nes.

although the mode is rude and careless, the crops are often remarkable for their luxuriance; the most important are wheat, maize, barley, and pulse. Artificial grasses are grown to a small extent, and hemp is raised in the deeper and lower grounds. The vine and olive are extensively cultivated, and often intermixed. The other productions include sugar, barilla, cotton, sumach, saffron, manna obtained from a species of ash (Fraxinus ornus), and the mulberry, which is extensively applied to rearing silkworms. Various kinds of fruit abound. The most valuable kinds of timber are ash, oak, pine, elm, and chestnut. Cattle are not numerous, and are generally neglected. Sheep are extensively reared, but the breed is inferior, and in many places goats are preferred to them. Snakes are common in the plains, and wolves in the mountains.-The population is a mixture of many races, but the Sicanians or Siculians seem to have been the aborigiGreeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Herulians, Arabs, and Normans afterward settled among them. The Sicilians are of light olive complexion, middle stature, and well made. The dialect differs considerably from the Italian, being much mixed with Arabic and other languages. They are all Roman Catholics, excepting a number of descendants of modern Greek settlers, who adhere to the Greek church. The unequal distribution of landed property, the fatal rule of the Bourbons, the total neglect of education, and other untoward circumstances have produced great misery in Sicily; but the island is gradually improving under Victor Emanuel, although brigandage still prevails, especially under a wide-spread organization known as the Mafia. There are now elementary schools in the villages and higher schools in the towns, and Palermo has a celebrated university. Industry is not much developed, and the manufactures are limited chiefly to the larger towns. The wines of the country are largely exported, along with fruit, grain, oil, sulphur, silk, wool, sumach, &c. The fisheries are among the most productive in the Mediterranean.-The first inhabitants of Sicily are supposed to have come from the continent of Italy. The Phoenicians early founded colonies there, including Panormus (now Palermo) and Eryx. In the 8th century B. C. the Greeks drove them into the interior, and in that and the following two centuries established several colonies on the coasts, such as Zancle or Messana (Messina), Syracuse, Leontini (Lentini), Catana (Catania), several towns called Hybla, Gela, Selinus, and Agrigentum (Girgenti), of which Syracuse and Messana became the most celebrated. The Carthaginians invaded the island early in the 5th century and also established colonies, which, after long contests with the Greeks, finally fell under the power of Syracuse. (See SYRACUSE.) During the first Punic war Agrigentum was the principal stronghold of the Carthaginians, but was conquered by the Romans, who subse

quently obtained possession of the whole island, afterward their principal granary. Оп the decline of the Roman empire Sicily was overrun by barbarians. The Ostrogoths, who conquered it at the close of the 5th century, were expelled in 535 by the Byzantine general Belisarius. The Saracens occupied it about 830, and made Palermo their capital. In the 11th century they were driven out by the Normans, who established the feudal system, and united Sicily to Naples, with which its subsequent history is identified. (See SICILIES, THE Two.)-Among recent works on Sicily are: L'Histoire de la Sicile sous la domination des Normands, by Bazancourt (2 vols., Paris, 1846); Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, by Amari (Florence, 1853); Compendio della storia di Sicilia, by San Filippo (7th ed., Palermo, 1859); Neapel und Sicilien, by Lõher (2 vols., Munich, 1864); Siciliana, by Gregorovius, included in his Wanderjahre in Italien (4 vols., Leipsic, 1874); "History of Sicily to the Athenian War," by W. Watkiss Lloyd (London, 1874); and Geschichte Siciliens im Alterthum, by Ad. Holms (3 vols., Leipsic, 1874 et seq.).

SICKINGEN, Franz von, a German soldier, born in the castle of Sickingen, Baden, March 1, 1481, died May 7, 1523. He was rich and distinguished for valor and generosity. He encouraged the reformation, protected Reuchlin and Ulrich von Hutten, and offered an asylum to Luther. In 1513 he declared war against the city of Worms, and subsequently fought against the duke of Lorraine, levied large amounts of money upon Metz and other cities, and laid siege to Mentz, when the quarrel was adjusted by the emperor. In 1521 he invaded Picardy with the count of Nassau, but was forced by a stratagem of the chevalier Bayard, and by sickness in his army, to abandon the expedition. In 1522 a private dispute brought him into war with the archbishop of Treves, and he raised an army of 12,000 men and desolated his territories. In 1523 he was besieged in his castle Landstuhl near Kaiserslautern, and surrendered after receiving a mortal wound. He was one of the last nobles who maintained in Germany the right of private warfare. His descendants became counts of the empire; only one branch of them now survives.-See Ritter Franz von Sickingen und seine Nachkommen, by Schneegans (Creuznach, 1867). SICKLE. See SCYTHE.

SICKLE-BILL. See CURLEW.

SICKLES, Daniel Ephraim, an American general, born in New York, Oct. 20, 1822. He studied at the university of New York, but did not graduate, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In 1847 he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1853 was appointed corporation attorney in New York city. In the latter year he accompanied Mr. Buchanan to England as secretary of legation. He was elected to the state senate in 1855 and to congress in 1856, and reelected to the latter in 1858 and 1860. In 1859 he shot Philip Barton Key in Washington for

occupations, and partly, it has been suggested, through the machinations of Lord Burleigh. But he defended successfully the character of his father, whose administration in Ireland had been misrepresented by enemies at court. When admonished by the queen, in consequence of a dispute between himself and the earl of Oxford, of the difference in degree between earls and gentlemen, he replied that, "although Oxford was a great lord by birth, alliance, and grace, yet he was no lord over him; and therefore the difference of degrees between freemen could not challenge any other homage than precedency." Although the answer was taken in good part by the queen, Sidney deemed it prudent to retire for a while from court; and while residing at the seat of his sister, the countess of Pembroke, he wrote his pastoral romance of "Arcadia," which is in prose, interspersed with short poems. It never received the finishing touches and corrections of the author, and was moreover left incomplete. After circulating in manuscript for several years, it was published by the countess of Pembroke in 1590; and such was its popularity, that previous to the middle of the 17th century upward of ten editions had appeared, and a French translation was published in 1624. To this period also probably belong the "Defence of Poesie," published in 1595, and originally designed as an answer to the attacks of the Puritans, and the series of amatory poems entitled "Astrophel and Stella" (1591), which recount the author's passion for Lady Rich, sister of Lord Essex, to whom he was at one time betrothed. In the intervals of his literary occupations he participated in courtly pageants and jousts, the most conspicuous of all the brilliant circle who surrounded the throne; and in 1583 he married the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, and was knighted. In 1585 he was nominated governor of Flushing, and in the latter part of the year appointed general of horse under his uncle the earl of Leicester, who was sent with a body of English troops to aid the Dutch in their war of independence. Sidney was fast building up a reputation as a skilful general when his career was brought to an untimely close. On Sept. 22, 1586, a small detachment of English troops under his command unexpectedly encountered 3,000 Spaniards who were marching to the relief of Zutphen, and a desperate engagement was fought under the walls of the fortress, in which the enemy were signally defeated. Sidney, seeing the Spanish leader going into battle lightly armed, was induced by a chivalric spirit of emulation to imitate his example; and after a series of gallant charges, in which he had a horse killed under him, he received a musket ball in his left thigh. While leaving the field, "being thirsty with excess of bleeding," says Lord Brooke, "he called for drink, which was presently brought him; but as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor soldier carried along,

who had eaten his last at the same feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle. Which Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man, with these words: Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.'" He lingered several weeks in great agony, and met his death with Christian serenity, solacing even his last hours with literary composition. His body was taken to London, and after lying in state was interred in St. Paul's cathedral, Feb. 16, 1587; and a general mourning, the first on record in England, was observed. Spenser has embalmed their mutual friendship in a pastoral ode entitled "Astrophel." Sidney left an only daughter, who became fifth countess of Rutland, but died without issue; and his name is now represented in the English peerage by Lord De l'Isle, a descendant of his brother Robert. His "Complete Works" were published in 3 vols. 8vo (London, 1725), and his "Miscellaneous Works" were edited with a memoir by W. Gray (Oxford, 1829; reprinted, Boston, 1860). The latest edition of his works is "The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney," edited by the Rev. A. Grosart, in the "Fuller Worthies' Library," printed for private circulation (2 vols., 1873).-His sister MARY, countess of Pembroke (died Sept. 25, 1621), is intimately connected with his private history. He joined with her in a translation of the Psalter "into sundry kinds of verse," first printed in London in 1823. She wrote an elegy on her brother, a pastoral poem in praise of Astræa (Elizabeth), and a poem "On our Saviour's Passion," preserved in manuscript in the British museum, and published in 1862, besides translating from the French the "Tragedy of Antonie."

SIDON, or Zidon (Heb. Tzidon, fishery; now Saida), an ancient city of Phoenicia, on the coast, 23 m. N. of Tyre. According to Josephus, it was called Sidon after the first born of Canaan, but the name probably has reference to the first occupation of its inhabitants. From its antiquity it was termed the metropolis of Phoenicia. It seems to have been divided into Great Sidon, on the sea, and Little Sidon, some distance inland. The Phoenicians as a nation often designated themselves as Sidonians, and were generally called so by neighboring peoples. The period of the greatest prosperity of Sidon, according to the classical historians, was from about 1600 to 1200 B. C., during which time, as appears from the Egyptian inscriptions, it was more or less under the supremacy of Egypt. At the time of the Hebrew conquest of Palestine, the rule of Sidon extended over the N. W. part of that country. The ancient history of the town is in a measure that of the whole of Phoenicia, at least until the commencement of the supremacy of Tyre. (See PHOENICIA, and TYRE.) It flourished under the Persians, but was destroyed in 351 B. C., as a punishment for rebelling against Artaxerxes III. Ochus. It was thenceforth a provincial capital, but retained its own

local government until the time of Roman supremacy. Christianity early found an asylum here (Acts xxvii. 3), and a Sidonian bishop is mentioned as present at the Nicaean council of 325. On the rise of Moslem power it readily submitted to it. In 1108 it was invested by the crusaders, and in 1110 it was taken by Baldwin I. The Saracens captured it in 1187, but the Christians recovered it in 1197. They abandoned it in 1291, and Sultan Malek Ashraf ordered it to be razed. (See SAIDA.) SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS, Caius Sollius Modestus, a Latin author and saint, born probably in Lyons about A. D. 431, died at Clermont in Auvergne, in 482 or 484. He was a diligent student, and early acquired a high reputation. He married a daughter of Flavius Avitus, afterward emperor, accompanied him to Rome in 456, and pronounced his panegyric in verse before the senate, for which that body erected a bronze statue in his honor. He was prefect of Rome when Avitus was dethroned by Majorian. Sidonius pronounced at Lyons a public panegyric on the latter, by whom he was created a count and sent to govern the Gallic province of Arles. In 467 he went to Rome as ambassador of the Arverni, delivered a panegyric on the reigning emperor Anthemius, was made a patrician, and governor of the city a second time, and was honored with a second statue. In 472 he was elected bishop of Clermont (Arvernum), though only a layman, accepted the office reluctantly, fulfilled its duties faithfully, and strenuously opposed the spread of Arianism. He left nine books of epistles of considerable historical interest, which, with his poems and panegyrics, were published in Milan in 1498 by Sirmond (Paris, 1614; republished by Labbe in 1652, the best edition), and by Migne in vol. lviii. of his Patrologie latine. See Saint Sidoine Appollinaire et son siècle, by Chaix (2 vols., Clermont-Ferrand, 1867-'8). SIDRA, Gulf of. See SYRTIS.

SIEBOLD. I. Philipp Franz von, a German traveller, born in Würzburg, Feb. 17, 1796, died in Munich, Oct. 18, 1866. He studied medicine, natural sciences, and geography, and in 1822 went to Batavia as a physician and naturalist in the Dutch service, and in 1823 to Japan as a member of the Dutch embassy. In 1826 he went to Yedo, and was involved in difficulties with the Japanese for procuring an official map of their country. Finally acquitted, he returned to Europe in 1830, but from 1859 to 1862 resided again in Japan. He published Nippon, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (20 vols., Leyden, 1832-'57); Fauna Japonica (jointly with Temminck and others, 1833 et seq.); Flora Japonica (1835 et seq.); Bibliotheca Japonica (jointly with J. Hoffmann, 6 vols., 1833-'41); and several other works on Japan. II. Karl Theodor Ernst von, a German physiologist, brother of the preceding, born in Würzburg, Feb. 16, 1804. After teaching in various places, he became in 1853 professor of physiology, comparative anatomy, and after

ward also of zoology, at Munich. His principal works are Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anato│mie der wirbellosen Thiere (Berlin, 1848; English translation, London, 1854), and Beiträge zur Parthenogenesis der Arthropoden (1871).

SIEDLCE. I. A W. government of Russia, in the kingdom of Poland, bordering on the governments of Lomza, Warsaw, Radom, Lublin, Volhynia, and Grodno; area, 5,534 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 543,392. It is level and fertile. The chief river is the Bug, which forms the E. and N. E. frontier. The principal towns are Siedlce, Miendzyrzecz, and Wlodawa. The government embraces the principal portions of the former palatinate of Podlachia. The more ancient Polish territory of the same name, however, lay mainly between the middle Bug and the Niemen. II. A town, capital of the government, 51 m. E. S. E. of Warsaw, with which it is connected by rail; pop. in 1867, 10,013. It has a fine palace and town hall, distilleries, sugar refineries, and manufactories of agricultural implements. During the wars between the Russians and Poles it was repeatedly taken and retaken.

SIEGE (Fr. siége, seat), a protracted military attack upon a fortified place. Such a place may sometimes be taken by throwing in heavy projectiles, explosive shells, incendiary balls, &c.; or by completely surrounding it, preventing reception of supplies, the defenders may be compelled to surrender; or, advancing by regular approaches, the besiegers may breach the walls, and carry the place by assault. The first is called a bombardment, the second a blockade, and the third a siege, which term is often also applied to the other two. In a strict sense, the term siege signifies the process of advancing toward a fortified place under cover of earth thrown up from trenches, silencing the fire from the work by a superior one, and breaching the ramparts, compelling a surrender or carrying the place by assault. Sieges are divided into ancient and modern, or those carried on before and after the application of gunpowder to military purposes.-Ancient Sieges. The ancients fortified a place by surrounding it with a wall of brick or stone, forming a continuous line around the city or town, high enough to render escalade difficult, and thick enough to offer considerable resistance to the battering ram. Sometimes there were two and even three of these walls, often connected by others to give them greater solidity. Outside of the wall was a ditch, always filled with water if circumstances permitted. The inhabitants were the defenders; and as their lives, liberty, and property were involved, the resistance in ancient sieges was more obstinate and persevering than that usually made in modern times. The modes of attack were by surprise, aided by treason or particular knowledge of unguarded points; by escalade, having surprised the place; by escalade in an assault, having outnumbered and overpowered the defenders; by blockade, having deprived