SOL5TMA.
 

SOPHOCLES.
 

place in the Corinthian territory on ZoXvyewg

Xoipog, twelve stadia from the coast of the Bay

if Cenchreae: Nicias here defeated a body of

Corinthian troops in the Peloponnesian war ]

  Solyma (rdZoXvpa).  1 (Now Taktalu Dagh)

•.he mountain range which runs parallel to the

eastern coast of Lycia, and is a southern con¬

tinuation of Mount Climax.   Sometimes the

whole  range is called Climax, and the name of

Solyrna is given to its highest peak.—2. Another

name of Jerusalem.

  Solymi.   Vid. Lycia

  Somnus (virvog), the personification and god

of Sleep, is described  as a  brother of Death

[■ftdvarog, mors), and  as  a  son of Night  In

works of art, Sleep and Death are represented

alike as two youths, sleeping or holding invert¬

ed torches in their hands   Vid. Mors.

  Sontius (now Isonzo), a river  in Venetia, in

the north of Italy, rising in the Carnic Alps, and

falling into the Sinua Tergestinus east of Aqui¬

leia

  [Sonus (Zdvog, now  Son,  Sona, or Soned), a

large tributary ofthe Ganges, on the right side;

at the junction of this  river with the Ganges,

Palibothra was situated.]

  [Sop ater (Zdrrarpog).  1. One ofthe generals

elected by  the  Syracusans on the murder of

Hieronymus in B.C. 215.—2. A general of Phil¬

ip V. of Macedonia, crossed over to Africa in

B.C. 203 with a body of four thousand troops to

assist  the Carthaginians.  He was taken pris¬

oner by the Romans with many of his soldiers.

3. An  Aearnanian, the  commander of Philip's

garrison at Chalcis, was slain with most of his

troops in B.C. 200.—4  Ore  of the generals of

Perseus, slain in battle  with the  Romans in

B.C. 171.—5. A native  of Halicyae in Sicily, a

man of wealth and  consideration, condemned

by Verres.—6 Chief magistrate  (proagorus) of

Tyndaris in Sicily, a  witness against Verres,

who had treated him with indignity.]

  Sopater (Zdrrarpog).   1. Of Paphos, a writer

of parody  and ourlesque ((frXvapoypaipog), who

flourished from B.C. 323 to 283 —2. Of Apamea,

a distinguished sophist, the head for some time

of the  school of Plotinus, was a disciple of Iam¬

bliehus, after whose death (before A D. 330) he

went- to Constantinople.   Here he enjoyed the

favor  and personal friendship of Constantine,

who afterward, however, put him to death (be¬

tween A D  330 and 337), from  the motive, as

was alleged, of giving a proof of the sincerity of

his own conversion to Christianity.  There are

several grammatical and rhetorical works  ex¬

tant under  the name  of Sopater, but the best

critics ascribe these to  a younger Sopater, men¬

tioned below.—3. The younge" sophist, of Apa¬

mea or of Alexandrea, is supposed to have lived

about  two hundred years later than the former.

Besides  his  extant  works already alluded to,

Photius has preserved  an extract of a work en¬

titled the Historical Extracts (sKXoyrj), which con¬

tained a vast variety of facts and figments, col¬

lected from a great number of authors.   The

remains of  his rhetorical works are  contained

in Walz's Rhetores Graci.

   [SoPHiENETUs (Zosjralverog), a native of Stym-

phalus in Arcadia, who joined Cyrus the  youn¬

ger in his  expedition against Artaxerxes with

sao thousand heavy-armed men.  He is called
 

by Xenophon one ofthe oldest of the geiienta,

and was deputed to meet Ariaeus and the 1-er

sians after the treacherous seizure of Clearcbus

and his companions.   Oo  the arrival of the

Greeks at Cotyora, Sophaenetus was fined for

his  negligence in allowing part of the caigoes

of the vessels, which  brought the old men,

women, and children from Trapezus, to be pil¬

fered.  In Stephanusof Byzantium, Sophaenetus

is quoted four times as author of a Kvpov ' Avd-

Baaig, and  Muller supposes him to be the same

with the general  of Cyrus.  Vid Muller, Hist.

Grac. Fragm , vol. ii , p. 74 ]

  [Sophanes (Zu<jrdvng), an Athenian, of the

deme Decelea, slew in  single combat  Suryba-

tes, the leader of the thousand Argives sent to

aid  the  .Eginetans  against  the Athenians in

B.C. 491   At the battle of Plataeae, he distin¬

guished himself by his valor above all his coun¬

trymen.  He was slain in battle while engaged

in an  unsuccessful attempt to  colonize Amphi¬

polis in B C. 465.]

  Sophene (Zainvfi, later Zatyavnvr)), a district

of Armenia Major, lying  between the ranges of

Antitaurus and Masius;  separated from Meli¬

tene in Armenia Minor by the Euphrates, from

Mesopotamia by the Antitaurus, and  from the.

eastern  part  of Armenia Major by  the Rivei

Nymphius.   In the time of the Greek kings of

Syria, it formed, together with the adjacent dis¬

trict of Acilisene, an independent western Ar

menian kingdom, which was subdued and unite J

to the rest of Armenia by Tigranes.

  Sophilus (ZdijnXog), a  comic  poet ofthe mid¬

dle comedy, was a native of Sicyon or of Thebes,

and flourished about B  C. 348.  [A few frag¬

ments remain of his plays, collected inMeineke's

Comic. Grac. Fragm.,\ol. ii., p 794-6,edit, min.]

  [Sophilus.  Vid.  Sophocles.]

  Sophocles (ZoijroKXijg).  1-  The celebrated

tragic poet, was born at Colonus, a village little

more than a mile to the northwest of Athens,

B.C. 495   He was  thirty years younger than

iEschylus, and fifteen  years  older than Euripi¬

des.  His father's name was Sophilus or Sophil-

lus, of whose condition in life we know nothing

for  certain; but it is cleir that Sophocles re¬

ceived an  education not inferior to that of the

sons  of  the most  distinguished citizens  of

Athens.  To both of the two leading  branches

of Greek education, music and gymnastics, he

was carefully trained, and in both he gained the

prize  of a  garland.  Of the skill which he  had

attained in music and dancing in his sixteenth

year,  and of  the perfection of his bodily form,

we  have conclusive evidence in the fact that,

when the Athenians were assembled in solemi,

festival around the  trophy which they had set

up in Salamis to celebrate their victory over the

fleet of Xerxes, Sophocles was chosen to iead,

naked and with lyre in hand, the chorus which

danced about the trophy, and sang the songs of-

triumph, 480.  His first  appearance as a dram¬

atist took place  in 468,  under  peculiarly inter¬

esting circumstances;  not only from  the  fact

that Sophocles,  at  the  age of twenty-seven,

came forward as the rival ofthe veteran iEschy

lus, whose supremacy had been maintained dur

ing an entire generation, but also from the char¬

acter of the judges.  The solemnities  of the

Great Dionysia were rendered more imposing

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