Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/893

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SAGALASSUS. SAGALASSUS (2a7aa(rcr(5s : Eth. laya- Xaffffivs or 'SayaXaaa-ijvos), an important town and fortress near the north-western frontier of Pisidia, or, as Strabo (xii. p. 569) less correctly states, of Isauria, while Ptolemy (v. 3. § 6) erro- neously mentions it among the towns of Lycia. (Comp. Steph. B. s. v.) Alexander the Great took the town by assault, having previously defeated its brave Pisidian inhabitants, who met the aggressor drawn up on a hill outside their town. (Arrian, Anab. i. 28.) Livy (sxxviii. 15), in his account of the expedition of Cn. Manlius, describes Sagalassus as situated in a fertile plain, abounding in every species of produce; he likewise characterises its in- habitants as the bravest of the Pisidians, and the town itself as most strongly fortified. Manlius did not take it, but by ravaging its territory com- pelled the Sagalassians to come to terms, to pay a contribution of 50 talents, 20,000 medimni of wheat, and the same quantity of barley. Strabo states that it was one of the chief towns of Pisidia, and that after passing under the dominion of Amyn- tas, tetrarch of Lycaonia and Galatia, it became part of the Roman province. He adds that it was only one day's march from Apamea, whereas we learn from Arrian that Alexander was five days on the road between the two towns ; but the detention of the latter was not occasioned by (he lengtli of the road but by other circumstances, so that Strabo's account is not opposed to that of Arrian. (Comp. Polyb. sxii. 19; Plin. v. 24.) The town is men- tioned also by Hierocles (p. 693), in the Ecclesi- astical Notices, and the Acts of Councils, from which it appears to have been an episcopal see. The traveller Lucas (Trois Voyages, i. p. 181, and Second Voyage, i. c. 3-t) was the first that re- ported the existence of extensive ruins at a place called Aglasoun, and the resemblance of the name led him to identify these ruins with the site of the ancient Sagalassus. This conjecture lias since been fully coniirmed by Arundell (^A Visit to the Seven Churches, p. 132, foil.), who describes these ruins as situated on the long terrace of a lofty mountain, rising above the village of Aglasoun, and consisting chiefly of massy walls, heaps of sculptured stones, and innumerable sepulchral vaults in the almost perpendicular side of the mountain. A little lower down the ten'ace are considerable remains of a large building, and a large paved oblong area, full of fluted columns, pedestals, &c., about 240 feet long; a portico nearly 300 feet long and 27 wide; and be- yond this some magnificent remains either of a temple or a gymnasium. Above these rises a steep hill with a few remains on the top, which was pro- bably the acropolis. There is also a large theatre in a fine state of preservation. Inscriptions with the words 'Za-yaa(Ta4wv -noMs leave no doubt as to these noble ruins belonging to the ancient town of Sagalassus. (Comp. Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 486, foil. ; Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 1 64, foU.^ [L. S.] SAG ANUS {'S.ayav6s, Marcian, FeripJ. p. 21., ed. Hudson), a small river on the coast of Carniania, about 200 stadia from Harmuza. It is mentioned also by Ptolemy (vi.8. § 4), and Pliny (vi. 25). It is probably the same stream which is called by Am- mianns Marcellinus, Saganis (xxiii. 6). Vincent thinks that it may be represented by a small river which flows into the Persian Gulf, near Gomeroon. {Voy. of Nearchus, vol. i. p. 370). [V.] SAGA'POLA (SoyoiroAa al. SayciTroAo upos, SAGRUS. 873 Ptol. iv. 6. §§ 8, 14, 16, 17), a mountain of Interior Libya, from which flows the SuIjus, the position of which is fixed by Ptolemy {I. c.) 13° E. long., 22° N. lat. It may be assumed that the divergent which Ptolemy describes as ascending to this moun- tain irom the Nigeir is one of the tributaries which flow into the Djolibd or Quorra, from the hii;h- lands to the N. of that river (comp. Journ. Geog. Sac. vol. ii. p. 13.) [E. B. J.] SAGARAUCAE. [Sacakauli.] SAGARIS, a river of European Sarmatia (Ov. ex Pont. iv. 1047), which has been assumed, from the name, to have discharged itself into the Sinus Sagakuis. (Plin. iv. 26.) [E. B. J.] SAGA'RTII. [Persis.] SAGIDA (2a7i5a or Sa-yTjSa, Ptol. vii. 1. § 71), a metropolis of Central India, which is perhaps the same as the present Sohajpur, near the sources of the river Soane. [V.] SAGRAS (^ 'Xdypa.s, Strab. vi. p. 261), a river of Bruttium, on the E. coast of the peninsula, to the S. of Caulonia, between that city and Locri. It is celebrated in history for the great battle fought on its banks, in which an army of 130,000 Crotoniats is said to have been totally defeated by 1 0,000 Lo- crians: an event regarded as so extraordinary that it passed into a kind of proverb for something that appeared incredible, though true. (^a.r}64(Trepa roiv iirl 'S.dypa, Suid. s. v. ; Strab. vi. p. 261 ; Cic. de N. D. iii. 5 ; Justin, xx. 3 ; Plin. iii. 10. s. 15.) The victory was ascribed by the Locrians to the direct intervention of the Dioscuri, to whom they in con- sequence erected altars on the banks of the river, which were apparently still extant in the time of Strabo. It was added that the news of the victory was miraculously conveyed to the Greeks assembled at Olympia the same day that the battle was fought. (Strab. I. c. ; Cic. de N. D. ii. 2.) But notwith- standing the celebrity thus attached to it, the date and occasion of the battle are very uncertain : and the circumstances connected with it by Strabo and Justin would lead to opposite conclusions. [Ciio- TONA.] The date assigned by Heyne is b. c. 560, while Strabo certainly seems to imply that it took place after the fall of Sybaris in n. c. 510. (Grote's Greece, vol. iv. p. 552, note.) But whatever un- certainty prevailed concerning the battle, it seems certain that the Sagras itself was a well kno^vn stream in the days of Strabo and Pliny; both of whom concur in placing it to the N. of Locri and S. of Caulonia, and as the latter city was a colony and perhaps a dependency of Crotona, it is probable that the battle would be fought between it and Locri. Unf-ortunately the site of Caulonia cannot be de- termined [Caulonia], and we are therefore quite at a loss which of the small streams flowing into the sea between Locri and the Pnnta di Stilo shoidd be identified with the celebrated Sagras. The Alaro has been generally fixed upon by local writers, but has really no better claim than any other. (Ho- manelli, vol. i. p. 161; Swinburne's Traveb, vol. i. p. 340.). [E. II. B] SAGRUS (2a7por : Sangro), one of the most considerable of the rivers of Saninium, which has its sources in the lofty group of the Apennines S. of the Lugo di Fucino, and has a course of above 70 miles from thence to the Adriatic. It flows at first in a SE. direction, passes under the walls of Aufidena as well as of the modern Castd di Sangro, and in tliis part of its course flows through a broad and level, but upland valley, bounded on both sides by lofty