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

SOSIUS. SOSTHENES. 885
poets of the Pleiad in all the lists except that of the decisive battle of Actium, Sosius commanded
Tzetzes. the left wing. He escaped from the battle and
The remains of his works consist of two lines fled to a place of concealment, but was detected
from his'AOlAos (Stob. Serm. li. 23), and a consi- and brought to Octavian. The conqueror pardoned
derable fragment of twenty-four lines from his him, however, at the intercession of L. Arruntius
AdpivZs or ALrve'ptas, which appears to have been (Suet. Acg. 17; Appian,B. C. v. 73; Dion Cass.
a drama pastoral in its scene, and in its form and xlix. 41, 1. 2, 14, li. 2, Ivi. 38; Vell. Pat. ii. 85,
character very similar to the old satyric dramas of 86). There are several coins of this C. Sosius
the Attic tragedians. (Schol. ap. Casaub. ad Thzeocr. extant. The specimen annexed has on the obverse
c. 12; comp. Ath. x. p. 415, b; Tzetz. C0/it. ii. the head of Antony, and on the reverse an eagle
595; Schol. ad Theocr. x. 41.) By some of the standing on a thunderbolt, with a caduceus before
above authorities the name Sosibius is wrongly given it, and the legend c. soslvs Q. (Eckhel, vol. v.
instead of Sosithleus. Another error, into which p. 314.)
some writers have been led by the character of the
ACsvis of Sositheus, is that of making him a comic
poet. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 322, 323,
comp. p. 495; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. s. aa. 278, /\\P
259, pp. 501, 502; Welcker, Griech. Trag. p.
1052; Wagner, Frag. Trag. Graec. in Didot's
Bibliotheca, pp. 149-152.) [P. S.]
SO'SIUS. 1. C. SosIus, was quaestor of M'.
Lepidus, consul B. C. 66. He was praetor in B. C.
49, on the breaking out of the civil war, and, like
most of the other magistrates of that year, be- COIN OF C. SOSIUS.
longed to the Pompeian party. He did not, however, remain with this party long; for instead of 2..Sosn, the name of two brothers, booksellers
going to Brundusium to cross the sea with Pompey, at Rome in the time of Horace (Fp. i. 20. 2, Art.
he returned to Rome with Lupus and openly united Po't. 345). They were probably freedmen, perhimself to Caesar (Cic. ad Att. viii. 6, ix. I). After haps of the Sosius mentioned above.
the death of Caesar he followed the fortunes of SO'SIUS FALCO. [FALCO.]
Antony, whom he accompanied to the East, and SO'SIUS PAPPUS, was honoured with a
by whom he was appointed in B. C. 38 governor of statue by Trajan, and is mentioned among the
Syria and Cilicia in the place of Ventidius. Like friends of Hadrian. (Dion Cass. lxviii. 16; Sparhis predecessor in the government, he carried on tian. AHaodr. 4.)
the military operations in his province with great SO'SIUS SENE'CIO. [SENECIO.]
success. He was commanded by Antony to give SOSIUS, an artist, whose name is given by
vigorous support to Herod against Antigonus, the Miiller (Alrchiiol. ~ 308, n. 4) on the authority of
representative of the Asmonaean line of princes, a passage in Pliny (H. N. xiii. 5. s. 11). " Cedrinus
who was in possession of Jerusalem, and had est Ronlae in delubro Apollo Sosianus, Seleucia adhitherto successfully resisted the efforts of Herod vectus;" but it cannot be pronounced with certo subdue him. Sosius obtained possession of the tainty, from this passage, whether the artist's name
island and town of Aradus off the coast of Phoe- was Sosius,which is onlyfound as a Roman name, or
nicia, towards the end of B. C. 38. In the follow- Sosias, Sosis, or Soslus, all three of which are genuine
ing year, B. C. 37, he advanced against Jerusalem Greek names. (See Pape, Worterbuch d. Grieclh.
along with Herod, and after hard fighting became Eigennamen.) Nothing is known of the artist's age;
master of the city, and placed Herod upon the foritby no means follows necessarily from the statue
throne. (Dion Cass. xlix. 22; Joseph. Ant. xiv. being of wood, that lie lived at a very early period.
15, 16, B. J. i. 17-18; Tac. Hist. v. 9; Plut. Statues of divinities were frequently made out of
Ant. 34.) [HERODES.] In return for these ser- the finer and more durable woods, at every period
vices, Antony obtained for Sosius the honour of a of Greek art. (Siebelis, ad Paus. v. 17. ~ 2; Amattriumph in B. C. 34, and the consulship along with thea, vol. ii. p. 259.) LP. S.]
Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus in B. C. 32. In the SOtSPITA, that is, the " saving goddess," was
latter year the quarrels and misunderstandings be- a surname of Juno at Lanuvium and at Rome, in
tween Octavian and Antony broke out into open both of which places she had a temple. Her worship
hostilities. Sosius warnmly espoused the cause of his was very ancient in Latium and was transplanted
patron, and in an assembly of the senate on the I st from Lanuvilm to Rome. (Cic. De Nat. Deor. i.
of January ventured to attack Octavian, and uphold 29, De Div. i. 2; Liv. viii. 14, xxiv. 10, xxvii. 3,
the cause of Antony. Octavian was absent from xxix. 14, xxxi. 12, xxxii. 30, xl. 19; Ov. Fast.
Rome at the time, and on his return to the city ii. 56; Sil. Ital. viii. 362, xiii. 346.) The name
Sosius found it necessary to quit Italy and betake is connected with the verb eui'EIV, but the ancient
himself to Antony. In the following year, B. C. Romans called her Sispita, and so her name ap31, he commanded a squadron of Antony's fleet; pears in inscriptions, just as Jupiter also is
and during the absence of Agrippa, who had the called Sispes instead of Sospes. (Fest. p. 343, ed.
supreme command of the fleet of Octavian, he at- Muller.) [L. S.]
tacked the squadron of L. Arruntiiis and put it to SO'STHENES (woreOv'mos), a Macedonian offiflight; but while engaged in the pursuit, he fell in cer of noble birth, but unconnected with the
with M. Agrippa, who wrested the victory from royal family, who obtained the supreme direction
him, killed his ally Tarcondimotus, the king of of affairs during the period of confusion which
Cilicia, and compelled Sosius himself to seek safety followed the invasion of the Gauls. After the
in flight. It is erroneously stated by Dion Cassius death of Ptolemy Ceraunus (B. C. 280), and the
(l. 14) that Sosius fell in this engagement. I I short-lived sovereignty of his brother Meleager,
3L 3