Sargon Vsar-gan\ (fl. 23rd century bc) Ancient Mesopotamian ruler (r. 2334-2279 bc). What is known of him comes from legends and tales; his capital city, Agade, has never been located. Perhaps originally a royal cupbearer, he came to prominence by defeating a Sumerian king, thereby attaining an empire in southern Mesopotamia and becoming the first emperor whose native tongue was Akkadian rather than Sumerian. He enlarged the empire from Iraq to Anatolia, and trade flourished with the Indus valley, Oman, the Persian Gulf coast, Cappadocia, and perhaps Greece.
Sargon II (d. 705 bc) Assyrian king (r. 721-705 bc). He continued the empire-building work of his pre¬ sumed father, Tiglath-pileser III. One of his aims was to prove the might of the Assyrian god Ashur by enlarg¬ ing the empire he had inherited. His conquests ranged from southern Babylonia to Armenia and the Medi¬ terranean. He probably died in battle in northwestern Persia. His son, Sen¬ nacherib, succeeded him.
Sarmatian \sar-'ma-sh9n\ Any member of a people originally of Ira¬ nian stock who migrated from Cen¬ tral Asia to the Ural Mountains in the 6th-4th centuries bc and settled in southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans. Closely related to the Scythians, they were expert horsemen and warriors and gained wide influence through administra¬ tive and political astuteness. Women fought alongside men and may have inspired Greek tales of Amazons. By the 5th century bc they controlled the land between the Urals and the Don, and by the 2nd century they had conquered the Scythians to rule almost all southern Russia. Allied with Germanic tribes, they continued to pose a threat to the West until the 1st century ad. After invading Dacia and the lower Danube, they were overrun by the Goths. Many joined the Gothic invasion of western Europe. Sarmatia was destroyed by Huns after ad 370. Their descendants cannot be traced after the 5th century.
Sarmiento Nsarm-'yan-toN, Domingo Faustino (b. Feb. 14, 1811, San Juan, Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata—d. Sept. 11, 1888, Asuncion, Para.) Educator, statesman, writer, and president of Argentina (1868-74). A rural schoolteacher, he entered provincial politics and was exiled to Chile by Juan Manuel de Rosas for his outspokenness. There he became an important figure in journalism and education. In his important book Facundo (1845), he denounced the Rosas dictatorship and the culture of the gauchos. He returned to Argentina to help overthrow Rosas in 1852. Elected president in 1868, he ended the Paraguayan War, developed the public school system, established technical and professional schools, and upheld civil liberties.
Sarnoff, David (b. Feb. 27, 1891, Minsk, Russia—d. Dec. 12, 1971, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. communications executive.
(r. 721-705 bc). He continued the
Sargon II, detail of a relief from the palace at Khorsabad; in the Louvre, Paris
COURTESY OF THE MUSEE DU LOUVRE, PARIS; PHOTOGRAPH, MAURICE CHUZEVILLE
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Saro-Wiwa ► Sarvastivada I 1687
After immigrating with his family to New York in 1900, he left school to work for the Marconi telegraph com¬ pany. In 1912 he heard the distress signal from the sinking Titanic and remained at his instrument for 72 hours relaying news. In 1921 he became general manager of the newly formed Radio Corp. of America (RCA Corp.). He had pro¬ posed the first commercially mar¬ keted radio receiver in 1916, and by 1924 it had earned $80 million in sales. He formed the radio network NBC in 1926. Perceiving television’s potential, he set up an experimental television station (1928) and demon¬ strated the new medium at the New York World’s Fair (1939). During World War II he was a communica¬ tions consultant to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and was made a brigadier general. President of RCA (1930-47), he served as chairman of the board until 1970.
Saro-Wiwa V.sa-ro-'we-woV Ken orig. Kenule Beeson Saro- Wiwa (b. Oct. 10, 1941, Bori, near Port Harcourt, Nigeria—d. Nov. 10, 1995, Port Harcourt) Nigerian writer and activist. He taught at the Uni¬ versity of Lagos and held government office before turning to writing. His first novels were Songs in a Time of War and Sozaboy (both 1985); his television series Basi and Company satirized the Nigerian desire to get rich with little effort. He also wrote poetry, children’s stories, and a newspaper column. His support of the Ogoni people against the oil indus¬ try put him at odds with the government; he was spuriously charged with four murders and executed despite worldwide protest.
Saronic \s9-'ra-nik\ Gulf Gulf of the Aegean Sea, southeastern coast of Greece. Some 50 mi (80 km) long and 30 mi (50 km) wide, it separates Attica and the Peloponnese and is linked to the Gulf of Corinth by the Corinth Canal. It was the site of a major Athenian victory over the Per¬ sians in 480 bc (see Battle of Salamis). Its ports include Piraeus and Megara.
Saroyan \s3-'r6i-3n\, William (b. Aug. 31, 1908, Fresno, Calif., U.S.—d. May 18, 1981, Fresno) U.S. writer. Saroyan was the largely self-educated son of an Armenian immigrant. He made his initial impact during the Depression with brash, original, and irreverent stories celebrat¬ ing the joy of living in spite of poverty, hunger, and insecurity. Much of his fiction is based on his childhood and family. His story collections include The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), Inhale and Exhale (1936), and My Name is Aram (1940). His other works include the play The Time of Your Life (1939, Pulitzer Prize) and The Human Com¬ edy (1943), a sentimental novel of life in a small California town.
Sarpi \'sar-pe\, Paolo (b. Aug. 14, 1552, Venice—d. Jan. 14, 1623, Venice) Italian patriot, scholar, and state theologian. At age 20 Sarpi became court theologian to the duke of Mantua, a post that gave him lei¬ sure to study Greek, Hebrew, mathematics, anatomy, and botany. Later, as consultor to the government, he incurred the wrath of Pope Paul V by supporting Venice’s right to restrict church construction in the city and to try priests accused of crimes unrelated to religion (e.g., murder) in the state’s courts. His History of the Council of Trent (1619), an important work decrying papal absolutism, was published under a pseudonym; though placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum, it went through several editions and five translations in 10 years.
Sarraute \sa-'r6t\, Nathalie orig. Nathalie llyanova Tcher- niak (b. July 18, 1900, Ivanova, Russia—d. Oct. 19, 1999, Paris, France) French novelist and essayist. She practiced law until c. 1940, when she became a full-time writer. Tropismes (1939), a collection of sketches, introduced her idea of tropisms, the “things that are not said and the movements that cross our consciousness very rapidly.” An early practi¬ tioner and leading theorist of the nouveau roman (“new novel”), the French antinovel, she discarded conventions of plot, chronology, charac¬ terization, and point of view. Her novels—including Portrait of a Man Unknown (1948), Martereau (1953), Le planetarium (1959), and Here (1997)—and her plays focus on the unspoken “subconversations” in human interactions.
SARS in full severe acute respiratory syndrome Highly con¬ tagious respiratory illness characterized by a persistent fever, headache, and bodily discomfort, followed by a dry cough that may progress to great difficulty in breathing. SARS appeared in November 2002 in Guangdong province, China, and was brought to Hong Kong in February 2003. As it spread from there to other countries of East Asia and the world, health authorities instituted an unprecedented series of control measures, includ¬ ing quarantines and prohibitions on travel, and in June 2003 the global outbreak was declared to be contained. By that time more than 8,000 cases had been reported, and some 800 people had died. SARS is believed to be caused by a mutant coronavirus, a type usually associated with pneu¬ monia and the common cold. A specific vaccine has not been developed. Treatment is usually restricted to easing the patient’s symptoms— providing mechanical ventilation if necessary—until the illness has run its course.