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

880 SOSIANUS. SOSIBIUS.
SORA'NUS, SERVI'LIUS BA'REA. [BA- SO SIAS (:ocrias), a vase-painter, whose name
RIEA.] is inscribed on a beautiful cylix, which was disSORA'NUS, Q. VALE'RIUS, whom Crissus covered at Vulci, in 1828, and is now in the Royal
in the De Oratose designates as "literatissimum Museum at Berlin (No. 1030). This work is one
togatorum omnium," is the author of two hexameters, of the finest extant specimens of Greco-Etruscan
quoted at second-hand from Varro, by St. Augus- vase-painting. Writers on ancient art have comb
tine (De Civ. Dei, vii. 9), and also by the third of pared it to the'productions of Polygnotus, on acthe mythographers first published by Mai. The count of the character visible in the figures, or to
lines in question, those of Dionysius on account of its minute and
cJuppiter omnipotens, rerum regumque repertor, elaborate finish. At all events it belongs to one of
Progenitor genitrixque Deum, Deus unus et idem," the best periods of Grecian art, and from the manlner in which the figures are adapted to the shape
may very possibly, as Meyer conjectures, have been of the vessel, as well as from the whole style of
contained in the work spoken of by Pliny (H. N. the composition, it is pronounced by the best judges
Praef.) as having been entitled'E7ro7rsowv, while to be manifestly an original work and not a nmere
the fragment adduced in the treatise of Varro De copy from some greater artist. The subject reLingua Latina (vii. 31, comp. 65, x. 70), as an presented on the inner side of the vase is taken
example of the word adagio, is probably extracted from the mythical adventures of Achilles and
from a different piece. It is evident, from the Patroclus. Achilles, who had been instructed by
passage in Cicero referred to above, that Soranus Cheiron in the healing art, is binding up a wound
must have been a contemporary of Antonius the which Patroclus has received, as is supposed, in the
orator, and therefore flourished about B. C. 100. battle against the Mysian Telephus, which was the
(See Anthol. Lat. ed. Meyer. praef. p. x.) The first great victory gained by the two heroes. The
mythographer of Mai calls him Seranus, which is meaning of the composition on the outer side is
clearly a blunder, perhaps due to the copyist, and more doubtful. It consists chiefly of figures of
in no way must he be confounded with the Serranus divinities, and has been variously interpreted as
of Juvenal (,Sat. vii. 80), who lived under Nero. the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, or some other
(Compare Plin. H.N. iii. 5; Plut. Quaest. Ron. marriage subject, or, in connection with the other
61; Gerlach's ed. of Lucilius, 8vo. Turic. 1846. side of the vase, as a group of divinities assisting as
p. xxxi.) LW. R.] spectators of the exploits of Achilles and his fiiend.
SORO'RIA, a surname of Juno, under which The vase is supposed to have been a bridal prean altar is said to have been erected to her in sent. It is engraved in the Monumnenti Inediti
common with Janus Curiatius, when Horatius, of the Archaeological Institute of Rome, vol i. pi.
on his return home, had slain his sister, and had 24, and in Gerhard's Trinksclalen des Ion. Aleus.
been purified of the murder. (Liv. i. 26; Fest. pl. 6.
p. 297, ed. Miiller.) [L. S.] Respecting the artist we have no further informaSOSANDER (oc2cavBpos). 1. A foster-brother tion, but the critics have of' course indulged in
of king Attalus. HIe distinguished himself in the sundry conjectures. Raoul-Rochette supposes that
war between the latter and Prusias by his defence he may have been a Sicilian, from the frequency
of Elaea (Polyb. xxxii. 25). with which names beginning in Sos are found
2. A navigator referred to in the epitome of among the Greeks of Sicily; a point of some imArtemidorus of Ephesus (p. 63), as the author of a portance in connection with the theory formerly
work on India. (Vossius, de Hist. Graecis, p 500, advanced by him, that the painters of Etruscan
ed. Westermann.) [C. P. Mi. vases were generally Sicilian Greeks; but that
SOSANDER (cos-avspo;), the seventeenth in theory he now renounces. Others have seen a
descent from Aesculapius, who lived in the fifth and connection between the medicinal subject of the
fourth centuries B. c. He was the son of Heraclides inner side of the vase and the root-meaning of the
and brother of Hippocrates II., the most famous of artist's name. (Miiller, Arclhiol. d. Kunst. ~ 1 43,
that name. (Le Clerc, Hist. de la MUd.) n. 3; R. Rochette, Lettre a 11. Schosrs, pp. 59, 60,
A physician of the same name (who must have 2d. ed.; Nagler, Kiinstler Lexicon, s. v.) [P. S.]
lived some time before the first century after Christ, SOSI'BIUS (weifglos), historical. 1. A Taand who may possibly be the same person), is rentine, one of the captains of the body-guards of
quoted by Asclepiades Pharmacion (ap. Galen, De Ptolemy Philadelphus. (Joseph. Ant. xii. 2. ~ 2.)
Compos. Medicanz. sec. Loc. iv. 7. vol. xii. p. 733), It is not improbable he may have been the father
who has preserved one of his medical formulae. of the minister of Ptolemy Philopator.
See also Aetius (ii. 3. 78. p. 332.) [W. A. G.] 2. The chief minister of Ptolemy Philopator, king
SO'SIA GALLA. [GALLA.] of Egypt. Nothing is known of his origin or parentSOSIA'NUS, ANTI'STIUS, was tribune of age, though he may have been a son of No. 1; nor
the plebs, A. D. 56, and praetor, A. D. 62. In the have we any account of the means by which he
latter year he was banished for having written rose to power; but we find him immediately after
libellous verses against Nero, but was recalled to the accession of Ptolemly (B. c. 222), exercising the
Rome in A. D. 66, in consequence of his having greatest influence aver the young king, and virtually
brought an accusation against Anteius. He was, holding the chief direction of affairs. He soon
however, again banished at the commencement af proved himself, as he is termed by Polybius, a
Nero's reign as one of the informers under the ready and dexterous instrument of tyranny: it
tyrant. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 28, xiv. 48, xvi. 14, Hist. was by his ministration, if not at his instigation,
iv. 44.) that Ptolemy put to death in succession his uncle
SOSIAINUS, a surname of Apollo at Rome, Lysimachus, his brother Magas, and his mother
derived from the quaestor C. Sosius bringing his Berenice. Not long after, Cleomenes, of whose instatue from Seleucia to Rome. (Cic. ad Att. viii. fluence with the mercenary troops Sosibius had at
6; Plin. H. N. xiii. 5, xxxvi. 4.) [L. S.] this time dexterously availed himself, shared the