numerous coins of Histiaea in Euboea. Ranul Rochette remarks, that it is very curious to find the artist's name thus engraved on one of a class which are perhaps the most abundant of any of the Greek medals, and that, too, in a part of Greece which had before furnished no other example of such an usage. (R. Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 97, 2d ed.) [P. S.]
SO'TADES ((
Greek characters)). 1. An Athenian comic
poet of the Middle Comedy (Suid. s. v.), of
whose plays we have the two following titles,
(Greek characters) or (Greek characters) (Ath. vii. p.
293, a. ; Antiatt. p. 102), and (Greek characters)
(Ath. ix. p. 368, a.) Both these are erroneously
ascribed by Suidas and Eudocia to the more celebrated poet of Maroneia, with whom, indeed, the
comic poet was so frequently confounded, even in
ancient times, that Athenaeus (vii. p. 293, a.) expressly distinguishes them from one another. (Fa-
bric. Bibl. Græc. vol. ii. p. 495 ; Meineke, Frag.
Com. Græc. vol. i. p. 42fi, vol. iii. p. 585.)
2. A native of Maroneia in Thrace (or, according
to others, of Crete, but he is generally called
(Greek characters)), flourished at Alexandria about B.C.
280. He wrote lascivious poems, called ((Greek characters) or
(Greek characters), in the Ionic dialect, whence they were
also called (Greek characters). (Suid. s. v. ; Ath. xiv.
p. 620, e.) They were also called (Greek characters).
(Socrat. H. E. i. 9.) As other examples of this
species of composition, Athenaeus and Suidas men-
tion the works of Alexander the Aetolian, Pyres
(or Pyrrhus) the Milesian, Alexas, Theodorus,
Timocharidas and Xenarchus. Strabo (xiv. p. 648)
ascribes the beginning of this species to Sotades,
who, as well as his successor, Alexander the Aetolian, wrote in prose, while Lysis and Simus wrote
in metre; but there is some error in this statement, for we have express information respecting
the kind of metre which Sotades employed. It
would seem that Sotades carried his lascivious and
abusive satire to the utmost lengths; this appears
to be what Suidas means by calling him (Greek characters). The freedoms which he took at last
brought him into trouble. According to Plutarch
(Op. Mor. p. 1 1, a.) he made a vehement and gross
attack on Ptolemy Philadelphus, on the occasion
of his marriage with his sister Arsinoë, and the
king threw him into prison, where he rotted for a
long time. According to Athenaeus (l.c.)., the poet
attacked both Lysimachus and Ptolemy, and,
having fled from Alexandria, he was overtaken at
Caunus by Ptolemy's general Patroclus, who shut
him up in a leaden chest and cast him into the sea.
Of his works, we possess a few lines, and the
following titles : — (Greek characters) (Hephaest. p. 8. ed.
Gaisford); (Greek characters) (Suid.) (Greek characters)
(Suid.); (Greek characters) (Suid.); (Greek characters) (Hephaest.
p. 21); (Greek characters) (Suid.).
The metre which he generally used, and which
was called after him the Sotadean verse, was Ionic
a Majore Tetrameter Brachycatiilectic
(symbol characters)
admitting, however, of several variations. (Hephaest.
p. 63 ; Gaisf. ad Hephaest. p. 319).
Athenaeus (xiv. p. 620, e.) refers to commentaries on Sotades and his works by his son Apollonius, and by Carystius of Pergamus. He appears
to have had many imitators. Of the Latin poets,
Ennius, L. Accius, and others, are said to have
composed poems of the same species; and even
among Greek churchmen Arius was accused by
Athanasius of writing in a style approaching to the
"Sotadean poems." (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii.
pp. 495, 496 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. s. a. 280,
p. 500.)
3. An Athenian philosopher, who wrote a book on the mysteries. (Suid. s. v.)
4. A philosopher of Byzantium, of whom we know nothing but his name. (Suid. s. v.) Template:Dgrbm/P.S.
SOTEIRA ((Greek characters)),i. e. "the saving goddess"
(Lat. Sospita), occurs as a surname of several female
divinities in Greece, e. g. 1 . of Artemis at Pegae in
Megaris (Pans. i. 40. § 2, 44. § 7), at Troezene
(ii. 31.§ l),at Boeae in Laconia (iii. 22. § 9),
near Pellene (vii. 27. § 1); 2. of Persephone in
Laconia (iii. 13. § 2), in Arcadia (viii. 31. § 1);
3. of Athena (Schol. ad Plat. p. 90. ed. Ruhnken ;
Aristot. Rhet. m. 18) ; and 4. of Eunomia (Pind.
Ol. ix. 25.) [L. S.]
SOTER ((Greek characters)), i. e. "the Saviour" (Lat.
Servator or Sospes), occurs as the surname of several divinities:— 1. of Zeus in Argos (Paus. ii. 20. § 5), at Troezene (ii. 31. § 14), in Laconia
(iii. 23. § 6), at Messene (iv. 31. § 5). at Mantineia
(viii. 9. § 1 ), at Megalopolis (viii. 30. § 5; comp.
Aristoph. Ran. 1433 ; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8).
The sacrifices offered to him were called (Greek characters)
(Plut. Arat. 53.) 2. Of Helios (Paus. viii. 31. §
4), and 3. of Bacchus. (Lycoph. 206.) [L. S.]
SOTER ((Greek characters)), the Preserver, a surname of
Ptolemaeus I. king of Egypt, as well as of several
of the other later Greek kings.
SOTER, JULIUS, is supposed, on the authority of an inscription, to have been an artist in the fine species of mosaic, which was practised under the Roman emperors ; but the matter is open to controversy. The inscription (Orelli, Inscr. Lat. No. 4262), mentions the name of Soter as Pictoris Quadrigulari, which Welcker and others have explained in the above manner; but Raoul-Rochette, with more ingenuity than sound judgment, brings forward various arguments for reading Pistoris, and so turning the artist into a baker! (Welcker, Rhein. Mus. vol. i. p. 289; Mu:lier, Archäol. d. Kunst § 322, n. 4 ; R. Rochette, Lettre {[subst:a`}} M. Schorn, pp. 443—445. 2d ed.) Template:DGBRM/P. S.
SOTE'RIA ((Greek characters)), i. e., the personification
of safety or recovery (Lat. Salus) was worshipped
as a divinity in Greece, and had a Temple and a
statue at Patrae (Paus.vii.21. § 2,24. §2). Template:DGBRM/L.S.
SOTE'RICHUS ((Greek characters)) 1. Of Alexandria, a distinguished musician. (Plut. de Mus. 2.)
2. Of the Oasis, an epic poet of the time of
Diocletian. Suidas (s. v.) mentions, as his works,
an Encomium on Diocletian, a poem entitled (Greek characters) in four books, one on Pantheia of Babylon (to (Greek characters)), another on Ariadne ( (Greek characters)),
a life of Apollonius of Tyana, a poetical history of
the taking of Thebes by Alexander the Great,
entitled (Greek characters), and others. A
scholiast on Lycophron (486) quotes a passage
from his (Greek characters). (Fabric. Bibl. Græc. vol.
iii. p. 52 ; Vossius, de Hist. Græc. pp. 293, 294,
ed. Westermann.) Template:DGRBM/P. S.
SOTE'RICUS, MA'RCIUS, a freedman, from whom L. Crassus purchased his Tusculan villa (Cic. pro Bulb. 25). A. Gellius (xii. 2) makes mention of an inferior workman of the name of Sotericus, who must, however, have been a different person from the preceding.
