Moses (Eutychii Annales, tom. ii. p. 163; comp Procopius, De Aedificiis Justiniani, v. 8); so that when their monasteries are mentioned in earlier times, it is clear that the monastic cells only are to be understood. On the whole, then, the testimony of Cosmas can hardly avail against a tradition which was not originated, but only perpetuated, by the erection of Justinian's monastery. To this historical argument in favour of the existing traditions a topographical one may be added. If Rephidim is correctly placed by Dr. Lepsius and others at Wady Faran, at the foot of Serbal, it seems to follow incontestably that Serbal cannot be Sinai; for what occasion could there be for the people to decamp from Rephidim, and journey to Sinai, if Rephidim were at the very base of the mount ? (Exod. xix. 1, 2). Dr. Lepsius feels the difficulty, and attempts to remove it by insinuating that the sacred narrative is not to be implicitly trusted. That Horeb is mentioned in connection with Rephidim is certainly a palpable difficulty (Exod. xviii. 1—6), but in a choice of difficulties it is safer to adopt that which does least violence to the sacred text. By far the strongest argument in favour of the identity of Serbal with Sinai is to be found in the celebrated inscriptions with which the rocks on that mountain and in the surrounding valleys are covered, Not that anything can be certainly determined from these mysterious records, while the art of deciphering them is still in its infancy. The various theories respecting them cannot here be discussed; the works containing them are referred to at the end of the article: but it may be well to put on record the whole of the earliest testimony concerning them, and to offer for their elucidation an observation suggested by an early writer which has been strangely overlooked in this discussion. It is an interesting theory of Cosmas Indicopleustes, that the Israelites, having must suffice. There seems, then, to be no question | that the site of Horeb was traditionally known to the Israelites for many centuries after the Exodus (1 Kings, xix. 8); and if so, it is improbable that it was subsequently lost, since its proximity to Elath and Ezion Geber, which were long in their possession, would serve to ensure the perpetuity of the tradition. It is worthy of remark that Josephus nowhere uses the name Horeb, but in the passage parallel to that above cited from the 1st book of Kings, as uniformly throughout his history, substitutes τὸ Σιναῖον ὄρος, -so far confirming the identity of locality indicated by the two names, learnedly maintained by Dr. Lepsius, who holds Horeb to be an Amalekite appellative equivalent in signification with Sin, both signifying "earth made dry by draining off the water," which earth he finds in the large mounds of alluvial deposit in the bed of Wady Faran, at the northern base of Serbal, his Sinai. Buxtorf, however, cites rabbinical authorities for another etymology of Sinai, derived from the nature of the rock in the vicinity. (See Shaw's Travels, 4to. p. 443, and note 7.) Josephus does not in any way identify the site; but Eusebius and St. Jerome have been erroneously understood to describe Serbal under the name Sina, when they say that Pharan was south of Arabia, next to the desert of the Saracens, through which the children of Israel journeyed when they decamped from Sina (Onomast. s. v. Pharan.); for they obviously confound the city of Paran with the wilderness mentioned in Numbers (xii. 16, xiii. 3); and the description is so vague as to prove only their ignorance, if not of the true site of the city Pharan (which they place 3 days east of Aila), at least of the utter want of all connection between this and the desert of Zin, which is Paran; and in this, as in other passages, on which much reliance has been placed in this discussion, it is clear that they are not writing from any local knowledge, but simply draw-been instructed in written characters in the Decaing deductions from the Scripture narrative (see e. g. Onomast. s. v. Raphadim), which we are perhaps equally competent to do. The earliest Christian writer, then, who can be quoted as a witness to the true site of the "Mountain of the Law" is Cosmas Indicopleustes (circ. A. D. 530), who undoubtedly describes Mount Choreb, in the Sinaic (desert ?), as near to Pharan, about 6 miles distant; and this Pharan must be the Pharan of the ecclesiastical annals, whose ruins at the foot of Mount Serbal have been noticed above. This then is direct historical testimony in favour of a hypothesis first started by Burckhardt in modern times, advocated by Dr. Lepsius, and adopted by Mr. Forster and others. But then it appears to be the only clear historical evidence, and must therefore be compared with that in favour of the existing tradition, which, as it is accepted in its main features by Drs. Robinson and Wilson, Ritter, Mr. Stanley, and other eininent scholars, is obviously not unworthy of regard. That the present convent of St. Catharine was originally founded by the emperor Justinian (about A. D. 556), is as certain as any fact in history; and it is equally difficult to imagine that, at so short an interval after the journey of Cosmas, the remembrance of the true Sinai could have been lost, and that the emperor or the monks would have acquiesced in what they knew to be a fictitious site; for the mountain had long been regarded with veneration by the monks, who, however, had erected no monastery before this time, but dwelt in the mountains and valleys about the bush in which God appeared to logue given in Horeb, were practised in writing, as in a quiet school, in the desert for forty years: "from whence it comes to pass," he proceeds, "that you may see in the desert of Mount Sinai, and in all the stations of the Hebrews, all the rocks in those parts, which have rolled down from the mountains, engraven with Hebrew inscriptions, as I myself, who journeyed in those parts, testify; which certain Jews also having read, interpreted to us, saying that they were written thus. The pilgrimage (ǎrepois) of such an one, of such a tribe, in such a year, and such a month,'—as is frequently written in our hostelries. For they, having newly acquired the art, practised it by multiplying writing, so that all those places are full of Hebrew inscriptions, preserved even unto this time, on account of the unbelievers, as I think; and any one who wishes can visit those places and see them, or they can inquire and learn concerning it that I have spoken the truth." (Cosmas Indicopleustes, de Mundo, lib. v. apud Montfaucon, Collectio Nova Patrum, tom. ii. p. 205.) On this it may suffice to remark, that while it is certain that the characters are neither the original nor later Hebrew,―i. e. neither Phoenician nor Chaldaic,-still the Jews in Cosmas's company could decipher them. We know that they are for the most part similar to the ancient Arabian (the Hamyaritic or Hadramatic) character, with which the whole region in the south of the Arabian peninsula teems. If, then, Mr. Forster's ingenious and very probable conjecture of the identity of the rock-hewn inscription of Hissn Ghorab with that copied by Abderakhman from the southern coast of Arabia, preserved and translated by Schultens, be correct, will follow that the old Adite character was decipherable even two centuries later than the date assigned to Cosmas, who could scarcely have failed to discover the Christian origin of these inscriptions, if they had been really Christian. Indeed it may well be questioned whether any Christians could have been sufficiently conversant with this ancient character to use it as freely as it is used on the rocks of the peninsula. Certainly if the hypothesis of this place having been resorted to as a place of pilgrimage by the pagan tribes of Arabia, and so having acquired a sanctity in the very earliest times, could be established, the fact might furnish a clue to the future investigation of this deeply interesting subject, and, as Ritter has suggested, might serve to remove some difficulties in the Sacred Narrative. Now the journal of Antoninus Placentinus does in fact supply so precisely what was wanting, that it is singular that his statement | has attracted so little notice in connection with the Sinaitic inscriptions; which, however, he does not expressly mention or even allude to. But what we do learn from him is not unimportant, viz., that before the time of Islâm, in "the ages of ignorance," as the Mohammedans call them, the peninsula of Mount Sinai was a principal seat of the idolatrous superstition of the Arabians; and that a feast was held there in honour of their miraculous idol, which was resorted to by Ishmaelites, as he calls them, from all parts; the memorial of which feast seems still to be preserved by the Bedawin. (Burckhardt, Syria, pp. 566, 567.) Now when it is remembered that the eastern commerce of Greece and Rome, conducted by the Arabs of Yemen and Hadramant, must have brought their merchants and sailors to the vicinity of this ancient sanctuary at Arsinoe or at Elana, the pilgrimage becomes almost a matter of course; and the practice which we know prevailed in their own country of graving their memorials with an iron pen in the rock for ever, was naturally adopted by them, and imitated by the Christian pilgrims in after times. Undue stress has been laid on the frequency of the inscriptions about Serbal, contrasted with their rarity about Jebel Mûsa; but it should be remembered that they are executed almost entirely in the soft sandstone which meets the granite on and around Serbal, but which is scarcely found in the interior, where the hard, primitive rock did not encourage the scribbling propensities of the travellers, as the softer tablets in the more western part, where the blocks of trap-stone (which are also largely interspersed with the granite, and which present a black surface without, but are lemoncoloured within) were studiously selected for the inscriptions, which, in consequence, come out with the effect of a rubricated book or illuminated manuscript, the black surface throwing out in relief the lemon-coloured inscriptions. This account of the peninsula must not be concluded without a brief notice of the very remarkable temple of Sarbut-el-Chádem, and the stelae which are found in such numbers, not only in the temple, but in other western parts of the peninsula, where large masses of copper, mixed with a quantity of iron ore, were and still are found in certain strata of the sandstone rocks along the skirts of the primeval chain, and which gave to the whole district the name still found in the hieroglyphics, Maphat," the tection of the goddess Hathor, Mistress of Maphat. The temple, dedicated to her, stands on a lofty sandstone ledge, and is entirely filled with lofty stelae, many of them like obelisks with inscriptions on both sides; so crowded with them in fact, that its walls seem only made to circumscribe the stelae, although there are several erected outside it, and on the adjacent hills. The monuments belong, apparently, to various dynasties, but Dr. Lepsius has only specially mentioned three, all of the twelfth. The massive crust of iron ore covering the hillocks, 250 yards long and 100 wide, to the depth of 6 or 8 feet, and blocks of scoriae, prove that the smelting furnaces of the Egyptian kings were situated on these airy heights; but the caverns in which the ore was found contain the oldest effigies of kings in existence, not excepting the whole of Egypt and the pyramids of Gizeh. The chief authorities for this article, besides those referred to in the text, are Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, vol. i. pp. 181-204); Seetzen (Reisen, vol. iii. pp. 55-121). For the physical history and description of the peninsula, Russegger is by far the fullest and most trustworthy authority (Reisen, vol. iii. pp. 22-58). Dr. Robinson has investigated the history and geography of the peninsula, with his usual diligence (Travels, vol. i. §§ 3, 4. pp. 87241); and Dr. Wilson has added some important observations in the way of additional information or correction of his predecessor (Lands of the Bible, vol. i. chapters vi.-viii. pp. 160-275). Lepsius's Tour from Thebes to the Peninsula of Sinai (Letters, pp. 310-321, 556-562), which has been translated by C. H. Cottrell (London, 1846), argues for Serbal as the true Mountain of the Law; and his theory has been maintained with great learning and industry by Mr. John Hogg (Remarks on Mount Serbal, &c. in Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, 1849). The graphic description of the country from Mr. A. P. Stanley's pen is the latest contribution to the general history of the peninsula (Sinai and Palestine, 1856). The decipherment of the inscriptions has been attempted by the learned Orientalists of Germany, Gesenius, Roediger, Beer, and others (Ch. Bunsen, Christianity and Mankind, vol. iii. pp. 231-234); and Mr. Forster has published a vindication of his views against the strictures of Mr. Stanley on his original work (The Voice of Israel from the Rocks of Sinai, 1851; The Israelitish Authorship of the Sinaitic Inscrip tions, 1856). [G. W.] SINCHI, a sub-division of the Sarmatian tribe of the Tauri. (Amm. Mar. xxii. 8. § 33.) [T. H. D.] SINDA (Elvda: Eth. Sindensis), a town which seems to have been situated on the western frontier of Pisidia, in the neighbourhood of Cibyra and the river Caularis (Liv. xxxviii. 15; Strabo, xii. p. 570, xiii. p. 630). Stephanus B. (s. v. Zɩvdía), who speaks of Sindia as a town of Lycia, is probably alluding to the same place. (Comp. Hierocl. p. 680; Polyb. Excerpt. de Leg. 30.) Some writers have confounded Sinda with Isionda, which is the more surprising, as Livy mentions the two as different towns in the same chapter. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 152.) [L. S.] SINDA SARMATICA (Zívda kaμn, Ptol. v. 9. § 8), a town or village in Asiatic Sarmatia, in the territory of the Sindi, with an adjoining harbour (Zidinds λμýv, Ptol. Ib.), 180 stadia E. of the mouth of the Bosporus Cimmerius at Corocondama, stadia from Panticapaeum, and 300 from the Holy | 2. A town of the Sindi, on the W. coast of the SI'NGARA (Tà Ziyyapa, Dion Cass. xviii. 22), a strongly fortified post at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia, which for awhile, as appears from many coins still extant, was occupied by the Romans as an advanced colony against the Persians. Its position has not been clearly defined by ancient writers, Stephanus B. calling it a city of Arabia, near Edessa, and Ptolemy placing it on the Tigris (v. 18. § 9). There can, however, be no doubt that it and the mountain near it, called by Ptolemy d Ziyyapas opos (v. 18. § 2), are represented at the present day by the district of the Singár. It appears to have been taken by Trajan (Dion Cass. lxviii. 22); and as the legend on some of the coins reads ATP. CEI. KOA. CINTAPA and bears the head of Gordian on the obverse, it appears to have formed a Roman colony under the emperors Severus and Gordian. It was the scene of a celebrated nocturnal conflict between Constantius and Sapor, the king of Persia, the result of which was so unsatisfactory that both sides claimed the victory. (Amm. Marc. xviii. 5; Eutrop. x. 10; Sext. Ruf. c. 27.) Still later, under the reign of Julian, it is recorded that it underwent a celebrated siege, and at length was carried by the Persians by storm, though gallantly defended by the townspeople and two legions. (Amm. Marc. xx. 6.) The country around it is stated by Ammianus and Theophylactus to have been extremely arid, which rendered it equally difficult to take or to relieve from a distance. [V.] SINGIDA'VA (Σıyyídava, Ptol. iii. 8. § 8), a town in the interior of Dacia, between the rivers Tyand Aluta, now Dora on the Marosch. [T.H.D.] SINGIDUNUM (Σιγγί(ν)δουνον, oι Σιγίνδουνον, Ptol. iii. 9. § 3), a town in Moesia Superior, at the spot where the Savus falls into the Danubius, and on the main road along the banks of the latter river, opposite to the town of Taurunum (Semlin) in Pannonia. (Itin. Ant. p. 132; Itin. Hierosol. p. 563.) By Procopius (de Aed. iv. 6. p. 287) it is called SINDI (vool, Herod. iv. 28), a people in Asiatic Sarmatia, on the E. coast of the Pontus Euxinus and at the foot of the Caucasus, in the district called Sindice. (Herod. I. c.; Hipponax. p. 71, ed. Welck.; Hellanic. p. 78; Dionys. Per. 681; Steph. B. p. 602; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 41, &c.) Besides the sea-port of Sinda, other towns belonging to the same people were, Hermonassa, Gorgippia, and Aborace. (Strab. xi. p. 495.) They had a monarchical form of government (Polyaen, viii. 55), and Gorgippia was the residence of their kings. (Strab. I. c.) Nicolaus Damascenus (p. 160, ed. Orell.) mentions a peculiar custom which they had of throwing upon the grave of a deceased person as many fish as the number of enemies whom he had overcome. Their name is variously written, and Mela calls them Sindones (ii. 19), Lucian (Tox. 55), diavol. Eichwald (Alt Geogr. d. Kasp. M. p. 356) holds them to have been a Hindoo colony.sia (Comp. Bayer, Acta Petrop. ix. p. 370; St. Croix, Mem. de l'Ac. des Inser. xlvi. p. 403; Larcher, ad Herod. vii. p. 506; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 494, &c.) [T. H. D.] SI'NDICE (Zivoký, Strab. xi. pp. 492, 495, &c.), the tract of country inhabited by the Sindi, which, according to Scylax (p. 31), lay between that belonging to the Maeotae, on the Palus Maeotis, and that of the Cercetae (the modern Cherkas), and which must therefore be sought at or near the peninsula of Taman. According to Strabo (xi. p. 492) it reached to the Achaei, and extended in a southerly direction from the Hypanis. [T. H. D.] SINDOCANDA (Zivdoκávda, Ptol. vii. 4. § 3), a city in the middle of the W. coast of Taprobane, belonging to the people called Sandocandae. Hence it has been conjectured, either that the name of the town should be changed into Sandocanda, or that the people should be called Sindocandae. [T. H. D.] SİNDOMANA (Zivdóμava, Strab. xv. p. 701), a town on the lower course of the Indus, and in the neighbourhood of the island of Pattalene. (Comp. Arrian, Anab. vi. 15; Diod. xvii. 102; Curtius, ix. 8, 13, 17.) [T. H. D.] SINDUS (Zivdos, Herod. vii. 123; Steph. B. s. v.), a maritime town of Mygdonia in Macedonia, between Therme (Thessalonica) and Chalastra. [E. B. J.] SINGA (Ziyya, Ptol. v. 15. § 10), a city of the Syrian province of Commagene, to the N. of Doliche, and situated on the river Singas (Ib. § 9), (now the Sensja), which had its source in Mount Pieria and flowed to the NW. till it fell into the Euphrates to the S. of Samosata. [T. H. D.] SINGAMES (‹yyάuns, Arrian, Per. P. Eux. p. 10), a navigable river of Colchis, which entered the Pontus Euxinus 210 stadia N. of the Cobus, and 120 stadia SE. from the Tarsuras. (Plin. vi. 4. s. 4.) Now the Osingiri. [T. H. D.] now. It was a fortress, and the head-quarters of the Legio IV. Flavia Felix (Not. Imp.), the modern Belgrade. [T. H. D.] SI'NGILI or SINGILIS, a town of Hispania Baetica. (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3.) It lay near Castillon or Valsequilla, and D'Anville (i. p. 39) identifies it with Puente de don Gonzalo. Concerning its ruins and inscriptions, see Florez, Esp. Sagr. ix. p. 42, xii. 20; Morales, p. 21. [T. H. D.] SINGITICUS SINUS. [SINGUS.] SI'NGONE (yyóvn), a town of the Quadi in the south-east of Germany, mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 30), but otherwise unknown. [L. S.] SI'NGULIS, a tributary river of the Baetis, navigable as far up as Astigi. (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3.) Now the Xenil. [T. H. D.] SINGUS (Ziyyos, Herod. vii. 122; Thuc. v. 18; Böckh, Corp. Inscr. vol. i. p. 304; Ptol. iii. 13. § 11; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. iv. 17: Eth. Ziyyaîoi), a town of Sithonia in Macedonia, upon the gulf to which it gave its name, SINGITICUS SINUS (EITIKOS KóλTOS, Ptol. I. c.: Gulf of A'ghion. Oros), identified with Sykia, probably a corrupted form of the old name. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 153.) [E. B. J.] SINIAR, a district of Babylonia, which is mentioned in Genesis under the title of the "land of Shinar." It is noticed under the name of Zevvaap Tys Babuλwvías by Histiaeus of Miletus, quoted by Josephus (Ant. Jud. i. 5) and Eusebius (Praepar. Evang. ix. 15; comp. Gen. xi. 2; Isaiah, xi. 11; Zech. v. 11). It would seem to comprehend especially the great plain land of Babylonia, as distinguished from Assyria and Elymais (Gen. xiv. 1), and probably extended to the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, if not as far as the Persian gulf. Some have, without reason, confounded it with Singara, the modern Singár. [V.] SINIS (Zivis), a Roman colony in the district of Melitene in Armenia Minor. (Ptol. v. 7. § 5.) The place is not mentioned by any other writer, but it is possible that it may be the same place as the one which Procopius (de Aed. iii. 4) simply calls Κολωνία. [L. S.] SINNA. 1. (Elvva, Ptol. v. 18. §§ 11, 12), the name of two towns in Mesopotamia, one on the S. declivity of Mount Masius, the other more to the SE., on the Tigris. 2. (Eva, Strab. xvi. p. 755), a mountain fortress in Lebanon. [T. H. D.] SINO'NIA (Zannone), was the name given in ancient times to the smallest of the three islands known as the Isole di Ponza. It is situated about 5 miles to the NE. of Pontia (Ponza), the principal island of the group (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12; Mel. ii. 7. § 18). [E. H. B.] of the Bosporus, and divided with Byzantium the After SINO'PE (Zvan: Eth. Zwwreus), the most important of all the Greek colonies on the coast of the Euxine, was situated on a peninsula on the coast of Paphlagonia, at a distance of 700 stadia to the east of Cape Carambis (Strab. xii. p. 546; Marcian, p. 73; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 775.) It was a very ancient place, its origin being referred to the Argonauts and to Sinope, the daughter of Asopus. (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 947; Val. Flacc. v. 108.) But the Sinopians themselves referred the foundation of their city to Autolycus, a companion of Heracles, and one of the Argonauts, to whom they paid heroic honours (Strab. I. c.). But this ancient town was small and powerless, until it received colonists from Miletus. The Milesians were in their turn dispossessed by the Cimmerians, to whom Herodotus (iv. 12) seems to assign the foundation of the city; but when the Cimmerians were driven from Asia Minor, the Ephesians (in B. C. 632) recovered possession of their colony. (Scymn. 204, foll.; Anonym. Peripl. P. E. p. 8.) The leader of the first Milesian colony is called Ambron, and the leaders of the second Cous and Critines; though this latter statement seems to be a mistake, as Eustathius and Stephanus B. (s. v.) call the founder Critius, a native of Cos. After this time Sinope soon rose to great power and prosperity. About the commencement of the Peloponnesian War the Sinopians, who were then governed by a tyrant, Timesileon, received assistance from the Athenians; and after the expulsion of the tyrant, 600 Athenian colonists were sent to Sinope (Plut. Pericl. 20). At the time of the retreat of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon, Sinope was a wealthy and flourishing city, whose dominion extended to the river Halys, and which exercised great influence over the tribes of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, independently of its colonies of Cerasus, Cotyora, and Trapezus. It was mainly owing to the assistance of the Sinopians, that the return-blished Roman colonies there, as we must infer from ing Greeks were enabled to procure ships to convey them to Heracleia (Xenoph. Anab. v. 5. § 3; Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 17; Diod. Sic. xiv. 30, 32; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8). Strabo also acknowledges that the fleet of the Sinopians held a distinguished position among the naval powers of the Greeks; it was coins bearing the inscription Col. Jul. Caes. Felix Sinope. In the time of Strabo Sinope was still a large, splendid, and well fortified city; for he describes it as surrounded by strong walls, and adorned with fine porticoes, squares, gymnasia, and other public edifices. Its commerce indeed declined, source of revenue, which maintained the city in a tolerable state of prosperity. It possessed extensive suburbs, and numerous villas in its vicinity (Strab. I. c.; Plin. vi. 2). From Pliny's letter's (x. 91), it appears that the Sinopians suffered some inconvenience from the want of a good supply of water, which Pliny endeavoured to remedy by a grant from the emperor Trajan to build an aqueduct conveying water from a distance of 16 miles. In the time of Arrian and Marcian, Sinope still continued te be a flourishing town. In the middle ages it belonged to the empire of Trebizond, and fell into the hands of the Turks in A. D. 1470, in the reign of Mohammed II. Sinope is also remarkable as the birthplace of several men of eminence, such as Diogenes the Cynic, Baton, the historian of Persia, and Diphilus, the comic poet. Near Sinope was a small island, called Scopelus, around which large vessels were obliged to sail, before they could enter the harbour; but small craft might pass between it and the land, by which means a circuit of 40 stadia was avoided (Marcian, p. 72, &c.) The celebrated Sinopian cinnabar (ZvwIKh μίλτος, Σινωπίς οι Σινωπικὴ γῆ) was not a product of the district of Sinope, but was designated by this name only because it formed one of the chief articles of trade at Sinope. (Groskurd on Strabo, vol. ii. p. 457, foll.) The imperial coins of Sinope that are known, extend from Augustus to Gallienus. (Sestini, Num. Vet. p. 63; Rasche, Lex. Num. iv. 2. p. 1105, foll.) Sinope, now called Sinab, is still a town of some importance, but it contains only few remains of its former magnificence. The wall across the isthmus has been built up with fragments of ancient archi tecture, such as columns, architraves, &c., and the same is found in several other parts of the modern town; but no distinct ruins of its temples, porticoes, or even of the great aqueduct, are to be seen. (Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 306, &c.) [L. S.] SINO'RIA (Zopía, Strab. xii. p. 555), a town on the frontier of Armenia Major, a circumstance which gave rise to a pun of the historian Theophanes who wrote the name Zuvópia. The place is no doubt the same as the one called Sinorega by Appian (Mithrid. 101), by Ammianus Marcellinus (xvii. 7) Synhorium, by Ptolemy (v. 7. § 2) Sinibra or Sinera, and in the Antonine Itinerary (p. 208) Sinervas. The pun upon the name made by Theophanes seems to show that the form Sinoria, which Strabo gives, is the correct one. The town was a fortress built by Mithridates on the frontier between Greater and Lesser Armenia; but assuming that all the different names mentioned above are only varieties or corruptions of one, it is not easy to fix the exact site of the town, for Ptolemy and the Antonine Itinerary place it to the south-west of Satala, on the road from this town to Melitene, and on the Euphrates, while the Table, calling it Sinara, places it 79 miles to the north-east of Satala, on the frontiers of Pontus; but there can be no doubt that the Sinara of the Table is altogether a different place from Sinoria, and the site of the latter place must be sought on the banks of the Euphrates between Satala and Melitene, whence some identify it with Murad Chai and others with Seni Beli. [L. S.] SINOTIUM. [SYNODIUM.] SINSII (volo, Ptol. iii. 8. § 5), a people in the S. of Dacia. [T. H. D] SINTI (Thuc. ii. 98; Steph. B. s.v.; Liv. xlii. 51), a Thracian tribe who occupied the district lying between the ridge called Cercine and the right or W. bank of the Strymon, in the upper part of the course of that river, which was called from thence SINTICE (TIK. Ptol. iii. 13. § 30). When Macedonia was divided into four provinces at the Roman conquest, Sintice was associated with Bisaltia in the First Macedonia, of which Amphipolis was the capital (Liv. xlv. 29). It contained the three towns HERACLEIA, PAROECOPOLIS, TRISTOLUS. [E.B.J.] SINTIES. [LEMNOS.] SINUESSA (Σινούεσσα οι Σινόεσσα: Εth. Σιvoveσonvós, Sinuessanus: Mondragone), a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of the name, situated on the Tyrrhenian sea, about 6 miles N. of the mouth of the Vulturnus. It was on the line of the Via Appia, and was the last place where that great highroad touched on the sea-coast. (Strab. v. p. 233.) It is certain that Sinuessa was not an ancient city; indeed there is no trace of the existence of an Italian town on the spot before the foundation of the Roman colony. Some authors, indeed, mention an obscure tradition that there had previously been a Greek city on the spot which was called Sinope ; but little value can be attached to this statement. (Liv. x. 21; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) It is certain that if it ever existed, it had wholly disappeared, and the site was included in the territory of the Ausonian city of Vescia, when the Romans determined to establish simultaneously the two colonies of Minturnae and Sinuessa on the Tyrrhenian sea. (Liv. x. 21.) The name of Sinuessa was derived, according to Strabo, from its situation on the spacious gulf (Sinus), now called the Gulf of Gaeta. (Strab. v. p. 234.) The object of establishing these colonies was chiefly for the purpose of securing the neighbouring fertile tract of country from the ravages of the Samnites, who had already repeatedly overrun the district. But for this very reason the plebeians at Rome hesitated to give their names, and there was some difficulty found in carrying out the colony, which was, however, settled in the following year, B. C. 296. (Liv. x. 21; Vell. Pat. i. 14.) Sinuessa seems to have rapidly risen into a place of importance; but its territory was severely ravaged by Hannibal in B. C. 217, whose cavalry carried their devastations up to the very gates of the town. (Liv. xxii. 13, 14.) It subsequently endeavoured, in common with Minturnae and other "coloniae maritimae," to establish its exemption from furnishing military levies; but this was overruled, while there was an enemy with an army in Italy. (Id. xxvii. 38.) At a later period (B. C. 191) they again attempted, but with equal ill success, to procure a similar exemption from the naval service. (Id. xxxvi. 3.) Its position on the Appian Way doubtless contributed greatly to the prosperity of Sinuessa; for the same reason it is frequently incidentally mentioned by Cicero, and we learn that Caesar halted there for a night on his way from Brundusium to Rome, in B. c. 49. (Cic. ad Att. ix. 15, 16, xiv. 8, ad Fam. xii. 20.) It is noticed also by Horace on his journey to Brundusium, as the place where he met with his friends Varius and Virgil. (Sat. i. 5. 40.) The fertility of its territory, and especially of the neighbouring ridge of the Mons Massicus, so celebrated for its wines, must also have tended to promote the prosperity of Sinuessa, but we hear little of it under the Roman Empire. It received a body of military colonists, apparently under the Triumvirate (Lib. Col. p. 237), but did not retain the rank of a Colonia, and |