Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/830

818 SILANA. Augusto his consuli^ extending to 548 hexameters, with a prologue in fifteen and an epilogue in five elegiac couplets. Delivered A. D. 468. The plan in each of these complimentary harangues is pre- cisely the same. Each contains an account of the ancestors of the personage whom it celebrates, of his education and early career, of the feats which he had performe'd, and of the honours which he had won. Besides the above, we have two Epi- iJudamia ; a description in 235 hexameters of the town of Burgus (Bourg sur mer), situated on the Dronne, near its confluence with the Garonne ; 512 hendecasyllabics in praise of Narbo (Narbonne) ; Excusatorium ad V. C. Felicem in 350 hendecasyl- labics ; Euchaiisticum ad Faustum Reiensem epis- copum in 128 hexameters ; Propempticon ad Libel- lum in 101 hendecasyllabics, and several short epigrams. II. Epistolarum Libri IX. ^ containing 147 letters, many of them interspersed with pieces of poetry. They are addressed to a wide circle of relatives and friends upon topics connected with politics, literature, and domestic occurrences, but seldom touch upon ecclesiastical matters. The writings of Sidonius are characterised by great subtlety of thought, expressed in phraseology abounding with harsh and violent metaphors. Hence he is generally obscure, and not unfrp- quently unintelligible ; but his works throughout bear the impress of an acute, vigorous, and highly cultivated intellect. In poetry Claudian appears to have been the object of his imitation, but he is immeasurably inferior to his model, while in his epistles he avowedly strove to tread in the foot- steps of the younger Pliny and Symmachus. In Bo far as Latinity is concerned, his verse, although deformed by numerous metrical solecisms, is far superior to his prose, which probably approached much more nearly to the language of ordinary life, and abounds in barbarisms. On the other hand, his frigid poems are totally destitute of interest, except in so for as the panegyrics afford some data for the historical events of an epoch regarding which trustworthy sources of information are sin- gularly deficient, while his letters are frequently very amusing and instructive from the glimpses which they afford of domestic usages and social habits in the fifth century among persons in the upper ranks of life. The editio Princeps of Sidonius was published at Milan fol. 1498, with notes by Joannes Baptista Pius ; the best edition is that of Sirmond, 4 to. Paris, 1652. See also the collected works of Sirmond, vol. i. p. 464, ed. Venet. ; the Bibliotlieca Patrum Max. Lugdun. fol. 1677, vol. vi. p. 1075, and the BMotJteca Patrum of Galland, fol. Venet. 1788, tom. X. p. 463. (The materials for the life of Sidonius are de- rived chiefly from his own writings. In conse- quence of the ambiguous nature of the expressions employed, some of the minor details are doubtful. See Gregor. Turonensis, Histor. Franc, ii. 21 ; Gen- nad. de Viris Illuiir. c. 92 ; Trithem. de Script. Eccles. c. 179 ; Alex. Germain, Essai litteraire et historique sur ApoUinaire SidoinCj 8vo. Montpell. 1840.) [W. R.] SIDONIUS CITE'RIUS. [Citerius.] SIGOVE'SUS. [Ambigatus.] SILA'NA, JU'NIA, the husband of C. Silius, whom the latter was obliged to put away in A. D. 47, when Messalina fell in love with him. Silaua SILANION. is described by Tacitus as distinguished by her birth, her beauty, and her wantonness. She had formerly been an intimate friend of Agrippina, but afterwards quarrelled with her, because Agrippina had prevented Sextius Africanus from marrying her. Accordingly when Agrippina displeased her son Nero in A. d, 55, Silana endeavoured to have her revenge by accusing Agrippina of having in- tended to marry Rubellius Plautus, and then to raise him to the throne in the place of Nero. But Agrippina had not yet lost all her influence over her son ; and Silana, in consequence of her accusa- tion, was driven into exile. She returned to Italy when the power of Agrippina was declining, but died at Tarentuni before the murder of the latter in a. d. 59 (Tac. Ann. xi. 12, xiii. 19,22, xiv. 12). Tacitus does not mention the father of this Junia Silana. She may, however, have been the daughter of M, Silanus, consul A. d, 19 [Sila- Nus, Junius, No. 8], and the sister of Junia Clau- dilla, who married the emperor Caligula, SILA'NION (StAaj/iwj'), a distinguished Greek statuary in bronze, is mentioned by Pliny among the contemporaries of Lysippus at 01. 114, B.C. 324 (H.N. xxxiv.'-S. s. 19). He probably be- longed, however, not to the school of Lysippus, but to the later Attic school ; for we learn from Pausanias (vi, 4. § 3) that he was an Athenian. The passage of Plinj% as commonly understood, re- presents Silanion as a wonderful instance of a self- taught artist ; but perhaps the words " in hoc mi- rabile, quod nullo doctore nohilis fuit,' may be referred to Lysippus, rather than to Silanion. So, also, in the next clause, " ipse discipubim habuit Zetixiadem,' there is a doubt left, whether Zeuxi- ades was the disciple of Silanion or of Lysippus. It should here be observed that the word Zeuay iadem, which is the reading of all the best MSS., is corrupted, in the inferior MSS. and the common editions, into Zeuxin et ladem. (See Sillig, Cat. Artif. s. V. and edition of Pliny: the reading Zeusiadem., which some of the best MSS. give, is the same thing, for it is extremely common to find s for the Greek |.) The statues of Silanion belong to two classes, ideal and actual portraits ; the former again in- cluding heroes and men. Of these the most cele- brated was his dying Jocasta, in which a deadly paleness was given to the face by the mixture of silver with the bronze ; a remarkable example of the technical refinement, and of the principle of actual imitation which characterised the art of this period. We cannot conceive of Pheidias or Poly- cleitus descending to such an artifice (Plut. de Aud. Poet. 3, Quuest. Conv. v. 1 ; comp. de Pyth. Or. 2 ; respecting the general subject of the co- louring of bronze statues, see Miiller, Archdol. d. Kunstf § 306. n. 3, ed. Welcker). He also made a fine statue of Achilles (Plin. /. c. § 21), and one of Theseus (Plut. Thes. 4). Tatian ascribes to him statues of the lyric poetesses Sappho and Corinna (Tatian. ad Graec. 52, pp. 1 1 3, 11 4, ed. Worth ; where by 2aTr(|)« n-fiv haipav Tatian undoubtedly means the poetess and not, as some fancy, another person, a courtezan of Eresos, of whose existence there is no proof ; see Sappho, p. 708, a.). His statue of Sappho stood in the prytaneium at Syra- cuse in the time of Verres, who carried it off ; and Cicero alludes to it in terms of the highest praise ( Verr. iv. 57). Silanion also made a statue of Plato, which