SAMARIA 



5181 



SAMNITES 



He practically retired from the stage in 1890, 

 but during the next twelve years appeared now 

 and then in Rome, and audiences marveled at 

 the vigor he retained in his extreme age. His 

 book, Records, Anecdotes and Impressions, 

 published at Milan in 1895, is considered of 

 value to students of the European theater. 



SAMARIA, sama'ria, the capital of the 

 northern kingdom of Israel during the reigns of 

 the later kings. It was built by Omri, in the 

 ninth century B. c., and named for the original 

 owner of the site, Shemer (/ Kings XVI, 24). 

 Samaria was captured by the Assyrians about 

 722 B.C., and the region was repopulated with 

 immigrants from the east, who were thereafter 

 known as Samaritans (see below) . After a long 

 and troubled history the town was given by the 

 Emperor Augustus to Herod the Great, who 

 named it Sebaste and rebuilt it on a magnifi- 

 cent scale. It survives at the present day in 

 the small village of Sebastiyeh. 



Samaritans, sama'ritanz, originally Baby- 

 lonian and Assyrian colonists brought by the 

 king of Assyria to take the places of the de- 



RT'INS OF SAMARIA 



, These walls have stood since the early years of 

 the Christian Era. 



ported Jews ai .11 of the northern king- 



dom // KM* XVII, 24). A Jewish priest 

 was sent to teach tin m "the manner of the God 

 of thr Lin. 1." and thry gradually dropped their 

 luu observances and adopted the religion 

 of the Pentati turn from tin- 



\ile. the Jews scorned the proposal of tin 



Samaritans that they be permitted to assist in 

 the rebuilding of the Temple. Later the Sa- 

 maritans built a temple of their own, on Mount 

 Gerizim. This was destroyed by John Hyr- 

 canus (about 120 B.C.). 



At the time of Christ, though the Samaritans 

 dwelt in the very center of Palestine, the Jews 

 "had no dealings" with them, because they re- 

 garded them as heretics. Jesus went through 

 their land and held his memorable conversa- 

 tion with the Samaritan woman at the well of 

 Jacob (John IV, 1-26), and Philip preached the 

 gospel later to the Samaritans. On the over- 

 throw of Palestine by the Romans, the Sa- 

 maritans shared the fate of the Jews and were 

 scattered abroad among different nations. A 

 very small colony of them still persists, in 

 Nabius, near the ancient Samaria. 



Consult Montgomery's The Samaritans, the 

 Earliest Jewish Sect; Cheyne's Jewish Religious 

 Life after the Exile. 



SAMARKAND, samarkant', capital of the 

 territory of the same name, is a famous city 

 of Russian Turkestan. It is situated about 140 

 miles east of Bokhara, on the Transcaspian 

 Railway (see colored map, Asia, opposite page 

 417). The city occupies the site of ancient 

 Marakanda, which Alexander the Great de- 

 stroyed in 329 B. c. during his invasion of Cen- 

 tral Asia. In the fourteenth century Samar- 

 kand became the residence of the great Mongol 

 conqueror Timur, or Tamerlane, and he made 

 it one of the most magnificent cities in Asia. 



The original city, which is still partly en- 

 closed by the old wall, contains several famous 

 mosque schools and a beautiful mausoleum 

 with a dome of blue tiles, within which are the 

 tombs of Timur and his family. Outside of the 

 wall is one of the most splendid mosques in 

 Central Asia that of Shah-Zindch famed for 

 its interior decorations. The Russian and 

 newer portion of Samarkand, which lies beyond 

 the ancient citadel, is regularly built and has 

 the general aspect of a modern Asiatic city. 

 There is considerable trade in cotton, rice, silk. 

 gold and silver wares, pottery and win* - 

 Population in 1910, 89,693. 



SAM'NITES, an Italian people of Sabinc 

 origin, who lived in the mountainous region of 

 Southern Italy in ancient times. They I 

 divided into four nations: the Caraceni in the 

 north; the Pentri in the center; the Caudini in 

 tin' Southwest; and the Hirpini in the south. 

 After four terrible conflicts with the Romans 

 tin Samnites were almost exterminated. See 

 ROME, subhead History. 



