Silvānus

, a rural deity, son of an Italian shepherd by a goat. From this circumstance he is generally represented as half a man and half a goat. According to Virgil, he was son of Picus, or, as others report, of Mars, or, according to Plutarch, of Valeria Tusculanaria, a young woman, who introduced herself into her father’s bed, and became pregnant by him. The worship of Silvan us was established only in Italy, where, as some authors have imagined, he reigned in the age of Evander. This deity was sometimes represented holding a cypre in his hand, because he became enamoured of a beautiful youth called Cypari us, who was changed into a tree of the same name. Silvan us presided over gardens and limits, and he is often confounded with the Fauns, Satyrs, and Silenus. Plutarch , Parallel a minor a .— Virgil , Eclogues , poem 10; German i a , bk. 1 , li. 20 ; bk. 2 , li. 493 .— Ælian , de Natura Animalium , bk. 6 , ch. 42 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 10 .— Horace , epode 2.— Dionysius of Halicarna us. ――A man who murdered his wife Apronia, by throwing her down from one of the windows of her chambers.――One of those who conspired against Nero.――An officer of Constant i us, who revolted and made himself emperor. He was a a inated by his soldiers.