SAXONY (3,502), a kingdom of Germany, lies within the basin of the Elbe, facing on the E., between Bavaria (S.) and Prussia (N.), the mountainous frontier of Bohemia; a little less in size than Yorkshire, but very densely inhabited; spurs of the Erzgebirge, Fichtelgebirge, and Riesengebirge diversify the surface; is a flourishing mining and manufacturing country; Dresden is the capital, and other important towns are Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Freiburg; the government is vested in the king and two legislative chambers; is represented in the Reichstag and Reichsrath of the empire; by the time of the Thirty Years’ War the electorate of Saxony, which in its heyday had stretched to the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Elbe, had sadly dwindled away; it suffered much at the hands of Frederick the Great during the Seven Years’ War, and in 1815, having sided with Napoleon, a portion of its territory was, by the Congress of Vienna, ceded to Prussia; was defeated along with Austria in 1866, and thus joined the North German Confederation, to be incorporated afterwards in the new German Empire.

SAXONY, PRUSSIAN (2,580), a province of Prussia, chiefly comprises that part of SAXONY (q. v.) added to Prussia in 1815; situated in the centre of Prussia, N. of the kingdom of Saxony; is watered by the Elbe and its numerous affluents, and diversified by the Harz Mountains and Thuringian Forest; contains some of the finest growing land in Prussia; salt and lignite are valuable products, and copper is also mined; the capital is Magdeburg, and other notable towns are Halle (with its university), Erfurt, &c.

SAYCE, ALEXANDER HENRY, philologist, born near Bristol; has written works on the monuments of the East, bearing chiefly on Old Testament history; b. 1846.

SCAEVOLA, CAIUS MUCIUS, a patriotic Roman who, when sentenced to be burnt alive by Lars Porsena the Etrurian, then invading Rome, for attempting to murder him, unflinchingly held his right hand in a burning brazier till it was consumed, as a mark of his contempt for the sentence.  Porsena, moved by his courage, both pardoned him, and on hearing that 300 as defiant had sworn his death, made peace with Rome and departed.  The name Scaevola (i. e. left-handed) was given him from the loss of his right hand on the occasion.

SCAFELL, a Cumberland mountain on the borders of Westmorland, with two peaks, one 3210 ft., and the other 3161 ft. high, the highest in England.

SCALE, DELFA, a prince of Verona, and a general of the Ghibellines in Lombardy, who offered Dante an asylum when expelled from Florence (1291-1329).

SCALIGER, JOSEPH JUSTUS, eminent scholar, son of the following, born at Agen; educated by his father; followed in his father’s footsteps, and far surpassed him in scholarship; travelled over Europe, and became a zealous Protestant; accepted the chair of belles lettres in the University of Leyden on condition that he should not be called upon to lecture, and gave himself up to a life of study, especially on matters philological and literary; was a man of universal knowledge, and the creator of modern chronology (1540-1609).