Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/734

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loc cit.
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722 SATIBARZANES. 30. Kesr.a, said to be a royal prince, put to death. 31. Ferokhzad, said to be a son of Khosrew Purwiz, put to death. 32. Yesdijird or JesdigerdIII., the last king, and said to be a grandson of Chosroes, reigned from A. D. 632 till 651. Having declined to adopt the Mohammedan religion, as he was summoned to do by the khalif Abu-Bekr, his kingdom was in- vaded by the Arabic general Kaleb. In the battle of Cadesia (636), and other engagements, the Per- sians were worsted ; their fortitied towns and royal cities were taken one after the other ; and, in 651, Jesdigerd was an abandoned fugitive in the tract watered by the Oxus and the Jaxartes, whence he solicited and, perhaps, obtained the assistance of Tait-Song, emperor of China. He was thus en- abled to raise an army of Turks, with whom he marched against the Arabs ; but he was betrayed by his allies, by whom he was cut to pieces on his flight from them to the north. He left a son, Firuz, or Peroses, who entered the service of the Chinese emperor ; and his son, the last of the Sassanidae, was raised by the same to the rank of a vassal king of Bokhara. A daughter of Jesdigerd married Hassan, the son of Ali ; and another mar- ried Mohammed, the son of Abu-Bekr ; important events for the later history of Persia, which was henceforth a Mohammedan country. We observe here that the Persian historians are respectable sources for the history of the Sassanidae, and that their chronology differs but little from that of the Western writers. (The Greek and Roman writers, who speak of the Sassanidae, are referred to in the lives of the contemporary emperors ; comp. Malcom, History of Persia^ vol, i. ; Richter, Hist. kritiscJier Verstich ilber die Arsadden und Sassaniden-Di/nastie, Leipzig, 1804.) [W. P.] SA'SSIA, the mother of the younger Cluentius, married after the death of her husband her own Bon-in-law, A. Aurius Melinus, and subsequently Oppianicus. Cicero describes her as a monster of guilt. (Cic. pro Cluent. 5, 9, 62, 63, 70.) [Clu- entius.] SATACES or SATHACES. [Sabaces.] SATASPES (2aTci(r7r7;y), a Persian and an Achaemenid, son of Teaspes. Having offered vio- lence to a daughter of Zopyrus, the son of Mega- byzus, he was condemned by Xerxes to be im- paled ; but at the request of his mother, the king's aunt, this punishment was remitted on condition of his effecting the circumnavigation of Africa. He set sail accordingly from Egypt, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, and continued his voyage towards the south for a considerable distance, but at length turned back again, being discouraged apparently by adverse winds and currents. Xerxes, however, did not accept bis excuses, and inflicted on him the penalty to which he had been originally sentenced. (Herod, iv. 43.) [E. E.] SATIBARZA'NES CXaTiSap^avris), a Persian, was satrap of Aria under Dareius III. In B. c. 330, Alexander the Great, marching through the borders of Aria on his way from Hyrcania against the Parthians, was met at a city named Susia by Satibarzanes, who made submission to him, and was rewarded for it by the restoration of his satrapy. Alexander also, in order to prevent the commission of any hostilities against the Arians by the Macedonian troops which were following from SATURIUS. the west, left behind with Satibarzanes forty horse-dartmen, under the command of Anaxjppus. These, however, together with their commander, were soon after murdered by the satrap, who excited the Arians to rebellion, and gathered his forces together at the city of Arctoana. Hence, on the approach of Alexander, he fled to join the traitor Bessus ; and the city, after a short siege, was captured by the Macedonians. Towards the end of the same year (b. c. 330), Alex- ander, hearing that Satibarzanes had again en- tered Aria with 2000 horse, supplied by Bessus, and had excited the Arians to another revolt, sent a force against him under Artabazus, Erigyius, and Caranus, according to Arrian. In a battle which ensued, and of which the issue was yet doubtful, Satibarzanes came forward and defied any one of the enemy's generals to single combat. The chal- lenge was accepted by Erigyius, and Satibarzanes was slain. (Arr. Anab. iii. 25, 28 ; Diod. xvii. 78, 81, 83 ; Curt. vi. 6, vii. 3, 4.) [E. E.] P. SATRIE'NUS, a name which occurs only on coins, probably derived from Satrius, like Nasidienus from Nasidius, &c. It is disputed whether the head on the obverse of the annexed coin is that of Pallas or of Mars : the features are in favour of its being Pallas, but the she-wolf on the reverse points rather to Mars. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 300.) COIN OP P. SATRIENUS. SA'TRIUS. 1. M. Satrius, the son of the sister of L. Minucius Basilus, was adopted by the latter, whose name he assumed (Cic. de Off. iii. 18). He is spoken of under Basilius, No. 5. 2. A. Caninius Satrius, is mentioned by Cicero in b. c. ^h {ad AU... %V). 3. Satrius, a legate of Trebonius, b. c. 43. (Pseudo-Brut, ad Cic. i. 6.) SA'TRIUS RUFUS. [Rufus.] SA'TRIUS SECUNDUS. [Secundus.] SATURE'IUS (SaTypTjios), an artist, whose portrait of Arsinoe in glass is highly praised by Diodorus, in an epigram in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 185, No. 3 ; Anih. Pal. ix. 776, vol. ii. p. 261, ed. Jacobs). The artist's age is determined by the subject ; but there is a difficulty respecting the form of his work. It has been commonly supposed that it was in relief, like the Portland vase, and this is the interpretation given in the lemma prefixed to the epigram in the Palatine Codex, ets KpvaraKXov yeyXv/jL/xevou, but the use of the word ypd^as (not ypas) in the epigram itself, and the comparison of the work to one of Zeuxis, for colour and grace, would seem to show that it was nothing but a painting on glass. (Jacobs, Animado. in Anth. Grace, vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 78.) Some writers on art mention the name under the form Satyrius. (Winckelmann, Gesch. d. Kunst, b. x. c. 2. § 24.) [P. S.] P. SATU'RIUS, is mentioned by Cicero in terms of great respect as one of the judices in