Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/960

948 SUSARION. to the command of the Mithridatic war, Sura quitted Boeotia, and returned to his commander in Macedonia. (Appian, Mithr. 29 ; Pint. Sull. 11.) SURA, P. CORNE'LIUS LE'NTULUS. [Lentulus, No. 18.] SURA, L. LlCl'NIUS, was three times consul under Trajan, first suffectus in a.d. 98, in which year Trajan succeeded to the empire, and twice ordinary consul in a.d. 102 and 107. He was one of the most intimate friends of Trajan, and by his strong recommendation of the latter to Nerva, had a great share in gaining for him the empire. He likewise employed his influence with Trajan to gain for Hadrian more of the emperor's favour, and he may be said thus to have placed two em- perors on the throne. Trajan continued to cherish an undiminished regard for Sura as long as he lived. He frequently employed Sura to write his orations ; and on the death of the latter he honoured him with a public funeral, and erected baths to perpetuate his memory. Dion Cassius relates that Sura was sent as ambassador to Decebalus in the Dacian war. Two of Pliny's letters are addressed to him. (Dion Cass. Ixviii, 9, 15 ; Aural. Vict. Cues. 13. § 8, Epit. 13. § 6 ; Spartian. Hadr. 2, 3 ; Julian, Caes. p. 846, Sylb. ; Plin. Ep. iv. 30, vii. 27.) SURA, PALFU'RIUS. [Palpurius.] SURDI'NIUS GALLUS. [Gallus.] SURDI'NUS. 1. A person spoken of in the consulship of Mam. Aemilius Lepidus, B.C. 77. (Val. Max. vii. 7. § 6.) 2. A rhetorician and a contemporary of the elder Seneca, elegantly translated some Greek plays into the Latin language. (Senec. Suas. 8, Controv. 20, 21.) SURDI'NUS, L. NAE'VIUS, a triumvir of the mint under Augustus, whose name occurs on coins, of which a specimen is annexed. The head of Augustus is on the obverse. COIN OF L. NAEVIUS SIJRDINUS, SURE'NAS, the general of the Parthians, who defeated Crassus in B.C. 54. [Crassus, p. 878.] SUSA'RION (Souo-apioj/), to whom the origin of the Attic Comedy is ascribed, is said to have been the son of Philinus, and a native of Tripo- discus, a village in the Megaric territory, whence he removed into Attica, to the village of Icaria, a place celebrated as a seat of the worship of Dio- nysus. (Ath. ii. p. 40, b.; Schol. 11. xxii. 29.) This account agrees with the claim which the Megarians asserted to the invention of comedy, and which was generally admitted. (Aristot. Poet. iii. 5 ; Aspasius, ad Aristot. Eth. Nic. iv. 2 ; Diet, of Antiq. art. Comoedia, p. 342, 2d ed.) Before the time of Susarion there was, no doubt, practised, at Icaria and the other Attic villages, that extem- pore jesting and buffoonery which formed a marked feature of th^ festivals of Dionysus ; but Susarion SYAGER. was the first who so regulated this species of amusement, as to lay the foundation of Comedy, properly so called. The time at which this im- portant step was taken can be determined within pretty close limits. The Megaric comedy appears to have flourished, in its full developement, about 01. 45 or 46, b. c. 600 and onwards ; and it was introduced by Susarion into Attica between 01. 50 and 54, b. c. 580—564. ( Plut. Sol. 10; Marin. Par. Ep. 39 ; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Grace. pp. 19,20.) The Megaric comedy appears to have consisted chiefly in coarse and bitter personal jests, and broad buffbonery, and this character it retained long after its offspring, the Attic comedy, had be- come more refined. (Meineke, pp. 20 — 24.) That the comedy of Susarion partook of a like rudeness and buffoonery might reasonably be supposed, even if it were not expressly asserted by ancient writers (Anon, de Com. p. xxxii. ; Diomed. Grammat. iii. p. 486) ; but there can be no doubt that, in his hands, a great and decided advance was made in the character of the composition, which now in fact, for the first time, deserved that name. One change, which he introduced, is alone suflicient to mark the difference between an unregulated exer- cise of wit and an orderly composition ; he was the first who adopted the metrical form of language for comedy (ttjs i^jxerpov Ku/xcpSias apxvj^s iyeucTO^ Schol. Dion. Thrac. p. 748 ; Tzetzes, ap. Cramer. Anecd. vol. iii. p. 336 ; Schol. Hermog. ap. Reisk. Orat, Graec. vol. viii. p. 9b9 ; Bentley, Phal.) It is not, however, to be inferred that tlie comedies of Susarion were written ; Bentley has shown that the contrary is probably true. They were brought forward solely through the medium of the chorus, which Susarion, doubtless, sul)jected to certain rules. (Marm. Par. vv. 54, 55, as restored by Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. p. 301.) It seems most probable that his plays were not acted upon waggons. (Meineke, p. 25.) Of the nature of his subjects we know nothing for certain ; but it can hardly be conceived that his comedies were made up entirely of the mere jests which formed the staple of the Megaric comedy ; although there could only have been a very imperfect approach to anything like connected argument or plots, for Aristotle expressly tells us that Crates was the first who made Koyovs ^ fivdovs. (Pott.y. 6 ; Crates.) The improvements of Susarion, then, on the Me- garic comedy, which he introduced into Attica, may be said to have consisted in the substitution of premeditated metrical compositions for irregular extemporaneous effusions, and the regulation of the chorus to some extent. It was long before this new species of composition took firm root in At- tica ; for we hear nothing more of it until eighty- years after the time of Susarion, where the art revived in the hands of Euetes, Euxenides, and Myllus, at the very time when the Dorian comedy was developed by Epicharmus in Sicily. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 18—26.) [P. S.J SYADRAS. [Chartas.] SYAGER (2vo7pos), a Lacedaemonian, was the deputy from his state in the embassy which the Greeks sent to Gelon, to ask his assistance against Xerxes. [Gelon.] Syager indignantly rejected, on behalf of Sparta, the condition insisted on by the tyrant, that he should have the supreme com- mand of the allied armament. (Herod, vii. 153, 159.) [E.E.J