3. Literature. — In addition to works mentioned in the body of this article, see Blondel, l)es Sibylles Cele- brex tant pur I'A ntiqiiile Pa'ienne que par les S. Ph-es (lti49); the elder Vossius, l)e Poctis Grcec. (1654); ^c\\mi<\, De Sib.Oracc. (1018); Boyle, De Sihi/llis (1661); Nehring, Deutsche Uebersetz. d. sibyll. Weiss. (1702); id. Vertheid. d. sibi/ll. ProphezeihuM/en (1720); Vossius [Is.], l)e Grace. Slbi/ll (1680); Bleek, in the Berl. theol. Zeitschr. 181'.t, pt. i and ii; Liicke, Kiid. in d. Apoka- fi/pse (2d ed. 1852); Ewald, Entstehuiuj, Inhalt u.Werth d. 14 sibyll. Bucher (18,58); Diihne, Alexnndr. Reli- f/ionsphilosophie (1834), ii, 228; Gfrorer, Philo (1831), ii, 121 sq. ; Hilgenfeld, Jiid. Apokul. in Hirer gesch, KiUwickelvng (1857), p. 51 sq. ; Thorlacius, Conspectus Doctr. Christ, qualis in Sibyl. Libr. Contiiientur, in the Misc. Ihifn. 1816, vol. i. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop, s. v.
Sibyllists, a name of reproach given, in early times, to the Christians, because in their disputes with the heathen they sometimes made use of the authority of Sibylla, their own prophetess, against them (Origen, Cont, Celsum, lib. v, p. 272). They urged her writings with so much advantage to the Christian cause and prejudice to the heathen that Justin jMartyr (Apol. 2, p. 82) says the Roman governors made it death for any one to read them, or Hystaspes, or the writings of the prophets. See Bingham, Christ. Antiq. bk. i, ch. ii, § 6.
Sicanus, in Grecian mythologj', was the son of Neptune and a nymph from whom the island of Tri- nacria is said to have derived its name of Sicania (later Sicily), He is sometimes represented as the father of Proserpine by Ceres.
Sicard, Kocii A.MnKoisE Cucurron, abbe of, a French philanthropist and educator, was born atFousse- net, near Toulouse, Sept. 20, 1742, and succeeded the abbii L'Epee as master of the deaf-and-dumb school in I'aris in 1781). Jlc had two narrow escapes during the Revolution, at which epoch he joined .lauffret in pub- lishing the lieliijions, Politictd, ami Literary Annals of /•'ranee. He wrote several works on the interesting sub- ject which chiefly occu])ied his attention, and in 1800 es- tablished a printing-press for the use of his scholars. He died in 1822. See lloefer, Nouv. Bioy. (Jenerale, s. v.
Sicarii (aiKupwi, (ir.-ecized from the Lat. sicariiis, an assassin; "robl)er," Acts xxi, 38; so .losephus. Ant. XX, 8, 6; War, ii, 13, 5), the sjiecial title of a baud or sect of .Jewish fanatics who fomented the last war with the Romans, an<l on the downfall of Masada retired to Kgj'pt, where they siill maintaint'(l their stidiborn re- sistance to the Roman authority {ibid.xn, 10, 1). They only appear in the New Test, in the person of .ludas ((). V.) of (ialilee, the leader of a popular revolt "in the days of the taxing" (i. e. the census, under the pneftc- ture of P. Sulp. (^uirinus, A.I). (!, A. I'. (J. 750), referred to by Gamaliel in his speech before the Sanhedrim (Acts V, 37). According to .losephus (.1;//, xviii, 1, 1 ), Judas was a Gaulonite of the city of tiamala, [irobably taking his name of (inlihean from his insurrection hav- ing had its rise in Galilee, His revolt had a theocratic
character, the watchword of which was " We have no lord nor master but God," and he boldly denounced the payment of tribute to Ciesar, and all acknowledgment of any foreign authority, as treason against the princi- ples of the JMosaic constitution, and signifying nothing short of downright slavery. His fiery eloquence and the ]iopularity of his doctrines drew vast numbers to his standard, by many of whom he was regarded as the Messiah (Origen, flomil. in Luc. xxv), and the country was for a time entirely given over to the lawless depre- dations of the fierce and licentious throng who had joined themselves to him. But the might of Rome proved irresistible: Judas himself perished, and his fol- lowers were " dispersed," though not entirely destroyed till the final overthrow of the city and nation.
With his fellow-insurgent Sadoc, a Pharisee, Judas is represented bj' Josephus as the founder of a fourth sect, in addition to the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Es- senes {Ant. xviii, 1, 1, 6; War, ii, 8, 1). The only point which appears to have distinguished his followers from the Pharisees was their stubborn love of freedom, lead- ing them to despise torments or death for themselves or their friends rather than call any man master.
The (iaulonites, as Judas's followers were called, may be regarded as the doctrinal ancestors of the Zealots and Sicarii of later days, and to the influence of his tenets Josephus attributes all subsequent insurrections of the Jews and the final destruction of the city and Temple. James and John, the sons of Judas, headed an unsuc- cessful insurrection in tlie procuratorship of Tiberius Alexander, A.D. 47, by whom they were taken prison- ers and crucified. Twenty years later, A.D. 66, their younger brother, Menahem, following his father's ex- ample, took the lead of a band of desperadoes, who, af- ter pillaging the armory of Herod in the fortress of Masada, near the "gardens of Engaddi," marched to Jerusalem, occupied the city, and after a desperate siege took the palace, where he immediately assumed the state of a king, and committed great enormities. As he was going up to the Ten)ple to worship, with great pomp, jMenahem was taken by the partisans of Eleazar the high-priest, by whom he was tortured and put to death, Aug. 15, A.D. 66 (jMilman, Hist, of the Jews, ii, 152, 231 ; Josephus, loc. cit. ; Origen, in Matt. T. xvii, § 25. See Zelotes.