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.