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Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/900

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SOTADES.
SOTERICHUS.

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 ((Symbol missingGreek characters)). 1. An Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy (Suid. s. v.), of whose plays we have the two following titles, (Symbol missingGreek characters) or (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Ath. vii. p. 293, a. ; Antiatt. p. 102), and (Symbol missingGreek 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 (Symbol missingGreek characters)), flourished at Alexandria about B.C. 280. He wrote lascivious poems, called ((Symbol missingGreek characters) or (Symbol missingGreek characters), in the Ionic dialect, whence they were also called (Symbol missingGreek characters). (Suid. s. v. ; Ath. xiv. p. 620, e.) They were also called (Symbol missingGreek 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 (Symbol missingGreek 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 : — (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Hephaest. p. 8. ed. Gaisford); (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Suid.) (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Suid.); (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Suid.); (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Hephaest. p. 21); (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Suid.).

The metre which he generally used, and which was called after him the Sotadean verse, was Ionic a Majore Tetrameter Brachycatiilectic (Symbol missingsymbol 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.) [P. S.]

SOTEIRA ((Symbol missingGreek 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 ((Symbol missingGreek 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 (Symbol missingGreek characters) (Plut. Arat. 53.) 2. Of Helios (Paus. viii. 31. § 4), and 3. of Bacchus. (Lycoph. 206.) [L. S.]

SOTER ((Symbol missingGreek 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 ((Symbol missingGreek 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 ((Symbol missingGreek 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 (Symbol missingGreek characters) in four books, one on Pantheia of Babylon (to (Symbol missingGreek characters)), another on Ariadne ( (Symbol missingGreek characters)), a life of Apollonius of Tyana, a poetical history of the taking of Thebes by Alexander the Great, entitled (Symbol missingGreek characters), and others. A scholiast on Lycophron (486) quotes a passage from his (Symbol missingGreek 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.