Syrian Wars: series of conflicts between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires in the third and second centuries BCE; at stake was an area called Coele Syria, which is more or less identical to modern Israel, the Palestine territories, Lebanon, and…
Smintheum: temple of Apollo in the southwestern Troad, modern Gülpinar.The shrine of Apollo Smintheus (Σμινθεύς, "destroyer of mice") is mentioned by Homer as the temple where Chryses was priest.note[Homer, Iliad 1.39.] The town next to the temple was sometimes called…
Socrates Chrestus: rebel king in Bithynia (r.c.90 BCE)Nicomedes IV Philopator, a son of Nicomedes III Euergetes and Nysa of Cappadocia, inherited the Bithynian throne in an unquiet age, with Mithridates VI of Pontus as a dangerous neighbor. He supported Socrates Chrestus,…
Sogdians (Greek: Σογδιανοί or Σόγδοι): ancient name for the people living in the region of Maracanda (modern Samarkand). Their land is known as Sogdia, Sogdiana (Greek Σογδιανή), or Transoxiana.The land
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Somatophylakes or Bodyguards: Greek and Macedonian court officials.As it is in our own time, important persons in Antiquity had a bodyguard to protect them and clear the road when they were approaching. For example, the king of Sparta could command…
Sophonisba (†203 BCE): Carthaginian lady, queen of Numidia.Sophonisba was the daughter of a Carthaginian nobleman named Hasdrubal, who is usually called "the son of Gesco" to distinguish him from his namesake and contemporary, Hasdrubal the brother of Hannibal. As was…