Suidas

“ Suidas speaking of the visible and invisible, this said he, cannot wel be expressed in words; it is as little flyes which flye in the summer, which by displaying their wings, fly into the eyes with [Pg 109] small sparkling fires ”

“ For example, there is Tyrannion the grammarian, in the reign of Sulla, who had three thousand volumes. Epaphroditus of Chaeronea, also a grammarian by profession, is another example. Suidas says of him that he lived at Rome from the time of Nero to that of Nerva, and was so assiduous a purchaser of books that he collected thirty thousand of them, and they of the best and rarest. ”

“ Fifty plays are attributed to him by Suidas, among others a Bacchae or Pentheus, from which we have the fragment: "This I understand, woman though I be; that the more man seeketh to know the Gods' mysteries, the more shall he miss knowledge." ”

“ Suidas has two, of one of whom he says that he was the disciple of Diogenes the Cynic, or, according to Hermippus, of Stilpon, that he was the teacher of Alexander in grammar, and that he wrote dialogues, one of which was entitled Κόδρος ; of the other, Suidas says that, having gone from Aegina to Athens, in order to see the city, he heard Diogenes, and addicted himself to philosophy : and that his brother, having been sent by his father to Athens to fetch him home, also staid there, and became a philosopher ”

“ However, as at the beginning of the Punic war the number of its inhabitants is said to have amounted to seven hundred thousand, while it was pronounced by Suidas the largest and most powerful city upon earth, I cannot believe it to have been no more 40than fifteen miles in circumference, an extent not at all answerable to the idea which the ancients have left us of its greatness. It seems probable, therefore, that our traveller’s survey was hastily and imperfectly performed. ”

“ HELLANICUS of Lesbos, Greek logographer, flourished during the latter half of the 5th century B.C. According to Suidas, he lived for some time at the court of one of the kings of Macedon, and died at Perperene, a town on the gulf of Adramyttium opposite Lesbos. Some thirty works are attributed to him—chronological, historical and episodical. Mention may be made of: The Priestesses of Hera at Argos, a chronological compilation, arranged according to the order of succession of these functionaries ”

“ It is by these observations, and a wary reasoning by analogy in that kind of argumentative process, which Suidas calls dialectick induction—that I draw and set up this position as most true and veritable;
That of these two luminaries so much of their irradiations are suffered from time to time to shine down upon us, as he, whose infinite wisdom which dispenses every thing in exact weight and measure, knows will just serve to light us on our way in this night of our obscurity ”

“ Remembering the constant confusion of the names Philiscus and Philistus, we may safely ascribe to this orator the δημηγορίαι, which Suidas mentions among the works of the historian Philistus of Syracuse. (Suid. s. v. Φίλιστος ; it is also to be observed that Suidas, in addition to his article Φίλιστος, gives a life of the Syracusan historian under the head of Φίλισκος ἢ Φίλιστος, comp. Philistus) . Suidas (s. v. Τίμαιος) states that the historian Timaeus was a disciple of Philiscus of Miletus ”

“ We also find in Suidas the phrase Ἀργεῖοι φῶρες, and this explanation: Ἐπὶ τῶν προδήλως πονηρῶν· οἱ γὰρ Ἀργεῖοι ἐπὶ κλοπῇ κωμῳδοῦνται. Ἀριστοφάνης Ἀναγύρῳ.
No part of this play remains, so that we are left to general reasoning: but it seems a most natural explanation of this proverb or phrase, that the word Ἀργεῖος, meaning wild and savage, should be applied to banditti: theft in the early stages of society, always frequenting solitary places, as in the later ones, it rather draws to the most crowded haunts of men. ”

“ Suidas (most probably from the history of Eunapius) has given a very unfavorable picture of Timasius. The account of his accuser, the judges, trial, &c., is perfectly agreeable to the practice of ancient and modern courts. (See Zosimus, l. v. p. 298, 299, 300.) ”

“ Divination from involuntary movements of various parts of the body—παλμικόν, as Suidas calls it, on which one Poseidonios was a leading authority—is still very generally practised, and evidently has deviated hardly at all from ancient lines. The twitching of a man’s eye or eyebrow is a sign that he will soon see some acquaintance—an enemy, if it be the left eye that throbs, a friend, if it be the right; and this clearly was the principle which the goat-herd of Theocritus followed when he exclaimed, ‘My eye throbs, my right eye ”

“ All things proper to animate substances, and which have life, for life is ever accompanied with heat and motion, which proceeds from heate, rather then heate from motion; although they be reciprocalls, for one cannot be without the other. But Suidas thereupon formed such a contradiction, that not onely animals, but all that which take nourishment and encrease, tend to a certaine butt, whither being come, it stayes without passing any further, where neither nourishment nor increase of fire are limited nor determined ”

“ Les colons avoient enchéri sur les anciens en inventions, pour torturer leur semblables: telle est, par example, l’énorme triangle de fer au cou des nègres, pour les empêcher de fuir. Cependant, la coutume de museler les esclaves, de leur cadenasser la bouche afin qu’ils ne puissent se désaltérer en suçant une canne à sucre, n’est qu’une imitation de l’antiquité, car Suidas et Pollux nous apprennent qu’on leur mettoit au cou une machine, nommé pausicape, en forme de roue, qui les empêchoit de porter la main à la bouche et de manger de la farine lorsqu’on les occupoit à tourner la meule. ”

“ In which enumeration I perceive learned [234] men are not satisfied, and many conclude an irreconcilable incertainty; some making more, others fewer, and not this certain number. For Suidas, though he affirm that in divers ages there were ten, yet the same denomination he affordeth unto more; Boysardus in his Tract of Divination hath set forth the Icons of these Ten, yet addeth two others, Epirotica, and Ægyptia; and some affirm that Prophesying women were generally named Sibyls.
Others make them fewer: Martianus Capella two; Pliny and Solinus three; Ælian four ”

“ In Rome Galen remained for some years, greatly extending his reputation as a physician, and writing some of his most important treatises. It would appear that he eventually betook himself to Pergamus, after spending some time at the island of Lemnos, where he learned the method of preparing a certain popular medicine, the “terra lemnia” or “sigillata.” Whether he ever revisited Rome is uncertain, as also are the time and place of his death. According to Suidas, he died at the age of seventy, or in the year 200, in the reign of Septimius Severus. ”

“ He is by Suidas supposed to have been the Vulcan of Memphis. Φθας, ὁ Ηφαιστος παρα [216] Μεμφιταις. And Cicero makes him the same Deity of the Romans. [217] Secundus, (Vulcanus) Nilo natus, Phas, ut Ægyptii appellant, quem custodem esse Ægypti volunt. The author of the Clementines describes him much to the same purpose. [218] Αιγυπτιοι δε ὁμοιως—το πυρ ιδιᾳ διαλεκτῳ Φθα εκαλεσαν, ὁ ἑρμηνευεται Ἡφαιστος. [219] Huetius takes notice of the different ways in which this name is expressed: Vulcano Pthas, et Apthas nomen fuisse scribit Suidas. ”

“ Suidas says that Nannak was an aged king before Deucalion (Noah) , and that, foreseeing the Deluge, he called all his subjects together into the temple to pray the gods with many tears to remit the evil.161 And Stephanos, the Byzantine lexicographer, says that Annakos lived at Iconium in Phrygia, and that to weep for Annak, became a proverb.
XI.
THE GIANTS.
The Giants, say the Cabbalists, arose thus.
Aza and Azael, two angels of God, complained to the Most High at the creation of man, and said, “Why hast Thou made man who will anger Thee?” ”

“ An old Spanish merchant told me that at certain times almost all of the able-bodied men of the tribe trekked north to hunt for these caches which their ancestors made. In any case it is a fact that many ancient objects have been found by these Sous in the ruins of the old Roman towns.
When the great caids with fire and sword established their authority throughout the Atlas, the golden days of freebooting for the Sous came to an end. ”

“ The day before we left Souâkin a French Consul and two American gentlemen (a doctor and missionary, who were at Shepheard’s Hotel in November last at the same time that we were) , came on board. They had been to the White Nile. We have quite a menagerie on board—parrots, paroquets, tiger-cats, jackals, monkeys, baboons, extraordinary looking geese, two enormous tortoises, and other animals. We took on board a good many cattle for Suez, and left the Soudan for [314] good at 9 a.m. next day, April 22nd, arriving, after a very pleasant, but warm voyage, at Suez about 3 a.m. ”

“ But of all the isolated remnants of the ancient Ethiopic empire to the south of Abyssinia, Susa would appear to be the most important and the most powerful. This kingdom is situated beyond Cáffa, and extends to the head of the Gitché, which rises in Chára-Nára, and is one of the principal sources of the Gochob. The rains are violent during three months of the year, and the climate is excessively cold, the elevation being much greater than that of Shoa, whilst beyond are mountains which “seem to touch the skies, and are covered with perpetual snow.” ”

“ All the men wear the kilt of the South Seas, the sulu, ridi, or lava-lava, and as often as not a tunic besides. Nearly all the women are clothed in “pinafore” dresses, infinitely graceful and becoming. Men and women alike adorn themselves with flowers, wreaths of flowers in their hair, flowers interwoven in their sulu’s, [Pg 50] garlands of flowers around the neck, in addition to countless strings of shells and beads.
That they loved Tusitala with a deep and lasting affection is undoubted, and if proof were needed this touching little story may be taken as but one of many evidences. ”

“ The subcutaneous air-cells of Sula are most remarkable. The newly-hatched young are blind and helpless, being naked and covered with blackish skin in Sula, Phalacrocorax, Plotus, and Pelecanus, though they soon acquire a white downy coat; in Phaëthon and Fregata they are similarly clothed on breaking the shell. The down of the adults is uniformly distributed, the aftershaft is diminutive or wanting. The gular sacs, horny excrescences on the beak, crests, and so forth, are noted below. ”

“ Suso supported him on the other side and so they walked slowly to a seat beneath a great flowering bush near the house. Having found his seat and being wrapped in his feather mantle by Suso, he asked the youth to play the flute again. Huathia was ready and willing, but somehow the memory of the two-headed toad and the two white snakes made him nervous, and when he put his flute to his lips no sweet sounds came, but instead rude noises like the hissing of snakes and the croaking of frogs and the screeching of parrots. Even Suso stopped her ears and her father bade the youth cease his noise. ”

“ River Suse discharges itself into the ocean. This fine river rises at Ras-el-Wed, at the foot of Atlas, about thirty miles from the city of Terodant. The (fulahs) cultivators of land, and the gardeners of Suse have drained off this river so much in its passage through the plains of Howara and Exima, that it is fordable at its mouth at low water in the summer, so that camels and other animals are enabled to cross it with burthens on their backs: at its mouth is a bar of sand which at low water almost separates it from the ocean. ”

“ The slaves are collected from all parts of the archipelago, from Acheen Head to New Guinea, and from the south of Siam to the most northern parts of the Philippines: it is a regular slave market. The Sulus themselves are a better-looking people than any I have yet seen; they are daring and independent, [193] and the mountaineers, particularly, are a wild but polite people. Their young women and little girls are dark-eyed and good-featured, with easy figures ”

“ It is probably the Suag, mentioned in his journal, observed first at Aghedem, and said to be “a tetrandrous plant having a small drupa, which is in great request in Bornou and Soudan, for removing sterility in females: it is sweetish and hot to the taste, approaching to Sisymbrium Nasturtium;” and that “in passing the plant a heavy narcotic smell is always perceived.”
I have here united Sodada with Capparis, not being able to find differences sufficient to authorise its separation even from the first section of that genus, as given by De Candolle. ”

“ It is here, too, that the original name of this people, Sasu, is preserved in the modern word Susa, of whom, as a nation, we scarcely possess any information more than sufficient, to warrant the mere assertion that such a people now exist highly civilized, and using a peculiar written character dissimilar to any with which the literati of Europe are acquainted. ”

“ For if we except the dates which grow between Suez and Suaquem, the ground does not yield the least product; all the necessaries of life, even water, is wanting. Nothing can support itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches, which devour stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number of eggs, part of which they break to feed their young with. ”