Sicyon (Hastings' Dictionary)

This name occurs in a list of places in 1 Mac 15^, to which Lucius, the consul, on behalf of the Komans, wrote (D.c. 139) to beg them to be friendly to the Jews, and to deliver up to Simon tlie high priest any fugitives from the Jews that had taken refuge with them. All the places mentioned in this passage were constantly visited by the trading vessels from Syria on their way to Italy. The matter of the letter is most probably authentic, though the form cannot be correct.

Sicyon is a town on the Gulf of Corinth, a few- miles to tlie N.W. of Corintli. The name seems to mean ' cucumber-town.' Tlie town stood ori- ginally on the shore with an acropolis above it, and this latter formed the town in the time of the Maccabees. In their time it was always to be found on the side of the Romans, and the direction of the Isthmian games was assigned by them to the inhabitants of Sicyon, though afterwards they were deprived of it.

It appears to have been the centre of Roman power for that part of the world. H. A. Redpath. SIDDIM, YALE OF (D«!isTr ppy ; LXX r, fdpayi (or /toiXas) 7) dXuKi) ; Onk. Sam. vale of fields [i.e. cy^-r}] ; on Aq. Theod. see Field. The meaning of d, ;' is obscure ; a connexion with Arab, sidd, ' dam,' 'mound' (Conder, Tent iryc/v, '208), is very doubtful). — The place in which the kings of the live cities of the Kikkar joined battle with Chedorla'omer and his allies (Gn 14^-*) ; said in v."

to be full of wells of Bitumen (which see). In v.' it is identilied with the Salt Sea ; but this (if the entire sea is meant) is geologically impossible ; for the Dkad Sea existed ages before the t ime of Abraham : either therefore the clause v."' is a late and in- correct gloss, or the reference (if the narrative is historical) is to the shallow S. part of the Dead Sea (from the peninsula el-Lisan S. -wards), where, in the time of Abraham, there may have been dry land.

This view, already allowed by Nbldeke in ISO'J, has also been adopte.l by the two geologists who have written most recently upon the subject. Blanckenhom, in an elaborate geological study ' On the Origin and Uistory of the Dead Sea ' ^ZDPV, 1896, 1-59), says (pp. 51-53) that to the 'critical geologist' the matter is 'extremely simple ' : at the beginning of the post-glacial period what is now the shallow S. part of the Dead Sea was fertile soil (like the present Ghur es-Si)fii/eh, at its S.E.

corner [see Zoar]) ; but an earthquake took place, which caused a subsidence of the giounil, and overthrew all the cities except Zoar ; the ' Vale of Siddim ' was engulplied by the S. )art of the Dead Sea, and the site of the four cities became the present saline morass (6 m. broad by 10 long), es-Sebkha," S.

of the Dead Sea ;t a tradi- • The word ' Sebkha ' means salt and watery grouruL I Against the view that these cities were at the Sorth CDd of (ion of this prehistoric event is preserved in Gn 19, wlieie it is connected with the history of Lot IJlanckeuhorn considers that this earthquake wa< ' lekl'jnic,' i.e. connected with a dislocation of the earth's crust, taking place at a 'fault' (such as pass along both the E. and the W. sides of ths Dead Sea).* Diener, in a criticism of his article.

t while agieeing that it was an earthquake which destroyed the four cities, regards it not aa ' tektonic,' but rather as a local suljsidence, accom- panied by an effusion of underground water, which may well have taken place in the age of Abraham (pp. 13-16, '22) ; as a [larallel he quotes the earth- quake near Lake Baikal (in Central Asia) in 1862, which broke up a large area of the atljacent alluvial soil, so that it sank, and the lake covered it. Blanckenhorn in his reply (ZDPV, 1898, H.

2, pp. 65-83) maintains (pp. 70-76) that this view is improbable, and inconsistent with the fact that all the conditions for a 'tektonic' earthquake are present in the Jordan Valley ; and he supports his opinion by quotations from two high geological authorities, SUss and Homes.

Which of these two views is the more probable, a writer who is no geologist is naturally not in a position to say ; perhaps some one sulhciently conversant with the geology of the district could explain whether it might not be possible to combine them, or, in other word.s, to sup] lose that the ' tektonic ' dislocation, producing the broader features of the S.

end of the Dead Sea, took place at the beginning of the post- glacial period, while the local subsidence, producing the submergence of the ' Vale of Siddim ' under the present lagoon, and overthrowing the four cities, may have followed long aftierwards, in the dajs of Abraham-t S. R. DRIVER. SIDE {'ZlSri ; Side).— One of the towns to which the Roman Senate sent letters in favour of Simon Maccabiieus and the Jews (1 Mac 15'-^).

It was colonized by Cyme, surrendered to Alexander, be- came the chief port of the pirates, — who used it as a market to dispose of their plunder, — and was an important town under the Roman emperors. It was closely connected with Aradus in Phoenicia, and the men of Side and Aradus fought side by side in the fleet of Antiochus the Great when it was defeated by the Rhodians off the harbour of Side. The town occupied a low triangular pro- montory on the coast of Pamphylia.

It had two harbours, and was strongly fortified. The ruins, now known as Eski Adalia, are about 10 miles east of the Kcu/iri Sti, the river Eurymedon, and are extensive and interesting. They include the remains of a very large theatre, the city walls and their gates, temples, a nymphiBum, streets A-ith covered porticoes, etc. (Murray, Hbk. to Asia Minor, p. 173). C. W. WiLSOS.