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

856 SOEMIS. SOLINUS.
6. Of Rhodes, an historian, who seems to have by placing her boy in their path. Being forthwiith
lived ill the time of Augustus, and who wrote a created Augusta, she became the chosen counsellor
work on the civil war, from which Athenaeus of the youthful prince, and seems to have enconquotes some particulars respecting Antony apd Cleo- raged and shared his follies and enormities. She
patra. (Ath. iv. p. 147, e.; Menag. 1. c.; Vos- took a place in the senate, which then, for the first
sius, 1. c. and p. 227.) time, witnessed the intrusion of a woman, and was
7. The author of a work on Thrace, the second herself the president of a sort of female parliament,
book of which is quoted by Plutarch (IParall. 18, which held its sittings in the Quirinal, and published
p. 310, a). edicts for the regulation of all matters connected
8. A grammarian cited in the Etymologicum with the morals, dress, etiquette, and equipage of
MIagnum (s. v. Evio't's; Vossius, p. 499). the matrons. She was slain by the praetorians, in
There seem to have been also other persons of the arms of her son, on the 11th of March, A. D.
the name, but not of sufficient importance to be 222, and her body, after having been subjected to
noticed here. The name is confounded by the every indignity, was cast into a common sewer.
ancient writers with Crates, Isocrates, Sosicrates, [See CARACALLA; ELAGABALUS; JULIA DOMNA;
and Sostratus. (Fabric., Vossius, Menag. li; cc.; MACRINUS.] (Lamprid. Elagcab. 2; Dion Cass.
Ionsius, Script. Hlist. Pilos. vol. i. c. 2.) [P. S.] lxxviii. 30, 38; Ilerodian v. 5, &c.; Scaliger, in
SOtCRATES, artists. 1. Of Thebes, a sculptor, C/hronic. Easeb. p. 232; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 264.)
who, in conjunction with his fellow-citizen Aris- Her name, according to Herodian and Dion Cassius,
tomedes, made a statue of the " Dindymenian ought to be written SOEMIS; on all Roman and
Mother" (Cybele), which was dedicated by Pin- most Greek medals it appears as Soaemias. In the
dar in her temple near Thebes. The artists there- text of the Augustan historians, Capitolinus and
fore flourished probably about 01. 75, B. c. 480. Lampridius, we find the, corrupt forml Sem7ianzira.
The statue, as well as the throne on which it sat, In Greek inscriptions she is styled Bassiana,
was of Pentelic marble; and it was preserved from her grandfather, the founder of the family.
with extraordinary reverence. (Pans. ix. 25. ~ 3.) With regard to the title JULIA, see JULIA
2. The celebrated philosopher, was the son of a DOMNA. [W. R.]
sculptor, Sophrouiscus, and claimed to be of the
mythical lineage of the Daedalids, and himself A==
practised the art during part of his life (see the f
article above). Pausanias ascribes to him the'z d -
statue of Hernzes Propylaeus, and the group of /F i
the three Graces, which stood in the very entrance' Ii,
of the Acropolis at Athens; and he informs us,
that the Graces were draped (Paus. i. 22. ~ 8, ix. -.35. ~ 2. s. 7). Pliny also mentions the Graces of
Socrates, as not interior to the finest works of COIN OF SOEMIIS OR SOAEsIAS.
marble in existence; but he says that some supposed them to be the production of the painter of SOFO'NIUS TIGELLI'NUS. [TIGELLrthe same name (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 5. s. 4. ~ 10). NUS.]
There can, however, be little doubt that the ac- SOGDIA'NUS (:oy3avtfs), or SECUNcount which Pausanias heard at Athens itself was DIA'NUS (ZEKvv3tan'es), as he is called by
the correct one. Ctesias, was one of the illegitimate sons of
3. A painter who seems, from the manner in Artaxerxes I. Longimanus. The latter on his
which he is mentioned by Pliny, to have been a death in B. c. 425 was succeeded by his legitimate
disciple of Pausias; and if so, he must have son Xerxes II., but this monarch after a reign of
flourished about the latter half of the fourth cen- only two months was murdered by Sogdianus, who
tury B. c., or between B. C. 340-300. His pic- now became king. Sogdianus, however. was
tures were extremely popular. As examples of murdered in his turn after a reign of seven months,
them, Pliny mentions Aesculapius and his daugh- by his brother Ochus, as is related in the life of
ters, Hygia, Aegle, Panacea, and Iaso; and also a the latter. Ochus reigned under the name of
slothful fellow, or perhaps a personification of Dareius II. [DAREIus II.] (Diod. xii. 71;
Sloth (piger qui appellatur Ocnos), making a rope Ctesias, Pers. c. 44.)
of broom (spartunm), which an ass gnaws away at SOHAEMIAS. [SOEMIS.]
the other end as fast as he twists it. (Plin. H. N. SOIDAS, artist. [MENAECHMUS].
xxxv. 11. s. 40. ~ 31.) [P. S.] SOL. [HELIos.]
SOE'MISorSOAE'MIAS,JU'LIA,thedaugh- SOLI'NUS, C. JU'LIUS, the author of a geoter of Julia Maesa, and the mother of Elagabalus, graphical compendium, divided into fifty-seven
either by her husband Sextus Varius Marcellus, chapters, containing a brief sketch of the world as
or, according to the report industriously circulated known to the ancients, diversified by historical
with her own consent, by Caracalla. Of her early notices, remarks on the origin, habits, religious
history we know nothing, but it is manifest that rites and social condition of various nations enuneshe must have been living at the Roman court rated, together with details regarding the remarkunder the protection of her aunt Julia Domna, able productions of each region, whether animal,
about A. D. 204, otherwise the story with regard to vegetable or mineral. The arrangement, materials,
the origin of her son, who was born in the follow- and frequently the very words, are derived almost
ing year, would have been palpably impossible. exclusively from the Natural History of Pliny, but
In the battle which transferred the empire from little knowledge, care, or judgment, are displayed
Macrinus to Elagabalus, she is said to have decided in the selection, and the writer nowhere indicates
the fortune of the day, having succeeded in rallying the source from whence he has drawn so largely
the flying soldiers by prayers and entreaties, and contenting himself with assuring his friend Ad