611 



SIGOURNEY, LYDIA HUNTLEY. 



SILVA Y PIGUEROA, GARCIA DE. 



612 



contained iu the ' Thesaurus Aiitiquitatuin Grsccaruui et Komanarutu' 

 of Graevius and Grouovius. 



The following, which are among the principal works of Sigonio, will 

 indicate the general character of his labours : ' Regum, Consulum, 

 Dictatorum ac Censorum Romanorum Fasti, una cum Actis Trium- 

 phorum & Romulo rege usque ad Tiberium Caosarem ; in fastos et acta 

 triumphorum explications, ' fol, Modena, 1550 : there is also a second 

 edition of this work, Venice, 1556 ; ' De Antiquo Jure Civium 

 Romanorum Libri Duo; de Antiquo Jure Italise Libri Tres; de 

 Antiquo Jure Provinciarum Libri Tres,' fol, Venice, 1560; 'De Re- 

 publica Atheniensium Libri Quinque; de Atheniensium et Lacedav 

 moniorum Temporibus Liber Unus/ 4to, Bologna, 1564 ; ' De Judiciis 

 Romanorum Libri Tres/ 4to, Bologna, 1574 ; ' De Occidentali Imperio 

 Libri xx., ab anno 281 ad 575,' fol., Bologna, 1577; ' Historic 

 Ecclesiastic Libri xiv. ; ' this work comes down to the year 311, but 

 it was the intention of the author to continue it to 1 530. 



Sigonio was one of the great scholars to whom we owe much of our 

 knowledge of antiquity, and particularly of Roman history. His 

 industry was unwearied, and his learning was sound and compre- 

 hensive. He wrote the Latin language with ease and correctness, and 

 his style is simple and perspicuous. Modern scholars have often been 

 more indebted to Sigonio than they have been willing to allow, and 

 the results of his labours have been used by one person after another, 

 and sometimes without making any discrimination between what is 

 right and what is wrong. Heineccius was largely indebted to him, as 

 will appear from examining his ' Syntagma.' It would require a 

 minute investigation to ascertain how far some of the more recent 

 views of the Roman polity have been suggested by the writings of 

 Sigonio. His remarks on the Agrarian laws, though far from being 

 marked by sufficient clearness and precision, are still worth reading. 



*SIGOURNEY, LYDIA HUNTLEY, one of the most prolific and 

 popular of the female poets of America, was born .November 1, 1791, at 

 Norwich, in the state of Connecticut : her maiden name was Huntley, her 

 marital name, according to a practice which obtains pretty widely in the 

 United States, being superadded to instead of superseding her maiden 

 name. While yet a child she displayed her fondness for poetry and 

 facility for rhyming; but she first appeared before the public as an 

 authoress with a volume of 'Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse/ in 1815. 

 Having for awhile supported herself by keeping a school for young 

 ladies, she in 1819 married Mr. Sigourney, a merchant at Hartford, in 

 her native state. In 1822 appeared her most ambitious poem, 'The 

 Aborigines of America,' a descriptive poem in 5 cantos. Her chief 

 subsequent works have been a prose sketch, 'Connecticut, Forty Years 

 Since ; ' ' Poetic Sketches ; ' ' Zinzendorf ; ' ' Minor Poems ; ' ' Poetry 

 for Children ; ' ' Pocahontas/ one of her most elaborate poems ; ' Olive 

 Leaves;' 'Scenes in my Native Land;' 'Water Drops;' 'Myrtis;' 

 ' Letters to Mothers ;' ' Letters to Young Ladies ;' and 'Prose Tales.' 

 In 1840 Mrs. Sigourney came to Europe, and stayed some months in 

 England, where the popularity of her poetry insured her a very cordial 

 reception. On her return, she published (in 1842) a warm-hearted 

 account (in prose and verse) of her visit, under the title of ' Pleasant 

 Memories of Pleasant Lands.' In 1850 she published a poem, 'Faded 

 Hope,' occasioned by the death of her only son. In 1854 she pub- 

 lished ' Past Meridian.' Mrs. Sigourney has been pretty generally 

 called the American Hemans ; and the tenderness and grace of her 

 poetry, its purity of feeling and religious sentiment, can scarcely fail 

 to remind the reader of the poetry of that excellent lady, though 

 it can scarcely perhaps be j ustly compared with it in vigour and origi- 

 nality of thought, or in splendour of diction. The illustrated edition 

 of her collected poems, in royal STO, is noteworthy as a handsome 

 specimen of American typography and American art. 



SIKE, or SIECKE, HENRY, an Oriental scholar of some repute, 

 who lived in the latter half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th 

 centuries. He was a native of Bremen, and a professor of Oriental 

 languages at Utrecht, and afterwards at Cambridge. It appears that 

 owing to some misdemeanour he was to be subjected to punishment, 

 and in order to escape from this disgrace, he put an end to his life by 

 hanging himself in 1712. The only work of anyjnote which he pub- 

 lished is the 'Evangelium Infantile Christi, adscriptum Thomse/ 8vo, 

 1697, a very curious apocryphal gospeL It is reprinted in Fabricius's 

 ' Codex Apocryphus Novi Testament!,' torn. L, pp. 127-212. Sike also 

 founded, with L. Ku'ster, at Utrecht, the literary periodical called 

 ' Bibliotheca Novorum Librorum,' to which he contributed several 

 papers. (Saxii Onomasticon Literarium, v. 490, &c.) 



SI'LIUS ITA'LICUS, CAIUS. The place of this poet's birth is 

 unknown. It has sometimes been stated that his name is derived 

 from Italica (near Seville) in Spain, and that this was the birthplace 

 of himself or of his ancestors ; but to this conjecture we must oppose 

 the silence of Martial, who frequently mentious Silius without speak- 

 ing of his Spanish origin. The name also ought in that case, according 

 to analogy, to be Italicensis. Silius was of an illustrious plebeian 

 family. He studied oratory, in which Cicero was his pattern ; and he 

 also aspired to make himself a poet on the model of Virgil. He is 

 said to have possessed himself of a country-house that had belonged 

 to Cicero, and of one that had belonged to Virgil. (Martial, ' Epig./ 

 xi. 48.) In the year A.D. 63, in the last year of the reiga of Nero, he 

 was consul with M. Valerius Trachalus Turpilianus ; and some time 

 after he was governor of the province of Asia, which he is said to have 



administered in a creditable imuner. Ho was a friend of Vitellius, 

 and appears to be the Silius Italicus who ia mentioned by Tacitus. 

 (' Hist.' iiL 65.) There was, says Pliny (' Ep./ iiL 7), a rumour that 

 ho had acted the part of an accuser or informer under the reign of 

 Nero ; but while he enjoyed the friendship of Vitellius he conducted 

 himself with prudence. He finally retired to his estate in Campania, 

 where he devoted himself to poetry and philosophy. Silius was fond 

 of objects of art, and he enriched hia residence with statues, paintings, 

 and books. When his old age became troubled with infirmities, he 

 hastened his death by starvation, in which he followed the fashion of 

 those times, when suicide was not uncommon. Silius was a Stoic. 

 The time of his death is fixed at A.D. 100, when he is said to have 

 completed his seventy-fifth year. He was married, and had two chil- 

 dren. He enjoyed, says Pliny, unmingled happiness to the day of his 

 death, with the exception of the loss of his younger child. 



The only extant work of Silius Italicus is an epic poem on the 

 second Punic war, in seventeen books, entitled ' Punica.' This poem, 

 which may be called an historical epic, comprises the chief events of 

 the war from the commencement of the siege of Saguntum (i. 268), to 

 the defeat of Hannibal in Africa and the triumph of Scipio Africanus. 

 The materials of Silius seem to be chiefly taken" from Polybius and 

 Livy, and the poem has consequently a kind of historical value. As 

 a work of art, it has been variously estimated, but the judgment of 

 the younger Pliny ( 'Ep.' iii. 7) seems to us to be correct : " Silius wrote 

 with more industry than genius." His poem is in fact a very 

 laboured composition, and the labour is apparent. Numerous episodes 

 interrupt the continuity of the narrative. Silius falls short of his 

 model, Virgil, in simplicity and clearness; and he endeavours to 

 make up for force and precision by rhetorical ornament and long- 

 drawn description. Instead of making a picture by a few striking 

 touches, he fills it with detail till the whole is trivial. His invention 

 is poor. There are few passages which excite our sympathies. In 

 short, the poem is a rhetorical history in verse. All his contemporaries 

 however did not judge so unfavourably of him. Martial on several 

 occasions speaks very highly of him, and compares him with Virgil 

 (' Ep.' iv. 14 ; vi. 64 ; vii. 63 ; " perpetui nunquam moritura volumina 

 Sili;" viiL 66; ix. 86; xi. 49, 51) : he also celebrates his eminence as 

 an orator. According to Martial, in an epigram written after Silius 

 had enjoyed the consulate, he did not attempt to imitate Virgil 

 till he had acquired distinction as an advocate. Martial mentions the 

 court of the Centumviri as one of the places in which he practised : 

 Pliny the younger also practised in this court. [PLIXY.] 



The poems of Silius seem to have been forgotten after his death, if 

 we may judge from the silence of subsequent writers as to them. 

 Sidonius Apollinaris is the only writer who mentions them. Poggio 

 is said to have discovered a manuscript of Silius in the library of the 

 convent of St. Gallen, in Switzerland, which was printed at Rome, 

 1471, folio. Another manuscript was afterwards found at Cologne by 

 Ludwig Carrio, from which the text of Silius was improved. It was 

 to supply the loss of the ' Punica ' that Petrarca, as it is said, wrote 

 his ' Africa/ It has been conjectured that Petrarca had a copy of 

 Silius, which he made use of, and carefully suppressed. Such conduct 

 would be quite inconsistent with the character of Petrarca, and ono 

 would suppose that a comparison of the two poems would soon 

 determine whether there is any foundation for such a statement. 



There are numerous editions of Silius. The editio princeps is that 

 of Rome already mentioned. There is an edition by Drakenborch, 

 Utrecht, 1717, and Mitau, 1775; by Ernesti, Leipzig, 1791-2; and by 

 Ruperti, with a preface by Heyne, Qottingen, 1795-98. 



There is an English translation by Thomas Ross, London, 1661, 

 1672, folio ; and a French translation by Le Febvre de Villebrune, 

 Paris, 3 vols. 12mo, 1781. 



SILVA Y PIGQERpA, GARCIA DE, was born of illustrious 

 parents at Badajoz, in 1574. At the age of fifteen hia father sent him 

 to court, where he entered the household of Philip II. as page. He 

 then joined the Spanish army in Flanders, where he greatly dis- 

 tinguished himself, and obtained the command of a company. Having 

 subsequently shown some talent for diplomacy, he was despatched 

 by Philip III. on an embassy to Shah Abba's, king of Persia, who was 

 willing to conclude a treaty of commerce with Spain. Silva embarked 

 for Goa, where he arrived in 1614 ; but the governor of that place, 

 who was a Portuguese, fearing lest Silva's mission should lead to an 

 inquiry into the administration of the Spanish possessions in India, 

 threw every impediment in his way, and refused to provide him with 

 a vessel and money to prosecute hia journey, as he was ordered to 

 do. Impatient at the delay, Silva embarked on board a native vessel 

 and sailed for Ormuz, which port he entered on the 12th of October, 

 1617. Thence he sailed to Bandel (Bender Abassi) in the dominiona 

 of the Shah, where he was well received. He reached Ispahdn on the 

 18th of April, 1618, by the then usual route of Lar and Shiraz. After 

 a short residence in the latter place, Silva started for Kazwiu, or 

 Casbin, where Shah Abbas was then holding his court, who received 

 him with every mark of distinction, but would not hear his message 

 until he had himself returned to Ispahan, where he directed Silva to 

 wait till his arrival. Accordingly, after a stay of two months at 

 Kazwin, the Spanish envoy returned to Ispahan, where Shah Abbas 

 arrived shortly after, in July, 1619. He granted Silva an audience; 

 but though he manifested a wish to conclude a commercial treaty, and 



