869 



SYLVERIUS. 



SYMMACHUS, QUINTOS AURELIUS. 



670 



furt. The year following there appeared by bim the first complete 

 edition of the works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 2 vol. folio, 

 Fnmkf. It contains the improved Latin translation of the lloman 

 Antiquities by Gel< nius, with very useful notes and indices. This 

 edition waa reprinted, but very incorrectly, in 2 vols. folio, Leipzig, 

 169 1. From 1588 to lf>90, he published, at Frankfurt, in 3 vols. 

 folio, the valuable collection of ancient writers on the history of 

 Rome, under the title 'Romanso Historiso Scriptores, Latini et Groeci, 

 addita variantis scriptura notatiofle et notis.' Vol. i. contains the 

 Fasti Capitolini, Messala Corvinus, L. Florus, Velleius Paterculup, S. 

 Aurelius Victor, S. Rufus, Eutropiua, Cassiodorus, Jornandes, and 

 Julius Exsuperantius. Vol. ii. contains Suetonius, the Scriptores 

 Historic Augusta?, Ammianus Marcellinus, Pomponius Laetus, J. 

 Bapt. Egnatius, Ausonii Epigrammata in Csesares, Romanorum Impe- 

 ratorum Catalogue, and Romans) Urbis Descriptio. Vol. iii. contains 

 the Scriptores Qroeci Minores Historise Romanae, that is, the Fasti 

 Consulares (Greek and Latin), Pacanius, Xiphilinus, Herodian, Zosimus 

 Julian's Caesars, Olympiodorus, and extracts from Suidap. In 1590 

 he published, at Frankfurt, in 4to, the work of the grammarian 

 Apollonius, ' De Syntaxi, seu Constructione Orationis.' The last work 

 that he published in the establishment of Wechel was a collection of 

 Borne Greek gnomic poets, ' Epicse Elegiacaeque Minorum Poetarum 

 Gnomso, Grace et Latine,' 8vo, Frankf., 1591. A second and much 

 improved collection appeared at Heidelberg in the year of Sylburg's 

 death. All the subsequent editions of Sylburg were published in the 

 printing establishment of Cominelin at Heidelberg. In 1592 he edited 

 iu 1 vol. folio, the commentary of the Apocalypse, by Andreas 

 Cretensis, in Latin and Greek ; and in the Fame year he published the 

 editio princeps of the Greek text of the work of Theodoretus, entitled 

 ' Remedia contra Morbos Grsecos,' with the Latin translation of Zeno- 

 bius Acciajuoli, and notes by himself. In 1592 he also edited the 

 complete works of Clemens of Alexandria, with notes, folio; and in 

 1595, in folio, all the works of Justin the Martyr. This edition is 

 founded upon that by Robert Stephens in 1551, but Sylburg improved 

 the text, and added very useful notes : it is still the standard edition. 

 In 1594 he edited the ' Etymologicum Magnum,' in folio, with notes 

 and a very useful index. The year after he edited ' Saracenica, sive 

 Collectio Scriptorum de Rebus ac lleligione Turcarum, Greece et 

 Latine,' in 8vo. Among other less important writers, it contains a 

 refutation of Mohammedanism by Euthymius Zigabenus, and a Life 

 of Mohammed by an anonymous Greek writer. Sylburg, on his 

 death, left iu manuscript a considerable number of materials which 

 he had collected for an edition of Herodotus, and wliich were after- 

 wards made use of by Jungermann in his edition of Herodotus, folio, 

 Frankfurt, 1608. 



(J. G. Jung, Vita, Frederici Sylburgii, 8vo, Berleburg, 1745.) 



SYLVE'RIUS, son of Bishop Hormisdas, and a native of Campania, 

 succeeded Agapetus as bishop of Rome in 535. Theodatus, the 

 Gothic king of Italy, is said to have influenced his election. Soon 

 after, Beliearius came with an army sent by the Emperor Justinian, 

 defeated the Goths, and took possession of Rome. Vigilius, a deacon 

 of Rome, intrigued with the court of Constantinople to have Sylverius 

 deposed, on the pretence that he favoured the Goths, and Sylverius 

 was accordingly seized by order of Justinian, and sent into exile to 

 Patara in 537, where he soon after died, and Vigilius was put in his 

 place. (Platina and Panvinio, Le Vite dei Pontefici.) 



SYLVESTER I. succeeded Melchiades as bishop of Rome in 314. 

 The Christian Church was now in the ascendant throughout the 

 Western world, under the protection of the Emperor Con&tantine. 

 By Constantine's orders a council was assembled at Arelatum (Aries) 

 in 314, at which some deputies of the bishop of Rome were present, 

 and in which the Donatists were condemned. But the principal 

 event of Sylvester's pontificate was the great council of Nicsoa in 325, 

 which defined the articles of the Christian faith, and also determined 

 the order of the hierarchy in the various provinces of the empire. The 

 Bishop of Rome was thereby made primate over the sees of the pro- 

 vinces styled Suburbicarise, which, under the new distribution of the 

 empire made by Constantino, were placed under the jurisdiction of 

 the Vicarius Urbis, or imperial vicar of Rome. Sylvester did not 

 repair to the council, but sent thither two presbyters as his deputies, 

 Vitus and Vincentius, who do not appear to have had any particular 

 distinction or post of honour in the assembly. The story of the 

 donation made by Constantino to Pope Sylvester of temporal juris- 

 diction over the euburbicarian provinces is now universally rejected 

 as apocryphal ; it may have originated from the church chroniclers 

 confounding the temporal with the spiritual jurisdictions. 



Constantino made a short residence at Rome in Sylvester's time in 

 326, but soon left it, being, it seems, dissatisfied with his reception by 

 the people. [CONSTANTINUS, FLAVIUS VALERIUS, vol. ii. col. 366.] 

 The papal historians speak of numerous churches raised and endowed 

 by Constantino at or near Rome. 



Sylvester died in 335, and was succeeded by Marcus. His supposed 

 epistles and decretals are now considered apocryphal. 



SYLVESTER II. [GERBERT.] 



SYLVESTER, styled III., Antipope, was proclaimed pope by a 

 faction in Rome in opposition to Benedict VIII., 1013; but after a 

 few weeks a fresh tumult at Rome drove away Sylvester, and reinstated 

 Benedict. 



SYLVESTER, JOSHUA, was born in 1563. Reappears to have 

 engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was a member of the company of 

 merchant-adventurers at Stade, for whooe Becretryhip he waa a can- 

 didate in 1597, recommended by the Earl of Essex. He seems to 

 have always remained a poor man, and to have been of a roving 

 disposition. In the latter part of his life he emigrated to Holland, and 

 died at Middelburg in 1618. Both in his opinions and in his choice of 

 friends he was strongly puritanical ; and those numerous versified 

 works, chiefly translations from the French, to which he owed his 

 literary reputation, show a warmly devotional and serious tone of 

 feeling. He was not however remiss in courting the patronage of the 

 great. To King Jaones VI. he addressed many adulatory dedications ; 

 and it was probably iu compliment to him that he selected the topic 

 of one of his original poems, which is thus entitled : ' Tobacco 

 battered, and the Pipes shattered (about their Ears that idly idolize so 

 base and barbarous a Weed, or at leastwise over-love so loathsome a 

 Vanitie), by a Volley of holy Shot thundered from Mount Helicon.' 

 He is chiefly known now on account of the obligations said to have 

 been incurred by Milton to hia principal translation, that of the 

 ' Divine Weeks and Works' of Du Bartas. [BARTAS, Du]. There are 

 two collected editions of Sylvester's works, botli in folio, and com- 

 mencing with the translation of Du Bartas. Their dates are 1633 and 

 1641. The second of them contains a supplement of posthumous 

 poems ; among which is that tasteless alteration of the ' Saul's Errand,' 

 which caused this fine poem to be erroneously attributed to Sylvester. 



SYL'VIUS, AENEAS. [Pius II.] 



SYMEON, SMTH. [SIMEON, SETH.] 



SYMMACHUS THE SAMARITAN, so called because he was a 

 native of Samaria, and at first also of the Samaritan religion. He 

 afterwards became a Jew, and then a Christian of the sect of the 

 Ebionites. The time in which he lived is not quite certain, though it 

 is probable that it was in the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus, 

 about A.D. 200. 



Although subsequently to the Septuagint two other Greek trans- 

 lations of the Old Testament had been made by Aquila and Theodo- 

 tion, Symmachus undertook the same task again. His translation 

 differed in many points from those of his predecessors, but it was held 

 in high esteem, and is often referred to by subsequent writers : it L* 

 especially praised for the perspicuity and elegance of the style. 

 Symmachus himself published a second and improved edition of it. 

 We only possess a few fragments of this translation, which are 

 printed, together with those of Aquila and Theodotion, iu the collec- 

 tions of Morinus Drusius and Moutfaucon. Symmachus also wrote a 

 Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which he is said to have 

 endeavoured to establish the dogmas of the Ebionites, and also to have 

 attacked Matthew's genealogy of Christ. 



(Fabricius, Biblioth. Graeca, iii., p. 695, &c.; Scholl, GeschicMe der 

 Griech. Lift., ii., p. 301, &c.) 



Among the scholiasts on the comic poet Aristophanes there ia one 

 whose name was Symmachus; some specimens of his scholia are 

 extant. (Fabricius, Biblioth. Graeca, ii., p. 374, n. cc.) 



SY'MMACHUS, QUINTUS AURELIUS, the son of L. Aurelius 

 Avianus Symmachus, who was a man of great worth, and in A.D. 365 

 was prefect of the city of Rome. (Ammian. Marc., xvii. 2 ; Symmach., 

 ' Epist.' i. 38.) The time when his son Q. Aurelius Symmachus was 

 born is uncertain ; some would place it as early as the year 314, 

 which is scarcely credible. As he belonged to one of the most 

 illustrious Roman families, his education was conducted with the 

 greatest care. He was instructed in rhetoric by a Gaul, whose name 

 is not known. (Symmach., 'Epist.' ix. 86.) In 370 he was pro- 

 consul of Africa, and fourteen years later, 384, he was prefect of the 

 city, and in 391 consul with Tatianus. The time of his death is 

 uncertain, though it is evident from his writings that he was alive- 

 in 404. 



Symmachus was a man of ability and character, and during the 

 difficult and dangerous situations into which he was thrown by the 

 events of the time, he showed a degree of honesty and prudence which 

 are rarely met with in the history of those times. He was one of the 

 last great bulwai-ks of paganism, and exerted all hia powers to prevent 

 its overthrow, especially during the period of his praetorship of the 

 city. We still possess an address of his to the emperors Valentinia- 

 nus, Theodosius, and Arcadius (Symmach., 'Epist.' x. 61), in which he 

 endeavours to persuade the emperors not to remove the altar of 

 victory from the curia Romana. However, his exertions were fruitless, 

 and his address was refuted by St. Ambrose. His assertion that the 

 Christian religion was the cause of the decline of the empire provoked 

 many Christians of his own and of subsequent times to refute the 

 charge. His partiality for paganism and its superstitions arose from 

 his general attachment to the institutions of his forefathers, and 

 his sincerity in this respect was acknowledged even by his adversaries. 

 During the greater part of his life he was actively engaged in various 

 branches of the administration, but he devoted to study all his leisure 

 time, which he spent in retirement in some of his numerous country- 

 seats. 



There is extant a collection of letters by him, which was made and 

 published by his son, Q. Flavius Memmius Symmachus, who was 

 prefect of the city in 415, after the death of his father. The collection 

 consists of ten books ; much care has evidently been spent upon the 



