speeches, those that bore his name being written by a certain P. Canutius (or Cannutius). He is one of the interlocutors in Cicero's De oratore.
See Appian, Bell. civ. i. 55-60; Plutarch, Sulla and Marius; Vell. Pat. ii. 18; Livy, Epit. 77; E. A. Ahrens, Die drei Volkstribunen (Leipzig, 1836); Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, bk. iv. ch. 7; Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, vol. ii. ch. 17.
SULPICIUS RUFUS, SERVIUS (c. 106-43 B.C.), surnamed Lemonia from the tribe to which he belonged, Roman orator and jurist. He studied rhetoric with Cicero, and accompanied him to Rhodes in 78 B.C. Finding that he would never be able to rival his teacher he gave up rhetoric for law (Cic. Brut. 41). In 63 he was a candidate for the consulship, but was defeated by L. Licinius Murena (q.v.), whom he subsequently accused of bribery; in 51 he was successful. In the Civil War, after considerable hesitation, he threw in his lot with Caesar, who made him proconsul of Achaea in 46. He died in 43 while on a mission from the senate to Antony at Mutina. He was accorded a public funeral, and a statue was erected to his memory in front of the Rostra. Two excellent specimens of Sulpicius's style are preserved in Cicero (Ad. Fam. iv. 5 and 12). Quintilian (Instit. x. 1, 116) speaks of three orations by Sulpicius as still in existence; one of these was the speech against Murena, another Pro or Contra Aufidium, of whom nothing is known. He is also said to have been a writer of erotic poems. It is as a jurist, however, that Sulpicius was chiefly distinguished. He left behind him a large number of treatises, and he is often quoted in the Digest, although direct extracts are not found (for titles see Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Lit. 174, 4). His chief characteristics were lucidity, an intimate acquaintance with the principles of civil and natural law, and an unrivalled power of expression.
See R. Schneider, De Servio Sulpicio Rufo (Leipzig, 1834); O. Karlowa, Römische Rechtsgeschichte, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1885); the chief ancient authority is Cicero.
SULTAN (an Arabic word meaning “victorious” or “a ruler,” sultat, dominion), a title of honour borne by a great variety of rulers of very varying powers and importance in Mahommedan Africa and the East. The word has thus no exact equivalent in English, and was early imported into the language in the Middle English form of soudan (from old Fr. soudan, souldan). This title is that conventionally applied by foreigners to the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, the sultan par excellence, whose proper styles are, however, padishah (emperor) and “commander of the faithful” (see Amir). The feminine form “sultana” is derived from the Italian (fem. of sultano).
SULTANPUR, a town and district of British India, in the Fyzabad division of the United Provinces. The town is on the right bank of the river Gumti, midway between Benares and Lucknow, on the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway. Pop. (1901), 9550.
The District of Sultanpur has an area of 1713 sq. m. The surface is generally level, being broken only by ravines in the neighbourhood of the rivers. The central portion is highly cultivated, while in the south are widespread arid plains and swampy jhils or marshes. The principal river is the Gumti, which passes through the centre of the district and affords a valuable highway for commerce. Minor streams are the Kandu, Pili, Tengha and Nandhia, the last two being of some importance, as their channels form the outlet for the superfluous water of the jhils, draining into the Sai. There are no forests in the district, only stunted dhák jungles used for fuel. In 1901 the population was 1,083,904, showing an increase of less than 1% in the decade. Sultanpur is a purely agricultural district with a very dense population, The principal crops are rice, pulses, wheat, barley, sugar-cane and a little poppy. The main line of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from Lucknow to Rae Bareli and Mogul Serai serves the south-western portion.
The only incident worthy of note in the history of the district since the British annexation of Oudh is the revolt of the native troops stationed at Sultanpur during the Mutiny. The troops rose in rebellion on the 9th of June 1857, and, after murdering two of their officers, sacked the station. Upon the restoration of order Sultanpur cantonment was strengthened by a detachment of British troops; but in 1861 it was entirely abandoned as a military station.
See Sultanpur District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1903).
SUMACH. The Sumach of commerce is the finely ground leaves of Rhus coriaria, a native of the North Mediterranean region from Portugal to Asia Minor; it is a shrub or low tree with hairy leaves composed of 11 to 15 elliptical leaflets with large blunt teeth, and large loose panicles of whitish-green flowers. Another species, Rhus cotinus, known as Venetian Sumach, also a native of southern Europe and Asia Minor, yields the yellow dye-wood known as young fustic; it is also known as the Smoke-plant or Wig-tree, from the feathery or hairy appearance of the flower-stalks, which become elongated and hairy after the flowering. The genus Rhus is a member of the natural order Anacardiaceae and contains about 120 species of trees or shrubs mostly native in the temperature regions of both hemispheres. The leaves are alternate and simple or compound, with few to many entire-margined or serrated leaflets, and terminal or axillary panicles of small flowers with parts in fours or sixes. The species are mostly poisonous, some being especially noxious. Such are Rhus toxicodendron, the North American poison ivy, a shrub climbing on rocks and trees by means of rootlets, and poisonous to the touch. R. venenata, the North American poison elder sumach or dogwood, also contains an extremely irritant poison. R. vermicifera is the Japan lacquer or varnish-tree. Several species are cultivated in the British Isles as store, greenhouse or hardy trees.
Sumach, Rhus coriaria.
1. Flower. 2. Cluster of fruit. 3. One fruit. 4. A seed.
SUMATRA, the westernmost and, next to Borneo, the largest of the Great Sunda Islands in the Malay Archipelago. It stretches N.W. to S.E. from Malacca Passage to Sunda Strait, between 5° 40′ N. and 5° 59′ S., and 95° 16′ and 106° 3′ 45″ E. Its length is about 1100 m., its extreme breadth 250 m., and its area, including the neighbouring islands, except Banka and Billiton, is 178,338 sq. m. The northern half runs roughly parallel to the Malay Peninsula, from which it is separated by the Strait of Malacca, and the southern end is separated by the
