Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/34

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26 S1DONIUS APOLLINARIS local government until the time of Roman su- pYemacy. Christianity early found an asylum We (Ac* xxvii. 8), and a Sidonian bishop is mentioned as present at the Nic*an council of 305 On the rise of Moslem power it read- mitted to it. In 1108 it was invested J the crullers, ,u..l in 1110 it was taken by Baldwin I. The Saracens captured it in 1187, but the Christians recovered it in 1197. They abandoned it in 1291, and Sultan Malek shraf ordered it to be razed. (See SAIDA.) xii.oMls IPOLLIMRIS, Cains Sollins Modestos, a Latin author and saint, born probably m Lyons about A. D. 431, died at Clermont in Auvergne, in 482 or 484. He was a diligent student, and early acquired a high reputation. He married a daughter of Flavius Avitus, after- ward emperor, accompanied him to Rome in 456, and pronounced his panegyric in verse be- fore the senate, for which that body erected a bronze statue in his honor. He was prefect of Rome when Avitus was dethroned by Majorian. Si.lonius pronounced at Lyons a public pane- .11 the latter, by whom he was created a count and sent to govern the Gallic province of Aries. In 467 he went to Rome as ambas- sador of the Arverni, delivered a panegyric on the reigning emperor Anthemius, was made a patrician, and governor of the city a second time, and was honored with a second statue. In 472 he was elected bishop of Clermont (Arvernum), though only a layman, accepted the office reluctantly, fulfilled its duties faith- fully, and strenuously opposed the spread of Ariunism. He left nine books of epistles of r.)ii-;ilerable historical interest, which, with his l and panegyrics, were published in Milan in 1498 by Sirmond (Paris, 1614; republished by Labbe in 1652, the best edition), and by Migno in vol. Iviii. of his Patrologie latine. See Saint Sidoine Appollinaire et son siecle, by Chaix (2 vols., Clermont-Ferrand, 1867-'8). "SIIIRA, Golf of. SeeSYRTis. 8IEBOLD. I. Pbllipp Franz von, a German trav- eller, born inWurzburg, Feb. 17, 1796, died in Munich, Oct. 18, 1866. He studied medicine, natural sciences, and geography, and in 1822 went to Batavia as a physician and naturalist in th- vice, and in 1823 to Japan as a member of the Dutch embassy. In 1826 he aid was involved in difficul- ties with the Japanese for procuring an official map of their country. Finally acquitted, lie returned to Europe in 1830, but from 1859 to 1862 resided again in Japan. He published Nippon, Architt zur BttcJireibung ton Japan Is., Leyden, 1832-'57); Fauna Japonica > with Temminck and others, 1833 et .); Flora Japonica (1835 et seq.}; Bibli- ttMf" i jointly with J. Hoffmann, 6 vols., 18;i:t-'41); and several other works on

II. Karl Thfodor Krn*t von,
i (u-nnan

f. brother of the preceding, born in 'urg, Feb. 16, 1804. After teaching in is places, he became in 1853 professor of physiology, comparative anatomy, and after SIEGE ard also of zoology, at Munich. His principal works are Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anato- mic der wirlellosen Thiere (Berlin, 1848 ; Eng- ish translation, London, 1854), and Beitragc eur Parthenogenesis der ArtJiropoden (1871). SIEDLCE. I. A W. government of Russia, in the kingdom of Poland, bordering on the gov- ernments of Lomza, Warsaw, Radom, Lublin, Volhynia, and Grodno; area, 5,534 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 543,392. It is level and fertile. The chief river is the Bug, which forms the E. and N. E. frontier. The principal towns are Siedlce, Miendzyrzecz, and Wlodawa. The Tovernment embraces the principal portions of the former palatinate of Podlachia. The more ancient Polish territory of the same name, however, lay mainly between the mid- dle Bug and the Niemen. II. A town, capital of the government, 51 m. E. S. E. of Warsaw, with which it is connected by rail; pop. in 1867, 10,013. It has a fine palace and town hall, distilleries, sugar refineries, and manu- factories of agricultural implements. During the wars between the Russians and Poles it was repeatedly taken and retaken. SIEGE (Fr. siege, seat), a protracted military attack upon a fortified place. Such a place may sometimes be taken by throwing in heavy projectiles, explosive shells, incendiary balls, &c. ; or by completely surrounding it, prevent- ing reception of supplies, the defenders may be compelled to surrender ; or, advancing by reg- ular approaches, the besiegers may breach the walls, and carry the place by assault. The first is called a bombardment, the second a blockade, and the third a siege, which term is often also applied to the other two. In a strict sense, the term siege signifies the process of advancing toward a fortified place under coyer of earth thrown up from trenches, silencing the fire from the work by a superior one, and breaching the ramparts, compelling a surren- der or carrying the place by assault. Sieges are divided into ancient and modern, or those carried on before and after the application of gunpowder to military purposes. Ancient Sieges. The ancients fortified a place by sur- rounding it with a wall of brick or stone, form- ing a continuous line around the city or town, high enough to render escalade difficult, and thick enough to offer considerable resistance to the battering ram. Sometimes there were two and even three of these walls, often con- nected by others to give them greater solidity. Outside of the wall was a ditch, always filled with water if circumstances permitted. The inhabitants were the defenders ; and as their lives, liberty, and property were involved, the resistance in ancient sieges was more obsti- nate and persevering than that usually made in modern times. The modes of attack were by surprise, aided by treason or particular knowledge of unguarded points ; by escalade, having surprised the place ; by escalade in an assault, having outnumbered and overpowered the defenders; by blockade, having deprived