Silo

[Abronius.]

[Gavius, No. 3.]

constantly mentioned by M. Seneca among the illustrious rhetoricians of his age. (Sen. Suas. 1, 2, &c.)

the leader of the Marsi in the Social War, and the soul of the whole undertaking, at first endeavoured to obtain for the Socii the Roman franchise, by means of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated tribune of the plebs in B. C. 91. He came to Rome to concoct his plans with Drusus, and remained in his house several days; and it is related by Diodorus that he subsequently marched upon Rome at the head of 10,000 men, with weapons concealed beneath their clothes, in order to extort the franchise by force, but that he was persuaded by Domitins, perhaps the censor of the preceding year, to give up his enterprise (Plut. Cat. Mi. 2; Diod. xxxvii. p. 612, ed. Wess.). With the death of Drusus the allies lost all hope of obtaining their demands peaceably, and forthwith took up arms. The history of the war which ensued is given in too confused and fragmentary a manner to enable us to follow the operations of Pompaedius Silo step by step; but all accounts agree in representing him as the most distinguished of the Italian generals. His most brilliant exploit seems to have been the defeat of Q. Caepio, whom he decoyed into an ambush; but he was unable, either by his stratagems or his sarcasms, to force Marius to an engagement (Plut. Mar. 33). After most of the allies had laid down their arms and submitted to the Romans, Pompaedius still continued the struggle. He regained Bovianum, which had been taken by Sulla, and entered this capital of Samnium in triumph (Obsequ. 116). But this was his last success. He was first defeated by Mam. Aemilius, and subsequently by Q. Metellus Pius. In the latter battle he perished, and with his death the war came to an end, B. C. 88 (Appian, App. BC 1.40, 44, 53; Diod. xxxvii. p. 539, ed. Wess.; Liv. Epit. 76; Flor. 3.18 ; Ores. 5.18; Vell. 2.16). Several writers have Popedius, and others give Sylo or Sillo as the cognomen, but Pompaedius Silo is the correct orthography.

fought under Ventidius, the legatus of Antony, in his campaign against the Parthians in B. C. 39 (D. C. 48.41). The proceedings of Silo in Judaea are related at length by Josephus (J. AJ 14.15, B. J. 1.15).

SILO or SHILOH (Σμλώμ: Eth. Σηλωνίτης), a town of Palestine, in the tribe of Ephraim, in the mountain region according to Josephus (J. AJ), where the ark and the tabernacle were first established by Joshua on the settlement of the land by the tribes of Israel. There also were assembled the national convocations for the division of the land and the transaction of other public business affecting the whole Union. (Joshua, 18.1, 10, 19.51, 21.2, 22.9.) There Samuel ministered before the Lord in the days of Eli the high-priest (1 Sam. i.--iii.). There was the seat of the Divine worship until the disastrous battle of Aphek, from which period the decline of Shiloh must be dated (ch. iv.) until its desolation became proverbial in Israel. (Psalm 78.60; Jeremiah, 7.12, 26.6, 9.) Its situation is very particularly described in the book of Judges (21.19), as on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.S t. Jerome places it xii. M. P. from Neapolis (==Sheehem == Nablûs), in the toparchy of Acrabattena. (Onomast. s. v. ) Its ruins were shown, and the remains of the altar among them, in his day. (Comment. in Sophon. 1.14, Epitaph. Paulae. ) From these notes the site is easily identified with the modern Silûn, on the east of the Nablûs road, about four hours south of that town, situated over against a village named El-Lebban (Lebonah), which lends its name also to a Khan on the road-side. Silûn is merely a heap of ruins lying on a hill of moderate elevation at the south-eastern extremity of a valley through which passes the great north road from Judaea to Galilee. Among the ruins of modern houses are traces of buildings of greater antiquity, and at some distance, towards the east, is a well of good water, and in the valleys many tombs excavated in the rock.( Robinson, Bibl. Res. vol. iii. pp. 86--89.) Among the tombs of Shiloh, if Reland's conjecture is correct, is to be sought the very slender authority on which the pagans rested their assertion that their demigod Silenus was buried in the country of the Hebrews; and the fact of the effigy of this deity being found on the coins of Flavia Neapolis, certainly lends countenance to his ingenious hypothesis that the fable originated in the imaginary correspondence between this name and the town of Ephraim. (Palaestina, p. 1017.) But the error which he has copied from Benjamin of Tudela, of placing the tomb of Samuel in Shiloh, is obviously attributable to a lapse of memory on the part of that writer, as no one has ever identified Shiloh with the modern Nebi Samwîl. The error is corrected by Asher. (Itinerary of R. Benjamin of Tudela, ed. A. Asher, vol. 1. p. 78, vol. 2. p. 95.)

(Σιλώ). The Old Test. Shiloh; a city of Palestine in the mountains of Ephraim.

The leader of the Marsi in the Social War. He fell in battle against Q. Metellus Pius (B.C. 88), and his death led to the end of the war (App. B. C. i. 40-53; Vell. Paterc. ii. 16).