A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SILIA GENS. SILIIUS. 823
be is likened to Socrates. (Plat. -Sygipos. 32; although a person of this name is- mentioned as
Xenoph. Sypnpos. 5. ~ 7.) When he was drunk early as B. c. 409. The first member of the gens
and asleep, he was in the power of mortals who %who obtained the-consulship was P. Silius Nerva,
might compel him to prophesy and sing by sur- in B. c. 20. The different cognomens of the Silii
rounding him with chains of flowers. (Aelian, are given below in alphabetical order. NTerva is
V. H. iii. 18; Philostr. Imag. i. 22, Vit. Apoll. the only cognomen that occurs on coins of the
vi. 27; Ov. Met. xi. 91.) Silenus had a temple gens.
at Elis, where Methe (Drunkenness) stood by his SI'LIO, UMBO'NIUS, governor of Baetica
side handing him a cup of wine. (Hirt, AIythol. under Claudius, was recalled from his province,
Bilderb. p. 164, &c.; C. O. Miiller, Ancient Art and expelled from the senate because he had
and its Remains, ~ 386.) [L. S.] offended some of the emperor's freedmen, though
SILE'NUS (Ymernt'ds or SLAVJS), literary. accused, for the sake of form, of another crime
1. A native of Calatia (1ELkAios d KaXaatavos), (Dion Cass. Ix. 24).
an historical writer. Athenaeus (xii. p. 542, a), SILITUS. 1. Q. SILIUS, one of the quaestors
quotes from the third book of a work by him, elected for the first time from the plebs in B. c.
entitled ILKEAlKa. The same work is probably 409 (Liv. iv. 54).
referred to by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 3, 11). Ie 2. T. SILIUS, served under Caesar in Gaul, and
also wrote upon Roman history, and is mentioned was sent by him against the Veneti in B. c. 56
by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Ant. Romn. i. 6), (Caes. B. G. iii. 7).
who charges him with a want of care and accu- 3. A. SILIUS, a friend of Cicero, is frequently
racy, and by Livy (xxvi. 49) when speaking of mentioned by him in his correspondence with
the operations of Scipio Africanus the elder, in Atticus in B. c. 45. (Cic. ad Att. x. 13, xii. 18,
Spain. This Silenus is, doubtless, identical with 22, 24, 25, xiii. 50.);Xravo's o' av-yypaqpeVs, mentioned by Strabo (iii. 4. P. SILIUJS, governed Bithynia and Pontus as
p. 172), who remarks that he, as well as Arte- propraetor in B. c. 51, at the same -time as Cicero
midorus, was ignorant of the reason why the foun- governed Cilicia as proconsul, Bibulus Syria, and
tain in the temple of Hercules at Gades rose Thermus Asia. Silius was a friend of Atticus
when the tide fell, and fell when the tide rose. (Cic. ad Att. vi. 1. ~ 13, vii. 1. ~ 8). Several of
It is probably this writer also who is quoted by Cicero's letters are addressed to this Silius. He
Stephanus (s. v. rfIaltxlc), and by Pliny (H. N. consulted Cicero on a legal point in B. c. 44, the
iv. 22). Photits also (s. v. OapaLvos y'EAcws), explanation of which has exercised the ingenuity
mentions what Silenus says'v [3''remv 7rEpl Supa- of modern jurists. (Cic. ad Fans. vii. 21, ad Altt.
Koo'as. Cicero (de Div. i. 24) quotes from Sile- xv. 23, 24; P. E. Huschke, De Causa Siliaca,
nus (of whom he remarks: is autenz diligentissime Rostochii, 1824, and also in his Studien, Breslan,
res Hannibalis persecutus est) an account of a dream 1830, vol. i.) This Silius was probably the fattier
that Hannibal had after the capture of Saguntum. of P. Silius Nerva, consul in B. c. 20. [SILIUS
(Comp. Corn. Nep. -Iannib. extr.) NERVA.]
2. It was probably a different writer from the 5. C. SaIaUS P. F. P. N., was consul A. D. 13,
last who is quoted several times by Athenaeus with L. Munatius Plancus (Dion Cass. lvi. 28;
and others as the author of a work on foreign Suet. Aug. 101; Frontin. de Aquaed. 102; Fasti
words ('yAc$oam). Athenaeus mentions him fre- Capitol.). He was appointed at the end of his
quently along with Cleitarchus. (Athen. xi. pp. year of office legatus of Upper Germany, where
468, a. 475, d. 478, e. 482, f. xiv. p. 644, f., &c.; he was at the death of Augustus, in the month of.
comp. Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 1299; Eustath. August in the following year. He served under
ad Od. vii. 102, p. 1571.) Silenus also compiled Germanicus in his campaigns in Germany, and on
a collection of fabulous histories. (Tzetzes in Ly- account of his success obtained the triumphal orcophr. 786; Schol. Hem. Od. i. 75, where he is naments in A. D. 15. Germanicus sent him against
called a Chian, as he is also by Eustathius, ad Od. the Chatti in the following year, but the result of
xix. 407, p. 1871, and Eudocia, pp. 43, 312, 394; that expedition is not mentioned by Tacitus. In
Vossius, de first. Graecis, p. 498, ed. Wester- A. D. 21 he defeated Julius Sacrovir, who, in conmann.) [C. P. M.] junction with Julius Florus, had excited an insurSILE'NUS, an architect who wrote a work on rection in Gaul, and had collected a formidable
the Doric order, de Symmetriis Doricorum. He army among the Aedui and the surrounding people
was apparently of an early age and a little later [SACROVIR]. But his friendship with Germnanicus
than the scene painter Agatharchus, who was con- caused his ruin. He had also excited the sustemporary with Aeschylus. (Vitruv. vii. praef. ~ picions of the jealous emperor by the successes he
12.) [P. S.] had obtained, by the long continuance of his conmP. SILT'CIUS, as he is called by Plutarch, or mand, and by the boastful manner il which he
SILICIUS CORONAS, as Dion Cassius names him, a had spoken of his services. He was accordingly
Roman senator, and one of the judices appointed accused of repetitndae anld majestas in A. D. 24,
to try the conspirators against the life of Caesar in and anticipated his condemnation by a voluntary
B. C. 43, in accordance with the Lex Pedia. [PE- death. His wife Sosia Galla was involved in the
Dvius, No. I.] Although Octavianus was present accusations brought against him, and was sentenced
with his arnmy, Silicius ventured to vote for the to banishment. [GALLA, SOSTA.] (Tac. Ann. i.
acquittal of M. Brutus, in consequence of which he 31, ii. 6, 7, 25, iii. 42-45, iv. 18, 19; Dions Cass.
was afterwards proscribed by the triumvirs, and lx. 31.)
put to death. Appian erroneously calls him 6. C. SILIUS, son of No. 5, the most beautifiul
Icilius (Dion Cass. xlvi. 49; Plut. Brut. 27; of the Roman youths, was passionately loved by
Appian, B. C. iv. 27). Messalina, the wife of the emperor Claudius. She
SI'LIA GENS, plebeian, did not attain much made no secret of her affection for him, and visited
importance till quite the latter end of the republic, his house openly, with a large retinue. She com3 4