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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Varia

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​VARIA (mod. Vicovaro), an ancient village of Latium, Italy, in the valley of the Anio, on its right bank, and on the Via Valeria, 8 m. N.E. of Tibur (Tivoli). It was probably an independent town and not within the territory of Tibur, and Horace speaks of it as Sabine. Some remains of its walls, in rectangular blocks of travertine, still exist. One mile to the east is a picturesque gorge of the Anio, in which may be seen remains of the ancient aqueducts which supplied Rome, consisting partly of rock-cut channels and partly of ruined bridges: above it is the monastery of S Cosimato. Close to this point begins the valley of the Digentia (mod. Licenza) in which Horace's Sabine farm was situated. On the hill at the east of the entrance is the village of Cantalupo or Bardella, which has now assumed the name of Mandela, being identified thus ​(correctly) with Horace's “rugosus frigore pagus” (Epist. i. 18, 104). An inscription of the Christian period, found at S Cosimato, speaks of the Massa Mandelana (Corp. Inscr. Lat. xiv. 3482). About 3 m. up the valley, close to the road on the west (right) bank of the stream, are traces of a Roman dwelling-house in opus reticulatum with remains of two mosaic pavements; this is generally identified with the villa of Horace, and probably corresponds fairly closely with its site. That the Fons Bandusiae was near the Sabine farm is not a necessary inference from Od. iii. 13, in which alone it is mentioned; though the scholiasts state it; indeed a fountain of this name near Venusia is mentioned in a bull of 1103. On the other hand, that there was an abundant fountain near the Sabine farm is clear from Epist. i. 16. 12, and Sat. ii. 6. 2. It is generally identified with the Fonte dei Ratini, but the spring of Vigna la Corte, a little farther north, is still more plentiful. Some have supposed that the site of the villa was higher up the hillside, above Rocca Giovane. For Horace speaks of having written Epist. i. 10 “post fanum putre Vacunae,” and an inscription recording a temple of Victoria restored by Vespasian was copied at Rocca Giovane in the 16th century (Corp. Inscr. Lat. xiv. 3485). The identification of Victoria with the Sabine goddess Vacuna is not, however, absolutely certain: and there is here, as elsewhere in Roman literature, a play on the connexion of the name with vacare, “to take a holiday.” In any case, the site of the Sabine farm can be approximately, if not exactly, fixed as in the neighbourhood of Rocca Giovane.
See T. Berti, La Villa di Orazio (Rome, 1886); G. Boissier, Nouvelles promenades archéologiques (Paris, 1886).
(T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Varchi, Benedetto

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​VARCHI, BENEDETTO (1502–1565), Florentine historian. He fought in the defence of Florence during the siege by the Mediceans and imperialists in 1530, and was exiled after the surrender of the city. In 1536 he took part in Piero Strozzi’s unsuccessful expedition against Medicean rule, but seven years later he was called back to Florence by Cosimo I., who gave him a pension and commissioned him to write a history of the city; the work covers the period from 1527 to 1538. Varchi also wrote a number of plays, poems, dialogues and translations from the classics. His history, in sixteen books, was first published in Florence in 1721.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shignan and Roshan

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​SHIGNAN and ROSHAN, two small hill states E. of the Badakshan province of Afghanistan. They extend eastwards from the Panja, where it forms the eastern boundary of Badakshan to the Pamirs. The native rulers of Roshan and Shignan claim descent from Alexander the Great, of whom legends are still current in the country about the upper Oxus. The two states were conquered by Abdur Rahman in 1882, but were assigned to Russia by the Durand agreement of 1893. Since that agreement Russia has retired from all districts previously occupied by her on the left bank of the Panja, or upper Oxus.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shield, William

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​ SHIELD, WILLIAM (1748-1829), English musical composer, was born at Swalwell, near Newcastle, in 1748. His father began to teach him singing before he had completed his sixth year, but died three years later, leaving him in charge of guardians, who made no provision whatever for continuing his musical education, for which he was thenceforward dependent entirely upon his own aptitude for learning, aided by a few lessons in thorough bass which he received from Charles Avison. Notwithstanding the difficulties inseparable from this imperfect training, he obtained admission in 1772 to the orchestra at the Italian Opera in London, at first as a second violin, and afterwards as principal viola, and this engagement he retained for eighteen years. In the meantime he turned his serious attention to composition, and in 1778 produced his first English comic opera, The Flitch of Bacon, at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, with so great success that he was immediately engaged as composer to Covent Garden Theatre, for which he continued to produce English operas and other dramatic pieces in quick succession until 1797, when he resigned his office, and devoted himself to compositions of a different class, producing a great number of very beautiful glees, some instrumental chamber music, and other miscellaneous compositions. In 1817 he was made master of the royal music. He died in London on the 25th of January 1829, and was buried in the south cloister at Westminster Abbey.
Shield's most successful dramatic compositions were Rosina, The Mysteries of the Castle, The Lock and Key and The Castle of Andalusia. As a composer of songs he was in no degree inferior to his great contemporary Charles Dibdin. Indeed The Arethusa, The Heaving of the Lead and The Post Captain are as little likely to be forgotten as Dibdin's Tom Bowling or Saturday Night at Sea. His vein of melody was inexhaustible, thoroughly English in character and always conceived in the purest and most delicate taste, and hence it is that many of his airs are still sung at concerts, though the operas for which they were written have long been banished from the stage. His Introduction to Harmony (1794 and 1800) contains a great deal of valuable information; and he also published a useful treatise, The Rudiments of Thoroughbass.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shigatse

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​SHIGATSE, one of the largest towns in Tibet, next in importance to Lhasa, the capital. The town, which is at the confluence of the Nyang chu with the Tsangpo, contains about 9000 inhabitants (exclusive of priests), and is about 3/4 m. long by a 1/2 m. broad. About 1 m. to the north-east is situated a monastery called Konkaling, whilst to the south-west is the far-famed Tashilhunpo monastery, the residence of one of the great high priests of Tibet, co-equal with the Dalai-Lama of Lhasa. Between the Tashilhunpo monastery and the city is the Thom or open market, where all the business of the place is daily transacted. A wall about 1 m. in circumference surrounds the Tashilhunpo monastery, within which are numerous temples and houses, four of the larger temples being decorated with gilded spires. A great wealth of jewels and precious metal is said to enrich the numerous idols of Tashilhunpo. The monastery maintains 3300 priests. The city is protected by a fort which stands on a low hill to the north-west, and a garrison of 1000 Tibetan soldiers is quartered here. The municipal government is in the hands of two dēpen assisted by resident Jongpons. The soil around Shigatse is rich and productive, the elevation being between 11,000 and 12,000 ft. Shigatse lay to the west of the British route of advance on Lhasa in 1904, but it was visited by Captain Rawling on his way to open the market at Gartok.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shields, James

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​ SHIELDS, JAMES (1810-1879), American soldier, was born in Dungannon, county Tyrone, Ireland, in 1810. He emigrated to the United States in 1826, and in 1832 began to practice law in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He was prominent in Democratic politics, was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives in 1836-1838, was state auditor in 1841-1843, was judge of the supreme court of the state in 1843-1845, and was commissioner of the U.S. General Land Office in 1845-1847. In the Mexican War he served as a brigadier-general of volunteers under General Zachary Taylor on the Rio Grande, under General John E. Wool in Chihuahua, and under General Winfield Scott in the southern campaign; he was breveted major-general for gallantry at Cerro Gordo, where he was severely wounded, and he was again wounded at Chapultepec. In 1849-1855 he was a United States senator from Illinois; and in 1858-1859 was a senator from Minnesota. In 1860 he removed to California. In August 1861, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers; in March 1862 he succeeded to the command of General Frederick W. Lander's division; he was in command on the Federal side at Winchester (23 March 1862) and at Port Republic (9 June); and in March 1863 he resigned his commission. He then settled in Carrollton, Missouri, and in 1875 was a member of the State House of Representatives; in 1879 he was United States senator from Missouri for six weeks to fill an unexpired term. He died at Ottumwa, Iowa, on the 1st of June 1879.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shifnal

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​ SHIFNAL, or Shiffnal, a market town in the Newport (N.) parliamentary division of Shropshire, England, 154 m. N.W. from London on the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury line of the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3321. The church of St Andrew is cruciform and full of fine details of late Norman, Early English and Decorated work. Trade is mainly agricultural, and cattle-fairs are held. There are large iron-works. The name of the town was Idsall when in 1591 a fund was raised by royal favour in Shropshire and neighbouring counties in order to rebuild it after a serious fire.
Within 6 m. E. of Shifnal are Tong, Boscobel and the nunnery of White Ladies. Tong Castle shares with the castle of the same name in Kent the legend of the dealings of the Saxon Hengest with the British chieftain Vortigern. The medieval building was demolished late in the 18th century, and the present castle erected in mingled Gothic and Moorish styles. Tong church, of fine early Perpendicular work, contains a remarkable series of ornate tombs, mainly of the 15th and 16th centuries, to members of the Vernon and Stanley families, former owners of the castle. ​The Golden Chapel on the south side is rich late Perpendicular, with a roof of fan-tracery, showing signs of the original decoration in colours. The mansion of Boscobel is famous as the house in which Charles II. was concealed in 1651 after an adventurous journey from Worcester, where his arms had failed before those of Cromwell. The secret chamber which hid him is preserved, but he also found refuge in a tree of the forest which then surrounded Boscobel. A tree close to the house still bears the name of Charles’s oak, but tradition goes no further than to assert that it grew from an acorn of the original tree. White Ladies was a Cistercian nunnery; and the slight remains are Norman. The pleasant wooded district was formerly part of Brewood Forest, which extended into Staffordshire.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shikarpur

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​ SHIKARPUR, a town of British India, in the Sukkur district of Sind, Bombay. It is situated about 18 m. from the right bank of the Indus, with a station on the North-Western railway, 23 m. N.W. of Sukkur. Pop. (1901) 49,491. Shikarpur has always been an important place as commanding the trade route through the Bolan Pass, and its merchants have dealings with many towns in Central Asia. It has a large market and manufactures of carpets, cotton cloth and pottery. Shikarpur was formerly the headquarters of a district of the same name. In 1901 two subdivisions of this district were detached to form the new district of Larkana, and the two other subdivisions were then constituted the district of Sukkur.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shield

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​ SHIELD (O. Eng. scild, cf. Du. and Ger. Schild, Dan. Skjold; the origin is doubtful, but may be referred to the root seen in “shell” or “scale”; another suggestion connects it with Icel. skjalla, to clash, rattle; it is not connected with the Indo-Ger. root skeu, seen in Gr. σκῦτος, κύτος Lat. cutis, skin, scutum, shield, O. Eng. hyd, hide, and in “sky”), a piece of defensive armour borne upon the left arm or carried in the left hand as a protection against missiles. Varying in shape and form, it was the principal piece of defensive armour from the Bronze and Iron Age to the introduction of fire-arms, and is still borne by savage warriors throughout the world (see Arms and Armour, and for the heraldic shield Heraldry).
In modern times the principle of the shield has been applied to guns of all calibres from 11 and 10 in. calibre downwards. Whereas the turret, barbette, cupola and other heavy-armoured structures are intended to be proof against the heaviest projectiles, the shield is usually only designed to resist rifle and shrapnel bullets or very light shells. For the application of shields to field artillery, &c., see the articles Artillery and Ordnance.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shikar

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​ SHIKAR, the Hindostani term for sport, in the sense of shooting and hunting. The word is in universal use by Anglo-Indians for the pursuit of large game, such as tiger-shooting and pig-sticking. The shikari is either the native expert, who-marks the game for the sportsman, or else the European sportsman himself.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zoutpansberg

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​Zoutpansberg, the north-eastern division of the Transvaal. This was the district to which Louis Trichard and Jan van Rensburg, the forerunners of the Great Trek, journeyed in 1835. In 1845 Hendrik Potgieter, a prominent leader of the Trek Boers, removed thither. The Zoutpansberg Boers formed a semi-independent community, and in 1857 Stephanus Schoeman, their commandant-general, sided against Marthinus Pretorius and Paul Kruger when they invaded the Orange Free State. It was not until 1864 that Zoutpansberg was definitely incorporated in the South African Republic. Trichard and his companions had been shown gold workings by the natives, and it was in this district in 1867–70, and in the neighbouring region of Lydenburg, that gold mines were first worked by Europeans south of the Limpopo. The white settlers in Zoutpansberg had for many years a reputation for lawlessness, and were later regarded as typical “back velt Boers.” Zoutpansberg contains a larger native population than any other region of the Transvaal. It is highly mineralized, next to gold, copper, found near the Limpopo (where is the Messina mine) being the chief metal worked. The district long suffered from lack of railway communications, but in 1910 the completion of the Selati line giving it direct access to Delagoa Bay was begun. The chief towns are Pietersburg and Leydsdorp.
See S. Hofmeyr, Twintig jaren in Zoutpansberg (Cape Town, 1890); Report on a Reconnaissance of the N.–W. Zoutpansberg District (Pretoria, 1908).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zoïlus

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​ZOÏLUS (c. 400–320 B.C.), Greek grammarian of Amphipolis in Macedonia. According to Vitruvius (vii., preface) he lived during the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 B.C.), by whom he was crucified as the punishment of his criticisms on the king. This account, however, should probably be rejected. Zoïlus appears to have been at one time a follower of Isocrates, but subsequently a pupil of Polycrates, whom he heard at Athens, where he was a teacher of rhetoric. Zoïlus was chiefly known for the acerbity of his attacks on Homer (which gained him the name of Homeromastix, “scourge of Homer”), chiefly directed against the fabulous element in the Homeric poems. Zoïlus also wrote against Isocrates and Plato, who had attacked the style of Lysias of which he approved. The name Zoïlus came to be generally used of a spiteful and malignant critic.
See U. Friedländer, De Zoilo aliisque Homeri Obtrectatoribus (Königsberg, 1895); J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship (2nd ed. 1906).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zrinyi, Miklós, Count (elder)

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​Zrinyi, Miklós, Count (1508–1566), Hungarian hero, was a son of Miklós Zrinyi and Ilóna Karlovics. He distinguished himself at the siege of Vienna in 1529, and in 1542 saved the imperial army from defeat before Pest by intervening with 400 Croats, for which service he was appointed ban of Croatia. In 1542 he routed the Turks at Somlyo. In 1543 he married Catherine Frangipán, who placed the whole of her vast estates at his disposal. The Emperor Ferdinand also gave him large possessions in Hungary, and henceforth the Zrinyis became as much Magyar as Croatian magnates. In 1556 Zrinyi won a series of victories over the Turks, culminating in the battle of Babócsa. The Croatians, however, overwhelmed their ban with reproaches for neglecting them to fight for the Magyars, and the emperor simultaneously deprived him of the captaincy of Upper Croatia and sent 10,000 men to aid the Croats, while the Magyars were left without any help, whereupon Zrinyi resigned the banship (1561). In 1563, on the coronation of the Emperor Maximilian as king of Hungary, Zrinyi attended the ceremony at the head of 3000 Croatian and Magyar mounted noblemen, in the vain hope of obtaining the dignity of palatine, vacant by the death of Thomas Nadasdy. Shortly after marrying (in 1564) second wife, Eva Rosenberg, a great Bohemian heiress, he hastened southwards to defend the frontier, defeated the Turks at Segesd, and in 1566 from the 5th of August to the 7th of September heroically defended the little fortress of Szigetvár against the whole Turkish host, led by Suleiman the Magnificent in person, perishing with every member of the garrison in a last desperate sortie.
See F. Salamon, Ungarn im Zeitalter der Türkenherrschaft (Leipzig, 1887); J. Csuday, The Zrinyis in Hungarian History (Hung.), Szombathely, 1884, 8vo. (R. N. B.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zosimus (historian)

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ZOSIMUS, Greek historical writer, flourished at Constantinople during the second half of the 5th century A.D. According to Photius, he was a count, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury. His New History, mainly a compilation from previous authors (Dexippus, Eunapius, Olympiodorus), is in six books: the first sketches briefly the history of the early emperors from Augustus to Diocletian (305); the second, third and fourth deal more fully with the period from the accession of Constantius and Galerius to the death of Theodosius; the fifth and sixth cover the period between 395 and 410. The work, which is apparently unfinished, must have been written between 450-502. The style is characterized by Photius as concise, clear and pure. The historian's object was to account for the decline of the Roman empire from the pagan point of view, and in this undertaking he at various points treated the Christians with some unfairness.
The best edition is by Mendelssohn (1887), who fully discusses the question of the authorities used by Zosimus; there is an excellent appreciation of him in Ranke's Weltgeschichte, iv. French translation by Cousin (3678); English (anonymous), 1684, 1814.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zouch, Richard

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​Zouch, Richard (c. 1590–1661), English jurist, was born at Anstey, Wiltshire, and educated at Winchester and afterwards at Oxford, where he became a fellow of New College in 1609. He was admitted at Doctor's Commons in January 1618 and was appointed regius professor of law at Oxford in 1620. In 1625 he became principal of St Alban Hall and chancellor of the diocese of Oxford, in 1641 he was made judge of the High Court of Admiralty. Under the Commonwealth, having submitted to the parliamentary visitors, he retained his university appointments though not his judgeship; this last he resumed at the Restoration, dying soon afterwards at his apartments in Doctor's Commons, London, on the 1st of March 1661.
He published Elementa jurisprudentiae (1629), Descriptio juris et judicii feudalis, secundum consuetudines Mediolani et Normanniae, pro introductione ad jurisprudentiam Anglicanam (1634), Descriptio juris et judicii temporalis, secundum consuetudines feudales et Normannicas (1636), Descriptio juris et judicii ecclesiastici, secundum canones et consuetudines Anglicanas (1636), Descriptiones juris et judicii sacri, … militaris, … maritimi (1640), Juris et judicii fecialis sive juris inter gentes … explicatio (1650) and Solutio quaestionis de legati delinquentis judice competente (1657). In virtue of the last two he has the distinction of being one of the earliest systematic writers on international law. He was also the author of a poem, The Dove, or Passages of Cosmography (1613).