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self at the head of the Italian party, and Sylla was driven from Rome. Hastening to the army that was besieging Nola, he easily prevailed upon it to obey his commands, and marched to Rome, of which he took possession, the Marians being unable to resist him. After restoring the former state of things, he led his army to Greece, of which the troops of Mithridates had taken possession. He besieged Athens, which was stormed March 1, 86, and plundered it. Piræus then fell into his hands; and he followed the enemy into Boeotia, inflicting a crushing defeat upon them at Charonea. A new army sent by Mithridates was defeated at Orchomenus. Sylla then crossed the Hellespont, and in 84 he granted peace to the Pontine monarch. He also defeated the Roman general Fimbria, who commanded the army sent by the Marians to the East. Having extorted large sums of money from the Asiatic cities, and leaving two legions in Asia, he led the rest of his army back to Greece to prepare for the war in Italy, where the Marian party had regained ascendency. He landed at Brundusium in the spring of 83. The senate sought to reconcile the chiefs of the two parties, but a treaty was impossible. Marius was dead, and Cinna, the ablest of his lieutenants, was murdered by his own soldiers; so that, though the Marians had an enormous force in the field, and were supported by the Italians, or new citizens, they had no military chief who could act against the conqueror of Mithridates. Sylla conciliated the Italians, making treaties with many of their towns, and promising to maintain them in the possession of their privileges. Partly by victories in the field and partly by intrigues, he dispersed or gained over both the consular armies that were opposed to him. He was now joined by several influential Romans, among whom were Crassus, Metellus Pius, and the youthful Pompey, the latter bringing with him 3 legions. In 82 Sylla defeated the younger Marius, who was one of the consuls for that year, and shut him up in Præneste. He then proceeded to Rome, and came very near meeting with total defeat at its gates; for Pontius Telesinus, the chief man among the Samnites, with whom the Lucanians were united, resolved to march direct upon the city, in order, as he said, to destroy the wolves of Italy in their den. The Samnite hate of the Romans had survived two centuries of subjugation, and Telesinus sought to accomplish that which his ancestors had failed to effect before the Roman arms had achieved any thing out of Italy. The Samnites had not received the new franchise, and they were animated by the most vindictive feeling toward the Romans. Failing to effect the relief of Præneste, which was besieged by Ofella, Telesinus proceeded to Rome, which was defenceless, and reached the city but a short time before Sylla also arrived at its gates. The battle that followed was one of the greatest ever fought. Sylla commanded the left wing of his army, which was routed and driven from the

field; but the right wing, under Crassus, was victorious, and retrieved the battle. The number of men who fell on both sides was 100,000. The Samnites and Lucanians who were captured were all put to death, and Præneste surrendered, young Marius having committed suicide on seeing the head of Telesinus. In a short time the greater part of the Roman world submitted to the victor, the only man who continued to resist his rule being Sertorius, who carried on the war in Spain until his own death, and for several years after the death of Sylla. The aristocratical leader took the severest vengeance on his enemies, and Italy was the scene of a reign of terror. He introduced the proscriptions, which were lists of his enemies that were exhibited in the forum, and all persons were authorized to kill any one whose name could there be found. To gratify his adherents, he placed in these lists the names of their enemies, or those of persons whose property they desired to seize. He caused himself to be appointed dictator, thus reviving an office that had been unknown to the Romans for 120 years; but while he was dictator he was elected consul. No one of the Cæsars was ever more powerful than was Sylla during his dictatorship, supported as he was by an enormous army, by a large number of slaves whom he had enfranchised (they had belonged to persons who had figured in the proscriptions), by the military colonies he had established throughout Italy, and by the influence which had been created by his successes, his energy, and his cruelty. During his dictatorship a large number of laws were adopted tending to concentrate the power of the state in the aristocracy. He took from the assemblies of the tribes their legislative and judicial power, and also the right to elect priests. No matter was allowed to be brought before the centuries without the previous sanction of a senatus consultum. Hə filled up the senate, and placed the government of the provinces entirely in its hands; and renewed the old laws with regard to magistrates, requiring a regular gradation from office to office, and that no one should be reelected to the same office till after the expiration of 10 years. The number of questors was increased from 8 to 20; of prætors from 6 to 8. He reduced the power of the plebeian tribunes to a mere shadow of what it had been, and forbade all tribunes from aspiring to the higher curule offices. The right of self-election was restored to the ecclesiastical corporations, and the number of pontiffs, augurs, and keepers of the sibylline books was increased to 15 respectively. The aristocracy regained the privilege of having judges taken exclusively from the senatorian order, of which they had been deprived by Caius Gracchus. He reformed the criminal law, enacted sumptuary laws, and sought to regulate marriages. Few of his measures long survived him. "Sylla's enactments," says Mr. G. Long, "were not, like the imperial constitutions of a later day, the mere act of one who held

the sovereign power; they were laws (leges) duly passed by the popular assembly. Yet they were Sylla's work, and the legislative body merely gave them formal sanction. The object of Sylla's constitutional measures was to give an aristocratical character to the Roman constitution, to restore it to something of its pristine state, and to weaken the popular party by curtailing the power of the tribunes." As soon as he had completed his legislation, Sylla resigned his dictatorship (79 B. C.), and gave to the people an account of his conduct as a public officer. He had none of that ambition which afterward led Cæsar to found the imperial power; but it may be doubted if he could have performed the part that Cæsar played, had he been inclined to take it. He valued the pleasures of sense and of letters as much as he did those of power, and, feeling secure in the strength of the system he had set up, he devoted the remainder of his days to personal indulgence, residing at Puteoli. He suffered from the horrible disease known as the morbus pediculosus; but it has been said that this is one of the calumnies of his enemies, that his illness was only a fever, and that his death was immediately occasioned by the bursting of a blood vessel. At the time of his triumph, in 81, he took the surname of Felix, because he attributed his success to the gods; and when he had to do with Greeks, he called himself Epaphroditus. Venus he claimed as his especial patroness, who had given him success both in love and in war. He was 5 times married, and his last wife, Valeria, gave birth to a daughter after his death. He wrote memoirs, in 22 books, the last of which was completed but two days before his death, and with his full knowledge that his end was near. He dictated his own epitaph, which says, in substance, that "none of his friends ever did him a kindness, and none of his enemies ever did him a wrong, without being fully repaid." "Sylla," says Mr. Long, "was an educated man; he was not a mere soldier like Marius. He was not only a general; he was a man of letters, a lover of the arts, a keen discriminator of men and times, a legislator, and a statesman. He remodelled and reformed the whole criminal law of the Romans. His constitutional measures were not permanent, but it may truly be said that he prepared the way for the temporary usurpation of Cæsar, and the permanent establishment of the Roman state under Augustus." SYLLOGISM. See LOGIC.

SYLVA, BUeno da. See BUENO DA SYLVA. SYMBOLS, CHEMICAL, abbreviations for expressing the chemical composition of bodies. The idea of representing the names of chemical substances by conventional signs or abbreviations appears to be a very old one. The alchemists were in possession of a set of hieroglyphics by which the metals, and the four so called elements, fire, air, earth, and water, and indeed many other substances, were designated.

At a later period, as chemical knowledge

became more consolidated, various modifications of the alchemistical notation were from time to time proposed, and adopted to a greater or less extent. Among these should be specially mentioned the system of notation offered in 1787 by Hassenfratz and Adet, as an appendix to Guyton de Morveau's revised system of nomenclature, since its failure enables us the better to appreciate the peculiar excellence of the system which now prevails. Here was a system of symbols by no means devoid of ingenuity, and much more complete than any previous method, published in connection with a new system of nomenclature, which was soon universally adopted, and recommended by the committee of the French academy by whom this nomenclature had been prepared; yet it met with little or no favor among chemists, and was soon forgotten. This last remark applies as well to the symbols proposed by Dalton in 1808, in connection with his writings upon the atomic theory. None of these systems ever came into general use, nor does it appear that they were of much value as instruments of study even in the special cases in which they were employed. It is to Berzelius that chemical science is indebted for the simple and rational system of notation now in use, which has done so much, especially of late years, to advance knowledge and to lighten the labors of chemical investigators. This system, in its first outlines at least, appears not to have been the result of any premeditated plan or special study, but to have followed incidentally as a natural result from the investigation of the combining proportions of bodies with which its author was occupied. Thus in 1814 he first mentions his symbols in a foot note to a memoir upon nitrous acid (Gilbert's Annalen der Physik, xlvi. 154), as convenient abbreviations for expressing the composition of bodies, which he has himself frequently employed in his private memoranda. Subsequently a more complete exposition of the plan appeared in his Lehrbuch, and in Poggendorff's Annalen, 1826, viii. 7. As a sign to express the name and combining equivalent of an element, Berzelius chose the initial letter of its Latin name; and in those cases where the names of several elements commence with the same letter, he annexed to the common initial the first of the following letters in the Latin name of the element which is peculiar to it; thus, the symbol C indicates an equivalent of carbon, Cl an equivalent of chlorine, and Cr an equivalent of chromium. (For a complete list of these symbols, see EQUIVALENT, CHEMICAL.) The symbols of binary compounds are formed by placing together the symbols of their components, CoO for example representing an equivalent of oxide of cobalt, from Co (cobalt) and O (oxygen); those of ternaries (salts) by uniting the symbols of their component binaries, a comma being placed between these, as CdO, SOs, sulphate of cadmium; and those of quaternaries (double salts) on the

same principle, a semicolon or the sign+being ficiently complete for most purposes of eleplaced between the binaries of which they are mentary instruction, it would be quite imformed, as CdO, SO;; MgO, SO, +6HO, hydrat- practicable to employ it in the study of very ed sulphate of cadmium and magnesia; the sign complex substances, for which other and vari+ is commonly used to indicate a component ous arrangements of the symbols are consewhich is less essential to the existence of the quently brought into use. Even for the most compound than the other ingredients, it being common and simple cases chemists have propossible in the cited case to remove the water posed methods of arrangement different from without destroying the compound CdO, SO.; the one just mentioned. Thus Davy in his so MgO, SO3. This supposed subordinate part called binary theory proposed to write K, SO. of the water of crystallization of salts is often instead of KO, SO, for sulphate of potash, &c.; denoted by putting the symbol Aq (aqua) in and others, objecting entirely to the theory place of HO. When it is desired to represent of dualism, have suggested the idea of giving more than one equivalent of a substance, figures special prominence to the empirical formula of in large type may be placed before, i. e., to the a substance, which in their view expresses all left of it, or in small type to the right or after our positive knowledge of its composition, leavit, just below the line upon which the symbol ing it to every one to theorize upon this as itself is placed. A figure on the left hand mul- he may please. It is precisely in affording fatiplies all the symbols to the right of it as far cilities for speculating upon and comparing the as the first comma, or indeed the whole formula composition of compounds, and for presenting when this is enclosed in brackets, while a small one's hypotheses to others, that the immense figure to the right multiplies only the letter, importance of chemical symbols chiefly lies; or bracketed formula, immediately to the left and this not only from the direct influence of it; thus NH3 (ammonia) denotes an equiv- which they exert in leading to new discoveries, alent of a compound containing 1N (nitrogen) but also indirectly in tending to prevent abrupt and 3H (hydrogen); Fe, O, denotes one equiv- changes and infinite confusion in the spoken alent of sesquioxide of iron, and 2Fe, O, two nomenclature, which would otherwise inevitaequivalents of the same base.-In constructing bly occur. For example, so long as Davy had formulas, it is also convenient to preserve a the means of expressing his view of the condefinite arrangement of the letters and mem- stitution of sulphate of potash by writing the bers. In the spoken names of chemical sub- formula K, SO, he had but slight incentive stances, as oxide of iron, chloride of potassium, to introduce a new name for this substance. &c., we first express the term which denotes The nomenclature is thus kept within limits, the acid or electro-negative component; but in ill defined though they be, which render it far the written symbols the reverse of this is cus- more useful than if it were allowed to vacillate tomary, the symbol of the basic or positive ele- and expand indefinitely. Berzelius's original ment being placed first, i. e., at the left hand, idea was to employ his symbols and formulas as FeO, KCl, &c. So too with the names of merely as convenient substitutes for the names salts, the formula of sulphate of potash being of substances, and this at an epoch when the written KO, SO3, not SOз, KO. The reason name was thought to express even the molecuof this order is that the symbols express not lar constitution of a compound, or the actual English but Latin words, and the construction arrangement of its component atoms-a view of the Latin language requires that the genitive which has since been very materially modified. must precede the nominative that governs it. It is now felt to be in many cases not only unFormulas are called rational when their several members are grouped so that they shall express either what some have supposed to be the actual arrangement of the components of the body which they represent, or in some conventional manner by which the relation which exists between the composition and properties of the body and its behavior toward other substances may be called to mind; and empirical formulas are those in which only the elements present and the number of equivalents of each are noted, without any definite arrangement being given to the list. Thus, Fez Os, 3SO3 is one way of writing a rational formula of tersulphate of iron, while Fe, S3 O12 is its empirical formula.-The system of collocation of symbols and formulas thus far described, which is that of the so called dualistic school of chemists, and the one of which the public at large has most cognizance, is employed only upon a portion of chemical substances. Although exceedingly convenient in certain cases, and suf

necessary and impossible, but often undesirable, to force the symbolic and the spoken nomenclatures into agreement with each other, however convenient such agreement may be in other instances, or even as the general rule. In many cases, where it would be impossible in practice to express an idea of the rational constitution of a substance by any combination of names, a single glance at its written formula is sufficient to convey this idea; and in others several different rational formulas may with equal propriety be assigned to one and the same substance, in which case the body may indeed also have several names, of which each might be better adapted than any of the others to express its composition in some one special instance; but as a rule, when a spoken name has once come into general use, it is not easy to substitute another for it, although the formula of the body may be changed as often as may be found convenient. In spite of all this, much confusion has no doubt arisen from the

multiplication of spoken names; but when compared with what might have been but for the use of symbols and formulas this is hardly deserving of mention.-Many chemists, claiming that in the existing state of science it is impossible that formulas can be made to express any thing more than the relations and analogies which bodies bear to each other, and that consequently those formulas must be the best which are capable of exhibiting the largest number of these relations and analogies, now make no effort to represent the actual arrangement of the atoms of chemical compounds, but seek only to designate the elements or groups which, in the double decompositions by which compounds are formed or destroyed, replace or are replaced by other elements or groups of elements. In order to do this, it has been found convenient to throw all substances into a few great classes of analogues, the leading member or type of each of these divisions being some familiar and well characterized compound, and to derive the formula of each and every member of a given class from the formula of its own peculiar type or pattern.

H

Thus water, O2, might be taken as a type

H

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H

CI

H

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H2

HI ; and chlorhydric acid, HS

H3

In many cases, however, a multiple of one or the other of these types is the true typical formula, as 049 Oo, &c. Other H2 H, chemists, and perhaps these are still the majority, believing that the doctrine of duality contains an element of truth which should not be discarded, seek to preserve this by adhering to the prevailing method of writing formulas, though all admit its imperfections.-Carrying out his original idea of abbreviations at a time when he was chiefly occupied with the study of compounds in mineral chemistry, and notably with those of oxygen and sulphur, Berzelius suggested that it might be convenient in special cases to make use of certain modifications of the symbols already described, where the object is merely to indicate the composition of a complex body without discussing its reactions and decompositions; for instance, the number of equivalents of oxygen in a compound was denoted by dots placed above the radical with which this element was supposed to be combined, and the equivalents of sulphur in like manner by commas or accents; and in cases where two atoms of the radical combine with 1, 3, or 5 atoms of oxygen or the like, this double atom of the radical was characterized by a dash drawn through the lower part of the letter which stands for the radical (as H=H2); VOL. XV.-17

Of these

thus CuO, SO, would be written CuS, and e, instead of Fe, O., 3SO.; K instead of KS; KMo instead of KS, MOS,. modifications the dashed symbols alone have been at all generally accepted. The dots and accents have been much employed by mineralogists, but were little esteemed by the generality of chemists. Indeed, it is now customary to use the accent marks to express an entirely different idea, viz., to characterize polyatomic radicals; that is, compounds which, in uniting with or reacting upon other bodies, play the part not of one but of two or more atoms of a simple element, or, in the language of the chemists who refer all formulas to types, those radicals which replace more than one atom of hydrogen in the type water. Thus the normal chloride of ethylene, C, H, Cl2, contains not only one but two atoms of chlorine, and cannot therefore be referred directly to the simple type HCl, but to the double of this, H2 Cl2; and to denote that the compound C. H. replaces 2H, i. e., that it is a diatomic radical, it is customary to write it with a double accent, thus, C. H., and the formula of the compound in question O.. So, too, the formula of C. H. O., and

Cl2

tartaric acid is written

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H2

which represent

that of glycerine them as being derived from 2 and 3 atoms of water respectively by the substitution of the diatomic radical C. H, O, for 2 atoms of hydrogen in the one case, and of the triatomic radical C, H, for 3 atoms of hydrogen in the other. In like manner, hydrated sesquioxide

of iron would be written FeO. instead of

H1

18

Fe, O., 3HO; Fe, being considered as a triatomic radical; so too quinoleine, N{C1. #7, in which the 3 atoms of H of the type ammonia are replaced by the triatomic radical C1 H7; strychnine, N2{C42 H22 O, i. e., the double H3 type N1H, in which the 6 atoms of H have all been replaced by the hexatomic radical C2H22O4.-Another abbreviation which has been proposed for the purpose of designating some organic compounds consists in employing the initial letter of the ordinary name of any of these, with one or more additional smaller letters when the first is not of itself characteristic, with a dash above if the compound is an acid or a + sign when it is an alkaloid; thus Ō stands for oxalic acid, A for acetic acid, Qu for quinine, Cy for cyanogen, &c. These are still sometimes used in special cases, although they have but little to recommend and much to condemn them.-Very many methods of arranging formulas, beside those which have here been alluded to, are employed by different chemists to express their own peculiar theoretical notions of the composition of bodies, but a

+

discussion of these special instances would here
be misplaced. Many of these are sufficiently
complex and difficult of comprehension; but in
its essential features the system of notation
employed by chemists is still the universal lan-
guage which Berzelius provided in choosing his
symbols from the Latin nomenclature.

SYMMACHUS, QUINTUS AURELIUS, a Roman statesman and author, who flourished about the close of the 4th century. He was educated in Gaul, and, after being quæstor and prætor, was appointed in A. D. 365 corrector of Lucania and the Bruttii. In 373 he was proconsul of Africa, in 384 prefect of the city, and in 391 consul. He was a sincere pagan, and labored strenuously to maintain that declining faith. He was possessed of immense wealth, and his leisure hours were devoted to liberal studies. His extant works are 10 books of epistles containing 965 letters, and fragments of orations which Angelo Mai discovered in one of the palimpsests of the Ambrosian library, and others from a Turin and Vatican MS. The first edition of the epistles was published without date or name of place in the pontificate of Julius II. One of the best is that of Scioppius (4to., Mentz, 1608).

SYMMACHUS THE SAMARITAN, a native of Samaria, who flourished about A. D. 200. He was at first of the Samaritan religion, then became a Jew, and then a Christian of the sect of the Ebionites. He made the 4th Greek translation of the Old Testament, which occupied the 4th column of Origen's Hexapla, but of which only a few fragments now exist, collected by Montfaucon.

SYMMES, JOHN CLEVES, an American soldier and projector, born in New Jersey about 1780, died at Hamilton, Butler co., Ohio, May 28, 1829. He entered the army as ensign in 1802, and in the war of 1812 fought with great gallantry at Lundy's Lane and the sortie from Fort Erie. Subsequently he settled at Newport, Ky., and devoted himself to researches connected with a favorite theory invented by him, according to which the earth is hollow, open at the poles, and capable of being inhabited within. He wrote and lectured much on this subject, and in 1822 and 1823 petitioned congress for means to fit out an expedition to test the truth of his theories. He made a few converts, but his suggestions were generally treated with open ridicule or silent contempt, the author being considered little better than a lunatic. He died in considerable pecuniary embarrassment, much respected for his integrity. SYMPATHETIC INK. See INK, vol. ix. p.

530.

SYMPHONY (Gr. ovv, with, and own, voice), a term originally signifying merely a concordance of tones, but applied successively to certain vocal compositions, to compositions partly vocal and partly instrumental, to short introductory or intermediate instrumental passages in compositions which are predominantly vocal, and finally to elaborate and extended composi

SYNCOPE

tions in which instruments only are employed.
The germ of the modern symphony may be
found in the Concerti grossi of Corelli, and in
the works of Geminiani and Vivaldi, produced
in the early part of the 18th century; but pre-
vious to the time of Haydn the composition in
composer divided it into 4 or 5 parts, performed
its present form was unknown. The last named
successively, and developing distinct ideas, but
having a general relation. In the structure of
the symphony the parts are generally made to
contrast with each other, a slow or andante
movement being succeeded by an allegro or
quick one, and this by an andante again or an
adagio, after which comes a minuet and trio,
id finale. The chief composers of this form of
or a scherzo, the whole concluding with a rap-
music are Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Spohr,
and Mendelssohn, the greatest being Bee-
thoven. The 9th or "Choral Symphony" of
this master differs from works of its class in
introducing vocal music into the concluding
movement.

SYMPLEGADES. See ARGONAUTS.

of assembly; Heb. beth hakkeneseth, house of
SYNAGOGUE (Gr. avvaywyn, assembly, place
and the performance of public religious rites in
assembly), a building appropriated to worship
Jewish congregations. Corresponding to the
word church in Christian terminology, the term
is also applied to the Jewish community in
general. The earliest synagogues, established
Judæa, were destined also for deliberative
in the times of Persian and Greek rule in
purposes. (For the "great synagogue" see
turies they were also used as seats of popular
HEBREWS, vol. ix. p. 37.) In subsequent cen-
as well as higher instruction.
ish communities this is imparted in a separate
building, called beth hammidrash, house of
In modern Jew-
study. The synagogue is generally a high and
plain building, facing the 4 cardinal points, and
provided with seats and desks on the floor for
the male members of the congregation, and
which all must face during the recital of cer-
with galleries for the females.
tain prayers, encloses the "holy ark" (aron
The east wall,
hakkodesh), in which Hebrew copies of the
Pentateuch, written on vellum, are deposit-
ed; and opposite it, near the centre, is the
platform (bimah) on which the reading from
the same is performed by the reciter or cantor
(hazan), or by a special reader (ba'al kore).
Sermons or lectures are delivered from a small-
er platform adjoining the "holy ark," by_the
quently, however, the offices of reciter, reader,
rabbi or a special preacher or lecturer. Fre-
Among the most celebrated synagogues in
and lecturer are united in the same person.—
various periods are mentioned those of Alex-
andria, Bagdad, Toledo, and Prague.

may occur from a large, and particularly from a
SYNCOPE, a fainting fit or swoon. Syncope
sudden loss of blood; from a sudden impression
made on the nervous system, as fright, horror,
&c.; from the effect of a variety of poisons

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