813 



SUICER, JOHN HENRY. 



SULLA. 



814 



SUICER, JOHN HENRY, son of the above, was torn at Zurich 

 on the 6th of April 1644, and received a learned education from his 

 father, to whose profession he also devoted himself. After travelling 

 over part of Switzerland and Germany with a pupil, he was recalled 

 to Zurich, and received an appointment to the gymnasium of that 

 town. In 1683 he succeeded his father in his professorship, and in 

 1700 he was appointed to the chair of theology in the University of 

 Heidelberg, but fell ill shortly after his arrival in that town, and died 

 there on the 23rd of September 1705. 



Besides the Notes to his father's ' Thesaurus,' he wrote 1, 'Com- 

 pendium Physicse Aristotelico-Cartesianje,' Armt., 1685 ; 12mo, Bale, 

 1691; 2, 'A Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians,' 

 4to, Zurich, 1699, to which are added, in the same volume, three 

 discourses, ' De Fortunis Grsecise Antiquse,' ' Do Grsecia Christiana,' 

 and 'Do internis Ecclesise reformats* Tenoribus;' 3, 'Specimen 

 Commentarii in Epittolam ad Ephesios,' .in the 'Miscellanea Duis- 

 bergcnsia.' 



J. H. Suicer is sometimes confounded with an ancestor of the same 

 name, who wrote ' Chronologia Helvetica, res gestas Helvetiorum ad 

 nostra usque tempora complectens,' 4to, Hanau, 1607; reprinted in 

 1735 in the * Thesaurus Helveticus ' of Fueslin. He places the 

 foundation of Zurich in A.M. 1980, but he is a trustworthy historian 

 of modern times. He also wrote a history of Switzerland down to 

 the year 1532, which is preserved in manuscript in various libraiies. 



(Life of J. H. Suicer, by J. R. Wolff, Zurich, 1745.) 



SU1DAS (2ow5as), a Greek lexicographer. Strabo (p. 329, Casaub.) 

 speaks of a Suidas who wrote an historical work on Thessaly, which is 

 also cited by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, and by Stephanus 

 of Byzantium ; but it seems very unlikely that this Suidas was the 

 author of the Lexicon which goes under the name of Suidas. Eusta- 

 thius, in his ' Commentary on Homer,' occasionally quotes Suidas the 

 lexicographer ; and as Eustathius lived about the end of the 12th 

 century and the beginning of the 13tb, we may conclude that the 

 lexicographer Suidas was at least prior to this time. There appears 

 to be no certain indication in the Lexicon of Suidas which will show 

 who he was or what was his country. There are indeed passages in 

 the work from which it appears that he lived during or after the reign 

 of Alexius Comnenus, for he quotes Michael Psellus (v. T-ridpas; 

 v. Aepvpov ; v. 'tiyliropes) ; and if these passages were inserted by 

 Suidas he must have lived not earlier than the close of the llth 

 century. (But see Gaisford's edition.) In the article 'Adam,' he gives 

 a chronological epitome, which he closes with the death of the 

 Emperor John Zimiscts, wi.o died in 974 ; and in another place 

 (v. K.cevtTTa.vrii'oinrohis) he speaks of Basil II., and his brother Constan- 

 tine, who succeeded John Zimiscts. There are other passages in 

 Suidas, from which some inference as to his age might be derived, but 

 it is often difficult to know when the lexicographer is quoting others 

 or speaking himself. Whatever may be the age of the compiler of 

 the Lexicon, the work has the appearance of having rtceived additions 

 from a variety of hands. 



The work of Suidas is a Dictionary arranged alphabetically, but 

 with some deviations from the strict alphabetical order. It contains 

 both proper names, as names of persons and places, and words which 

 belong to a dictionary of a language in the modern acceptation of that 

 term. Among his names of persons there are names both from pro- 

 fane history and from sacred history, such as Abiinelech and Adam. 

 The work is exceedingly imperfect in all the classes of names, and 

 appears to have been formed on no plan. Some of the articles are 

 long and tolerably complete ; others are very short and contain no 

 information. Thus, for instance, ' Adam ' is a long article ; but of 

 ' Aaron ' we are told nothing more than that it is a proper name. The 

 work is compiled from numerous writers, some of whom are mentioned 

 in a list prefixed to the Lexicon, comprising twelve names, among 

 which are Eudemus and Cassius Longinus. It may however be 

 doubted if this list was made by the compiler of the Lexicon. A 

 much more copious catalogue is contained in the edition of KUster. 

 Among the old scholiasts, none was used by the compiler more freely 

 than the scholiast on Aristophanes ; but the work of Suidas contains 

 some passages which are rot in the extant scholia on Aristophanes. 

 The work is not only deficient in plan, but is often defective and inac- 

 curate in the execution. Numerous corrupt and base words have been 

 introduced from bad authorities or bad manuscripts; sometimes under 

 one name of a person we find events belonging to the lives of various 

 persons of the same name, placed without any discrimination 

 (v. 2e/:%os) ; and under one name there are frequently events and 

 extracts from writers which belong to other names (v. Maifuvos : 

 v. 'AAuaTTT/s ; v. Tlwpos). The Lexicon contains a great number of 

 extracts from Greek writers, and frequently without mention of their 

 names; but these extracts have often no reference to the title of the 

 article, and add nothing towards explaining or illustrating it. This is 

 partly owing to many marginal additions having bten introduced into 

 the text by ignorant transcribers. 



With all these defects, the Lexicon of Suidas is a very useful work, 

 and is of great assistance for the literary history of antiquity. It is 

 also useful for illustrating the meanings of many words. It also con- 

 tains nupierous passages of ancient writers that are lost. As to the 

 biographical notice?, it has been conjectured that they have all been 

 taken from one work, which is further conjectured to be the ' Onoma- 



tologon ' of Hesychiua. The ' Onomatologon ' was a list or catalogue 

 of men distinguished for knowledge, and it is stated in the Lexicon 

 (v. 'Hollos) that it is an epitome of the work of Hesychius of Miletun, 

 who lived in the time of the Emperor Anastasiua; but we may allow 

 this assertion to have its full weight, without admitting that it is the 

 only source from, which Suidas derived even his literary notices. (See 

 the notes of Kuster and Naeke.) 



There is an unpublished epitome of Suidas "by Thomas of Crete : 

 Robert Grosttte, bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1253, is said to have 

 made a Latin translation of Suidas (Fabricius, ' Bibl. Med. et Iuf. 

 Lat.'); but see the note in Fabricius ('Biblioth. Graeca,' vi. 402, ed. 

 Harles). 



The first edition of Suidas was by Demetrius Chalcondylas ; it was 

 printed at Milan, fbl., 1499, without a translation. This edition ia 

 defective in eome places. The second was the Aldine edition of 

 Venice, fol., 1514, also without a translation : this edition differs in 

 some passages from that of Chalcondylas, whence it seema probable 

 that it was printed from a different manuscript. The edition of Aldus 

 was reprinted by Froben, at Basel, fol., 1544, also without a trans- 

 lation, but with the correction of some typographical errors. H. Wolf 

 made the first Latin translation of Suidas, wbich was published at 

 Basel, fol., 1564, without the Greek text; and the revised translation 

 was printed again at Basel, 1584. The first edition of the Greek text 

 with a Latin translation was by -iEmilius Portua, 2 vols. foL, Geneva, 

 1619 : the Latin version was new. In 1705 the edition of Kiister 

 appeared at Cambridge, in 3 vols. fol., with the improved version of 

 Portus and numerous notes. The foundation of this edition is the 

 text of Portus, which was corrected with the help of manuecrip~ts. 

 The preface of Kiister contains a dissertation on Suidaa, and on the 

 previous editions, and more particularly on that of Portus. A far 

 superior edition of Suidas is that by Gaisford, 3 vols. fol., Oxford, 

 1834; the first two volumes contain the text, and the third the 

 indexes. Gaisford states in his preface that Kiibter used pretty nearly 

 the same manuscripts as himself, but that he has been very careless 

 in noting the readings, and that his edition, though useful in other 

 respects, is consequently of very little critical value. Gaisford has 

 noted all the various readings of the best manuscripts, and also the 

 readings of the Milan edition. He has also generally noted the emen- 

 dations of Portus, many of which Kiister adopted without any 

 remark ; indeed Kuster is accused, and justly, of taking the notes 

 also of other scholars without any acknowledgment. Gaisford has 

 carefully indicated the sources from which Suidas derived his informa- 

 tion; and he has reprinted most of Kiister's notes. The third volume 

 of Gaifford contains the 'Index Kiisterianus Rerum et, Nominum 

 Propriorurn quse extra seriem suam in Suidse Lexico occurrunt,' and 

 two new indexes. One of these two new indexes contains all the 

 words in Suidas arranged in alphabetical order, which is useful, 

 because the Lexicon does not always follow the usual alphabetical 

 order ; and it also contains other words which do not appear in the 

 alphabetical order of the Lexicon. The other of these two indexes 

 is an index of the writers who are cited by Suidas. This edition is a 

 splendid and valuable work. G. Bernhardy published an edition of 

 Suidas founded on that of Gaisford, with a Latin version, Halle, 1834, 

 of which another edition in 2 vols. 4to was published at Brunswick in 

 1853. Theie is also an edition by Bekker, Berlin, 1854. 



Various critics have laboured on the text of Suidas, among whom 

 Toup is perhaps the most conspicuous for acuteness and diligence. 



(Fabricius, Billioth. Grceca, v;. 389, ed. Harles ; Ludolphi Kiisteri, 

 Prcefatio ; Prcrjatio Editoris Oxoniemis.) 



SUISSET, R., lived about the middle of the 14th century, and was 

 educated at the University of Oxford. He is principally known as 

 the author of a work printed at Venice in 1505, and again in 1520 : 

 the latter edition, the only one we have met with, is entitled 'Subti- 

 lissimi Ricardi Suiseth Anglici Calculationes noviter emendalae atque 

 revisse.' A complete analysis of a new philosophic theory developed 

 in this work is given in Bruckeri (' Hist. Phil.,' torn, iii., pp. 580-583). 

 Among its contents may be particularly mentioned the chapters ' De 

 intentione et remissione,' ' De loco element!,' ' De maximo et minimo,' 

 'De luminosis,' 'De motu locali,' and 'De medio non resistente.' Pits 

 mentions other works by this writer, which do not appear to have 

 been preserved : Tanner altogether omits him. We have placed the 

 initial only of his Christian name at the bead of this article, because, 

 although he is called Richard in the title of the work just given, yet 

 the colophon of the very same book writes " Calculationum Liber 

 Magistri Raymundi Suiseth ; " and a contemporary manuscript note in 

 one of the two copies of the book in the British Museum, corrects the 

 former appellation to Roger; while Vossius ('De Scient. Mat.,' c. 18) 

 calls him John Suiseth. 



SULEYMAN. [SOLIMAN.] 



SULLA is the cognomen of a branch of the Patrician gens Cornelia. 

 This branch originally had the name of Rufus or Rufinus, which 

 appears to have fallen into disuse, and to have given way to the new 

 cognomen Sulla, which had the same meaning as Rufus, and was first 

 borne by the Flamen Dialis. 



1, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SULLA (Gellius, i. 12, 16), who was 

 Praetor Urbanus, in 212 B.C., and, in accordance with an oracle of the 

 Sibylline books, conducted the first celebration of the Ludi Apolli- 

 nares. Hence he is said to have received the surname of Sibylla, 



