That no

river; but finding himself hotly pursued and his retraced their steps, worn out with hardships of retreat cut off, perished by his own hand. The every description, without having accomplished conqueror, after feasting upon the spectacle of his any great object, or secured any permanent adenemy's corpse, ordered the head to be cut off vantage. In this expedition incalculable misery and despatched to Rome, whither he quickly was inflicted; the prince lost fifty thousand men, followed, and put to death many senators sus- and gained the title of Britannicus. pected of having been in correspondence with the moral impression even was made is evident from foe. Games were exhibited, and largesses be- the fact that, scarcely had the legions withdrawn stowed on the people; but as soon as the first towards the south, and commenced the famous excitement of success had passed away Severus, wall which still bears the name of their comstill thirsting for military renown, resolved to mander, when a fresh insurrection broke out return to Asia, and again assail the Parthians, among the Meatae and the Caledonians. Enraged who, taking advantage of the civil strife in the by this audacity, Severus declared his resolution West, had spread over Mesopotamia. Accordingly to exterminate the whole race, and instantly began he set forth accompanied by his sons Caracalla to make preparations for a new campaign. But and Geta, crossed the Euphrates early in the year his designs were cut short by death. He was A. D. 198, and commenced a series of operations attacked by a violent disease in the joints, and which were attended with the most brilliant re-expired at York, on the 4th of February, A. D. 211, sults. Seleucia and Babylon were evacuated by the enemy; and Ctesiphon, at that time their royal city, was taken and plundered after a short siege. The campaign against the Arabs, who had espoused the cause of Niger, was less glorious. The emperor twice assailed their chief town Atra, and twice was compelled to retire with great loss.

The next three years were spent in the East. Severus entered upon his third consulship in Syria (A. D. 202), Caracalla being his colleague; visited Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt; and having made all the necessary arrangements in these countries, returned to Rome in the same year, in order to offer the decennial vows, and to celebrate the marriage of his eldest son with Plautilla. The shows in honour of the return of the prince, of the completion of the tenth year of his reign, of his victories, and of the royal nuptials, were unparalleled in magnificence; that is to say, the bloodshed and butchery of men and animals were greater than ever. On one occasion, four hundred wild beasts were let loose in the amphitheatre at one moment, and seven hundred, at the rate of a hundred for each day, were slaughtered during the course of the games. At this time, also, each citizen whose poverty entitled him to obtain corn from the public store, and each of the praetorians received ten aurei; a largess which consumed about sixteen millions and a half sterling, the greatest sum which had ever been bestowed in such a manner on any one occasion.

For seven years Septimius remained tranquilly at Rome; but in A. D. 207, either because a rebellion in northern Britain had assumed an aspect so serious that his presence was deemed requisite, or for the purpose of giving active employment to his sons, who were leading a life of profligacy, and to the legions, whose discipline had become relaxed, he determined again to take the field. Accordingly, passing through Gaul, he reached his destination, early in A. D. 208. Marching at once to the disturbed districts, he entered Caledonia, and penetrated, we are told, to the very extremity of the island, the inhabitants offering no steady or formidable opposition, but rather luring the invaders onward, in the expectation that they might be destroyed in detail, by want and misery. Nor do these anticipations appear to have been altogether disappointed: after having endured excessive toil in transporting supplies over barren pathless mountains, in raising causeways across swampy plains, and in throwing bridges over unfordable rivers, the troops

in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the eighteenth of his reign. His ashes were conveyed to Rome, and deposited in the tomb of M. Aurelius. As a matter of course, his apotheosis was decreed by the senate, and Herodian has preserved a detailed account of the ceremonies performed.

Although the character of Severus appears in a most favourable light when viewed in contrast with those rulers who immediately preceded and followed him, there is in it not much to admire, and nothing to love. He was, it must be admitted, a stranger to their brutal vices; he was free from all capricious tyranny; under ordinary circumstances he governed the state with integrity, and did all that might best promote the interests of the community at large. He devoted himself with great zeal to the administration of justice, and to the reform of public abuses: he was, moreover, an admirable general; and the strict discipline maintained by him among the troops, effectually repressed, for a season, military insolence and excess. Nor can we refuse to acknowledge that he possessed a large, keen, and vigorous intellect, such as might well befit the ruler of such an empire in such unhappy times. But he was utterly devoid of all high moral principle, totally destitute of gentleness and generosity of temper. When he had once resolved to gain an object, he entertained no scruples with regard to the means by which his purpose was to be accomplished; and although not naturally cruel, was perfectly indifferent to human suffering and life. Nor did success soften this hardness of heart, or qualify the bitter resentment which he cherished against all who in any way opposed or thwarted his designs. Not content with victory, he ever sought to glut his vengeance on his fallen foes, and was always most odious in the hour of triumph. In private life it is said that he was a warm friend, simple and domestic in his habits, and fond of literary pursuits.

Although undoubtedly possessed of a masculine tone of mind, we find one singular trait of weakness, so much at variance with his shrewdness, sagacity, and strong sense in other matters, that we must regard it as a most remarkable example of the paralysing influence of vanity. He endeavoured to establish a connection between himself and his predecessors in the purple, and most preposterously announced that he was the adopted son of M. Aurelius, fifteen years after the death of that prince. In this manner he set up a claim to a long line of imperial ancestors, which he formally and

found by Wolfgang Lazius, in a MS. belonging to the Imperial Library at Vienna, he gave them to the world as a new discovery in his collection, Diversorum auctorum apocryphorum de vita Christi et Apostolorum (fol.. Basil. 1551), and his mistake was not discovered for two centuries.

The Historia Sacra was first printed at Basle (8vo. 1556) by Matthaeus Flaccius. Among the numerous editions which have appeared from time to time the most notable are those with the commentary of Sigonius (8vo. Bonon. 1561, 1581), and with that of Drusius. (8vo. Arnhem. 1607.)

The Epistolae were collected from various sources at different times. Two were first printed in the Lectiones Antiquae of Canisius, vol. v. p. 540, 4to. Ingolds. 1604; two, with others of doubtful authenticity in the Spicilegium Veterum Scriptorum of Dacherius, vol. v. p. 532, 4to. Paris, 1661, and the two to Claudia in the Miscellanea of Baluzius, fol. Paris. 1678.

The collected works were first printed at Basle (16mo. 1563), but the first impression with any pretensions to critical accuracy was that of Victor Giselinus, 8vo. Ant. 1574, accompanied by notes, and an elaborate life of Sulpicius. Considerable improvements were introduced by Hornius, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1647; by Vorstius, 12mo. Berol. 1668; and Lips. 1703, by Mercierus, 8vo. Paris, 1675; by far the most complete and satisfactory edition is that of Hieronymus de Prato, 4to. 2 vols. Veron. 1741-1754, which has always, since its appearance, been regarded as the standard, although not absolutely complete, since the six epistles are omitted. It was reprinted, with the addition of the epistles, by Galland, in his Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. viii. fol. Venet. 1772. (Gennad. de Viris Illust. 19; Honorius Augustod. de Script. Eccles. iii. 19; Trithemius, de Script. Eccles. 113; Gregor. Turon. de Mirac. S. Mart. i.; Histor. Franc. x. 31; Paulin. Nol. Ep. v. 1, xi. 5, xxiii. 3, &c.; Hieronym. Comment. in Ezech. 36; Augustin. Ep. 205.) [W.R.]

SEVERUS, VERULA'NUS, a legatus of Corbulo, under whom he served in the East, in A. D. 60–62 (Tac. Ann. xiv. 26, xv. 3). The L. Verulanus Severus, who was consul suffectus under Trajan in A. D. 108, was perhaps a son of the preceding.

the death of Sitalces; but this is wholly at variance with the account given by Thucydides [SITALCES]. From the sane passage we learn that he maintained friendly relations with the Athenian people, by whom he was admitted to the privileges of citizenship.

2. Another Odrysian prince, a son of Maesades, who had reigned over the tribes of the Melanditae, Thyni, and Tranipsae, but had been expelled from his kingdom before his death, on which account Seuthes was brought up at the court of Medocus, or Amadocus, king of the Odrysians (Xen. Anab. vii. 2. § 32). He was, however, admitted to a certain amount of independent power, and we find him in B. c. 405 joining with Amadocus, in promising his support to Alcibiades, to carry on the war against the Lacedaemonians (Diod. xiii. 105). In B. C. 400, when Xenophon with the remains of the ten thousand Greeks that had accompanied Cyrus, arrived at Chrysopolis, Seuthes applied to him for the assistance of the force under his command to reinstate him in his dominions. His proposals were at first rejected; but he renewed them again when the Greeks had been expelled from Byzantium, and found themselves at Perinthus without the means of crossing into Asia; and they were now induced, principally by Xenophon himself, to accept the offers of the Thracian prince. By the assistance of these new auxiliaries, Seuthes obtained an easy victory over the mountain tribes, and recovered the whole of his father's dominions. But when it came to the question of paying the services of the Greeks, great disputes arose, and Seuthes, at the instigation of Heracleides, endeavoured by every subterfuge to elude his obligations. He was at length, however, compelled to pay the stipulated sum, and the Greeks thereupon crossed into Asia (Xen. Anab. vii. 1. § 5, 2—7). Not long afterwards, B. c. 399, we find him sending an auxiliary force to the Spartan general, Dercyllidas, in Bithynia (Id. Hellen. iii. 2. § 2). At a subsequent period (B. c. 393), he was engaged in hostilities with his former patron Amadocus; but the quarrel between them was terminated by the intervention of Thrasybulus; and Seuthes, at the suggestion of that general, concluded an alliance with Athens. (Ibid. iv. 8. § 26; Diod. xiv. 94.)

3. A king of Thrace, or more properly of the SEUTHES (Zeúons). 1. A king of the Thracian Odrysians, contemporary with Alexander the Great, tribe of the Odrysians, was a son of Sparadocus or to whom he was tributary. But in B. c. 325, ZoSpardacus, and nephew of Sitalces, king of the pyrion, who had been left by the Macedonian king Odrysians, whom he accompanied on his great ex- as governor in Thrace, having fallen in an expedition into Macedonia, B. c. 429. On that oc- pedition against the Getae, Seuthes raised the casion he was gained over by Perdiccas, king of standard of revolt (Curt. x. 1. § 45). He appears Macedonia, who promised him his sister Stratonice to have been for the time repressed by Antipater; in marriage; and in consequence exerted all his but after the death of Alexander (B. c. 323), we influence with Sitalces to induce him to withdraw find him again in arms, and opposing Lysimachus, his army from Macedonia. His efforts were suc- the new governor of Thrace, with an army of cessful, and after his return to Thrace, he was 20,000 foot and 8000 horse. An obstinate struggle married to Stratonice according to the agreement ensued, without any decisive result; and both (Thuc. ii. 101). In B. c. 424 he succeeded Sitalces parties withdrew, we are told, to prepare for a on the throne, and during a long reign raised his renewal of the contest. (Diod. xviii. 14.) No kingdom to a height of power and prosperity further account of this has been transmitted to us, which it had never previously attained, so that his but it is clear that Seuthes was ultimately comregular revenues amounted to the annual sum of pelled to acknowledge the authority of Lysimachus. 400 talents, in addition to contributions of gold In B. c. 313, however, he took advantage of the and silver in the form of presents to a nearly equal war between the Thracian king and Antigonus to amount (Thuc. ii. 97, iv. 101.). From a passage declare in favour of the latter, and occupied the in the letter of Philip to the Athenian people (ap. passes of Mount Haemus with an army, but was Demosth. p. 161, ed. Reiske) it would appear that once more defeated by Lysimachus, and finally reSeuthes was accused of having had some hand induced to submission. (Id. xix. 73.) [E. H. B.]

SEXTIA. 1. The wife of Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus, who killed herself, along with her husband, in A. D. 34. (Tac. Ann. vi. 29). [Vol. III. p. 733, a.] 2. The mother-in-law of L. Antistius Vetus, along with whom she was put to death by Nero in A. D. 65 (Tac. Ann. xvi. 10, 11).

SEXTIA GENS, plebeian. This name is frequently confounded with that of Sestius. [SESTIA GENS.] On coins we find only Sestius, never Sextius. The first member of the Sextia gens who obtained the consulship was L. Sextius Sextinus Lateranus in B. c. 366, who was the first plebeian that obtained this honour, after one place in the consulship was secured for the plebeian order, by the Licinian laws [LATERANUS]. The only other person in the gens who was consul under the republic was C. Sextius Calvinus, in B. C. 124 [CALVINUS]; but the names of a few Sextii appear on the consular Fasti in the imperial period. Most of the Sextii are mentioned without any cognomen : they are given below. [SEXTIUS.]

SEXTILIA. 1. A Vestal virgin, was condemned of incest, and buried alive in B. c. 273. (Liv. Epit. 14).

2. The mother of the emperor Vitellius, was a virtuous Roman matron of the old school. She lived to see her son emperor, but died a few days before his fall. (Tac. Hist. ii. 64, 89, iii. 67; Suet. Vitell. 3.)

SEXTI’LIA GENS, plebeian, is first mentioned in B. C. 379, when one of its members was consular tribune. The gens, however, never obtained much distinction, and their name does not once occur on the Consular Fasti. Towards the end of the republic, and under the empire, we meet with a few Sextilii, with cognomens, which are given below; but the gens was not divided into families with distinctive surnames.

SEXTILIUS. 1. C. SEXTILIUS, consular tribune B. C. 379, in which year an equal number of patricians and plebeians were elected to the office. (Liv. vi. 30.)

2. L. SEXTILIUS, one of the triumviri nocturni, was accused by the tribunes of the plebs, and condemned, with his two colleagues, because they had come too late to put out a fire in the Via Sacra. (Val. Max. viii. 1. damn. 5).

3. M. SEXTILIUS, of Fregellae, assured the consuls in the second Punic war, B. c. 209, that eighteen of the Roman colonies were ready to furnish the state with soldiers, when twelve had refused to do so. (Liv. xxvii. 9, 10).

4. SEXTILIUS, governor of the province of Africa in B.C. 88, forbade Marius to land in the country. (Plut. Mar. 40; Appian, B. C. i. 62, where he is called Sextius).

to have been a negotiator or money-lender in Acmonia, a town in the Greater Phrygia.

9. C. SEXTILIUS, the son of the sister of M. Lurco, a man "et pudens et constans et gravis." (Cic. pro Flacc. 36.) He may perhaps be the same as the praetor Sextilius mentioned by Varro (R. R. i. 1. $10).

10. P. SEXTILIUS, quaestor B. C. 61. (Cic. pro Flacc. 13.)

11. Q. SEXTILIUS, a friend of Milo. (Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. 1. §3.)

12. SEXTILIUS ANDRO, of Pergamum. (Cic. pro Flacc. 34.)

SEXTILIUS HENA, of Corduba in Spain, a Roman poet of no great merit, wrote a poem on the death of Cicero, of which the first line is quoted by M. Seneca. (Suas. 6, pp. 45, 46, ed. Bip.) SEXTILIUS FELIX. [FELIX.] SEXTILIUS RUFUS. (RUFUS.]

SEXTIUS. Some persons whose names occur under this form in several editions of the ancient writers, are given under SESTIUS.

1. SEXTIUS, tribune of the plebs R. c. 414, proposed that a colony should be sent to Bolae. (Liv. iv. 49.)

2. M. SEXTIUS SABINUS, plebeian aedile B. C. 203, and praetor in the following year, B. c. 202, when he obtained Gaul as his province. (Liv. xxx. 26, 27.)

3. SEXTIUS, quaestor of the consul L. Calpurnius Bestia, in Numidia, B. c. 111. (Sall. Jug. 29.)

4. P. SEXTIUS, praetor designatus B. c. 100, was accused of bribery by T. Junius, and condemned. (Cic. Brut. 48.)

5. SEXTIUS, the proximus lictor of C. Verres, in Sicily, and his favourite executioner. (Cic. Verr. iii. 67, v. 45, 54.)

6. P. SEXTIUS BACULUS, a primipili centurio in Caesar's army in Gaul, distinguished himself on many occasions by his great bravery. (Caes. B. G. ii. 25, iii. 5, vi. 38.)

7. T. SEXTIUS, one of Caesar's legates in Gaul, took an active part in the campaign against Vercingetorix in B. c. 52, and was stationed for winterquarters, with one legion, among the Bituriges (Caes. B. G. vi. 1, vii. 49, 90). On the death of Julius Caesar in B. c. 44, Sextius was in possession of the province of Numidia, or New Africa, while Q. Cornificius held that of Old Africa. The two governors became involved in war with one another, the causes and details of which are related differently by Appian and Dion Cassius. The latter writer represents Sextius as governing New Africa for Antony, and Cornificius Old Africa for Octavian; and Appian at one time speaks of Sextius as holding his province for one triumvir, and at another time for the other. But the real fact seems to have been that Sextius availed himself of the troubles in Italy to extend his own power in Africa, and, accordingly, in the name of the triumvirs, required Cornificius, who was a partizan of the senate, to evacuate his province. Upon the refusal of the latter, Sextius marched against him. He was at first unsuccessful, but eventually defeated and slew Cornificius, and thus obtained possession 7. SEXTILIUS, a praetor carried off by the pirates, of both provinces (Dion Cass. xlviii. 21; Appian, shortly before Pompey was appointed to the com- B. C. iii. 85, iv. 53-56; Liv. Epit. 123). In mand of the war against them. (Plut. Pomp. 24 ; | the new division of the Roman provinces after the comp. Appian, Mithr. 9" ; Cic. pro Leg. Manil. 12.) | battle of Philippi, B. c. 42, Octavian obtained New 8. A. SEXTILIUS, spoken of in Cicero's oration Africa; and Sextius was therefore ordered by L. for Flaccus (c. 15) as "homo improbus," appears | Antonius to hand over this province to C. Fango,

5. SEXTILIUS, an Etruscan, betrayed C. Julius Caesar Strabo to the assassins of Marius and Cinna, in B. C. 87, although he had been previously defended by Caesar, when accused of a very grave offence. (Val. Max. v. 3. § 3; Cic. de Orat. iii. 3).

6. SEXTILIUS, a legatus of L. Lucullus, in the Mithridatic war, was sent to attack Tigranocerta. (Appian, Mithr. 84.)

by the emperor Pertinax. Suidas ascribes to our Sextus two works, 'Hound, Ethica, and 'EmiσKETTIKÓ, Bibλía déкa, Episceptica (for which some propose to read ΣKETTIKά, Sceptica, or ĚTI Zkettiká), Libris decem. Menage (vid. Kuster, Not. in Suid.) suspects that the mention of the second work has been inserted by some transcriber, who confounded the two Sexti above mentioned; but the mistake (if such it be) is probably to be attributed to Suidas himself or the authority from whom he took it, for we find it also in the Ionia of the empress