SYNAUS
382
SYNAXARION
a site was generally chosen outside the city gate and
either by the seaside or river-side (Acts, xvi, 13).
The Tosephta (Megilla, IV, 22) ordains that the
synagogue be in the highest place of the city and face
to the east. The ruins of Galilean synagogues show
no observance of this ordinance.
(2) Style of Architecture. — There seems to have been no established style of synagogal architecture. Until recent years, the synagogue has been built in what- soever style had vogue in the place and at the time of building. The ruined synagogue of Merom is in severe Doric. That of Kafr Bir'im is in a Gra>co- Roman modification of Corinthian. The building is quadrangular in form. On the main facade there are three doorways, each of which has a highly orna- mented architrave; above the centre doorway is a carefully carved Roman arch. Later on, Russian synagogues were built in decidedly Russian style. In Strasburg, Munich, Cassel, Hanover, and elsewhere the synagogues show the influence of the different styles of the churches of those cities. The cruciform plan is naturally not followed; the transepts are omitted. Synagogues of Padua, Venice, Livorno and other Italian cities are in the Renaissance style. Since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Moorish forms have gradually come to be considered the distinctive trait of synagogal architecture. El Transito and Santa Maria la Blanca, both in Toledo, are two of the finest examples of this Moorish architecture under Jewish influence.
(3) Interior Setting. — The Ark, aron tebah, contain- ing the sacred scrolls, stood at the eastern end opposite the entrance to the rectangular building. In the center was a raised platform (iS^M", ri?2'2), and there- upon the lectern {dmXoyfTov, 'j;iVjN). This elevated platform is also called " Almemar", a word corrupted from the Arabic Al-minliar, the "chair", the "pul- pit ". These two furnishings are the most essential in- terior settings of the sjmagogue. The Ark was originally but a niche in the wall. In time, as the most dignified feature, it received most concern in the decorative scheme. Nowadays, it is raised on high, approached by three or more steps and covered by an elaborately embellished canopy. The Almemar, too, has under- gone various embellishments. It is approached by steps, sometimes has seats, is railed in and at times surrounded by a grille, round about or on both sides of it, are the seats for the congregation (kXo'ti)/), -"^br). The first seats, irpwroKaOeSpla (cf. Matt., xxiii, 6; Mark, xii, 39; Luke, xi, 43 and xx, 46) are those near- est the Ark; they are reserved for those who are high- est in rank (cf. Tosephta, Megilla, IV, 21). Women, at least since the Middle Ages, sit in galleries to which they enter by stairways from the outside. These galleries were formerly set very high; but now are low enough to show both the Ark and the Almemar.
ScHttRER, Cesch., II (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1S73), 427-64, tr. (Edinburgh, 18S5-87); Ghatz, GescA., IV-XI (Leipzig, 1863-88); ZUNZ, GuUesdienstliche Vorlrtiqeder Juilen (Berlin, 1832) ; Dalman, Synagogaler GaUesdien."/. in HKBZor'a Real-Encyklopadie; Abra- hams, Jewish Life in Ih,- .\fi.l,ll,' .l„,s (London, 1896); Low, Der Synagogale Rilus in M-t,„h .el,nfl. 1884, IV, 1-71; Kohler, Ueber die Ursprtlnge u. timn^lformtn der synagogalen Liturgie in Monatsschrift, 1893, XXXVII, 441-51.
Walter Drum.
Synaus (Synaitansis), a titular see in Phrygia Pacatiana, suffragan of Laodicea. Nothing is known of the history of this city located by Ptolemy (V, ii, 22) in Cireat Phrygia, and in the sixth century by Hieroclcs ((168, 13), in Phrygia Pacatiana, its metropolis being Laodicea. It is now Semao (or Simao), chief town of a caza in the vilayet of Broussa near the springs of Semav Sou, formerly Macestus; containing .'iOOO inhabitants all Mussulmans. It has a few inscriptions but no ruins. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 813) mentions the following bishoi)s: Arabiua, represented by his m(>troi>()litan at Chalce- don (451); Pronimus, at Constantinople (."JSS};
Stephanus, at Nicsa (787); Constantine at Con-
stantinople (869); Sisinnius and Eusebius, support-
ers respectively of St. Ignatius and Photius, at the
Photian Council of Constantinople (879); Isaac, at
the Council of Constantinople (1351), which approved
the doctrines of Palamas. To these may be added
Stephanus, whose name occurs in the inscription
(eighth century?) "Corp. inser. graec", S666 per-
haps the Stephanus mentioned in 787. In 1394 the
See of Synaus was united to Philadelphia. In the
seventh century it was still suffragan of Laodicea;
it seems also that at this time it was united to the
See of Ancyra, now Kilissd Keui. In the ninth cen-
tury it was attached to the metropolis of Hierapolis
and remained .so till its disappearance, as appears from
the Greek "Notitiae episcopatuuni " ; however, the
Roman Curia's official list of titular sees makes it
suffragan of Laodicea.
Hamilton. Researches in Asia Minor, II (London, 1842), 124; Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; Texier, Asie mineure, 407; Cuin'ET, La Turquie d'Asie, LV, 222; Wachter, Der Verfall des Griechentums in Kleinasien im XIV. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1903), 62.
S. PETRlniiS.
Synazarion (irwa^dpiov, collection), the name of a liturgical book of the Byzantine Church. The exact meaning of the name has changed at various times. Its first use was for the index to the Biblical and other lessons to be read in church. In this sense it corresponds to the Latin Capitulare and Comes (see Lessons in the Liturgy). Then the Synaxarion was filled up with the whole text of the pericopes to be read. As far as the Holy Liturgy was concerned this meant that it was replaced by the "Gospel" and "Apostle" books. Synaxarion remained the title for the index to other lessons. Without changing its name it was filled up with complete texts of these lessons in the same way. As the lessons in the By- zantine Divine Office are always lives of saints, the Synaxarion became the collection of short lives of saints and accounts of events whose memory is kept (like the lessons of our second noctum). It is often compared to the Roman MartjTology. The parallel would be more exact, if we imagine the second nocturn lessons arranged together in a separate book. The mere index of such lessons is generally called p.Tivo\6yiov eopTa(jriK6v^ a book hardly needed or used, since the Typikon suppUes all that is wanted. There are a great number of medieval Synaxaria ex- tant in manuscript. They are important for Byzan- tine heortology and church history. The short lives that form the lessons were composed or collected by various writers. Of these SjTueon Metaphrastes (q. V.) is the most important. The accounts are of very varying historical value. Emperor Basil II (976-1025) ordered a revision of the Synaxarion, which forms an important element of the present official edition (Analecta Bollandiana, XIV, 1895, p. 404). The Synaxarion is not now used as a separate book; it is incorporated in the Menaia. The ac- count of the saint or feast is read in the Orthros after the sixth ode of the Canon. It is printed in its place here, and bears each time the name awa^ipiov as title. Synaxarion then in modern u-se means, not the whole collection, but each separate lesson in the Menaia and other books. An example of such a Synaxarion (for St. Martin I, 13 April) will be found in Nilles, op. cil., infra, I, xlix. Certain metrical calendars extant in the Middle Ages were also called ' Synaxaria. Krumbacher ("Gesch. der bvzantin. Lit.", 2nd ed., Munich, 1897, pp. 738, 755) de- scribes those composed by Christopher of Mytilene (d. about 1050) and Theodore Prodromus (twelfth century).
The Menologion (Synniarlon) nf Basil II wiw edited by Ur- BiNO (3 vols., 1727), reprinted in P. G.. CWW; Ai.i.ATins, Dt lihris ec-rles. Grar.orum (V&r\». 164.'>). 78-93; Dei.ehaye. /-« Sv- rfe Sirmond in Analeeia Bolland., XIV (1895). 396-434;
