Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/27

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SICAED SICILIES (THE Two) 19 were four, others ten, viz. : the Babylonian, the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the Erythrsean, the Saiman, the Cumasan (some- times identified with the Erythraaan), the Hel- lespontian or Trojan, the Phrygian, and the Tiburtine. Counsel and help were sought from them under the belief that they were able to predict, to avert calamities, and to ap- pease the gods. The most famous of all was the Cumsean sibyl, so called from Cumse, her residence in Campania. According to an an- cient Eoman legend, she offered to sell Tar- quinius Priscus nine books, which the king refused. Burning three, she offered the re- maining six for the same price that she had asked for the nine ; refused again, she burned three more, and still demanded the same price for the remaining three. The king purchased these, and the sibyl vanished. They were the famous sibylline books, and were preserved in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in care of two officers (duumviri), afterward 10 (de- cemviri), and finally 15 (quindecemviri), who alone, directed by the senate, might inspect their contents. Of these nothing definite is known. The sibylline books having perished when the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was burned in 83 B. C., a new collection was com- piled by ambassadors sent to the various sibyl- line oracles in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, and was deposited in the new temple of Jupi- ter. In the reign of Augustus spurious pro- phetic books multiplied in private hands, and the emperor ordered 2,000 of them to be burned. Those volumes in custody of the state, revised by Tiberius, were preserved in two gilt chests in the temple of Apollo. Eight books of apocryphal Christian literature, col- lected after the 2d century, entitled u Sibyl- line Oracles," and still extant, consist of a he- terogeneous mixture of heathen, Jewish, and Christian poems. An edition of these books was published by Gallseus in 1689 (4to, Am- sterdam), and fragments have been edited by Angelo Mai (Milan, 1817) and Struve (Konigs- berg, 1818). SICARD, Roch Ambroise Cucnrron, abbe, a French philanthropist, born at Fousseret, near Tou- louse, Sept. 20, 1742, died in Paris, May 10, 1822. He was educated at the university of Toulouse, entered' holy orders, received instruc- tion from the abbe" de TEpee, opened the school for deaf mutes at Bordeaux in 1786, and became vicar general of Condom and canon of Bor- deaux. In 1789, on the death of De 1'Epee, he "was appointed his successor in the in- stitution at Paris. His former church pre- ferments caused him to be suspected, and on Aug. 26, 1792, he was imprisoned, and barely escaped death at the September massacre. His lectures attracted many of the more eminent literary men of Paris ; but he incurred the wrath of the directory, and was banished for his strictures upon the government. He im- proved De TEp6e's method by the addition of signs for metaphysical ideas. In 1815 he visited England, taking with him his pupils Massieu and Clerc. He published several works on deaf-mute instruction. (See DEAF AND DUMB, vol. v., p. 733.) SICILIES, The Two (It., Segno delle Due Si- cilie), formerly a kingdom of southern Italy, including the island of Sicily, with various smaller islands, and the kingdom of Naples. At the time of its incorporation with the do- minions of Victor Emanuel in 1860, the area was 43,225 sq. m., and the population 8,703,130. It now forms six main divisions of the king- dom of Italy, viz. : the island of Sicily, with seven provinces (see SICILY), and the conti- nental divisions of Abruzzo and Molise, Cam- pania (with Naples), Apulia, Basilicata, and Calabria, with an aggregate of 16 provinces (including Benevento, which formerly belonged to the papal dominions) and somewhat over one third of the population of all Italy. (See ITALY.) The early history of the peninsular part of the country, which in ancient times comprised the divisions of Bruttium, Lucania, Calabria, Apulia, Samnium, Campania, and a part of Latium, is closely connected with the history of Borne, and, through the Magna Grsecian cities of Tarentum, Croton, Sybaris, Thurii, Ehegium, Neapolis, and others, partly also with that of Greece. After the fall of the western empire the country was successively under the power of the Goths, the Byzantine exarchate of Eavenna, and the Saracens; but several small republics or duchies, as Naples, Salerno, Amalfi, Gaeta, and Benevento, ulti- mately rose to independence. During the first half of the llth century great numbers of Norman adventurers served these small states as mercenaries, but soon began to wage war on their own account; and under the leadership of William Bras de Fer, Drogo, and Eobert Guiscard, they conquered the greater part of Apulia, which they divided into 12 counties, forming together a feudal confederation. In 1053 Pope Leo IX., at the head of German and Italian troops, tried to expel the new con- querors ; but he was defeated at Civitella and taken prisoner, and his captors obliged him to recognize their conquests by formally holding them as vassals of the holy see. Robert Guis- card established his power paramount over his companions in arms, assumed the title of duke of Apulia, and subdued Calabria, while his youngest brother Eoger made himself master of the island of Sicily, previously occupied by the Saracens. In 1127 the whole of the Nor- man acquisitions were united under Epger II., son of Eoger I., the conqueror of Sicily, who received in 1130, from the antipope Anacle- tus II., the title of king of Sicily and Apulia. The bull which conferred that dignity clear- ly established the paramount lordship of the pope, and stipulated the annual tribute to be paid by the new kingdom. Eoger conquered Capua and Naples. He was succeeded in 1154 by his son William I. the Bad, who left his crown to William II. the Good (1166-'89) ;