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Siloam Inscription silvester THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
This inscription is in six lines, written in the early script very closely resembling that of the Moabite Stone (q.v.) and of the current Phenician inscriptions. The first line is mutilated at the end, and a small break intrudes in lines two to four. The language is idiomatic Hebrew, the text is unpointed, and the orthography is, in the technical sense, " defective " in that the letters Waw and Yod, used as vowels, are often omitted where in later Hebrew they are written to aid in the pronunciation. An attempt was made to steal the inscription, and in the process it was broken; the fragments are now in the museum at Constantinople. The casts, squeezes, and the original in full light combine to make possible a nearly complete translation of the oldest Israelitish inscription known of any considerable length. Its date is by most scholars put not later than the reign of Hezekiah (714-686?), and it is placed in connection with II Kings xx. 20, where it is stated that Hezekiah " made a pool, and a conduit," and with II Chron. xxxii. 30, R. V., " Hezekiah stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David." The following is the translation of Dr. S. R. Driver (Notes on the Hebrew Text of . . . Samuel, p. xvi., Oxford, 1890).
1. [Behold] the piercing through I And this was the manner of the piercing through. Whilst yet [the miners were lifting up]
2. the pick each towards his fellow, and whilst yet there were three cubits to be [cut through, there was heard] the voice of each call-
3. ing to his fellow, :or there, was a fissure (?) in the rock on the right hand . . . And on the day of the
4. piercing through, the miners (lit. hewers) smote each so as to meet his fellow, pick against pick; and there flowed
5. the water from the source to the pool, 1200 cubits; and one hun-
6. dred cubits was the height of the rock over the head of the miners. GEo. W. GILMORE. BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Guthe, in ZDMG, 1882, pp. 72'.-750 (the original publication by this scholar), and in ZDPV, z-;iii (1890), 203-204, 286-288; C. R. Conder, in PEF, Quarterly Statement, 1882, pp. 122 sqq.; P. Berger, in Journal des d&ats, Apr. 16, 1882; Records of the Past, new series, i. 168-175, London, 1889; W. F. Birch, in PEF, Quarterly Statement, 1890, pp. 208-210; S. R. Driver, ut sup., pp. xiv.-xvi., xxxii., xxxv.; C. Clermont-Ganneau, Les Tombeaux de David et des rois de Judo et le tunnel aquedoc de Siloe, Paris, 1897; E. J. Pileher, in PSBA, xix (1897), 165-182, xx (1898), 213-222, and PEF, Quar terly Statement, 1898, pp. 56-60; M. Lidzbarski Hand buch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik, Weimar, 1898; A. Socin, Die Siloah Inschrift, Freiburg, 1899; T. H. Weir,Short Hisl. of the Text of the O. T., London, 1899; G. A. Cooke, Text-Book of North-Semitic Inscriptions, ib. 1903; DB, iv. 515-516; JE, xi. 339-341.
SILVERIUS, sit-vt'ri-us: Pope 536-537. The pontificate of Silverius, who was the son of Pope Hormisdas, fell during the period of the struggle between the Goths and the eastern Empire and of the discussion as to the value of the Chalcedonian decrees. According to the Liber pontificalis, he owed his elevation to the favor, won by money, of Theodatus, the Gothic king, and there was no formal election, his enthronement taking place June 8, 536. The speedy success of Belisarius in Italy made diffi-
cult the position of Silverius as the protkg6 of the Gothic king. By agreement Belisarius occupied Rome Dec. 9, 536; but the agreement was short lived, for Silverius incurred the hostility of Empress Theodora by siding with the deposed Patriarch An thimus. The pope soon renewed his relations with the Goths, and he was charged with purposing to admit them to Rome; this seems not improbable, in spite of the denial of his biographer, for from the Goths Silverius had most to expect. In Mar., 537, Belisarius deposed Silverius and banished him as a monk to Patara in Lycia. His successor was Vigilius, whose subserviency in dogmatic matters secured the favor of Theodora. The case against Silverius was reopened, and he was brought back to Italy, only to be banished to the island of Ponza in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he died at a date unknown. (A. HAUCK.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: Liber pontificalis, ed. Mommsen in MGH. Gast. Pont. Rom., i (1898), 144; Jaft, Repesta, i. 115; Proeopius, De bello Gothieo, i. 25, printed in Muratori, Seriptores, i. 1. pp. 247-369; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, ii. 341 sqq., Bonn, 1885; F. Gregoro- vine, Hist. of the City of Rome, i. 369, 395-398, London, 1894; Bower, Popes, i. 344-347; Milman, Latin Chris tianity, i. 461; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, u. 571, Fr. tranal., ii. 2, p. 873.SILVESTER: The name of two popes and two antipopes.
Silvester L: Pope 314-335. The important events falling during the pontificate of this pope were the conversion of Constantine [and the alleged " donation " of that emperor] and the beginning of the Arian and the Donatistic controversies, though in neither of them had he direct participation. Eusebius (Vita Constantini, III., vii.) reports that he was represented at the Council of Nicaea and also at the Synod of Arles, the latter of which sent its canons to him. The period of his pontificate is given by the Catalogus Liberianus.
Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 47; JaffE, Regesta, i. 28-29; R. A. Lip®ius, Chronologie der rtimischen Bischoofe, p. 259, Kiel, 1869; Bower, Popes, f. 45-54; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 94-95.
Silvester II. (Gerbert): Pope 999-1003. Gerbert was possibly a native of Aurillac in Auvergne, and his birth-year probably falls between 940 and 950; his education he received at the monastery of Aurillac, remaining in connection with the Abbot Gerald and his successor Raymond, and there manifesting his talent. Later he went to Spain and studied mathematics, astronomy, and music under Bishop Hatto of Vich in Catalonia, with whom in 970 he went to Rome, where his accomplishments led John XIII. to recommend him to Otto the Great. From Rome (c. 972) he went to Reims to receive instruction in dialectics from a celebrated archdeacon of that place, where he came into relations with Archbishop Adalbero, a man of great eminence in political as well as in ecclesiastical life. The archbishop stimulated Gerbert to teach as well as to learn; this he did, dealing with the " Introduction " of Porphyry, the " Categories " of Aristotle, rnd with writings of Cicero and Boethius. His pupils read the poets, and received training in the conduct of discussions. The course led up to the study of