SIC 



S I c 



extremity of Italv, the country occupied by the Libunii ex- 

 cepted, was gradually abolidied by the feparate leagues and 

 diftinftions of the Sabines, Latins, Sannnites, Oenotrians, 

 ancl Italians. Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Arillotle, 

 mention thefe people. 



SICULIANA, in Geography, a town on the S. coafl of 

 Sicily, containing 5000 perfons, and belonging to the prince 

 of La Catholica, to whom it yields an annual income of 

 14,000 crowns. It is remarkable for not having a fingle 

 convent within its precinfts, owing either to the danger of a 

 vifit from the Mahometans, or to the recent foundation of 

 the town. The ignorance of the inhabitants, at lead with 

 regard to philofophy, is remarkably evinced by an anecdote 

 mentioned by Swinburne. On the wall of his apartment he 

 found notice of a thells to be maintained in the fchools of 

 Girgenti by a native of Siculiana : in which he undertakes 

 to piove, " that the Copernican fyftera is impious, abfurd, 

 and contradiftory to Holy Writ, from which it is evident, 

 that the earth Hands ilill, and the fun moves round it, like 

 the fails of a windmill round the pivot." Siculiana is plea- 

 fantly fituated on two hills joined together by a long ilreet ; 

 the vale below being full of orange and other fruit-trees, and 

 the view of the fca very extenfive ; 13 miles N.W. of 

 Girgenti. 



SICULONES, in /Indent Geography, a people who in- 

 habited the CImbric peninfula, according to Ptolemy. 



SICULOTiE, a people of Dalmatia, who, according to 

 Ptolemy, were divided into 24 decurise. 



SICUM, a town of lUyria, on the coaft of Dalmatia, 

 between Scardona and Salone, according to Ptolemy and 

 Pliny. The latter fays, that the emperor Claudius fent hi- 

 ther his veteran foldiers. 



SICUS, in Ichthyology, a name ufed bv fome authors to 

 exprefs that fpecies of corecjonus, called by the generality 

 of authors Albula nob'dis. This, m the Linnsan fyllem, is 

 it fpecies of Sabno. 



SICUT Alias, in Law, a writ fent out in the fecond 

 place, where the firll was not executed. 



It is thus called from its beginning, which is in this form : 

 " Georgius, D. G. &c. Vicecomiti Hercf. falutem. Prae- 

 cipimus falutem tibi (ficut alias) prxcipem," &c. 

 SICYANA. See Gour^WoRM. 



SICYEDON, from 5-i>.uo,-, a cucumber, in Surgery, a tranf- 

 verfe frafture. 



SIC YON, in Ancient Geography, a town of Greece, and 

 capital of a fmall ftate in the gulf of Corinth, and not far 

 dillant from it. It was anciently called jEgialx, from M'^'\z- 

 leus, its fuppoied founder and tirll monarch. It is not cer- 

 tain whether the whole kingdom, or only its metropolis, was 

 called by that name, but it was exchanged for Apia, from 

 Apis its fourth king ; and in procefs of time it acquired 

 that of Sicyon, who was the 19th monarch. He reigned 

 about 740 years after its fuppofed foundation ; and from 

 that time not only the kingdom, but the whole peninfula of 

 Peloponnefus, was called Sicyonia until its dilTolution. 



This little kingdom lay on the N. part of the Peloponne- 

 fus, fmce called the bay of Corinth. On the weft it had the 

 province of Achaia, and on the eaft the ilthmus, which 

 joins the peninfula to the continent of Greece. Its extent 

 has not been afcertained. Its capital is fuppofed to have 

 been fituated upon the river Afopus, having tile bay of 

 Corinth on the north, and the reft of the Peloponnefus at 

 the three other points. Strabo and Livy fay, that it was 

 parted from the kingdom of Corinth by the river Nemia • 

 and Ptolemy adds that it was firft called Micone, and after- 

 wards jEgiali ; he gave it two cities, Platius and Sicyon, 

 both of which he pkccd at fome diftance from the fea. 



The territory of this fmall ftate was rich, abounding with 

 corn, vine's, olive-trees, and other commodities, befides fome 

 iron mines. Its metropolis was, in procefs of time, very 

 much adorned by Sicyon and his fuccedors, with temples, 

 altars, monuments, and ftatues of all their gods and ancient 

 monarchs. This would be juftly deemed the moft ancient 

 monarchy in the world, not excepting thofe of Egypt and 

 Aflyria, if it were true that its founder lived about 150 years 

 after the flood, or about 200 years before Noah's death ; as 

 fome have computed it from Eiifebius, who affirms this mo- 

 narchy to have been founded 13 1 3 years before the firft 

 Olympiad, or 20S9 B. C. But other chronologers have 

 corrected tliis miftake, and made liim contemporary- with 

 Terah, Abraham's father, and llated the commencement of 

 his reign about the year of the world 1915, or even later, 

 about A.M. 1236; by which computation it is brought 

 foraewhat lower than the year of the flood 900. This 

 kingdom is faid to have hid, during an interval of 962 

 years, a fucccfTion of 26 kings, but their reigns are diftin- 

 guifhed by no memorable aftion or conqueft. The firft king 

 was iEgialeus, and the laft Zeuxippus or Deuxippus ; but in 

 Blair's chronology the laft king is Charidemus, with whom 

 they end, 1089 years B.C. or 15 years after the return of 

 the Heraclidx into Peloponnefus. In the lift of kings, the 

 moft remarkable is Sicyon, who gave name to the ftate, and 

 who is fuppofed to have built, or at leaft enlarged, the me- 

 tropolis of the kingdom, and to have called it by his own 

 name. Accordingly it was not only one of the nobleft cities 

 in Greece, on account both of its magnificent edifices and 

 ingenious workmen, but it was a confiderable place when the 

 Venetians were mailers of the Morea, under the new name 

 of " Bafilica," though it has been for near the two laft cen- 

 turies reduced to a heap of ruins, containing only three 

 Turkifli, and about as many Chriftian families. The town 

 was fituated on the top of a hill, about three miles from the 

 gulf of Lcpanto ; and has ftill ieveral monuments of its an- 

 cient as well as modern grandeur, particularly the walls of 

 its famous citadel, of fome fine churches and mofques, and 

 a large ancient edifice, called the royal palace, with aque- 

 dufts to fupply it with water, all which, with other old re- 

 mains, are defcribed by fir George Wheeler, Voy. 



After the death of Zeuxippus, the laft king of Sicyon, 

 this ftate is faid to have been governed by the priefts of 

 Apollo Carneus, five of whom held the fovereignty only 

 during one year each ; after which the Amphiftyons fwayed 

 the fcoptre nine years fuccefhvely, and Charidemus, the laft 

 of them, continued in it 18 years. After this hierarchy had 

 lailed 32 years, the Heraclidos, who were at that time re- 

 turned from Peloponnefus, became mailers of it, or accord- 

 ing to Paufanias, the kingdom was incorporated with the 

 Dores, and became fubjeft to that of Argos, the next king- 

 dom to that of Sicyon in refpeft of antiquity. Anc. Un. 

 Hift. vol. V. 



SICYONE, a word ufed by Hippocrates to exprefs colo- 

 cynth, and by others for a fpecies of hard-fhelled gourd, in 

 the fliape of a pear, and by fome for a cupping-glafs. 



SICYONEUM Oleum, a word ufed by the ancients to 

 exprefs a medicinal oil, of which there were among them 

 three kinds in ufe. The firft was called ficyonium /implex. 

 This was compofed of two ounces of the root of the wild 

 cucumber, boiled feveral hours in a pint of oil. The fecond 

 fort was called the compound ficyonium, and was made of 

 the root of the fame plant, with many other ingredients. 

 The third was another compound kind, made not with an 

 infufion of the root, but with the juice of the fruit of the 

 wild cucumber. 



SICYONII, among the Romans, were fhoes of a more 



delicate 



