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.