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’