of the Trent on the 8th November, 1861, the dicta as well as the more authoritative decisions of Lord Stowell were accepted by all as of the highest authority; and the principles of international law laid down in the "Orozembo," the "Friendship," the "Atalanta," and the "Caroline," received a flattering confirmation in the almost unanimous approval of the European jurists, and imposed a respectful silence on the best informed and more scrupulous jurists of America.— (Sketch of the Lives of Lords Stowell and Eldon, by William Edward Surtees, D.C.L., 8vo, 1846; Anecdotes of Lord Stowell, in Gentleman s Magazine, October, 1846; Law Review, vol. i., p. 249; The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, by Horace Twiss, Q.C., London, 8vo, 1846; Lord Brougham's Historical Sketches of Statesmen, 2nd series.)—G. H. P.
STRABO, the geographer, was born at Amasia in Pontus about 66 b.c. He was of a distinguished and wealthy Cappadocian family, and his ancestors claimed kindred with the great Mithridates. He received an excellent education after the Greek fashion, and as he inherited considerable property he was able to indulge his taste for travel, and spent much of his long life in visiting foreign countries. Though not perhaps profoundly learned, he was extremely well informed; in philosophy he embraced the tenets of the Stoics. As to the countries which he had seen he tells us that he had travelled from Armenia on the east to Sardinia on the west, and from the Euxine on the north to Ethiopia on the south. The countries with which his personal acquaintance was most intimate seem to have been his native soil, Asia Minor, Italy, and Egypt. In Italy he lived for some time, mostly at Rome. He traversed the whole of Egypt, and visited the cataracts of the Nile. His death took place about a.d. 24, at the age of at least ninety years. Strabo's great work is a geographical description of the ancient world, comprised in seventeen books. It was of course to a considerable extent based on the labours of his predecessors, especially on that of Eratosthenes, who lived about three hundred years earlier. Strabo's object in composing this remarkable book was not merely to give an accurate geographical view of the world as then known, but also to afford valuable political information as to the previous history of the countries which he describes. Hence arises the great value of the work at the present day. The style is clear and easy, and the numerous difficulties which meet us in its pages may be ascribed partly to the nature of the subject, and partly to the corrupt state of the MSS. Some faults may of course be detected in it. Strabo undervalued some of his predecessors, Herodotus for example; nor does he seem to have made sufficient use of the Latin writers. His mathematical and astronomical knowledge, moreover, though considerable, was not of the highest order, and occasionally betrays him into error. These, however, are but slight blemishes in so laborious and valuable a work, which is certainly our most reliable authority for the geography of the ancient world. Among the countries treated of are Spain, Britain, Ireland, Thule, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and India. Besides the knowledge derived from his own travels and the works of his predecessors, Strabo had access to the best contemporary information. Thus we find that for his account of Arabia he consulted his friend Ælius Gallus, who had led a Roman army into those barren deserts. The best editions of Strabo are those of Koray, Paris, 1818, and of Kramer, Berlin, 1844. There is a good edition of the text in the Tauchnitz series, and an excellent translation into German by Groskurd, Berlin, 1833.—G.
STRABO, Caius Fannius, a Roman of noble birth, served with distinction under Scipio Africanus at the siege of Carthage, b.c. 146, and was one of the first to mount the walls at the storming of the city. He married a daughter of Lælius, the friend of Scipio, and is introduced by Cicero as one of the speakers in the De Republica and the De Amicitia. He also enjoyed some reputation as an orator, and a history which he wrote of his own times is mentioned with commendation by Sallust. He is often confounded with a contemporary who also bore the name of Fannius Strabo.—G.
STRADA, Famianus, the historian, was born at Rome in 1572. At the age of nineteen he entered the Jesuit college at Rome, in which, after some years of diligent study, he was made professor of rhetoric. In this capacity he drew up his "Prolusiones Academicæ," for the use of his pupils—a work once highly celebrated for its skilful illustration of the classical models of antiquity. Respecting one of these essays, Addison, an excellent judge, observes in the Guardian that it was one of the most entertaining, as well as just pieces of criticism, that he had ever read. The "Prolusiones" were published at Cologne in 1617, and subsequently at Oxford in 1631. Strada's most important work, however, was a history of the war between Philip II. of Spain and the United Provinces, entitled "De Bello Belgico," and extending from the death of the Emperor Charles V. to the year 1590. It was published at Rome in 1640-47, 2 vols., folio. As might be expected, Strada exhibits a decided bias in favour of the Spanish or Roman catholic side of the quarrel, but the history is nevertheless held to possess considerable value. The style is elegant and pleasing, though rather too diffuse, being evidently intended as an imitation of Livy. Strada died at Rome in the Jesuit college in 1649.—G.
STRADA or STRADANUS, Giovanni, is the name by which a celebrated painter of the sixteenth century is known, but whose real name was Johannes Straet. He was born at Bruges in 1535, and went early to Florence, where he formed his style on that of Michelangelo. He painted many large pictures in oil and fresco, assisted Vasari in some of his more important works, and was much employed by the Duke Cosmo I. Afterwards he went to Rome, and in conjunction with Daniele di Volterra and Salviati executed some of the decorations of the Belvedere. He also visited Naples, and painted several works there. He eventually settled at Florence, where he died in 1618. His works were greatly admired in his own day and long after. They are in the imitative academic style of his time and adopted country, and are painted in a free and skilful manner. Many of them have been engraved. His most famous picture is a Crucifixion in the church of the Nunziata at Florence. He likewise painted hunting and fishing scenes, a series of ninety-four plates of which was published at Antwerp in 1578.—J. T—e.
STRADELLA, Alessandro, the musician, is supposed to have been born at Naples about 1645, and to have been murdered at Genoa in 1678, or the following year. Burney carelessly states him to have been a violinist, and Hawkins, with equally little appearance of accuracy, says he was famous for his harp-playing; but both of these, as well as other writers, speak of him as a distinguished singer, and his works which are extant prove his eminence as a composer. The oratorio or sacred drama of "S. Giovanni Battista" is a work greatly in advance of its time; it is supposed to have been written in 1676. A copy of it is in the library of the Sacred Harmonic Society. The opera of "La Forza dell' Amor paterno" was printed at Genoa in 1678, with the dedication by the composer, and with an advertisement which speaks of him as then living, and as held in the highest esteem. This latter seems to have been the only composition of Stradella that was printed during his life, and the two are the only extensive works by him of which any mention can be traced; besides these, he wrote numerous cantatas for a single voice (alternations of air and recitative), smaller songs, duets, trios, and madrigals for four and for five voices, several of which are preserved in the library of the British museum, in the Bodleian library at Oxford, in the Imperial library at Paris, and in the library of the Conservatorio at Naples. The Aria di Chiesa, "I miei sospiri," is familiar in our concert rooms, and is a beautiful specimen of Stradella's power of highly impassioned expression, and an evidence that his genius anticipated some of the resources of melody and harmony, which are supposed to have been first developed at a much later period. Bourdelot asserts that Stradella was engaged by the Venetian republic to compose for the opera of their city, though no work of his is named in the list of operas performed there. While in Venice, a nobleman intrusted him to give singing lessons to his mistress. Stradella and the lady, Ortensia by name, became mutually enamoured, and eloped together—a circumstance which may account for the nonproduction of the proposed opera at the theatre. The nobleman, enraged at their flight, burned to revenge it, and accordingly hired two bravos to follow and assassinate them, for a reward of three hundred pistoles, half of which sum was paid in advance, and the other half promised on the perpetration of the deed. The lovers were traced, after some time, to Rome, where Stradella was about to produce an oratorio at the church of S. Giovanni Laterano—probably the work mentioned above. The murderers attended the performance, purposing to waylay the composer and the lady as they quitted the church. Their hearts were so touched by the music, however, and by the exquisite singing of Stradella,
