A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY, ETC., ETC. (continued 40)

Scira, an annual solemnity observed at Athens in honour of Minerva, or, according to others, of Ceres and Proserpine. It received its name either from Sciras, a small town of Attica, or from a native of Eleusis, called Scirus.

Sciradium, a promontory of Attica, on the Saronicus sinus.

Sciras, a name of Ægina. Minerva was also called Sciras. Strabo, bk. 9.

Sciressa, a mountain of Arcadia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 5.

Sciron, a celebrated thief in Attica, who plundered the inhabitants of the country, and threw them down from the highest rocks into the sea, after he had obliged them to wait upon him and to wash his feet. Theseus attacked him, and treated him as he treated travellers. According to Ovid, the earth as well as the sea refused to receive the bones of Sciron, which remained for some time suspended in the air, till they were changed into large rocks called Scironia Saxa, situate between Megara and Corinth. There was a road near them which bore the name of Sciron, naturally small and narrow, but afterwards enlarged by the emperor Adrian. Some suppose that Ino threw herself into the sea, from one of these rocks. Sciron had married the daughter of Cychreus, a king of Salamis. He was brother-in-law to Telamon the son of Æacus. Ovid, bk. 7, Metamorphoses, li. 444; Heroides, poem 2, li. 69.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 47.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 38.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 14, li. 12.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Seneca, Quæstiones naturales, bk. 5, ch. 17.

Scirus, a village of Arcadia, of which the inhabitants are called Sciritæ.――A plain and river of Attica, near Megara. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 36.

Scissis, a town of Spain. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 60.

Scodra, a town of Illyricum, where Gentius resided. Livy, bk. 43, ch. 20.

Scolus, a mountain of Bœotia.――A town of Macedonia, near Olynthus. Strabo.

Scombrus, a mountain of Thrace, near Rhodope.

Scopas, an architect and sculptor of Ephesus, for some time employed in making the mausoleum which Artemisia raised to her husband, and which was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. One of his statues of Venus was among the antiquities with which Rome was adorned. Scopas lived about 450 years before Christ. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43, &c.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 8.—Vitruvius, bk. 9, ch. 9.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8; bk. 36, ch. 5.――An Ætolian who raised some forces to assist Ptolemy Epiphanes king of Egypt, against his enemies Antiochus and his allies. He afterwards conspired against the Egyptian monarch, and was put to death, B.C. 196.――An ambassador to the court of the emperor Domitian.

Scopium, a town of Thessaly.

Scordisci and Scordiscæ, a people of Pannonia and Thrace, well known during the reign of the Roman emperors for their barbarity and uncivilized manners. They were fond of drinking human blood, and they generally sacrificed their captive enemies to their gods. Livy, bk. 41, ch. 19.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Scoti, the ancient inhabitants of Scotland, mentioned as different from the Picts. Claudian, de Tertio Consulatu Honorii, li. 54.

Scotīnus, a surname of Heraclitus. Strabo, bk. 15.

Scotussa, a town of Thessaly at the north of Larissa and of the Peneus, destroyed by Alexander of Pheræ. Livy, bk. 28, chs. 5 & 7; bk. 36, ch. 14.—Strabo, bks. 7 & 9.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 5.――Another in Macedonia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Scribonia, a daughter of Scribonius, who married Augustus after he had divorced Claudia. He had by her a daughter, the celebrated Julia. Scribonia was some time after repudiated, that Augustus might marry Livia. She had been married twice before she became the wife of the emperor. Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 62.――A woman who married Crassus.

Scriboniānus, a man in the age of Nero. Some of his friends wished him to be competitor for the imperial purple against Vespasian, which he declined. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 39.――There were also two brothers of that name, who did nothing without each other’s consent. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 41.

Scribonius, a man who made himself master of the kingdom of Bosphorus.――A physician in the age of Augustus and Tiberius.――A man who wrote annals, A.D. 22. The best edition of Scribonius is that of Patavium, 4to, 1655.――A friend of Pompey, &c.

Scultenna, a river of Gaul Cispadana, falling into the Po, now called Panaro. Livy, bk. 41, chs. 12 & 18.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.

Scylacēum, a town of the Brutii, built by Mnestheus at the head of an Athenian colony. As Virgil has applied the epithet Navifragum to Scylaceum, some suppose that either the poet was mistaken in his knowledge of the place, because there are no apparent dangers to navigation there, or that he confounds this place with a promontory of the same name on the Tuscan sea. Servius explains this passage by supposing that the houses of the place were originally built with the shipwrecked vessels of Ulysses’ fleet—a most puerile explanation! Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 553.—Strabo, bk. 6.

Scylax, a geographer and mathematician of Caria, in the age of Darius son of Hystaspes, about 550 years before Christ. He was commissioned by Darius to make discoveries in the east, and after a journey of 30 months he visited Egypt. Some suppose that he was the first who invented geographical tables. The latest edition of the Periplus of Scylax, is that of Gronovius, 4to, Leiden, 1597. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 44.—Strabo.――A river of Cappadocia.

Scylla, a daughter of Nisus king of Megara, who became enamoured of Minos, as that monarch besieged her father’s capital. To make him sensible of her passion, she informed him that she would deliver Megara into his hands if he promised to marry her. Minos consented, and as the prosperity of Megara depended on a golden hair, which was on the head of Nisus, Scylla cut it off as her father was asleep, and from that moment the sallies of the Megareans were unsuccessful, and the enemy easily became master of the place. Scylla was disappointed in her expectations, and Minos treated her with such contempt and ridicule, that she threw herself from a tower into the sea, or, according to other accounts, she was changed into a lark by the gods, and her father into a hawk. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 393.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 19, li. 21.—Hyginus, fable 198.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 405, &c.――A daughter of Typhon, or, as some say, of Phorcys, who was greatly loved by Glaucus, one of the deities of the sea. Scylla scorned the addresses of Glaucus, and the god, to render her more propitious, applied to Circe, whose knowledge of herbs and incantations was universally admired. Circe no sooner saw him than she became enamoured of him, and instead of giving him the required assistance, she attempted to make him forget Scylla, but in vain. To punish her rival, Circe poured the juice of some poisonous herbs into the waters of the fountain where Scylla bathed, and no sooner had the nymph touched the place than she found every part of her body below the waist changed into frightful monsters like dogs, which never ceased barking. The rest of her body assumed an equally hideous form. She found herself supported by 12 feet, and she had six different heads, each with three rows of teeth. This sudden metamorphosis so terrified her, that she threw herself into that part of the sea which separates the coast of Italy and Sicily, where she was changed into rocks, which continued to bear her name, and which were universally deemed by the ancients as very dangerous to sailors, as well as the whirlpool of Charybdis on the coast of Sicily. During a tempest the waves are described by modern navigators as roaring dreadfully when driven into the rough and uneven cavities of the rock. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12, li. 85.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 66, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Hyginus, fable 199. Some authors, as Propertius, bk. 4, poem 4, li. 39, and Virgil, eclogue 6, li. 74, with Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 500, have confounded the daughter of Typhon with the daughter of Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 424, &c.――A ship in the fleet of Æneas, commanded by Cloanthus, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 122.

Scyllæum, a promontory of Peloponnesus on the coast of Argolis.――A promontory of the Brutii in Italy, supposed to be the same as Scylaceum, near which was the famous whirlpool Scylla, from which the name is derived.

Scyllias, a celebrated swimmer who enriched himself by diving after the goods which had been shipwrecked in the Persian ships near Pelium. It is said that he could dive 80 stadia under the water. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 19.

Scyllis and Dipœnus, statuaries of Crete before the age of Cyrus king of Persia. They were said to be sons and pupils of Dædalus, and they established a school at Sicyon, where they taught the principles of their profession. Pausanias.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 4.

Scyllus (untis), a town of Achaia, given to Xenophon by the Lacedæmonians. Strabo.

Scylūrus, a monarch who left 80 sons. He called them to his bedside as he expired, and by enjoining them to break a bundle of sticks tied together, and afterwards separately, he convinced them that, when altogether firmly united, their power would be insuperable, but, if ever disunited, they would fail an easy prey to their enemies. Plutarch, de Garrulitate.

Scyppium, a town in the neighbourhood of Colophon. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.

Scyras, a river of Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 25.

Scyrias, a name applied to Deidamia as a native of Scyros. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, ♦bk. 1, li. 682.

Scyros, a rocky and barren island in the Ægean, at the distance of about 28 miles north-east from Eubœa, 60 miles in circumference. It was originally in the possession of the Pelasgians and Carians. Achilles retired there not to go to the Trojan war, and became father of Neoptolemus by Deidamia the daughter of king Lycomedes. Scyros was conquered by the Athenians under Cimon. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 10, li. 508.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 464; bk. 13, li. 156.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 9.

Scythæ, the inhabitants of Scythia. See: Scythia.

Scythes, or Scytha, a son of Jupiter by a daughter of Tellus. Half his body was that of a man, and the rest that of a serpent. He became king of a country which he called Scythia. Diodorus, bk. 2.――A son of Hercules and Echidna.

Scythia, a large country situate in the most northern parts of Europe and Asia, from which circumstance it is generally denominated European and Asiatic. The most northern parts of Scythia were uninhabited on account of the extreme coldness of the climate. The more southern parts in Asia that were inhabited were distinguished by the name of Scythia intra et extra Imaum, &c. The boundaries of Scythia were unknown to the ancients, as no traveller had penetrated beyond the vast tracts of land which lay at the north, east, and west. Scythia comprehended the modern kingdoms of Tartary, Russia in Asia, Siberia, Muscovy, the Crimea, Poland, part of Hungary, Lithuania, the northern parts of Germany, Sweden, Norway, &c. The Scythians were divided into several nations or tribes; they had no cities, but continually changed their habitations. They inured themselves to bear labour and fatigue; they despised money, and lived upon milk, and covered themselves with the skins of their cattle. The virtues seemed to flourish among them, and that philosophy and moderation which other nations wished to acquire by study, seemed natural to them. Some authors, however, represent them as a savage and barbarous people, who fed upon human flesh, who drank the blood of their enemies, and used the skulls of travellers as vessels in their sacrifices to their gods. The Scythians made several irruptions upon the more southern provinces of Asia, especially B.C. 624, when they remained in possession of Asia Minor for 28 years, and we find them at different periods extending their conquests in Europe, and penetrating as far as Egypt. Their government was monarchical, and the deference which they paid to their sovereigns was ♦unparalleled. When the king died, his body was carried through every province, where it was received in solemn procession, and afterwards buried. In the first centuries after Christ they invaded the Roman empire with the Sarmatians. See: Sarmatia. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 64; bk. 2, li. 224.

Scythīnus, a Greek poet of Teos in Ionia, who wrote iambics. Diogenes Laërtius, Heraclides.—Athenæus, bk. 11.

Scython, a man changed into a woman. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 280.

Scythopŏlis, a town of Syria, said to have been built by Bacchus. Strabo, bk. 16.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 18.

Scythotauri, a people of Chersonesus Taurica. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.

Sebasta, a town of Judæa.――Another in Cilicia.――The name was common to several cities, as it was in honour of Augustus.

Sebastīa, a city of Armenia.

Sebennȳtus, a town of the Delta in Egypt. The branch of the Nile which flows near it has been called the Sebennytic. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 10.

Sebētus, a small river of Campania, falling into the bay of Naples, whence the epithet Sebethis, given to one of the nymphs who frequented its borders, and became mother of Œbalus by Telon. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 734.

Sebusiāni, or Segusiani, a people of Celtic Gaul.

Sectānus, an infamous debauchee in the age of Horace, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 112.

Secundus Julius, a man who published some harangues and orations in the age of the emperor Titus.――A favourite of Nero.――One of the associates of Sejanus.

Seditāni, or Sedentāni, a people of Spain. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 372.

Sedūni, an ancient nation of Belgic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3.

Sedusii, a people of Germany near the Suevi. Cæsar.

Segesta, a town of Sicily founded by Æneas, or, according to some, by Crinisus. See: Ægesta.

Segestes, a German, friendly to the Roman interest in the time of Germanicus. His daughter married Arminius. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 55.

Segetia, a divinity at Rome, invoked by the husbandmen that the harvest might be plentiful. Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 8.—Macrobius, bk. 1, ch. 16.—Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 2.

Segni, a people with a town of the same name in Belgic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6.

Segrobrica, a town of Spain near Saguntum. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 3.

Segōnax, a prince in the southern parts of Britain, who opposed Cæsar, by order of Cassivelaunus, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 22.

Segontia, or Seguntia, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 10.

Segontiăci, a people of Belgic Gaul, who submitted to Julius Cæsar.

Segovia, a town of Spain, of great power in the age of the Cæsars.――There was also another of the same name in Lusitania. Both had been founded by the Celtiberi.

Seguntium, a town of Britain, supposed to be Carnarvon in Wales. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 21.

Segusiāni, a people of Gaul on the Loire. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 10.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 18.

Segusio, a town of Piedmont on the Durias. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 17.

Ælius Sejānus, a native of Vulsinum in Tuscany, who distinguished himself in the court of Tiberius. His father’s name was Seuis Strabo, a Roman knight, commander of the pretorian guards. His mother was descended from the Junian family. Sejanus first gained the favours of Caius Cæsar the grandson of Augustus, but afterwards he attached himself to the interest and the views of Tiberius, who then sat on the imperial throne. The emperor, who was naturally of a suspicious temper, was free and open with Sejanus, and while he distrusted others, he communicated his greatest secrets to this fawning favourite. Sejanus improved this confidence, and when he had found that he possessed the esteem of Tiberius, he next endeavoured to become the favourite of the soldiers and the darling of the senate. As commander of the pretorian guards he was the second man in Rome, and in that important office he made use of insinuations and every mean artifice to make himself beloved and revered. His affability and condescension gained him the hearts of the common soldiers, and by appointing his own favourites and adherents to places of trust and honour, all the officers and centurions of the army became devoted to his interest. The views of Sejanus in this were well known; yet to advance with more success, he attempted to gain the affection of the senators. In this he met with no opposition. A man who has the disposal of places of honour and dignity, and who has the command of the public money, cannot but be the favourite of those who are in need of his assistance. It is even said that Sejanus gained to his views all the wives of the senators, by a private and most secret promise of marriage to each of them, whenever he had made himself independent and sovereign of Rome. Yet however successful with the best and noblest families in the empire, Sejanus had to combat numbers in the house of the emperor; but these seeming obstacles were soon removed. All the children and grandchildren of Tiberius were sacrificed to the ambition of the favourite under various pretences; and Drusus the son of the emperor, by striking Sejanus, made his destruction sure and inevitable. Livia the wife of Drusus was gained by Sejanus, and though the mother of many children, she was prevailed upon to assist her adulterer in the murder of her husband, and she consented to marry him when Drusus was dead. No sooner was Drusus poisoned than Sejanus openly declared his wish to marry Livia. This was strongly opposed by Tiberius; and the emperor, by recommending Germanicus to the senators for his successor, rendered Sejanus bold and determined. He was more urgent in his demands; and when he could not gain the consent of the emperor, he persuaded him to retire to solitude from the noise of Rome and the troubles of the government. Tiberius, naturally fond of ease and luxury, yielded to his representations, and retired to Campania, leaving Sejanus at the head of the empire. This was highly gratifying to the favourite, and he was now without a master. Prudence and moderation might have made him what he wished to be; but Sejanus offended the whole empire when he declared that he was emperor of Rome, and Tiberius only the dependent prince of the island of Capreæ, where he had retired. Tiberius was upon this fully convinced of the designs of Sejanus; and when he had been informed that his favourite had had the meanness and audacity to ridicule him by introducing him on the stage, the emperor ordered him to be accused before the senate. Sejanus was deserted by all his pretended friends, as soon as by fortune; and the man who aspired to the empire, and who called himself the favourite of the people, the darling of the pretorian guards, and the companion of Tiberius, was seized without resistance, and the same day strangled in prison, A.D. 31. His remains were exposed to the fury and insolence of the populace, and afterwards thrown into the Tiber. His children and all his relations were involved in his ruin, and Tiberius sacrificed to his resentment and suspicions all those who were even connected with Sejanus, or had shared his favours and enjoyed his confidence. Tacitus, bk. 3, Annals, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 58.—Suetonius, Tiberias.

Cnæus Seius, a Roman who had a famous horse of large size and uncommon beauty. He was put to death by Antony, and it was observed, that whoever obtained possession of his horse, which was supposed to be of the same race as the horses of Diomedes destroyed by Hercules, and which was called Sejanus equus, became unfortunate, and lost all his property, with every member of his family. Hence arose the proverb, ille homo habet Sejanum equum, applied to such as were oppressed with misfortunes. Aulus Gellius, bk. 3, ch. 9.

Seius Strabo, the father of Sejanus, was a Roman knight, and commander of the pretorian guards.

Selasia. See: Sellasia.

Selemnus, a river of Achaia. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 23. See: Selimnus.

Selēne, the wife of Antiochus king of Syria, put to death by Tigranes king of Armenia. She was daughter of Physcon king of Egypt, and had first married her brother Lathurus, according to the custom of her country, and afterwards, by desire of her mother, her other brother Gryphus. At the death of Gryphus she had married Antiochus, surnamed Eusebes, the son of Antiochus Cyzicenus, by whom she had two sons. According to Appian, she first married the father, and after his death, his son Eusebes. Appian, Syrian Wars, &c.

Seleucēna, or Seleucis, a country of Syria, in Asia. See: Seleucis.

Seleucīa, a town of Syria, on the sea-shore, generally called Pieria, to distinguish it from others of the same name. There were no less than eight other cities which were called Seleucia, and which had all received their name from Seleucus Nicator. They were all situate in the kingdom of Syria, in Cilicia, and near the Euphrates. Florus, bk. 3, ch. 11.—Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 12.—Strabo, bks. 11 & 15.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 26.――Also the residence of the Parthian kings. Cicero, bk. 8, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 14.

Seleucĭdæ, a surname given to those monarchs who sat on the throne of Syria, which was founded by Seleucus the son of Antiochus, from whom the word is derived. The era of the Seleucidæ begins with the taking of Babylon by Seleucus, B.C. 312, and ends at the conquest of Syria by Pompey, B.C. 65. The order in which these monarchs reigned is shown in the account of Syria. See: Syria.

Seleucis, a division of Syria, which received its name from Seleucus, the founder of the Syrian empire after the death of Alexander the Great. It was also called Tetrapolis, from the four cities which it contained, called also sister cities; Seleucia called after Seleucus, Antioch called after his father, Laodicea after his mother, and Apamea after his wife. Strabo, bk. 16.

Seleucus I., one of the captains of Alexander the Great, surnamed Nicator, or Victorious, was son of Antiochus. After the king’s death, he received Babylon as his province; but his ambitious views, and his attempt to destroy Eumenes as he passed through his territories, rendered him so unpopular, that he fled for safety to the court of his friend Ptolemy king of Egypt. He was soon after enabled to recover Babylon, which Antigonus had seized in his absence, and he increased his dominions by the immediate conquest of Media, and some of the neighbouring provinces. When he had strengthened himself in his empire, Seleucus imitated the example of the rest of the generals of Alexander, and assumed the title of independent monarch. He afterwards made war against Antigonus, with the united forces of Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus; and after this monarch had been conquered and slain, his territories were divided among his victorious enemies. When Seleucus became master of Syria, he built a city there, which he called Antioch in honour of his father, and made it the capital of his dominions. He also made war against Demetrius and Lysimachus, though he had originally married Stratonice the daughter of the former, and had lived in the closest friendship with the latter. Seleucus was at last murdered by one of his servants called Ptolemy Ceraunus, a man on whom he bestowed the greatest favours, and whom he had distinguished by acts of the most unbounded confidence. According to Arrian, Seleucus was the greatest and most powerful of the princes who inherited the Macedonian empire after the death of Alexander. His benevolence has been commended; and it has been observed, that he conquered not to enslave nations, but to make them more happy. He founded no less than 34 cities in different parts of his empire, which he peopled with Greek colonies, whose national industry, learning, religion, and spirit, were communicated to the indolent and luxurious inhabitants of Asia. Seleucus was a great benefactor to the Greeks; he restored to the Athenians the library and statues which Xerxes had carried away from their city when he invaded Greece, and among them were those of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Seleucus was murdered 280 years before the christian era, in the 32nd year of his reign, and the 78th, or, according to others, the 73rd year of his age, as he was going to conquer Macedonia, where he intended to finish his days in peace and tranquillity in that province where he was born. He was succeeded by Antiochus Soter. Justin, bk. 13, ch. 4; bk. 15, ch. 4; bk. 16, ch. 3, &c.—Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 17.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 51.—Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 12.

Seleucus II., surnamed Callinicus, succeeded his father Antiochus Theus on the throne of Syria. He attempted to make war against Ptolemy king of Egypt, but his fleet was shipwrecked in a violent storm, and his armies soon after conquered by his enemy. He was at last taken prisoner by Arsaces, an officer who made himself powerful by the dissensions which reigned in the house of the Seleucidæ, between the two brothers Seleucus and Antiochus; and after he had been a prisoner for some time in Parthia, he died of a fall from his horse, B.C. 226, after a reign of 20 years. Seleucus had received the surname of Pogon, from his long beard, and that of Callinicus, ironically to express his very unfortunate reign. He had married Laodice the sister of one of his generals, by whom he had two sons, Seleucus and Antiochus, and a daughter whom he gave in marriage to Mithridates king of Pontus. Strabo, bk. 16.—Justin, bk. 27.—Appian, Syrian Wars.

Seleucus III., succeeded his father Seleucus II. on the throne of Syria, and received the surname of Ceraunus, by antiphrasis, as he was a very weak, timid, and irresolute monarch. He was murdered by two of his officers, after a reign of three years, B.C. 223, and his brother Antiochus, though only 15 years old, ascended the throne, and rendered himself so celebrated that he acquired the name of the Great. Appian.

Seleucus IV., succeeded his father Antiochus the Great on the throne of Syria. He was surnamed Philopater, or, according to Josephus, Soter. His empire had been weakened by the Romans when he became monarch, and the yearly tribute of 1000 talents to those victorious enemies concurred in lessening his power and consequence among nations. Seleucus was poisoned after a reign of 12 years, B.C. 175. His son Demetrius had been sent to Rome, there to receive his education, and he became a prince of great abilities. Strabo, bk. 16.—Justin, bk. 32.—Appian.

Seleucus V., succeeded his father Demetrius Nicator on the throne of Syria, in the 20th year of his age. He was put to death in the first year of his reign by Cleopatra his mother, who had also sacrificed her husband to her ambition. He is not reckoned by many historians in the number of the Syrian monarchs.

Seleucus VI., one of the Seleucidæ, son of Antiochus Gryphus, killed his uncle Antiochus Cyzicenus, who wished to obtain the crown of Syria. He was some time after banished from his kingdom by Antiochus Pius son of Cyzicenus, and fled to Cilicia, where he was burnt in a palace by the inhabitants, B.C. 93. Appian.—Josephus.

Seleucus, a prince of Syria, to whom the Egyptians offered the crown of which they had robbed Auletes. Seleucus accepted it, but he soon disgusted his subjects, and received the surname of Cybiosactes, or Scullion, for his meanness and avarice. He was at last murdered by Berenice, whom he had married.――A servant of Cleopatra the last queen of Egypt, who accused his mistress, before Octavianus, of having secreted part of her jewels and treasures.――A mathematician intimate with Vespasian the Roman emperor.――A part of the Alps.――A Roman consul.――A celebrated singer. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 211.――A king of the Bosphorus, who died B.C. 429.

Selge, a town of Pamphylia, made a colony by the Lacedæmonians. Livy, bk. 36, ch. 13.—Strabo.

Selimnus, a shepherd of Achaia, who for some time enjoyed the favours of the nymph Argyra without interruption. Argyra was at last disgusted with her lover, and the shepherd died through melancholy, and was changed into a river of the same name. Argyra was also changed into a river of the same name. Argyra was also changed into a fountain, and was fond of mingling her waters with those of the Selimnus. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 23.

Selīnuns, or Selīnus (untis), a town on the southern parts of Sicily, founded A.U.C. 127, by a colony from Megara. It received its name from σελινον, parsley, which grew there in abundance. The marks of its ancient consequence are visible in the venerable ruins now found in its neighbourhood. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 705.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 19.――A river of Elis in Peloponnesus, which watered the town of Scillus. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 6.――Another in Achaia.――Another in Sicily.――A river and town of Cilicia, where Trajan died. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 20.—Strabo, bk. 14.――Two small rivers near Diana’s temple at Ephesus. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.――A lake at the entrance of the Cayster. Strabo, bk. 14.

Sellasia, a town of Laconia, where Cleomenes was defeated by the Achæans, B.C. 222. Scarce 200 of a body of 5000 Lacedæmonians survived the battle. Plutarch.

Sellēis, a river of Peloponnesus falling into the Ionian sea. Homer, Iliad.

Selletæ, a people of Thrace near mount Hæmus. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 40.

Selli, an ancient nation of Epirus near Dodona. Lucan, bk. 3, li. 180.—Strabo, bk. 7.

Selymbria, a town of Thrace on the Propontis. Livy, bk. 39, ch. 39.

Sĕmĕle, a daughter of Cadmus by Hermione the daughter of Mars and Venus. She was tenderly beloved by Jupiter; but Juno, who was always jealous of her husband’s amours, and who hated the house of Cadmus because they were related to the goddess of beauty, determined to punish this successful rival. She borrowed the girdle of Ate, which contained every wickedness, deceit, and perfidy, and in the form of Beroe, Semele’s nurse, she visited the house of Jupiter’s mistress. Semele listened with attention to the artful admonitions of the false Beroe, and was at last persuaded to entreat her lover to come to her arms with the same majesty as he approached Juno. This rash request was heard with horror by Jupiter; but as he had sworn by the Styx to grant Semele whatever she required, he came to her bed attended by the clouds, the lightning, and thunderbolts. The mortal nature of Semele could not endure so much majesty, and she was instantly consumed with fire. The child, however, of which she was pregnant, was saved from the flames by Mercury, or, according to others, by Dirce, one of the nymphs of the Achelous, and Jupiter placed him in his thigh the rest of the time which he ought to have been in his mother’s womb. This child was called Bacchus, or Dionysius. Semele immediately after death was honoured with immortality under the name of Thyone. Some, however, suppose that she remained in the infernal regions till Bacchus her son was permitted to bring her back. There were in the temple of Diana, at Trœzene, two altars raised to the infernal gods, one of which was over an aperture, through which, as Pausanias reports, Bacchus returned from hell with his mother. Semele was particularly worshipped at Brasiæ in Laconia, where, according to a certain tradition, she had been driven by the winds with her son, after Cadmus had exposed her on the sea on account of her incontinent amour with Jupiter. The mother of Bacchus, though she received divine honours, had no temples; she had a statue in a temple of Ceres, at Thebes, in Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 9, ch. 5.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 14, li. 323.—Orpheus, Hymns.—Euripides, Bacchæ.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 254; Fasti, bk. 3, li. 715.—Diodorus, bks. 3 & 4.

Semigermāni, a name given to the Helvetii, a people of Germany. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 38.

Semiguntus, a general of the Cherusci, taken prisoner by Germanicus, &c. Strabo, bk. 7.

Sĕmīrămis, a celebrated queen of Assyria, daughter of the goddess Derceto by a young Assyrian. She was exposed in a desert, but her life was preserved by doves for one whole year, till Simmas, one of the shepherds of Ninus, found her, and brought her up as his own child. Semiramis, when grown up, married Menones the governor of Nineveh, and accompanied him to the siege of Bactra, where, by her advice and prudent directions, she hastened the king’s operations and took the city. These eminent services, but chiefly her uncommon beauty, endeared her to Ninus. The monarch asked her of her husband, and offered him instead, his daughter Sosana; but Menones, who tenderly loved Semiramis, refused, and when Ninus had added threats to entreaties, he hung himself. No sooner was Menones dead than Semiramis, who was of an aspiring soul, married Ninus, by whom she had a son called Ninyas. Ninus was so fond of Semiramis, that at her request he resigned the crown to her, and commanded her to be proclaimed queen and sole empress of Assyria. Of this, however, he had cause to repent; Semiramis put him to death, the better to establish herself on the throne, and when she had no enemies to fear at home, she began to repair the capital of her empire, and by her means Babylon became the most superb and magnificent city in the world. She visited every part of her dominions, and left everywhere immortal monuments of her greatness and benevolence. To render the roads passable and communication easy, she hollowed mountains and filled up valleys; and water was conveyed at a great expense, by large and convenient aqueducts, to barren deserts and unfruitful plains. She was not less distinguished as a warrior. Many of the neighbouring nations were conquered; and when Semiramis was once told, as she was dressing her hair, that Babylon had revolted, she left her toilette with precipitation, and though only half dressed, she refused to have the rest of her head adorned before the sedition was quelled and tranquillity re-established. Semiramis has been accused of licentiousness, and some authors have observed that she regularly called the strongest and stoutest men in her army to her arms, and afterwards put them to death, that they might not be living witnesses of her incontinence. Her passion for her son was also unnatural, and it was this criminal propensity which induced Ninyas to destroy his mother with his own hands. Some say that Semiramis was changed into a dove after death, and received immortal honours in Assyria. It is supposed that she lived about 1965 years before the christian era, and that she died in the 62nd year of her age, and the 25th of her reign. Many fabulous reports have been propagated about Semiramis, and some have declared that for some time she disguised herself and passed for her son Ninyas. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 3.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 184.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 11, li. 21.—Plutarch, de Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute, &c.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 1, poem 5, li. 11; Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 58.—Marcellinus, bk. 14, ch. 6.

Semnŏnes, a people of Italy, on the borders of Umbria.――Of Germany, on the Elbe and Oder.

Semōnes, inferior deities of Rome, that were not in the number of the 12 great gods. Among these were Faunus, the Satyrs, Priapus, Vertumnus, Janus, Pan, Silenus, and all such illustrious heroes as had received divine honours after death. The word seems to be the same as semi homines, because they were inferior to the supreme gods and superior to men. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 213.

Semosanctus, one of the gods of the Romans among the Indigetes, or such as were born and educated in their country.

Sempronia, a Roman matron, mother of the two Gracchi, celebrated for her learning, and her private as well as public virtues.――Also a sister of the Gracchi, who is accused of having assisted the triumvirs Carbo, Gracchus, and Flaccus to murder her husband Scipio Africanus the younger. The name of Sempronia was common to the female descendants of the family of the Sempronii, Gracchi, and Scipios.

Semprōnia lex, de magistratibus, by Caius Sempronius Gracchus the tribune, A.U.C. 630, ordained that no person who had been legally deprived of a magistracy for misdemeanours should be capable of bearing an office again. This law was afterwards repealed by the author.――Another, de civitate, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It ordained that no capital judgment should be passed over a Roman citizen without the concurrence and authority of the senate. There were also some other regulations, included in this law.――Another, de comitiis, by the same, A.U.C. 635. It ordained that, in giving their votes, the centuries should be chosen by lot, and not give it according to the order of their classes.――Another, de comitiis, by the same, the same year, which granted to the Latin allies of Rome the privilege of giving votes at elections, as if they were Roman citizens.――Another, de provinciis, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It enacted that the senators should be permitted before the assembly of the consular comitia, to determine as they pleased the particular provinces which should be proposed to the consuls, to be divided by lot, and that the tribunes should be deprived of the power of interposing against a decree of the senate.――Another, called agraria prima, by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the tribune, A.U.C. 620. It confirmed the lex agraria Licinia, and enacted that all such as were in possession of more lands than that law allowed, should immediately resign them, to be divided among the poor citizens. Three commissioners were appointed to put this law into execution; and its consequences were so violent, as it was directly made against the nobles and senators, that it cost the author his life.――Another, called agraria altera, by the same. It required that all the ready money which was found in the treasury of Attalus king of Pergamus, who had left the Romans his heirs, should be divided among the poorer citizens of Rome, to supply them with all the various instruments requisite in husbandry, and that the lands of that monarch should be farmed by the Roman censors, and the money drawn from thence should be divided among the people.――Another, frumentaria, by Caius Sempronius Gracchus. It required that a certain quantity of corn should be distributed among the people, so much to every individual, for which it was required that they should only pay the trifling sum of a semissis, and a triens.――Another, de usurâ, by Marcus Sempronius the tribune, A.U.C. 560. It ordained that, in lending money to the Latins and the allies of Rome, the Roman laws should be observed as well as among the citizens.――Another, de judicibus, by the tribune Caius Sempronius, A.U.C. 630. It required that the right of judging, which had been assigned to the Senatorian order by Romulus, should be transferred from them to the Roman knights.――Another, militaris, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It enacted that the soldiers should be clothed at the public expense, without any diminution of their usual pay. It also ordered that no person should be obliged to serve in the army before the age of 17.

Semprōnius Aulus Atratinus, a senator who opposed the Agrarian law, which was proposed by the consul Cassius, soon after the election of the tribunes.――Lucius Atratinus, a consul A.U.C. 310. He was one of the first censors with his colleague in the consulship, Papirius.――Caius, a consul summoned before an assembly of the people because he had fought with ill success against the Volsci.――Blæsus, a consul who obtained a triumph for some victories gained in Sicily.――Sophus, a consul against the Æqui. He also fought against the Picentes, and during the engagement there was a dreadful earthquake. The soldiers were terrified, but Sophus encouraged them, and observed that the earth trembled only for fear of changing its old masters.――A man who proposed a law that no person should dedicate a temple or altar, without the previous approbation of the magistrates, A.U.C. 449. He repudiated his wife because she had gone to see a spectacle without his permission or knowledge.――Rufus, a senator, banished from the senate, because he had killed a crane to serve him as food.――Tuditanus, a man sent against Sardinia by the Romans.――A legionary tribune, who led away from Cannæ the remaining part of the soldiers who had not been killed by the Carthaginians. He was afterwards consul, and fought in the field against Annibal with great success. He was killed in Spain.――Tiberius Longus, a Roman consul defeated by the Carthaginians in an engagement which he had begun against the approbation of his colleague Cornelius Scipio. He afterwards obtained victories over Hanno and the Gauls.――Tiberius Gracchus, a consul who defeated the Carthaginians and the Campanians. He was afterwards betrayed by Fulvius, a Lucanian, into the hands of the Carthaginians, and was killed, after he had made a long and bloody resistance against the enemy. Annibal showed great honour to his remains; a funeral pile was raised at the head of the camp, and the enemy’s cavalry walked round it in solemn procession.――Gracchus, a man who had debauched Julia. See: Gracchus.――A eunuch, made governor of Rome by Caracalla.――Densus, a centurion of a pretorian cohort who defended the person of Galba against his assassins. He was killed in the attempt.――The father of the Gracchi. See: Gracchus.――A censor, who was also sent as ambassador to the court of Egypt.――A tribune of the people, &c. Tacitus.—Florus.—Livy.—Plutarch, Cæsar.—Appian.――An emperor. See: Saturninus.

Semurium, a place near Rome, where Apollo had a temple. Cicero, Philippics, bk. 6, ch. 6.

Sena, or Senogallia, a town of Umbria in Italy, on the Adriatic, built by the Senones, after they had made an irruption into Italy, A.U.C. 396; and on that account called Gallica. There was also a small river in the neighbourhood which bore the name of Sena. It was near it that Asdrubal was defeated by Claudius Nero. Cornelius Nepos, Cato.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 454.—Livy, bk. 27, ch. 46.—Cicero, Brutus, ch. 18.

Sĕnātus, the chief council of the state among the Romans. The members of this body, called senatores on account of their age, and patres on account of their authority, were of the greatest consequence in the republic. The senate was first instituted by Romulus to govern the city, and to preside over the affairs of the state during his absence. This was continued by his successors; but Tarquin II. disdained to consult them, and by having his own council chosen from his favourites, and from men who were totally devoted to his interest, he diminished the authority and the consequence of the senators, and slighted the concurrence of the people. The senators whom Romulus created were 100, to whom he afterwards added the same number when the Sabines had migrated to Rome. Tarquin the ancient made the senate consist of 300, and this number remained fixed for a long time. After the expulsion of the last Tarquin, whose tyranny had thinned the patricians as well as the plebeians, 164 new senators were chosen to complete the 300; and as they were called conscripts, the senate ever afterwards consisted of members who were denominated patres and conscripti. The number continued to fluctuate during the times of the republic, but gradually increased to 700, and afterwards to 900 under Julius Cæsar, who filled the senate with men of every rank and order. Under Augustus, the senators amounted to 1000, but this number was reduced to 300, which being the cause of complaints, induced the emperor to limit the number to 600. The place of a senator was always bestowed upon merit; the monarchs had the privilege of choosing the members, and after the expulsion of the Tarquins, it was one of the rights of the consuls, till the election of the censors, who from their office seemed most capable of making choice of men whose character was irreproachable, whose morals were pure, and relations honourable. Sometimes the assembly of the people elected senators, but it was only upon some extraordinary occasions; there was also a dictator chosen to fill up the number of the senate after the battle of Cannæ. Only particular families were admitted into the senate; and when the plebeians were permitted to share the honours of the state, it was then required that they should be born of free citizens. It was also required that the candidates should be knights before their admission into the senate. They were to be above the age of 25, and to have previously passed through the inferior offices of questor, tribune of the people, edile, pretor, and consul. Some, however, suppose that the senators whom Romulus chose were all old men; yet his successors neglected this, and often men who were below the age of 25 were admitted by courtesy into the senate. The dignity of a senator could not be supported without the possession of 80,000 sesterces, or about 7000l. English money; and therefore such as squandered away their money, and whose fortune was reduced below this sum, were generally struck out of the list of senators. This regulation was not made in the first ages of the republic, when the Romans boasted of their poverty. The senators were not permitted to be of any trade or profession. They were distinguished from the rest of the people by their dress; they wore the laticlave, half boots of a black colour, with a crescent or silver buckle in the form of a C; but this last honour was confined only to the descendants of those 100 senators who had been elected by Romulus, as the letter C seems to imply. They had the sole right of feasting publicly in the capitol in ceremonial habits; they sat in curule chairs, and at the representation of plays and public spectacles, they were honoured with particular seats. Whenever they travelled abroad, even on their own business, they were maintained at the public expense, and always found provisions for themselves and their attendants ready prepared on the road; a privilege that was generally termed free legation. On public festivals they wore the prætexta, or long white robe, with purple borders. The right of convoking the senate belonged only to the monarchs; and after the expulsion of the Tarquins, to the consuls, the dictator, master of the horse, governor of Rome, and tribunes of the people; but no magistrate could exercise this privilege except in the absence of a superior officer, the tribunes excepted. The time of meeting was generally three times a month, on the calends, nones, and ides. Under Augustus they were not assembled on the nones. It was requisite that the place where they assembled should have been previously consecrated by the augur. This was generally in the temple of Concord, of Jupiter Capitolinus, Apollo, Castor and Pollux, &c., or in the Curiæ called Hostilia, Julia, Pompeia, &c. When audience was given to foreign ambassadors, the senators assembled without the walls of the city, either in the temples of Bellona or of Apollo; and the same ceremony as to their meeting was also observed when they transacted business with their generals, as the ambassadors of foreign nations, and the commanders of armies, while in commission, were not permitted to appear within the walls of the city. To render their decrees valid and authentic, a certain number of members was requisite, and such as were absent without some proper cause, were always fined. In the reign of Augustus, 400 senators were requisite to make a senate. Nothing was transacted before sunrise, or after sunset. In their office the senators were the guardians of religion; they disposed of the provinces as they pleased, they prorogued the assemblies of the people, they appointed thanksgivings, nominated their ambassadors, distributed the public money, and, in short, had the management of everything political or civil in the republic, except the creating of the magistrates, the enacting of laws, and the declarations of war or peace, which were confined to the assemblies of the people. Rank was always regarded in their meetings; the chief magistrates of the state, such as the consuls, the pretors, and censors, sat first; after these the inferior magistrates, such as the ediles and questors, and last of all, those that then exercised no office in the state. Their opinions were originally collected, each according to his age; but when the office of censor was instituted, the opinion of the princeps senatus, or the person whose name stood first on the censor’s list, was first consulted, and afterwards those who were of consular dignity, each in their respective order. In the age of Cicero the consuls elect were first consulted; and in the age of Cæsar, he was permitted to speak first till the end of the year, on whom the consul had originally conferred that honour. Under the emperors the same rules were observed, but the consuls were generally consulted before all others. When any public matter was introduced into the senate, which was always called referre ad senatum, any senator whose opinion was asked, was permitted to speak upon it as long as he pleased; and on that account it was often usual for the senators to protract their speeches till it was too late to determine. When the question was put, they passed to the side of that speaker whose opinion they approved, and a majority of votes was easily collected, without the trouble of counting the numbers. This mode of proceeding was called pedibus in alicujus sententiam ire; and therefore, on that account, the senators who had not the privilege of speaking, but only the right of giving a silent vote, such as bore some curule honours, and on that account were permitted to sit in the senate, but not to deliberate, were denominated pedarii senatores. After the majority had been known, the matter was determined, and a senatus consultum was immediately written by the clerks of the house, at the feet of the chief magistrates, and it was signed by all the principal members of the house. When there was not a sufficient number of members to make a senate, the decision was called senatus autoritas; but it was of no consequence if it did not afterwards pass into a senatus consultum. The tribunes of the people, by the word veto, could stop the debates, and the decrees of the assembled senate, as also any one who was of equal authority with him who had proposed the matter. The senatus consulta were left in the custody of the consuls, who could suppress or preserve them; but about the year of Rome 304, they were always deposited in the temple of Ceres, and afterwards in the treasury, by the ediles of the people. The degradation of the senators was made by the censor, by omitting their names when he called over the list of the senate. This was called præterire. A senator could be again introduced into the senate if he could repair his character or fortune, which had been the causes why the censor had lawfully called him unqualified, and had challenged his opposition. The meeting of the senate was often sudden, except the particular times already mentioned, upon any emergency. After the death of Julius Cæsar, they were not permitted to meet on the ides of March, which were called parricidium, because on that day the dictator had been assassinated. The sons of senators, after they had put on the toga virilis, were permitted to come into the senate, but this was afterwards limited. See: Papirius. The rank and authority of the senators, which were so conspicuous in the first ages of the republic, and which caused the minister of Pyrrhus to declare that the Roman senate was a venerable assembly of kings, dwindled into nothing under the emperors. Men of the lowest character were admitted into the senate; the emperors took pleasure in robbing this illustrious body of their privileges and authority, and the senators themselves, by their manners and servility, contributed as much as the tyranny of the sovereign to diminish their own consequence; and by applauding the follies of a Nero, and the cruelties of a Domitian, they convinced the world that they no longer possessed sufficient prudence or authority to be consulted on matters of weight and importance. In the election of successors to the imperial purple after Augustus, the approbation of the senate was consulted, but it was only a matter of courtesy, and the concurrence of a body of men was little regarded who were without power, and under the control of a mercenary army. The title of Clarissimus was given to the senators under the emperors, and, indeed, this was the only distinction which they had in compensation for the loss of their independence. The senate was abolished by Justinian, 13 centuries after its first institution by Romulus.

Senĕca Marcus Annæus, a native of Corduba in Spain, who married Helvia, a woman of Spain, by whom he had three sons, Seneca the philosopher, Annæus Novatus, and Annæus Mela, the father of the poet Lucan. Seneca made himself known by some declamations, of which he made a collection from the most celebrated orators of the age; and from that circumstance, and for distinction, he obtained the appellation of declamator. He left Corduba, and went to Rome, where he became a Roman knight. His son Lucius Annæus Seneca, who was born about six years before Christ, was early distinguished by his extraordinary talents. He was taught eloquence by his father, and received lessons in philosophy from the best and most celebrated stoics of the age. As one of the followers of the Pythagorean doctrines, Seneca observed the most reserved abstinence, and in his meals never ate the flesh of animals; but this he abandoned at the representation of his father, when Tiberius threatened to punish some Jews and Egyptians, who abstained from certain meats. In the character of a pleader, Seneca appeared with great advantage, but the fear of Caligula, who aspired to the name of an eloquent speaker, and who consequently was jealous of his fame, deterred him from pursuing his favourite study, and he sought a safer employment in canvassing for the honours and offices of the state. He was made questor, but the aspersions which were thrown upon him on account of a shameful amour with Julia Livilla, removed him from Rome, and the emperor banished him for some time into Corsica. During his banishment, the philosopher wrote some spirited epistles to his mother, remarkable for elegance of language and for sublimity; but he soon forgot his philosophy and disgraced himself by his flatteries to the emperor, and in wishing to be recalled, even at the expense of his innocence and character. The disgrace of Messalina at Rome, and the marriage of Agrippina with Claudius, proved favourable to Seneca; and after he had remained five years in Corsica, he was recalled by the empress to take care of the education of her son Nero, who was destined to succeed to the empire. In the honourable duty of preceptor, Seneca gained applause; and as long as Nero followed his advice, Rome enjoyed tranquillity, and believed herself safe and happy under the administration of the son of Agrippina. Some, however, are clamorous against the philosopher, and observe that Seneca initiated his pupil in those unnatural vices and abominable indulgences which disgraced him as a monarch and as a man. This may be the language of malevolence, or the insinuation of jealousy. In the corrupted age of Nero, the preceptor had to withstand the clamours of many wicked and profligate ministers; and if he had been the favourite of the emperor, and shared his pleasures, his debauchery and extravagance, Nero would not perhaps have been so anxious of destroying a man whose example, from vicious inclinations, he could not follow, and whose salutary precepts his licentious associates forbade him to obey. Seneca was too well acquainted with the natural disposition of Nero to think himself secure; he had been accused of having amassed the most ample riches, and of having built sumptuous houses, and adorned beautiful gardens, during the four years in which he had attended Nero as a preceptor, and therefore he desired his imperial pupil to accept of the riches, and the possessions which his attendance on his person had procured, and to permit him to retire to solitude and study. Nero refused with artful duplicity, and Seneca, to avoid further suspicions, kept himself at home for some time as if labouring under a disease. In the conspiracy of Piso, which happened some time after, and in which some of the most noble of the Roman senators were concerned, Seneca’s name was mentioned by Natalis, and Nero, who was glad of an opportunity of sacrificing him to his secret jealousy, ordered him to destroy himself. Seneca very probably was not accessary to the conspiracy, and the only thing which could be produced against him as a crimination, was trivial and unsatisfactory. Piso, as Natalis declared, had complained that he never saw Seneca, and the philosopher had observed in answer, that it was not proper or conducive to their common interest to see one another often. He further pleaded indisposition, and said that his own life depended upon the safety of Piso’s person. Seneca was at table with his wife Paulina and two of his friends, when the messenger from Nero arrived. He heard the words which commanded him to destroy himself, with philosophical firmness, and even with joy; and observed, that such a mandate might have long been expected from a man who had murdered his own mother, and assassinated all his friends. He wished to dispose of his possessions as he pleased, but this was refused; and when he heard this, he turned to his friends who were weeping at his melancholy fate, and told them, that since he could not leave them what he believed his own, he would leave them at least his own life for an example, an innocent conduct which they might imitate, and by which they might acquire immortal fame. Against their tears and wailings he exclaimed with firmness, and asked them whether they had not learnt better to withstand the attacks of fortune, and the violence of tyranny? As for his wife, he attempted to calm her emotions, and when she seemed resolved to die with him, he said he was glad to find his example followed with so much constancy. Their veins were opened at the same moment, but the life of Paulina was preserved, and Nero, who was partial to her ordered the blood to be stopped; and from that moment, according to some authors, the philosopher’s wife seemed to rejoice that she could still enjoy the comforts of life. Seneca’s veins bled but slowly, and it has been observed, that the sensible and animated conversation of his dying moments was collected by his friends, and that it has been preserved among his works. To hasten his death he drank a dose of poison, but it had no effect, and therefore he ordered himself to be carried into a hot bath, to accelerate the operation of the draught, and to make the blood flow more freely. This was attended with no better success; and as the soldiers were clamorous, he was carried into a stove, and suffocated by the steam, on the 12th of April, in the 65th year of the christian era, in his 53rd year. His body was burnt without pomp or funeral ceremony, according to his will, which he had made when he enjoyed the most unbounded favours of Nero. The compositions of Seneca are numerous, and chiefly on moral subjects. He is so much admired for his refined sentiments and virtuous precepts, for his morality, his constancy, and his innocence of manners, that St. Jerome has not hesitated to rank him among christian writers. His style is nervous, it abounds with ornament, and seems well suited to the taste of the age in which he lived. The desire of recommending himself and his writings to the world, obliged him too often to depreciate the merit of the ancients, and to sink into obscurity. His treatises are de irâ, de consolatione, de Providentiâ, de tranquillitate animi, de clementiâ, de sapientis constantiâ, de otio sapientis, de brevitate vitæ, de beneficiis, de vitâ beatâ, besides his naturales quæstiones, ludus in Claudium, moral letters, &c. There are also some tragedies ascribed to Seneca. Quintilian supposes that the Medea is his composition, and according to others, the Troas and the Hippolytus were also written by him, and the Agamemnon, Hercules furens, Thyestes & Hercules in Oetâ by his father, Seneca the declaimer. The best editions of Seneca are those of Antwerp, folio, 1615, and of Gronovius, 3 vols., Amsterdam, 1672; and those of his tragedies, are that of Schroder’s, 4to, Delft, 1728, and the 8vo of Gronovius, Leiden, 1682. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12, &c.—Dio Cassius.—Suetonius, Nero, &c.—Quintilian.

Claudius Senecio, one of Nero’s favourites, and the associate of his pleasures and debauchery.――Tullius, a man who conspired against Nero, and was put to death though he turned informer against the rest of the conspirators.――A man put to death by Domitian, for writing an account of the life of Helvidius, one of the emperor’s enemies.――One of Constantine’s enemies.――A man who from a restless and aspiring disposition acquired the surname of Grandio. Seneca, Suasoriæ, ch. 1.

Senia, a town of Liburnia, now Segna. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 21.

Senna, or Sena, a river of Umbria. See: Sena. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 407.

Senŏnes, an uncivilized nation of Gallia Transalpina, who left their native possessions, and under the conduct of Brennus, invaded Italy and pillaged Rome. They afterwards united with the Umbri, Latins, and Etrurians to make war against the Romans, till they were totally destroyed by Dolabella. The chief of their towns in that part of Italy where they settled near Umbria, and which from them was called Senogallia, were Fanum Fortunæ, Sena, Pisaurum, and Ariminum. See: Cimbri. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 254.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 454.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 35, &c.—Florus.――A people of Germany near the Suevi.

Sentia lex, de senatu, by Cnæus Sentius the consul, A.U.C. 734, enacted the choosing of proper persons to fill up the number of senators.

Sentinum, a town of Umbria. Livy, bk. 10, chs. 27 & 30.

Sentius Cnæus, a governor of Syria, under the emperors.――A governor of Macedonia.――Septimius, one of the soldiers of Pompey, who assisted the Egyptians in murdering him.――A Roman emperor. See: Severus.――A writer in the reign of the emperor Alexander, of whose life he wrote an account in Latin, or, according to others, in Greek.

Sepias, a cape of Magnesia in Thessaly, at the north of Eubœa, now St. George.

Seplasia, a place of Capua, where ointments were sold. Cicero, Against Piso, chs. 7 & 11.

Septem aquæ, a portion of the lake near Reate. Cicero, bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 15.――Fratres, a mountain of Mauritania, now Gebel-Mousa. Strabo, bk. 17.――Maria, the entrance of the seven mouths of the Po.

Septempeda, a town of Picenum.

Septerion, a festival observed once in nine years at Delphi, in honour of Apollo. It was a representation of the pursuit of Python by Apollo, and of the victory obtained by the god.

Titus Septimius, a Roman knight distinguished by his poetical compositions both lyric and tragic. He was intimate with Augustus as well as Horace, who has addressed the sixth of his second book of Odes to him.――A centurion put to death, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 32.――A native of Africa, who distinguished himself at Rome as a poet. He wrote, among other things, a hymn in praise of Janus. Only 11 of his verses are preserved. Marcus Terentius [Varro].—Petrus Crinitus, Lives.

Lucius Septimuleius, a friend of Caius Gracchus. He suffered himself to be bribed by Opimius, and had the meanness to carry his friend’s head fixed to a pole through the streets of Rome.

Sepyra, a town of Cilicia, taken by Cicero when he presided over that province. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 15, ch. 4.

Sequăna, a river of Gaul, which separates the territories of the Belgæ and the Celtæ, and is now called la Seine. Strabo, bk. 4.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 2.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 425.

Sequăni, a people of Gaul near the territories of the Ædui, between the Saone and mount Jura, famous for their wars against Rome, &c. See: Ædui. The country which they inhabited is now called Franche Compté, or Upper Burgundy. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Sequinius, a native of Alba, who married one of his daughters to Curiatius of Alba, and the other to Horatius, a citizen of Rome. The two daughters were brought to bed on the same day, each of three male children.

Serapio, a surname given to one of the Scipios, because he resembled a swine-herd of that name.――A Greek poet who flourished in the age of Trajan. He was intimate with Plutarch.――An Egyptian put to death by Achillas, when he came at the head of an embassy from Ptolemy, who was a prisoner in the hands of Julius Cæsar.――A painter. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 10.

Serāpis, one of the Egyptian deities, supposed to be the same as Osiris. He had a magnificent temple at Memphis, another very rich at Alexandria, and a third at Canopus. The worship of Serapis was introduced at Rome, by the emperor Antoninus Pius, A.D. 146, and the mysteries celebrated on the 6th of May, but with so much licentiousness that the senate were soon after obliged to abolish them. Herodotus, who speaks in a very circumstantial manner of the deities, and of the religion of the Egyptians, makes no mention of the god Serapis. Apollodorus says it is the same as the bull Apis. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 18; bk. 2, ch. 34.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 83.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 30.

Serbōnis, a lake between Egypt and Palestine.

Serēna, a daughter of Theodosius, who married Stilicho. She was put to death, &c. Claudian.

Sereniānus, a favourite of Gallus the brother of Julian. He was put to death.

Serēnus Samonicus, a physician in the age of the emperor Severus and Caracalla. There remains a poem of his composition on medicine, the last edition of which is that of 1706, in 8vo, Amsterdam.――Vibius, a governor of Spain, accused of cruelty in the government of his province, and put to death by order of Tiberius.

Seres, a nation of Asia, according to Ptolemy, between the Ganges and the eastern ocean in the modern Thibet. They were naturally of a meek disposition. Silk, of which the fabrication was unknown to the ancients, who imagined that the materials were collected from the leaves of trees, was brought to Rome from their country, and on that account it received the name of Sericum, and thence a garment or dress of silk is called serica vestis. Heliogobalus the Roman emperor was the first who wore a silk dress, which at that time was sold for its weight in gold. It afterwards became very cheap, and consequently was the common dress among the Romans. Some suppose that the Seres are the same as the Chinese. Ptolemy, bk. 6, ch. 16.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 29, li. 9.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 19; bk. 19, lis. 142 & 292.—Ovid, Am. 1, poem 14, li. 6.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 121.

Sergestus, a sailor in the fleet of Æneas, from whom the family of the Sergii at Rome were descended. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 121.

Sergia, a Roman matron. She conspired with others to poison their husbands. The plot was discovered, and Sergia, with some of her accomplices, drank poison and died.

Sergius, one of the names of Catiline.――A military tribune at the siege of Veii. The family of the Sergii was patrician, and branched out into the several families of the Fidenates, Sili, Catilinæ, Nattæ, Ocellæ, and Planci.

Sergius and Sergiōlus, a deformed youth, greatly admired by the Roman ladies in Juvenal’s age. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 105, et seq.

Serīphus, an island in the Ægean sea, about 36 miles in circumference, according to Pliny only 12, very barren, and uncultivated. The Romans generally sent their criminals there in banishment, and it was there that Cassius Severus the orator was exiled, and there he died. According to Ælian, the frogs of this island never croaked, but when they were removed from the island to another place, they were more noisy and clamorous than others; hence the proverb of seriphia rana, applied to a man who neither speaks nor sings. This, however, is found to be a mistake by modern travellers. It was on the coast of Seriphos that the chest was discovered in which Acrisius had exposed his daughter Danae and her son Perseus. Strabo, bk. 10.—Ælian, De Natura Animalium, bk. 3, ch. 37.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 21.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 242; bk. 7, li. 65.

Sermyla, a town of Macedonia. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 122.

Seron, a general of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Serrānus, a surname given to Cincinnatus, because he was found sowing his fields when told that he had been elected dictator. Some, however, suppose that Serranus was a different person from Cincinnatus. Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 3.—Livy, bk. 3, ch. 26.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 844.――One of the auxiliaries of Turnus, killed in the night by Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 335.――A poet of some merit in Domitian’s reign. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 80.

Serrheum, a fortified place of Thrace. Livy, bk. 31, ch. 16.

Quintus Sertorius, a Roman general, son of Quintus and Rhea, born at Nursia. His first campaign was under the great Marius, against the Teutones and Cimbri. He visited the enemy’s camp as a spy, and had the misfortune to lose one eye in the first battle he fought. When Marius and Cinna entered Rome and slaughtered all their enemies, Sertorius accompanied them, but he expressed his sorrow and concern at the melancholy death of so many of his countrymen. He afterwards fled for safety into Spain, when Sylla had proscribed him, and in this distant province he behaved himself with so much address and valour that he was looked upon as the prince of the country. The Lusitanians universally revered and loved him, and the Roman general did not show himself less attentive to their interest, by establishing public schools, and educating the children of the country in the polite arts, and the literature of Greece and Rome. He had established a senate, over which he presided with consular authority, and the Romans, who followed his standard, paid equal reverence to his person. They were experimentally convinced of his valour and ♦magnanimity as a general, and the artful manner in which he imposed upon the credulity of his adherents in the garb of religion, did not diminish his reputation. He pretended to hold commerce with heaven by means of a white hind which he had tamed with great success, and which followed him everywhere, even in the field of battle. The success of Sertorius in Spain, and his popularity among the natives, alarmed the Romans. They sent some troops to oppose him, but with little success. Four armies were found insufficient to crush or even hurt Sertorius; and Pompey and Metellus, who never engaged an enemy without obtaining the victory, were driven with dishonour from the field. But the favourite of the Lusitanians was exposed to the dangers which usually attend greatness. Perpenna, one of his officers who was jealous of his fame and tired of a superior, conspired against him. At a banquet the conspirators began to open their intentions by speaking with freedom and licentiousness in the presence of Sertorius, whose age and character had hitherto claimed deference from others. Perpenna overturned a glass of wine, as a signal for the rest of the conspirators, and immediately Antonius, one of his officers, stabbed Sertorius, and the example was followed by all the rest, 73 years before Christ. Sertorius has been commended for his love of justice and moderation. The flattering description which he heard of the Fortunate Islands when he passed into the west of Africa, almost tempted him to bid adieu to the world, and perhaps he would have retired from the noise of war, and the clamours of envy, to end his days in the bosom of a peaceful and solitary island, had not the stronger calls of ambition and the love of fame prevailed over the intruding reflections of a moment. It has been observed that in his latter days ♠Sertorius became indolent, and fond of luxury and wanton cruelty; yet we must confess that in affability, clemency, complaisance, generosity, and military valour, he not only surpassed his contemporaries, but the rest of the Romans. Plutarch, Lives.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 30, &c.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 21, &c.—Appian, Civil Wars.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 7, ch. 3.—Eutropius.—Aulus Gellius, bk. 15, ch. 22.

Servæus, a man accused by Tiberius of being privy to the conspiracy of Sejanus. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 7.

Serviānus, a consul in the reign of Adrian. He was a great favourite of the emperor Trajan.

Servilia, a sister of Cato of Utica, greatly enamoured of Julius Cæsar, though her brother was one of the most inveterate enemies of her lover. To convince Cæsar of her affection, she sent him a letter filled with the most tender expressions of regard for his person. The letter was delivered to Cæsar in the senate-house, while they were debating about punishing the associates of Catiline’s conspiracy; and when Cato saw it, he exclaimed that it was a letter from the conspirators, and insisted immediately on its being made public. Upon this Cæsar gave it to Cato, and the stern senator had no sooner read its contents, than he threw it back, with the words of “Take it, drunkard.” From the intimacy which existed between Servilia and Cæsar, some have supposed that the dictator was the father of Marcus Brutus. Plutarch, Cæsar.—Cornelius Nepos, Atticus.――Another sister of Cato, who married Silanus. Cornelius Nepos, Atticus.――A daughter of Thrasea, put to death by order of Nero with her father. Her crime was the consulting of magicians only to know what would happen in her family.

Servilia lex, de pecuniis repetundis, by Caius Servilius the pretor, A.U.C. 653. It punished severely such as were guilty of peculation and extortion in the provinces. Its particulars are not precisely known.――Another, de judicibus, by Quintus Servilius Cæpio the consul, A.U.C. 648. It divided the right of judging between the senators and the equites, a privilege which, though originally belonging to the senators, had been taken from them and given to the equites.――Another, de civitate, by Caius Servilius, ordained that if a Latin accused a Roman senator, so that he was condemned, the accuser should be honoured with the name and the privileges of a Roman citizen.――Another, agraria, by Publius Servilius Rullus the tribune, A.U.C. 690. It required the immediate sale of certain houses and lands which belonged to the people, for the purchase of others in a different part of Italy. It required that 10 commissioners should be appointed to see it carried into execution, but Cicero prevented its passing into a law by the three orations which he pronounced against it.

Serviliānus, a Roman consul defeated by Viriathus, in Spain, &c.

Servilius Quintus, a Roman who in his dictatorship defeated the Æqui.――Publius, a consul who supported the cause of the people against the nobles, and obtained a triumph in spite of the opposition of the senate, after defeating the Volsci. He afterwards changed his opinions, and very violently opposed the people because they had illiberally treated him.――A proconsul killed at the battle of Cannæ by Annibal.――Ahala, a master of horse to the dictator Cincinnatus. When Mælius refused to appear before the dictator to answer the accusations which were brought against him on suspicion of his aspiring to tyranny, Ahala slew him in the midst of the people whose protection he claimed. Ahala was accused for this murder and banished, but his sentence was afterwards repealed. He was raised to the dictatorship.――Marcus, a man who pleaded in favour of Paulus Æmilius, &c.――An augur prosecuted by Lucullus for his inattention in his office. He was acquitted.――A pretor ordered by the senate to forbid Sylla to approach Rome. He was ridiculed and insulted by the conqueror’s soldiers.――A man appointed to guard the sea-coast of Pontus by Pompey.――Publius, a proconsul of Asia during the age of Mithridates. He conquered Isauria, for which service he was surnamed Isauricus, and rewarded with a triumph.――A Roman general who defeated an army of Etrurians.――An informer in the court of Tiberius.――A favourite of Augustus.――Geminus, a Roman consul who opposed Annibal with success.――Nonianus, a Latin historian, who wrote a history of Rome, in the reign of Nero. There were more than one writer of this name, as Pliny speaks of a Servilius remarkable for his eloquence and learning; and Quintilian mentions another also illustrious for his genius and literary merit.――Casca, one of Cæsar’s murderers.――The family of the Servilii was of patrician rank, and came to settle at Rome after the destruction of Alba, where they were promoted to the highest offices of the state. To the several branches of this family were attached the different surnames of Ahala, Axilla, Priscas, Cæpio, Structus, Geminus, Pulex, Vatia, Casca, Fidenas, Longus, and Tucca.――Lacus, a lake near Rome. Cicero, For Sextus Roscius of Ameria, ch. 32.

Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, was son of Ocrisia, a slave of Corniculum, by Tullius, a man slain in the defence of his country against the Romans. Ocrisia was given by Tarquin to Tanaquil his wife, and she brought up her son in the king’s family, and added the name of Servius to that which he had inherited from his father, to denote his slavery. Young Servius was educated in the palace of the monarch with great care, and though originally a slave, he raised himself so much to consequence, that Tarquin gave him his daughter in marriage. His own private merit and virtues recommended him to notice not less than the royal favours, and Servius, become the favourite of the people and the darling of the soldiers, by his liberality and complaisance, was easily raised to the throne on the death of his father-in-law. Rome had no reason to repent of her choice. Servius endeared himself still more as a warrior and as a legislator. He defeated the Veientes and the Tuscans, and by a proper act of policy he established the census, which told him that Rome contained about 84,000 inhabitants. He increased the number of the tribes, he beautified and adorned the city, and enlarged its boundaries by taking within its walls the hills Quirinalis, Viminalis, and Esquilinus. He also divided the Roman people into tribes, and that he might not seem to neglect the worship of the gods, he built several temples to the goddess of fortune, to whom he deemed himself particularly indebted for obtaining the kingdom. He also built a temple to Diana on mount Aventine, and raised himself a palace on the hill Esquilinus. Servius married his two daughters to the grandsons of his father-in-law; the elder to Tarquin, and the younger to Aruns. This union, as might be supposed, tended to ensure the peace of his family; but if such were his expectations, he was unhappily deceived. The wife of Aruns, naturally fierce and impetuous, murdered her own husband to unite herself to Tarquin, who had likewise assassinated his wife. These bloody measures were no sooner pursued than Servius was murdered by his own son-in-law, and his daughter Tullia showed herself so inimical to filial gratitude and piety, that she ordered her chariot to be driven over the mangled body of her father, B.C. 534. His death was universally lamented, and the slaves annually celebrated a festival in his honour, in the temple of Diana on mount Aventine, the day that he was murdered. Tarquinia, his wife, buried his remains privately, and died the following day. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 41.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 4.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 1, ch. 53.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 601.――Galba, a seditious person who wished to refuse a triumph to Paulus Æmylius after the conquest of Macedonia.――Claudius, a grammarian. Suetonius, Lives of the Grammarians.――A friend of Sylla, who applied for the consulship to no purpose.――Cornelius, a consul in the first ages of the republic, &c.――Sulpitius, an orator in the age of Cicero and Hortensius. He was sent as ambassador to Marcus Antony, and died before his return. Cicero obtained a statue for him from the senate and the Roman people, which was raised in the Campus Martius. Besides orations he wrote verses, which were highly censured for their indelicacy. His works are lost. Cicero, Brutus, Philippics, &c.—Pliny, bk. 5, ltr. 3.――A despicable informer in the Augustan age. Horace, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 47.――Honoratus Maurus, a learned grammarian in the age of young Theodosius. He wrote Latin commentaries upon Virgil, still extant.

Sesara, a daughter of Celeus king of Eleusis, sister of Triptolemus. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 38.

Sesostris, a celebrated king of Egypt some ages before the Trojan war. His father ordered all the children in his dominions who were born on the same day with him to be publicly educated, and to pass their youth in the company of his son. This succeeded in the highest degree, and Sesostris had the pleasure to find himself surrounded by a number of faithful ministers and active warriors, whose education and intimacy with their prince rendered them inseparably devoted to his interest. When Sesostris had succeeded on his father’s throne, he became ambitious of military fame, and after he had divided his kingdom into 36 different districts, he marched at the head of a numerous army to make the conquest of the world. Libya, Æthiopia, Arabia, with all the islands of the Red sea, were conquered, and the victorious monarch marched through Asia, and penetrated further into the east than the conqueror Darius. He also invaded Europe, and subdued the Thracians; and that the fame of his conquests might long survive him, he placed columns in the several provinces he had subdued; and many ages after, this pompous inscription was read in many parts of Asia: “Sesostris the king of kings has conquered this territory by his arms.” At his return home the monarch employed his time in encouraging the fine arts, and in improving the revenues of his kingdom. He erected 100 temples to the gods for the victories which he had obtained, and mounds of earth were heaped up in several parts of Egypt, where cities were built for the reception of the inhabitants during the inundations of the Nile. Some canals were also dug near Memphis to facilitate navigation, and the communication of one province with another. In his old age Sesostris, grown infirm and blind, destroyed himself, after a reign of 44 years, according to some. His mildness towards the conquered has been admired, while some have upbraided him for his cruelty and insolence in causing his chariot to be drawn by some of the monarchs whom he had conquered. The age of Sesostris is so remote from every authentic record, that many have supported that the actions and conquests ascribed to this monarch are uncertain and totally fabulous. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 102, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Valerius Flaccus, bk. 5, li. 419.—Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 3.—Lucan, bk. 10, li. 276.—Strabo, bk. 16.

Sessites, now Sessia, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Po. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.

Sestias, a name applied to Hero, as born at Sestos. Statius, bk. 6, Thebaid, li. 547.

Sestius, a friend of Brutus, with whom he fought at the battle of Philippi. Augustus resigned the consulship in his favour, though he still continued to reverence the memory of Brutus.――A governor of Syria.

Sestos, or Sestus, a town of Thrace on the shores of the Hellespont, exactly opposite Abydos on the Asiatic side. It is celebrated for the bridge which Xerxes built there across the Hellespont, as also for being the seat of the amours of Hero and Leander. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Musæus, Hero & Leander.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 258.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 18, ltr. 2.

Sesuvii, a people of Celtic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Setăbis, a town of Spain between New Carthage and Saguntum, famous for the manufacture of linen. There was also a small river of the same name in the neighbourhood. Silius Italicus, bk. 16, li. 474.—Strabo, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 3; bk. 19, ch. 1.

Sethon, a priest of Vulcan, who made himself king of Egypt after the death of Anysis. He was attacked by the Assyrians and delivered from this powerful enemy by an immense number of rats, which in one night gnawed their bow-strings and thongs, so that on the morrow their arms were found to be useless. From this wonderful circumstance Sethon had a statue which represented him with a rat in his hand, with the inscription of, “Whoever fixes his eyes upon me, let him be pious.” Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 141.

Setia, a town of Latium above the Pontine marshes, celebrated for its wines, which Augustus is said to have preferred to all others. Pliny, bk. 14, ch. 6.—Juvenal, satire 5, li. 34; satire 10, li. 27.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 112.

Sevēra Julia Aquilia, a Roman lady, whom the emperor Heliogabalus married. She was soon after repudiated, though possessed of all the charms of the mind and body which could captivate the most virtuous.――Valeria, the wife of Valentinian, and the mother of Gratian, was well known for her avarice and ambition. The emperor, her husband, repudiated her and afterwards took her again. Her prudent advice at last ensured her son Gratian on the imperial throne.――The wife of Philip the Roman emperor.

Severiānus, a governor of Macedonia, father-in-law to the emperor Philip.――A general of the Roman armies in the reign of Valentinian, defeated by the Germans.――A son of the emperor Severus.

Sevērus Lucius Septimius, a Roman emperor born at Leptis in Africa, of a noble family. He gradually exercised all the offices of the state, and recommended himself to the notice of the world by an ambitious mind and a restless activity, that could, for the gratification of avarice, endure the most complicated hardships. After the murder of Pertinax, Severus resolved to remove Didius Julianus, who had bought the imperial purple when exposed to sale by the licentiousness of the pretorians, and therefore he proclaimed himself emperor on the borders of Illyricum, where he was stationed against the barbarians. To support himself in this bold measure, he took as his partner in the empire Albinus, who was at the head of the Roman forces in Britain, and immediately marched towards Rome, to crush ♦Didius and all his partisans. He was received as he advanced through the country with universal acclamations, and Julianus himself was soon deserted by his favourites, and assassinated by his own soldiers. The reception of Severus at Rome was sufficient to gratify his pride; the streets were strewed with flowers, and the submissive senate were ever ready to grant whatever honours or titles the conqueror claimed. In professing that he had assumed the purple only to revenge the death of the virtuous Pertinax, Severus gained many adherents, and was enabled not only to disarm, but to banish the pretorians, whose insolence and avarice were become alarming not only to the citizens, but to the emperor. But while he was victorious at Rome, Severus did not forget that there was another competitor for the imperial purple. Pescennius Niger was in the east at the head of a powerful army, and with the name and ensigns of Augustus. Many obstinate battles were fought between the troops and officers of the imperial rivals, till on the plains of Issus, which had been above five centuries before covered with the blood of the Persian soldiers of Darius, Niger was totally ruined by the loss of 20,000 men. The head of Niger was cut off and sent to the conqueror, who punished in a most cruel manner all the partisans of his unfortunate rival. Severus afterwards pillaged Byzantium, which had shut her gates against him; and after he had conquered several nations in the east, he returned to Rome, resolved to destroy Albinus, with whom he had hitherto reluctantly shared the imperial power. He attempted to assassinate him by his emissaries; but when this had failed of success, Severus had recourse to arms, and the fate of the empire was again decided on the plains of Gaul. Albinus was defeated, and the conqueror was so elated with the recollection that he had now no longer a competitor for the purple, that he insulted the dead body of his rival, and ordered it to be thrown into the Rhone, after he had suffered it to putrefy before the door of his tent, and to be torn to pieces by his dogs. The family and the adherents of ♠Albinus shared his fate; and the return of Severus to the capital exhibited the bloody triumphs of Marius and Sylla. The richest of the citizens were sacrificed, and their money became the property of the emperor. The wicked Commodus received divine honours, and his murderers were punished in the most wanton manner. Tired of the inactive life which he led in Rome, Severus marched into the east, with his two sons Caracalla and Geta, and with uncommon success made himself master of Seleucia, Babylon, and Ctesiphon; and advanced without opposition far into the Parthian territories. From Parthia the emperor marched towards the more southern provinces of Asia: after he had visited the tomb of Pompey the Great, he entered Alexandria; and after he had granted a senate to that celebrated city, he viewed with the most criticizing and inquisitive curiosity the several monuments and ruins which that ancient kingdom contains. The revolt of Britain recalled him from the east. After he had reduced it under his power, he built a wall across the northern part of the island, to defend it against the frequent invasions of the Caledonians. Hitherto successful against his enemies, Severus now found the peace of his family disturbed. Caracalla attempted to murder his father as he was concluding a treaty of peace with the Britons; and the emperor was so shocked at the undutifulness of his son, that on his return home he called him into his presence, and after he had upbraided him for his ingratitude and perfidy, he offered him a drawn sword, adding, “If you are so ambitious of reigning alone, now imbrue your hands in the blood of your father, and let not the eyes of the world be witnesses of your want of filial tenderness.” If these words checked Caracalla, yet he did not show himself concerned, and Severus, worn out with infirmities which the gout and the uneasiness of his mind increased, soon after died, exclaiming he had been everything man could wish, but that he was then nothing. Some say that he wished to poison himself, but that when this was denied, he ate to great excess, and soon after expired at York on the 4th of February, in the 211th year of the christian era, in the 66th year of his age, after a reign of 17 years, eight months, and three days. Severus has been so much admired for his military talents, that some have called him the most warlike of the Roman emperors. As a monarch he was cruel, and it has been observed that he never did an act of humanity or forgave a fault. In his diet he was temperate, and he always showed himself an open enemy to pomp and splendour. He loved the appellation of a man of letters, and he even composed a history of his own reign, which some have praised for its correctness and veracity. However cruel Severus may appear in his punishments and in his revenge, many have endeavoured to exculpate him, and observed that there was need of severity in an empire whose morals were so corrupted, and where no less than 3000 persons were accused of adultery during the space of 17 years. Of him, as of Augustus, some were found to say, that it would have been better for the world if he had never been born, or had never died. Dio Cassius.—Herodian.—Aurelius Victor., &c.――Alexander Marcus Aurelius, a native of Phœnicia, adopted by Heliogabalus. His father’s name was Genesius Marcianus, and his mother’s Julia Mammæa, and he received the surname of Alexander, because he was born in a temple sacred to Alexander the Great. He was carefully educated, and his mother, by paying particular attention to his morals, and the character of his preceptors, preserved him from those infirmities and that licentiousness which old age too often attributes to the depravity of youth. At the death of Heliogabalus, who had been jealous of his virtues, Alexander, though only in the 14th year of his age, was proclaimed emperor, and his nomination was approved by the universal shouts of the army, and the congratulations of the senate. He had not long been on the throne before the peace of the empire was disturbed by the incursions of the Persians. Alexander marched into the east without delay, and soon obtained a decisive victory over the barbarians. At his return to Rome he was honoured with a triumph, but the revolt of the Germans soon after called him away from the indolence of the capital. His expedition in Germany was attended with some success, but the virtues and the amiable qualities of Alexander were forgotten in the stern and sullen strictness of the disciplinarian. His soldiers, fond of repose, murmured against his severity; their clamours were fomented by the artifice of Maximinus, and Alexander was murdered in his tent, in the midst of his camp, after a reign of 13 years and nine days, on the 18th of March, A.D. 235. His mother Mammæa shared his fate with all his friends; but this was no sooner known than the soldiers punished with immediate death all such as had been concerned in the murder except Maximinus. Alexander has been admired for his many virtues, and every historian, except Herodian, is bold to assert, that if he had lived, the Roman empire might soon have been freed from those tumults and abuses which continually disturbed her peace, and kept the lives of her emperors and senators in perpetual alarms. His severity in punishing offences was great, and such as had robbed the public, were they even the most intimate friends of the emperor, were indiscriminately sacrificed to the tranquillity of the state, which they had violated. The great offices of the state, which had before his reign been exposed to sale, and occupied by favourites, were now bestowed upon merit, and Alexander could boast that all his officers were men of trust and abilities. He was a patron of literature, and he dedicated the hours of relaxation to the study of the best Greek and Latin historians, orators, and poets; and in the public schools which his liberality and the desire of encouraging learning had founded, he often heard with pleasure and satisfaction the eloquent speeches and declamations of his subjects. The provinces were well supplied with provisions, and Rome was embellished with many stately buildings and magnificent porticoes. Alexander Polyhistor, Lives.—Herodian.—Zosim.—Aurelius Victor.――Flavius Valerius, a native of Illyricum, nominated Cæsar by Galerius. He was put to death by Maximianus, A.D. 307.――Julius, a governor of Britain under Adrian.――A general of Valens.――Libius, a man proclaimed emperor of the west, at Ravenna, after the death of Majorianus. He was soon after poisoned.――Lucius Cornelius, a Latin poet in the age of Augustus, for some time employed in the judicial proceedings of the forum.――Cassius, an orator banished into the island of Crete by Augustus, for his illiberal language. He was banished 17 years, and died in Seriphos. He is commended as an able orator, yet declaiming with more warmth than prudence. His writings were destroyed by order of the senate. Suetonius, Octavian Augustus.—Quintilian.――Sulpitius, an ecclesiastical historian, who died A.D. 420. The best of his works is his Historia Sacra, from the creation of the world to the consulship of Stilicho, of which the style is elegant, and superior to that of the age in which he lived. The best edition is in 2 vols., 4to, Patavii, 1741.――An officer under the emperor Julian.――Aquilius, a native of Spain, who wrote an account of his own life in the reign of the emperor Valens.――An officer of Valentinian, &c.――A prefect of Rome, &c.――A celebrated architect employed in building Nero’s golden palace at Rome after the burning of that city.――A mountain of Italy, near the Fabaris. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 713.