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of Severus. These may possibly belong to the other Severus; but upon the whole it seems better to attribute them to this one, and to suppose that those passages where mention is made of Archigenes (iii. 1. 34, pp. 480, 481), Oribasius (ii. 3. 102, iii. 1. 34. pp. 348, 481), and Severus (ii. 3. 43, 98, 102, pp. 319, 341, 342, 347), were written by Aëtius himself. If the places where Antonius Musa (ii. 3. 30. p. 312), Apollonius (ibid. and ii. 3. 43, p. 319), and Asclepiades Pharmacion (ii. 3. 85, p. 334), are quoted, belong to Severus, he must have lived towards the end of the first century after Christ. One of his medical formulae is quoted by Alexander Trallianus (ii. 5, p. 174.). Fabricius mentions (Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 394, ed. vet.) a physician named Severianus, as quoted by Aëtius; but this is probably a mistake either in the Greek text or in the Latin translation. He also mentions a physician named Theodosius Severus; but "Theodotium" is only the title given by Severus to one of his medicines. (See Bibl. Gr. vol. viii. p. 329.)

a se puellae amore correpti. Morel himself published | served some rather large extracts from the writings it complete, under the name of the sophist Aristides; 5. Achillis, apud inferos edocti captam a Pyrrho Trojam esse. The foregoing, but in a more ample form and in a different order, were included, with a new Latin version, in the Excerpta varia Graecorum Sophistarum ac Rhetorum of Allatius, 8vo. Paris, 1641. Gale included those already published, with these additional ones, 6. Aeschinis, cum deprehenderet Philippi imaginem apud Demosthenem, 7. Ejusdem, in exilium abeuntis, cum ei Demosthenes riaticum daret. 8. Briseis, cum Praecones eam abducerent; in his Rhetores Selecti, 8vo. Oxford, 1676. No. 7 had been published in the collection of Allatius, but under the name of Theodorus Cynopolites. Gale added a new Latin version of his own, and gave a revised, at least a different, text. The whole eight are included in the Rhetores Graeci of Waiz, vol. i. p. 539, 8vo. Stuttgard and Tubingen, 1832. II. Ainyuara, Narrationes. 1. De Viola; 2. De Hyacintho; 3. De Narcisso; 4. De Arione; 5. De Icaro; 6. De Oto et Ephialte. These were first published by Iriarte. (Regiae Biblioth. Matritensis Codd. Graeci MSti, vol. i. p. 462, fol. Madrid, 1769), and are reprinted by Walz in the collection just cited, p. 357. They are very short. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 53.) [J. C. M.]

SEVERUS, bishop of Mileum in Numidia, the friend and ardent admirer of St. Augustine, composed in the fervour of overflowing affection a panegyrical epistle still extant, inscribed Venerabili ac desiderabili et toto sinu charitatis amplectendo episcopo Augustino. It will be found among the correspondence of the bishop of Hippo, n. cix. ed. Bened. From Ep. cx. of the same collection it appears that Severus died before the object of his love and reverence. [W. R.] SEVERUS, was bishop of Minorca in the early part of the fifth century, at a time when a great number of the Jews settled in that island were suddenly converted to Christianity. This happy change was ascribed by the prelate to the presence of the relics of St. Stephen, the protomartyr, which had been deposited in the church at Mago (Mahon) by Orosius, upon his return from the East [OROSIUS], and the event was solemnly announced to all ecclesiastics throughout the world in a circular letter written A. D. 218, and inscribed Epistola ad omnes orbis terrarum Episcopos, Presbyteros, et Diaconos. This piece was first brought to light from among the MSS. in the Vatican by Baronius, who published it in his annals, and it will be found also in the Appendix to the seventh volume of the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, under the title of Severi Epistola ad omnem Ecclesiam de Virtutibus in Minoricensi insula fuctis per reliquias Sancti Stephani Martyris.

[W. R.]

2. The author of a short Greek treatise Пeрì 'Evertńpwv ňτol Kλvorńpwv, De Clysteribus, which was first published by F. R. Dietz, 8vo. Regim. Pruss. 1836. He is called by the title of Iatrosophista, and from some of the words he uses (e. g. dokλnяiaσμós) may be supposed to have lived in the sixth or seventh century after Christ. There is nothing in the work itself that deserves particular notice here. [W. A. G.]

SEVERUS, the architect, with Celer, of Nero's golden house. (Tac. Ann. xv. 42; Suet. Ner. 31; CELER) [P.S.]

SEVERUS, ACILIUS, consul A. D. 323, with Vettius Rufinus, in the reign of Constantius. (Fasti.)

SEVERUS, T. ALLE'DIUS, a Roman eques, married his own niece to please Agrippina, because she married her uncle the emperor Claudius. (Tac. Ann. xii. 7; comp. Suet. Claud. 26.)

SEVE'RUS, A'NNIUS, father of Fabia Orestilla, who was great grand-daughter of Antoninus, and wife of the elder Gordian. (Capitolin. Gordian. tres, c. 6.) [W. R.]

SEVE'RUS, AQUILLIUS, a Spaniard, lived under Valentian, and wrote a work, partly in prose and partly in poetry, which is thus described by Hieronymus (de Vir. Ill. c. 3): "volumen, quasi 'Odotropikóv, totius suae vitae statum continens, tam prosa, quam versibus, quod vocavit Kатασтроonv, sive Пeîpar." (Wernsdorf, Poëtae Latini Minores, vol. v. p. 1491.)

SEVERUS, M. AURELIUS ALEXANDER, usually called ALEXANDER SEVERUS, Roman emperor, A. n. 222-235, the son of Gessius Marcianus and Julia Mamaea, and first cousin of Elagabalus [see genealogy under CARACALLA], was born at Arce, in Phoenicia, in the temple of Alexander the Great, to which his parents had repaired for the celebration of a festival. There is some doubt as to the year and day of his birth; but the 1st of October, A. D. 205, is probably the correct date, although Herodian places the event so low as A. D. 208. His original name appears to 1. A physician who is mentioned by Archigenes have been Alexianus Bassianus, the latter appel(ap. Gal. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. iii. 1. lation having been derived from his maternal grandvol. xii. p. 623), and in terms which seem to imply father. Upon the elevation of Elagabalus, he that he was dead when Archigenes wrote. The accompanied his mother and the court to Rome, name occurs several times in Aëtius, who has pre-a report having been spread abroad, and having

SEVE'RUS (Ze6ñpos or Zevñpos), the name of two physicians, who have been supposed to be the same person by Bandini, in his excellent catalogue of the Library at Florence (see the Index), and one of whom (probably the former) is mentioned in a list of those who were most eminent in medical science. (Cramer's Anecd. Graeca Paris. vol. iv.)

gained credit, that he also, as well as the emperor, was the son of Caracalla. This connection was afterwards recognised by himself, for he publicly spoke of the divine Antoninus as his sire; and the same fact is asserted by the genealogy recorded on ancient monuments. In A. D. 221 he was adopted by Elagabalus and created Caesar, pontiff, consul elect, and princeps juventutis, at the instigation of the acute and politic Julia Maesa, who, foreseeing the inevitable destruction of one grandson, resolved to provide beforehand for the quiet succession of the other. The names Alexianus and Bassianus were now laid aside, and those of M. Aurelius Alerander substituted; M. Aurelius in virtue of his adoption; Alexander in consequence, as was asserted, of a direct revelation on the part of the Syrian god. Elagabalus speedily repented of his choice, and made many efforts to remove one upon whom he now looked with jealousy as a dangerous rival; but his repeated efforts, open as well as secret, being frustrated by the vigilance of Mamaea and the affection of the soldiers, eventually led to his own death, as has been related elsewhere. [ELAGABALUS; MAESA; MAMAEA.]

Alexander was forthwith acknowledged emperor by the praetorians, and their choice was upon the same day confirmed by the senate, who voted all the customary distinctions; and thus he ascended the throne, on the 11th of March, A. D. 222, in his seventeenth year, adding Severus to his other designations, in order to mark more explicitly the descent which he claimed from the father of Caracalla.

For the space of nine years the sway of the new monarch was unmarked by any great event; but a gradual reformation was effected in the various abuses which had so long preyed upon the state; men of learning and virtue were promoted to the chief dignities, while the city and the empire at large began to recover a healthier tone in religion, morals, and politics. But during the period of tranquillity in Italy, a great revolution had taken place in the East, whose effects were soon felt in the Roman provinces, and gave rise to a series of convulsions which shook the world for centuries. The Persians, after having submitted to the sway of Alexander the Great, of the Seleucidae, and of the Parthians in turn, had made a desperate effort to regain their independence: after a protracted and sanguinary struggle, their chief, Artaxerxes, overcame the warlike Artabanus, and the sovereignty of Central Asia passed for ever from the hands of the Arsacidae. The conquerors, flushed with victory, now began to form more ample schemes, and fondly hoped that the time had now arrived when they might thrust forth the Western tyrants from the regions they had so long usurped, and, recovering the vast dominion once swayed by their ancestors, again rule supreme over all Asia, from the Indus to the Aegaean. Accordingly, as early as A. D. 229, Mesopotamia and Syria were threatened by the victorious hordes; and Alexander, finding that peace could no longer be maintained, set forth from Rome in A. D. 231 to assume in person the command of the Roman legions. The opposing hosts met in the level plain beyond the Euphrates, in A. D. 232. Artaxerxes was overthrown in a great battle, and driven across the Tigris; but the emperor did not prosecute his advantage, for intelligence having reached him of a great movement among the German tribes, he hurried back to the city, where he celebrated a triumph in the autumn of a. D. 233.

SEVERUS.

803 campaign by all ancient writers, with the exception Such is the account given of the result of this of Herodian, who draws a frightful picture of the losses sustained by the sword and by disease, and ingloriously into Syria, with the mere skeleton of an represents Severus as having been obliged to retreat army. rian to Severus would, in itself, throw discredit upon But the well known hostility of this histothese statements, unless corroborated by more impartial testimony; and the character of the prince forbids us to suppose that he would have deliberately planned and executed a fraud which could have imposed upon no one, and would have commemorated by speeches to the senate and people, by medals, by inscriptions, and finally by a gorgeous triumph, that which in reality was a shameful and most disastrous defeat. Although little doubt, therefore, can be entertained with regard to the main facts of the expedition, the determination of the dates is a matter of considerable difficulty, and has given rise to much controversy among chronologers; for the evidence is both complicated and uncertain. On the whole, the opinion of Eckhel (vol. vii. p. 274) left the city for the Persian war, at the end of A. D. seems the most probable. He concludes that Severus 230, or the beginning of A. D. 231; that the battle with Artaxerxes was fought in A. D. 232; and that the triumph was celebrated towards the end of A. D. 233.

Rhine, were now devastating Gaul. Severus quitted Meanwhile, the Germans having crossed the 234; but before he had made any progress in the the metropolis with an army, in the course of A. D. campaign, he was waylaid by a small band of mutinous soldiers, instigated, it is said, by Maximinus, and slain, along with his mother, in the early part of A. D. 235, in the 30th year of his age, and the 14th of his reign.

the intelligence of his death, and their sorrow was All ranks were plunged in the deepest grief by rendered more poignant by the well-known coarseNever did a sovereign better merit the regrets of ness and brutality of his successor [MAXIMINUS]. his people. His noble and graceful presence, the gentleness and courtesy of his manners, and the ready access granted to persons of every grade, produced, at an early period, an impression in his favour, which became deeply engraven on the hearts of all by the justice, wisdom, and clemency which he uniformly displayed in all public transactions, and by the simplicity and purity which distinguished his private life. The formation of his character must, in a great measure, be ascribed to the high principles instilled by his mother, who not only guarded his life with watchful care against lant in preserving his morals from the contaminathe treachery of Elagabalus, but was not less vigition of the double-dyed profligacy with which he tions which he owed to such a parent, and repaid was surrounded. The son deeply felt the obligasubmission to her will. The implicit reliance which them by the most respectful tenderness and dutiful he reposed on her judgment, is said to have led to his untimely end; for Mamaea inculcated excessive and ill-timed parsimony, which conjoined with the strict discipline enforced, at length alienated the affections of the troops, who were at one time deeply attached to his person. So sensible was he of this fatal error, that he is said to have reproached his mother, with his dying breath, as the cause of the catastrophe. (Herodian. v. 5, 17-23, vi.

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SEVERUS, A. CAECI'NA. [CAECINA, No. 4.]

SEVE'RUS, CA'SSIUS, a celebrated orator and satirical writer, in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, is supposed by Weichert to have been born about B. c. 50. He is called in the Index of Authors to the thirty-fifth book of Pliny Longulanus, that is, a native of Longula, a town of Latium. He was a man of low origin and dissolute character, but was much feared by the severity of his attacks upon the Roman nobles. He must have commenced his career as a public slanderer very early, if he is the person against whom the sixth epode of Horace is directed, as is supposed by many ancient and modern commentators. He attracted particular attention by accusing of poisoning, in B. c. 9, Nonius Asprenas, the friend of Augustus, who was defended by Asinius Pollio (Suet. Aug. 56; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 12. s. 46; Quintil. x. 1. § 23; Dion Cass. lv. 4). Towards the latter end of the reign of Augustus, Severus was banished by Augustus to the island of Crete on account of his libellous verses. against the distinguished men and women at Rome; but as he still continued to write libels, he was deprived of his property in the reign of Tiberius, A. D. 24, and removed to the desert island of Seriphos, where he died in great poverty in the twenty-fifth year of his exile. Hieronymus places his death in A. D. 33, and if this be correct he was banished in a. D. 8. Cassius Severus introduced a new style of oratory, and is said, by the author of the Dialogue on Orators (cc. 19, 26), to have been the first who deserted the style of the ancient orators; and accordingly Meyer observes, that dividing the history of Roman oratory into three epochs, Cato would be the chief of the older school, Cicero of the middle period, and Severus of the later. The works of Severus were proscribed, but were permitted by Caligula to be read again. (Tac. Ann. i. 72, iv. 21, de Orat. 19, 26; Senec. Controv. iii. init.; Quintil. x. 1. § 116; Suet. Calig. 16, Vitell. 2; Plin. H. N. vii. 10. s. 12; Macrob. Sat. ii. 4; Hieron. in Euseb. Chron. 2048; Weichert, De Lucii Varii et Cassii Parmensis Vita, Grimae, 1836, pp. 190-212, where the reader will find every thing that is known about Cassius Severus; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. ii. p. 161; Meyer, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, pp. 545-551, 2d ed.)

SEVERUS, CATI'LIUS. 1. Consul in A. D. 120, was made by Hadrian governor of Syria, and subsequently praefectus urbi, but was removed from the latter post in a. D. 138, because he expressed disapprobation at the adoption of An

toninus Pius, in consequence of his being anxious to gain the empire for himself. He was the maternal great-grandfather of the emperor M. Aurelius [see Vol. I. p. 439]. Severus was a friend of the younger Pliny, several of whose letters are addressed to him. (Capitolin. Spart. 5, 15, 24, M. Anton. 1; Plin. Ep. i. 22, iii. 6, v. 1, et alibi.)

2. A relation of the emperor Alexander Severus, and a member of his consilium, is described as vir omnium doctissimus. (Lamprid. Alex. Sever. 68.) SEVE'RUS, CE'STIUS. [CESTIUS, No. 5.] SEVE'RUS, CI'NCIUS, slain by the emperor Septimius Severus (Spartian. Sever. 13), is probably the same as the pontifex Cingius Severus, who is mentioned in connection with the burial of Commodus. (Lamprid. Commod. 20.)

SEVE'RUS, CLAUDIUS. 1. The leader of the Helvetii, A. D. 69. (Tac. Hist. i. 68.)

2. CN. CLAUDIUS SEVERUS, consul with Sex. Erucius Clarus, in A. D. 146, in which year the emperor Severus was born. (Spartian. Sever. 1; Cod. Just. 6. tit. 26. s. 1.)

3. TI. CLAUDIUS SEVERUS, consul A. D. 200, with C. Aufidius Victorinus. (Cod. Just. 8. tit. 45. s. 1, et alibi.)

SEVERUS, CORNELIUS, according to the criticism of Quintilian, more distinguished as a verse-maker than as a poet, was contemporary with Ovid, by whom he is addressed in one of the Epistles written from Pontus. He was the author of a poem entitled Bellum Siculum, which he was prevented by death from completing. Seneca has preserved (Suasor. vii.) a fragment by Severus, on the death of Cicero ; and in one of his Epistles he speaks of him as having written upon Aetna; but whether this was an independent piece or was included in the Sicilian War, we cannot tell. [See LUCILIUS JUNIOR.]

The above-mentioned fragments, and a few inconsiderable scraps, collected chiefly from the grammarians, will be found in Wernsdorf, Poët. Lat. Min. vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 217, 225, comp. vol. iv. pt. i. p. 33, vol. v. pt. iii. p. 1469. (Ovid, Ep. ex Pont. iv. 2. 2; Senec. Suasor. vii. Epist. lxxix.; Quintil. x. 1. § 89.) [W. R.]

SEVERUS, CURTIUS, a Roman officer in Syria, in A. D. 52. (Tac. Ann. xii. 55.)

SEVE'RUS, FLA VIUS VALE'RIUS, Roman emperor, A. D. 306-307. After the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, followed by the elevation of Galerius with Constantius Chlorus to the rank of Augusti, it became necessary, in order to maintain the scheme of the empire, to appoint new Caesars [DIOCLETIANUS]. The right of nomination was conceded to Galerius, who selected two creatures of his own, devoted, as he believed, to his interests, Maximinus Daza and Severus. The latter, an obscure Illyrian adventurer, altogether unknown, save as the dissolute, although faithful, adherent of his patron, was invested with the insignia of his new dignity at Milan, on the 1st of May, A. D. 305, by Herculius in person, and obtained Italy, and probably Africa and Upper Pannonia also, as his provinces. But as soon as intelligence was received of the death of Constantius Chlorus, which happened at York, in July, A. D. 306, Severus was forthwith proclaimed Augustus in his stead, by Galerius, and soon after was instructed to quell the disturbances excited by the usurpation of Maxentius. The details of this disastrous campaign, the advance of Severus upon the capital, the defection

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of his troops, his hasty retreat, and his surrender at Ravenna to Herculius, upon the most solemn assurances of ample protection, have been related in a former article [MAXENTIUS]. In spite, however, of all the promises of the conqueror, the vanquished prince was conveyed as a prisoner of war to the vicinity of Rome, and detained in captivity at Tres Tabernae, on the Appian road, where, upon receiving intimation that he might choose the manner of his death, he opened his veins, and was entombed in the sepulchre of Gallienus, A. D. 307. (Panegr. Vet. i. v.; Auct. De Mort. Persec. 18, 19, 20, 25, 26; Victor, de Caes. 40, Epit. 40; Eutrop. x. 2; Excerpta Valesian. 5-10; Zosim. ii. 8, 10.)

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[W. R.]

COIN OF FLAVIUS VALERIUS SEVERUS.

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SEVERUS SANCTUS, the writer of an amoebaean pastoral of considerable merit, extending to 132 lines, in choriambic metre, first published by P. Pithou in his "Veterum aliquot Galliae Theologorum Scripta" (4to. Paris, 1586) as, Severi Rhetoris et Poetae Christiani Carmen Bucolicum. The subject relates to a murrain among cattle, which, after sweeping over Pannonia, Illyria, and Belgica, was devastating the pastures of the country where the scene is laid; that is, probably Gaul (see v. 22). The speakers who open the dialogue are Buculus and Aegon, both pagans; and these are afterwards joined by Tityrus, a Christian. Buculus recounts, with deep grief, the disease and death by which his oxen had been visited. While Aegon is condoling with him, and marvelling that, although many of their neighbours had been afflicted by this calamity, some had remained altogether uninjured, Tityrus, one of those who had escaped, comes up, and, on being questioned, declares that he attributed the preservation of his property to the sign of the cross impressed upon the foreheads of his flocks, and to the worship of Jesus, which he himself practised, at the same time recommending his friends to adopt the faith which he professed, as the only sure safeguard and remedy. Buculus, convinced by his arguments, and hoping to avert the pestilence from his herds, agrees to become a convert, Aegon also expresses his willingness to receive the truth, and both, conducted by Tityrus, proceeded to the city, for the purpose of offering homage at the shrine of Christ.

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SEVERUS, HERE'NNIUS, a friend of the younger Pliny, who speaks of him as "vir doctissimus." (Plin. Ep. iv. 28.)

SEVERUS, JULIUS, a legatus of Hadrian, was first governor of Britain, from which he was summoned by the emperor to take the command of the war against the Jews. After the conclusion of this war he was placed over Bithynia, which he governed with great wisdom and justice. He must not be confounded with the Severus, whom Pliny addresses in several of his letters, as Glandorp has done in his Onomasticon; for the friend of Pliny was Catilius Severus, as has been shown above. (Dion Cass. Ixix. 13, 14.)

SEVE'RUS, JU'LIUS, a Roman grammarian, of whom nothing is known, is the author of a small treatise entitled De Pedibus Expositio, which was first published by Heusinger, together with the work of Flavius Mallius Theodorus on the same subject, Guelf. 1755, and Lugd. Bat. 1766. It is also included in Gaisford's Script. Lat. Rei Metric. Oxon. 1837.

With regard to the author little, or rather nothing, is known; for every particular recorded with regard to him, resolves itself into a vague conjecture. Ausonius mentions a Flavius Sanctus as his kinsman (Parental. xviii. xix), and Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. viii. 11) speaks of his friend Sanctus, who had been bishop of Bordeaux; but the composer of the eclogue now under consideration, is commonly supposed to be the same with Sanctus, a friend of Paulinus Nolanus, to whom that prelate addresses his twenty-sixth epistle, while Pithou proceeds a step farther, and maintains that he is also the rhetorician Endeilichius, whom Paulinus names in a letter to Sulpicius Severus (Ep. ix. comp. Sirmond, ad Sidon. Apoll. Ep. iv. 8). Accordingly, he published the second edition of the pastoral in his "Epigrammata et Poemata Vett.," &c. (Paris, 1590), as Carmen Severi Sancti, id est, Endeilichi Rhetoris, de Mortibus Boum; and, since that period, scholars, according to their conviction, have adopted one or other, or both of these titles.

SEVERUS, LI'BIUS, Roman emperor from A. D. 461-465. He was a Lucanian by birth, and owed his accession to Ricimer, who placed him on the throne of Rome after the assassination of Majorian. His proclamation took place at Ravenna, on the 19th or 20th of November, 461, and the Roman senate confirmed the election soon afterwards. He was an obscure man, and his name is not mentioned previous to the murder of Majorian, of which he was one of the principal agents. No acts of his reign are recorded but one, namely his condemnation of Agrippinus, and the subsequent pardon which he granted to him in 462. Leo, the Eastern emperor, declined to acknowledge him, but afterwards complied with the wishes of the powerful Ricimer, to whom we refer for the political events of the time. Severus died in Rome on the 15th of August, 465, or perhaps some weeks later.

From the internal evidence afforded by the piece itself, we are led to conclude that it belongs to the

beginning of the fifth century; and that the pestilence to which it refers, is the same as that which entered Italy along with Alaric, in A. D. 409. Beyond this we can hardly venture to advance. The first two editions we have already named. It will be found also in the Bibliotheca Patrum Mar., fol. Lugd. 1677, vol. vi. p. 366; in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Galland, fol. Venet. 1788, vol. viii. p. 207, and in Wernsdorf's P. L. M., vol. ii. p. 217. It has been published separately by Weitzius, 8vo. Francf. 1612; with the notes of Weitzius and Seberus, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1715 and 1745; by Richter, 4to. Hamb. 1747; and by Piper, 8vo. Gott. 1835. A dissertation on Severus Sanctus is contained in Wernsdorf, Poët. Lat. Min. vol. ii. p. 53, seqq., comp. vol. iv. pt. 2. pp. 806, 812, vol. v. pt. 3. p. 1449; and in the edition of Piper.

of power was to take vengeance on the actual murderers of Pertinax. He then collected the rest of the guards, surrounded them with his legions, compelled them to lay down their arms, and banished them from Rome, forbidding them upon pain of death to approach within a hundred miles of the metropolis. This act of justice and of policy being performed, he proceeded to enter the city, where all orders in the state now vied with each other in welcoming him with joyful homage. He declared Clodius Albinus, whose rivalry he dreaded, Caesar, celebrated the obsequies of Pertinax with the utmost splendor, - distributed an enormous donative to his soldiers, amounting we are told to 30,000 sesterces for each man, and having arranged all matters connected with the internal government of the state, quitted Rome within thirty days after his triumphal entry, and hurried to the East in order to prosecute the war against Niger. While he marched direct towards Syria at the head of a portion of his forces, he despatched some legions into Africa, lest the enemy passing through Egypt, or along the coast, might gain possession of the great granary of the empire and starve the metropolis. So eagerly did he watch over this department of the public service in after life, that when he died the storehouses of Rome were found to contain a stock of corn sufficient for the consumption of seven years, and as much oil as would have supplied the wants of all Italy for five.

[W. R.]/ SEVE'RUS, L. SEPTIMIUS, Roman emperor a. D. 193-211, was born on the 11th of April, A. D. 146, near Leptis in Africa, and it has been remarked, that he was the only Roman emperor who was a native of that continent. His family was of equestrian rank; the name of his father was Geta, of his mother Fulvia Pia, and from the correspondence of appellation and country we may fairly conjecture that he was a descendant of the Septimius Severus of Leptis to whom Statius addresses a graceful poem. He devoted himself eagerly when a boy to the study of Greek and Latin literature, and became a proficient in these languages. Having removed to Rome he entered The progress of the campaign, which was termiupon a public career, and at the age of thirty-two nated by the capture of Niger after the battle of was made praetor elect by M. Aurelius, his ambi- Issus, A. D. 194, need not be recapitulated [NIGER, tious views having been effectually promoted by PESCENNIUS]. But Severus was not yet satisfied. the influence of his kinsman Septimius Severus, Some of the border tribes still refusing to acknowwho had been raised to the consulship. From ledge his authority, he crossed the Euphrates in this time forward the progress of Severus was the following year (A. D. 195), wasted their lands, steady and rapid. He successively commanded captured their cities, forced all whom he encounthe fourth legion then stationed near Marseilles tered to submit, and won for himself the titles of governed, with high reputation for impar- Adiabenicus, Arabicus, and Parthicus. In a. D. 196 tiality and integrity, the province of Gallia Lug- Byzantium, after an obstinate resistance, protracted dunensis was legate of Pannonia, proconsul of for nearly three years, was taken, to the great joy Sicily, and consul suffectus in A. D. 185, along of the emperor, who treated the vanquished with with Apuleius Rufinus, being one of the twenty- little moderation. Its famous walls were levelled five who in that year purchased the office from with the earth, its soldiers and magistrates were Cleander [CLEANDER]. He was subsequently put to death, the property of the citizens was concommander-in-chief of the army in Pannonia and fiscated, and the town itself, deprived of all its Illyria, and upon the death of Commodus ten-political privileges, made over to the Perinthians. dered his allegiance to Pertinax, but after the murder of the latter, and the shameful elevation of Julianus, which excited universal indignation throughout the provinces, he was himself proclaimed emperor by the troops at Carnutum. Although he consented with reluctance to receive this honour, yet, when his decision was once made he acted with the greatest promptitude and energy. While Pescennius Niger, who had been saluted as Augustus by the eastern legions, was loitering at Antioch, Severus marched straight upon Rome, and disregarding the threats, the assassins, and the peaceful overtures of Julianus, as well as the resolutions of the senate, in terms of which he had been declared a public enemy, he pressed onwards with great rapidity, announcing himself every where as the avenger of Pertinax, whose name he assumed, and from that time forward constantly retained among his titles. His arrival before the city on the 1st or 2d of June, A. D. 193, was the signal for the death of Julianus [JULIANUS], and the praetorians having submitted, his first exercise

Meanwhile Clodius Albinus, who, although created Caesar, found that after the destruction of Niger he was treated with little consideration, had accepted the imperial dignity proffered by the troops in Gaul. Severus being thus compelled to return to Europe, endeavoured, in the first instance, to remove his antagonist by treachery, but his schemes having been baffled, he procured a decree of the Senate, pronouncing him a public enemy, and then hastened on to Gaul to prosecute the war. On the nineteenth of February, A. D. 197, the contending hosts encountered near Lyons, the rivals commanding in person, each at the head of 150,000 men. The battle was fiercely contested, and for a time fortune seemed to waver. Severus, when rallying his men, lost his horse and narrowly escaped being slain; but eventually his superior skill and experience prevailed. The loss upon both sides was terrible. The whole plain was covered with the dead and wounded, and streams of blood mingled with the waters of the Rhone. Albinus took refuge in a house near the

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