was in the middle ages a stronghold of some note. Charles I. of Anjou made Sora a duchy for the Cantelmi ; it was afterwards seized by Pius II., but, being restored to the Cantelmi by Sixtus IV., it ultimately passed to the Delia Rovere of Urbino. Against Caesar Borgia the city was heroically defended by Giovanni di Montefeltro. It was purchased by Gregory XIII. for n,ooo ducats and bestowed on the Buoncompagni, the ancestors of the line of Buoncompagni-Ludovisi. In ancient times Sora was the birthplace of the Decii, Attilius Regulus, and Lucius Mummius; and among its later celebrities is Cardinal Baronius. (T. As.)
SORACTE, a mountain in the province of Rome, Italy.
It is a narrow, isolated limestone ridge, some 5 m. S.E. of Civita
Castellana, and 3½ m. in length. The highest summit is 2267 ft.
above sea-level; just below it is a monastery removed there
from the summit in 1835; it was originally founded about 748
by Carloman, son of Charles Martel (the altar has, indeed,
fragments of sculptures of this period), and until modern times
was occupied by Trinitarian monks. On the actual summit is
a church. Owing to the isolated position of the mountain
the view is magnificent, and Soracte is a conspicuous object
in the landscape, being visible from Rome itself. It is thus
mentioned by Horace ("vides ut alta stet nive candidum
Soracte?" Carm. i. 9), and Virgil, who mentions Apollo as its
guardian deity, though no traces of his temple exist; and in reality
it was sacred to Dis Pater and the gods of the lower world. At
the bottom of the mountain on the east is a disused limestone
quarry. The village of S. Oreste at the south-east end of the
ridge owes its name to a corruption of the ancient name. In
the communal palace is a fine processional cross of the 11th
century in the Byzantine style (see Römische Quartalschrist,
1905, 209—Archaologie) .
SORANUS, Greek physician, born at Ephesus, lived during
the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian (A.D. 98–138). According
to Suïdas, he practised in Alexandria and subsequently in Rome.
He was the chief representative of the school of physicians
known as " methodists." Two treatises by him are extant :
On Fractures (in J. L. Ideler, Physici et medici minores, i. 1841)
and On Diseases of Women (first published in 1838, later by V.
Rose, in 1882, with a 6th-century Latin translation by Moschio, a
physician of the same school). Of his most important work (On
Acute and Chronic Diseases) only a few fragments in Greek
remain, but we possess a complete Latin translation by Caelius
Aurelianus (5th century). The Life of Hippocrates (in Ideler)
probably formed one of the collection of medical biographies
by Soranus referred to by Suïdas, and is valuable as the only
authority for the life of the great physician, with the exception
of articles in Suïdas and Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v. Κώς).
The Introduction to the Science of Medicine (V. Rose, Anecdota
graeca, ii. 1870) is considered spurious.
See article by J. Hahn, in Dechambre's Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales, 3rd series, tom. 10; W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur (1898); J. Ilberg, Die Überlieferung der Gynaekologie des Soranos von Ephesos (Leipzig, 1910).
SORANUS, BAREA, Roman senator, lived in the reign of
Nero. His gentile name was possibly Servilius. In 52 he was
consul suffectus, and (perhaps in 61) proconsul of Asia. The
upright and considerate manner in which he treated the pro-
vincials won him their affection, but at the same time brought
upon him the hatred of Nero, who felt specially aggrieved
because Soranus had refused to punish a city which had defended
the statues of its gods against the Imperial commissioners.
Soranus was accused of intimacy with Rubellius Plautus
(another object of Nero's hatred), and of endeavouring to obtain
the goodwill of the provincials by treasonable intrigues. One
of the chief witnesses against him was Egnatius Celer of Berytus,
his client and former tutor. Soranus was condemned to death
(in 65 or 66), and committed suicide. His daughter Servilia,
who was charged with having consulted the sorcerers, professedly
in regard to her father's fate, but in reality with evil designs
against the emperor, was involved in his downfall. The
accuser, who was condemned to death in the reign of Vespasian
for his conduct on this occasion, is a standing example of
ingratitude and treachery.
Tacitus, Annals, xvi. 30, 32; Hist. iv. 10; Juvenal iii. 116; Dio Cassius lxii. 26.
SORAU, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Brandenburg, on the Sorebach, 54 m. S.E. of Frankfort-on-
Oder by rail, and at the junction of lines to Cottbus and Görlitz.
Pop. (1905), 16,410. One of the oldest towns in Lower Lusatia,
Sorau contains a number of ancient buildings, among which the
most prominent are several of the churches (one dating from
1204), the town hall, built in 1260, and the old palace of 1207
(now a prison). The new palace, erected in 1711 by Count
Erdmann II. of Promnitz, is utilized for government offices.
The varied manufactures of the town comprise cloth, linen,
wax candles, starch, glass and porcelain.
Sorau is said to have existed in 840, and to have belonged to the abbey of Fulda till the 12th century. It received civic rights in 1260. With the surrounding district, known as the barony of Sorau, it became the seat of successive noble families; and in 1400 it was united with the barony of Triebel. The last Count of Promnitz, whose ancestor had purchased both baronies from Frederick of Bohemia in 1556, sold them in 1765 to the elector of Saxony for an annuity of 12,000 thalers (£1800). In 1815 Saxony ceded them to Prussia.
See Worbs, Geschichte der Herrschaft Sorau und Triebel (Sorau, 1826).
SORBONNE, the name given originally to the college founded
by Robert de Sorbon in Paris; hence applied afterwards popularly to the theological faculty, and so to the institution which
is now the seat of the Academie of that city (see Universities).
The Sorbonne owes its origin and its name to Robert of Sorbon,
near Reims (1201–1274), who went to Paris about the beginning
of the reign of St Louis in order to qualify for the priesthood,
attained high repute by his sanctity and eloquence, and was
appointed by the king to be his confessor. Assisted by royal
liberality, he built a modest establishment in which were
accommodated seven priests charged with the duty of teaching
theology gratuitously; to this he added a college of preparatory
studies, all under the direction of a provisor, under whom was
an annual prior who had the actual management. The new
institution was authorized in 1252 by a deed signed by Queen
Blanche, on behalf of Louis IX. (who was in Palestine); and in
1257 a site was given by the king in the heart of the Latin
quarter. It was declared " useful to religion " by Pope Alexander IV. in 1259, and papal bulls authorizing and confirming
the college were granted in 1263 and 1268. Destined originally
for poor students (and called domus magistrorum pauperrima,
" most poor house of masters "), the Sorbonne soon became a
meeting-place for all the students of the university of Paris,
who resorted thither to hear the lectures of the most learned
theologians of the period—Guillaume de Saint Amour, Eudes
de Douai, Laurent l'Anglais, Pierre d'Ailly. At the close of
the century it was organized into a full faculty of theology, and
under this definite form it conferred bachelors', licentiates'
and doctors' degrees, and the severity of its examinations gave
an exceptional value to its diplomas. The so-called " thèse
sorbonique," instituted towards the beginning of the 14th
century, became the type of its order by the length and difficulty
of its tests. Ultimately the professors of the Sorbonne came
to be resorted to not only for lectures and examinations, but
also for dogmatic decisions and judgments in canon law; the
clergy of France and of the whole Catholic world had recourse
to them in difficult cases, and the Curia Romana itself more
than once laid its doubts before them, giving them the title
of " Concilium in Gallia subsistens." To the Sorbonne belongs
the glory of having introduced printing into France in 1469:
within its precincts it assigned quarters for Ulric Gering and two
companions in which to set up their presses. The Sorbonne
took a leading part in the religious discussions which agitated
France during the 16th and 18th centuries, and its influence
thus inevitably extended to political questions. During the
insanity of Charles VI. it helped to bring about the absolutior
of Jean Sans-Peur for the assassination of the duke of Orleans
