBASTE.

See SAMARIA: REBUILDING OF THE CITY BY HEROD.

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SEBASTIAN, King of Portugal, A. D. 1557-1578.

SEBASTOPOL: The Name.

"The Greeks translated the name of Augustus into Sebastos …, in consequence of which a colony founded by Augustus on the shores of the Black Sea was called Sebastopolis."

_H. N. Humphreys, History of the Art of Printing, page 68._

SEBASTOPOL: A. D. 1854-1855. Siege and capture by the English, French, and Sardinians.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER); and 1854-1856.

SECESH.

See Boys IN BLUE.

SECESSION, AMERICAN WAR OF.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER), and after.

SECESSIONS OF THE ROMAN PLEBS.

During the prolonged struggle of the plebeians of Rome to extort civil and political rights from the originally governing order, the patricians, they gained their end on several occasions by marching out in a body from the city, refusing military service and threatening to found a new city. The first of these secessions was about 494 B. C. when they wrung from the patricians the extraordinary concession of the Tribunate.

See ROME: B. C. 494-492.

The second was B. C. 449, when the tyranny of the Decemvirs was overthrown. The third was four years later, on the demand for the Canuleian Law. The last was B. C. 286, and resulted in the securing of the Hortensian Laws.

See ROME: B. C. 445-400; and 286.

SECOFFEE INDIANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

SECOND EMPIRE (French), The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1851-1852, to 1870 (SEPTEMBER).

SECOND REPUBLIC (French), The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1841-1848, to 1851-1852.

SECULAR CLERGY.

The secular clergy of the monastic ages "was so called because it lived in the world, in the 'siècle.' It was composed of all the ecclesiastics who were not under vows in a religious community. The ecclesiastical members of communities, or inhabitants of convents, composed the 'regular clergy.'"

_E. de Bonnechose, History of France, epoch 2, book 1, chapter 6, foot-note._

See, also, BENEDICTINE ORDERS.

SECULAR GAMES AT ROME, The.

The Ludi Sæculares, or secular games, at Rome, were supposed to celebrate points of time which marked the successive ages of the city. According to tradition, the first age was determined by the death of the last survivor of those who were born in the year of the founding of Rome. Afterwards, the period became a fixed one; but whether it was 100 or 110 years is a debated question. At all events, during the period of the empire, the secular games were celebrated five times (by Augustus, Claudius, Domitian, Severus and Philip) with irregularity, as suited the caprice of the emperors. The last celebration was in the year A. U. 1000—A. D. 247.

_C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 35, with footnote._

ALSO IN: _E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 7._

SECURITY, The Act of.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1703-1704.

SEDAN, The French Catastrophe at.

See FRANCE; A. D. 1870 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

SEDAN: The Sovereign Principality and its extinction.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1641-1642.

SEDGEMOOR, Battle of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1685 (MAY-JULY).

SEFAVEAN DYNASTY, The.

See PERSIA: A. D. 1499-1887.

SEGESVAR, Battle of (1849).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

SEGNI, The.

The Segni were a tribe in ancient Gaul who occupied a region on the Rhine supposed to be indicated by the name of the modern small town of Sinei or Segnei, a small town in the territory of Namur on the Meuse above Liège.

_G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 4, chapter 8._

SEGONTIACI, The.

A tribe of ancient Britons living near the Thames.

SEGONTIUM.

"One of the most important Roman towns in Wales, the walls of which are still visible at Caer Seiont, near Caernarvon, on the coast of the Irish Sea."

_T. Wright, Celt, Roman and Saxon, chapter 5._

See BRITAIN: A. D. 61.

SEGUSIAVI, The.

One of the tribes of Gaul which occupied the ancient Forez (departments of the Rhone and the Loire) and extended to the left bank of the Saone.

_Napoleon III., History of Cæsar, book 3, chapter 2, foot-note._

SEISACHTHEIA OF SOLON, The.

See DEBT, LAWS CONCERNING: ANCIENT GREEK.

SEJANUS, The malign influence of.

See ROME: A. D. 14-37.

SELAH.

The city in the rocks—Petra—of the Edomites, Idumeans, or Nabatheans.

See NABATHEANS.

SELDJUKS, OR SELJUKS, The.

See TURKS: THE SELJUKS.

SELECTMEN.

In 1665 the General Court or Town Meeting of Plymouth Colony enacted that "'in every Towne of this Jurisdiction there be three or five Celectmen chosen by the Townsmen out of the freemen such as shal be approved by the Court; for the better managing of the afaires of the respective Townships; and that the Celect men in every Towne or the major parte of them are heerby Impowered to heare and determine all debtes and differences arising between pson and pson within theire respective Townships not exceeding forty shillings,' &c. … The origin of the title 'Selectmen' it is difficult to determine. It may possibly be referred to the tun-gerefa of the old Anglo-Saxon township, who, with 'the four best men,' was the legal representative of the community, or to the 'probi homines' of more ancient times. The prefix 'select' would seem to indicate the best, the most approved, but, as in the Massachusetts Colony, they were called, as early as 1642. 'selected townsmen,' it is probable that without reference to any historic type they were merely the men appointed, chosen, selected from the townsmen, to have charge of town affairs."

_W. T. Davis, Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, pages 84-85._

See, also, TOWNSHIP AND TOWN-MEETING.

SELEUCIA.

Seleucia, about forty-five miles from Babylon, on the Tigris, was one of the capitals founded by Seleucus Nicator. "Many ages after the fall of [the Macedonian or Seleucid Empire in Asia] … Seleucia retained the genuine characters of a Grecian colony—arts, military virtue, and the love of freedom. {2883} The independent republic was governed by a senate of three hundred nobles; the people consisted of 600,000 citizens; the walls were strong, and, as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the State, they viewed with contempt the power of the Parthian; but the madness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common enemy, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony." The Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, grew up at a distance of only three miles from Seleucia. "Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the Greek colony; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of 300,000 of the inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 8._

See, also, CTESIPHON; SELEUCIDÆ; and MEDAIN.

SELEUCIDÆ: Start--------

SELEUCIDÆ, The Empire of the.

The struggle for power which broke out after his death among the successors of Alexander the Great (see MACEDONIA: B. C. 323-316 to 297-280) may be regarded as having been brought to a close by the battle of Ipsus. "The period of fermentation was then concluded, and something like a settled condition of things brought about. A quadripartite division of Alexander's dominions was recognised, Macedonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria (or south-western Asia) becoming thenceforth distinct political entities. … Of the four powers thus established, the most important … was the kingdom of Syria (as it was called), or that ruled for 247 years by the Seleucidæ. Seleucus Nicator, the founder of this kingdom, was one of Alexander's officers, but served without much distinction through the various campaigns by which the conquest of the East was effected. At the first distribution of provinces (B. C. 323) among Alexander's generals after his death, he received no share; and it was not until B. C. 320, when upon the death of Perdiccas a fresh distribution was made at Triparadisus, that his merits were recognised, and he was given the satrapy of Babylon. … Seleucus led the flower of the eastern provinces to the field of Ipsus (B. C. 301), and contributed largely to the victory, thus winning himself a position among the foremost potentates of the day. By the terms of the agreement made after Ipsus, Seleucus was recognised as monarch of an the Greek conquests in Asia, with the sole exceptions of Lower Syria and Asia Minor. The monarchy thus established extended from the Holy Land and the Mediterranean on the west, to the Indus valley and the Bolor mountain-chain upon the east, and from the Caspian and Jaxartes towards the north, to the Persian gulf and Indian Ocean towards the south. It comprised Upper Syria, Mesopotamia, parts of Cappadocia and Phrygia, Armenia, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, Susiana, Persia, Carmania, Sagartia, Hyrcania, Parthia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Aria, Zarangia, Arachosia, Sacastana, Gedrosia, and probably some part of India."

_G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 3._

The original capital of the great Empire of Seleucus was Babylon; but not satisfied with it he founded and built the city of Seleucia, about forty miles from Babylon, on the Tigris. Even there he was not content, and, after the battle of Ipsus, he created, within a few years, the magnificent city of Antioch, in the valley of the Orontes, and made it his royal residence. This removal of the capital from the center of his dominions to the Syrian border is thought to have been among the causes which led to the disintegration of the kingdom. First Bactria, then Parthia, fell away, and the latter, in time, absorbed most of the Seleucid empire.

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapters 58-60 (volumes 7-8)._

ALSO IN: _J. P. Mahaffy, The Story of Alexander's Empire._

_B. G. Niebuhr, Lectures on Ancient History, volume 3._

SELEUCIDÆ:B. C. 281-224. Wars with the Ptolemies and civil wars. Decay of the empire.