SPA 



eock county, Georgia, with a court-houfe and gaol, fitu- 

 ated in a fertile and populous country, and a place of con- 

 fiderable trade. 



Sparta, a poft.town(hip of New York, in the S.W. 

 corner of Ontario county, 25 miles S.W. of Conondaigua ; 

 bounded N. by Genefeo and Livonia, E. by Livonia and 

 Naples, S. by Steuben and Allegany counties, and W. by 

 Genefee countv. It comprifes three townfhips. The 

 alluvial lands are fine, and the territory is in general good 

 and well fettled, principally by emigrants from Pcnnfyl- 

 vania. Hemp is raifed in confiderable quantities. In i8lo 

 the whole population was 1397, with 65 fenatorial eleftors ; 

 and the houlehold looms, of which there are 56, produced 

 iy,7y2 yards of cloth. The whole number of famihes k 

 232. 



SPARTACUS, in Biography, one of the fcourges of 

 Roman tyranny and cruelty, a native of Thrace, was born of 

 very low parents, entered the army, then became a deferter, 

 and a robber. Being taken, he was confined as a gladiator 

 in a receptacle at Capua for thofe unfortunate men whofe 

 lives were devoted to the pleaf\ire of the Roman people. 

 He efcaped the horrid den, and placing himfclf at the head 

 of a body of gladiators and fugitive flaves, he took a forti- 

 fied place in the year B.C. 72, whence he made predatory 

 excurfions throughout Campania. His force daily increafed, 

 and he defeated feveral commanders who were fent againlt 

 him. He marched into Cifalpine Gaul, in order to give the 

 flaves in his army, who mere mollly Thracians and Gauls, an 

 opportunity of returning home. Part of them, however, 

 greedy of pillage, feparated themfclves from their com- 

 mander, and were cut to pieces. The conful Lentulus, upon 

 this fuccefs, which was extremely partial, purfued Sparta- 

 cus, who turned about and gave him a total defeat ; and then, 

 in his turn, becoming the aggrefTor, he marched againlt the 

 other conful, Gellius, drove him from the field, and obliged 

 him to take (helter in the walled towns. He retaliated the 

 cruelty of the Romans towards the gladiators, by obliging 

 a number of his captives to fight with each other round the 

 funeral pyre of one of his commanders. He was now at 

 the head of 1 20,000 men, and with thefe he ravaged moil of 

 the provinces of Italia, and (truck fuch a terror at Rome, 

 that CrafTus, at that time the man of the greateft confe- 

 quence in the city, was fent againft him. He foon con- 

 fined Spartacus in Lucania, and cut off fome of his detach- 

 ments, fo that he would gladly have crolTed over to Sicily, 

 but being prevented, he took poll in a peninfula near Rhe- 

 gium, where CrafFus enclofed him by a rampart drawn from 

 lea to fea. Spartacus, however, found means to break 

 through this barrier, and gain the open country, but he was 

 here deferted by a large body of his followers, who became 

 the yiiftims of Crad'us. Spartacus now retreated towards 

 the mountains, and repulfcd with lofs fome of his purfuers. 

 This fuccefs wae, however, his ruin ; for his men infilled 

 upon his return to give battle to Crallus in the open field. 

 Before the commencement of the engagement, Spartacus 

 ftabbed his horfe, exclaiming, " If I am vitloriouE, 1 can 

 eafily get another ; if vanquilhed, I fiiall not want any." 

 After a long conteft, the Roman difcipline prevailed. 

 Spartacus, during extraordinary exertions of valour, was 

 furrounded, and fell pierced with a multitude of wounds. 

 He was unqueitionably a brave man, and fomething more 

 than a courageous barbarian. He had, fays Plutarch, not 

 only llrength and elevation of mind, but a difcernment and 

 civihty much fuperior to his fortune. It is faid that his wife 

 accompanied him into the field, pretended to the gift of 

 prophecy, and probably infpired him with a fanatical con- 

 fidence in viftory. 



SPA 



SPARTANBURG, in Geography, a diftria ©f SoOtb 

 Carohna, containing 12,122 inhabitants, of whom 14.7 are 

 flaves. 



SPARTEL, Cape, a cape of Morocco, W. of Tan- 

 gier, being a headland, which divides the ftraits from the 

 Weftern ocean. After doubling this cape, at the dillance 

 of 15 miles Hands the little town oi Arzilla ; which fee. 



SPARTIANUS, .Elius, in Biography, a Latin hif- 

 torian, fiouriihed in the time of Diocletian, to whom he 

 dedicated the lives of Adrian, iElius, Verus, Didius Ju- 

 lianus, Severus, and Pefcennius Niger, which, as well as his 

 lives of Caracalla and Geta, are come down to our times. 

 He is one of the writers of the " Hiftorias Auguftae Scrip- 

 tores," but his merits are not very great. 



SPARTINA, in Botav.y, a name borrowed from Spar- 

 turn, a kind of broom, or ot hard grafs, both ufed in ancient 

 as well as modern times, to make bafltets, cordage, &c. — 

 Schreb. Gen. 43. — Clafs and order, Triandria Monogynia. 

 Nat. Ord. Gramina. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Glume fingle-flowered, comprefled, of 

 two boat-like, comprefled, keeled, converging valves ; the 

 inncrmoft longeft ; the broader one itriated at the back, and 

 pointed. Cor. fhorter than the inner valve of the calyx, ot 

 two nearly equal, linear, comprefled, bluntifli valves, clafp- 

 ing each other, the inner one rather the longelt. Neftary 

 none. Slam. Filaments three, capillary, very fliort ; an- 

 thers linear, fquare, fliarpifli, cloven at the bafe. Plfl. Ger- 

 men fuperior, linear, acute ; Ityle thread-fliaped, ereft» 

 longer than the Itamens ; ftigmas two, villous. Perk, none, 

 except the calyx, v.'hich enfolds the feed, and at length 

 drops it. Seed oblong, comprefled. 



This is all the account we have found of the prefent 

 genus, of which its author has left nothing concerning the 

 fpecies, whether one or more, nor its native country. Thefe 

 points can only be alcertained from his herbarium ; and as 

 yet Spartina has not been adopted by any writer that has 

 fallen in our way, though it feems to have the fanftion of 

 Schrader in his Flora Germanlca, v. 1. 169. That author, 

 fo learned in gralTes, ttrongly objefts to Roth's having re- 

 ferred to Spartina by the name of phleoides, the Crypfis fche- 

 noides of Schrader, Lamarck, and others ; as being, he fays, 

 widely different, both in habit and the ftruClure of its flow- 

 ers. Spartina however does not find a place in his Flora 

 Gtrmanica, and is, therefore, perhaps not of European 

 growth. 



SPARTIUM, (sx3.(mi of Diofcorides, fo called from 

 arrxfin, a rope, becaufe of the ufe of the long, flender, tough 



branches, or bark, in making cordage Linn. Gen. 368. 



Schreb. 487. WiUd. Sp. PI. v. 3. 926. Mart. Mill. Dit^. 

 V. 4. Ait. Hort. Kcw. v. 4. 254. Sm. Fl. Brit. 753. 

 Prodr. Fl. Graec. Sibth. V. 2. 53. Gxrtn. t. 153. (Geniita; 

 Jufl". 353. Tourn. t. 411. Lamarck lUuftr. t. 619. f. i.) 

 — Clals and order, Diadelphia Decandria. Nat. Ord. Papi- 

 lionacett, Linn. Legumiitof^, Jull. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, of one leaf, tubular, 

 fomewhat heart-fliaped ; its margin at the upper fide very 

 fliort ; at the lower furniflied with five httle teeth towards 

 the extremity ; coloured, fmall. Cor. papilionaceous, of 

 five petals ; ilandard inverfely heart-fhaped, very large, en- 

 tirely reflexed ; wings ovate-oblong, fliorter than the ftand- 

 ard, attached to the filaments ; keel of two petals, lanceo- 

 late-oblong, longer than the wings, inferted into the fila- 

 ments, the lower edges of its petals connected by fine hairs. 

 Stam. Filaments ten, combined all together at the bafe, ad- 

 hering to the germen, unequal, gradually longer ; the upper 

 one very fiiort, the remaining nine in one fet ; anthers rather 

 oblong. Pyi, Gernaen oblong, or roundifli ; ftyle awl- 



ftiaped. 



