――――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but his sentence was afterwards repealed.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.
♦ ‘Didus’ replaced with ‘Didius’
♠ ‘Albinius’ replaced with ‘Albinus’
=Sevo=, a ridge of mountains between Norway and Sweden, now called
_Fiell_, or _Dofre_. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Seuthes=, a man who dethroned his monarch, &c.――――A friend of
Perdiccas, one of Alexander’s generals.――――A Thracian king, who
encouraged his countrymen to revolt, &c. This name is common to
several of the Thracian princes.
=Sextia=, a woman celebrated for her virtue and her constancy, put to
death by Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 10.
=Sextia Licinia lex=, _de Magistratibus_, by Caius Licinius and
Lucius Sextius the tribunes, A.U.C. 386. It ordained that one of the
consuls should be elected from among the plebeians.――――Another, _de
religione_, by the same, A.U.C. 385. It enacted that a decemvirate
should be chosen from the patricians and plebeians instead of the
_decemviri sacris faciundis_.
=Sextiæ Aquæ=, now _Aix_, a place of Cisalpine Gaul, where the Cimbri
were defeated by Marius. It was built by Caius Sextius, and is famous
for its cold and hot springs. _Livy_, bk. 61.――_Velleius Paterculus_,
bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Sextilia=, the wife of Vitellius. She became mother of two children.
_Suetonius_, _Lives_.――――Another in the same family. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 64.
=Sextilius=, a governor of Africa, who ordered Marius, when he landed
there, to depart immediately from his province. Marius heard this
with some concern, and said to the messengers, “Go and tell your
master that you have seen the exiled Marius sitting on the ruins
of Carthage.” _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.――――A Roman preceptor, who
was seized and carried away by pirates, &c.――――One of the officers
of Lucullus.――――Hæna, a poet. _See:_ ♦Hæna.――――An officer sent to
Germany, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
♦ No matching reference
=Sextius=, a lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul.――――A seditious tribune in
the first ages of the republic.――――Lucius was remarkable for his
friendship with Brutus; he gained the confidence of Augustus, and was
consul. Horace, who was in the number of his friends, dedicated bk. 1,
ode 4, to him.――――The first plebeian consul.――――A dictator.――――One of
the sons of Tarquin. _See:_ Tarquinius.