Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/394

Rh 380 HELVIUS. ti fratribus venditur," " Lazarus a morte revocatus," 2. De Christi Jesu Beneficiis, a song of praise and thanksgiving, comprised in 150 hexameters, not altogether destitute of elegance, and certainly very superior in every respect to the weak and pointless tristichs. It would appear from an allusion, somewhat am- biguous, however, contained in the last-named piece (1. 45, &c.), that Helpidius had Avritten a poem to comfort himself while in sorrow, but, if such a pro- duction was ever published, it is now lost. Both of the above works are given in the Poet- arum veterum Eccles. Opera Christiana of G. Fa- bricius, fol. Basil. 1564 ; in the Bibl Magn. Pair. fol. Paris, 16'44, vol. viii., and in the Bibl. Patr. Mace. fol. Lugdun. 1677, vol. ix. p. 462. (Cassi- odor. Var. iv. 24 ; Ennod. Ep. ix. 21, xi. 19, and notes of Sirmond.) [ W. R.] HE'LVIA. 1. Daughter of L. Helvius, a Roman eques, who, on her return from Rome to Apulia, B. c. 114, was struck from her horse by lightning, and killed, on the Stellatine plain. The circum- stances of her death were sufficiently remarkable to attract the notice of the Haruspices, who pre- dicted from them impending disgrace to the vestal priesthood and to the equestrian order. (Plut. Quaest. Bom. 83 ; Oros. v. 15 ; Obseq. de Prod. 97. ) For the speedy accomplishment of the pre- diction see Dion Cass. Fr. 91, 92 ; Li v. Epit. Ixiii. 2. Wife of M. Annaeus Seneca, of Corduba, the rhetorician, and mother of his three sons, M. An- naeus Novatus, L. Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher, and L. Annaeus Mela. (Sen. Consol. ad Helv. 2.) H el via was probably a native of Spain, and followed her husband to Rome, about a. d. 3 — 5, while her second son was an infant. {Ibid. 17.) The life of Helvia is contained in Seneca's address of condo- lence to his mother {Consolatio ad Helviam) on his exile to Corsica, in the reign of Claudius, A. d. 47-9. Through the rhetorical amplifications of this address we discover that Helvia had borne her full share of the sorrows of life. Her mother died in giving birth to her. She was brought up by a step- mother. She had lost her husband and a most in- dulgent uncle within a month of each other ; and her grief for the untimely decease of one of her grandsons was embittered by the exile of her son. Helvia had at least one sister {Cons, ad Helv. 17), but her name is unknown. [W. B. D.] HE'LVIA GENS, plebeian, occurs only once in the Fasti — the ovation of M. Helvius Blasio, B. c. 195 [Blasio] — and was first rescued from obscurity by the election of P. Helvius Pertinax to the empire, A. d. 193. The Helvia gens contained in the time of the republic the surnames Blasio, CiNNA, Mancia. a few are mentioned without a cognomen. [W. B. D.] HE'LVIUS. 1. Cn., tribune of the soldiers, was slain, b. c. 204, in battle with the Gauls and Carthaginians, in the territory of Milan. (Liv. XXX. 18.) 2. C, was aedile of the plebs with M. Porcius Cato the elder, in b. c. 1 99, and, in the next year, one of his colleagues in the praetorship. As prae- tor, Helvius had no province regularly assigned to him ; but he accompanied the consul, Sext. Aelius Paetus, into Cisalpine Gaul, and received from him the command of one of the consular armies. ( Liv. xxxii. 7, 9, 26.) He afterwards served in Galatia as legatus to Cn. Manlius Vulso, consul in b. c. HEMINA. 189. (Liv. xxxviii. 20, 21, 22 ; Polyb. xxii. 17. § 3, &c.) [W. B. D.] HE'LVIUS PE'RTINAX. [Pertinax.] HELVI'DIA GENS. The name Helvidius does not occur in Roman history until the latter half of the first century B. c. (Cic. pro Cluent. 70.) Under Nero and the Flavian Caesars it was renowned for earnest, but fruitless, patriotism. The connection of P. Helvidius Rufus with Lariuum (Cic. I. c. a Frentanian municipium (Plin. H. N. iii. 12), makes it probable that the family was originally Sabellian. The Helvidii had the surnames Priscus and Rufus. The only Helvidius who had no cognomen, or whose cognomen has, perhaps, dropped out of the MSS., is the following : — HELVI'DIUS, son of the j'ounger Helvidius Priscus [Priscus Helvidius, 2] by his first wife. He had the title of consularis, but his name does not appear on the Fasti. Warned by the fate of his father and his father's friends, under Nero and his successors, Helvidius concealed equal talents and similar principles in retirement. But he had written an interlude (exodium ), entitled " Paris and Oenone," and the informers of Domitian's reign detected in the nymph and the faithless Trojan the emperor's divorce from one of his many wives. Helvidius was accused, condemned, and even dragged to prison, by the obsequious senate (Tac. Agric. 45), whither the order for his ex- ecution soon followed. After Domitian's decease, the younger Pliny, an intimate friend of Helvidius, avenged his death and the cause of public justice at once, by impeaching Publicius Certus, a senator of praetorian rank, who had been the foremost in seconding the delators. The account of the im- peachment, which was afterwards published, and was written, in imitation of Demosthenes against Meidias, is given by Pliny in a letter to Quadratus. {Ep. ix. 13.) A death, so timely as to be deemed voluntary, released Certus from condemnation. Helvidius married Anteia, daughter of P. Anteius, put to death by Nero in A. d. 57. [P. Anteius, p. 183, a.] By her he had a son, who survived him, and two daughters, who died very young in childbed. (Plin. Ep. iv. 21, ix. 13; Suet. Dom. 10 ; Tac. Agric. 45.) [W. B. D.] HELVI'DIUS PRISCUS. [Priscus.] HELVI'DIUS RUFUS. [Rufus.] HEMERE'SIA ('HMepWa), i.e. the soothing goddess, a surname of Artemis, under which she was worshipped at the well Lusi (Aowtroi), in Ar- cadia. (Pans. viii. 18. $ 3; Callim. //j/;«w. in Dian. 236.) [L. S.] HEMINA, L. CA'SSIUS, an historian of Rome, who wrote at the beginning of the second century of the city. According to Censorinus {De Die Nat. 17), Hemina was alive in b. c. 146, a year memorable for the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, and for the fourth celebration of the se- cular or centenary game« of Rome. His praenomen, Lucius, rests on the sole authority of Priscian (ix. p. 868, ed. Putsch.; comp. Intpp. ad Virg. Aeii. ii. 717, ed. Mai). If Nepos (ap. Suet, de Clar. Rliet. 3) be correct in stating L. Otacilius Pilitus to have been the first person not of noble birth who wrote the history of Rome, Hemina, who lived much earlier than Pilitus, must have belonged to a well- born family. Hemina was the author of a work, styled indifferently by those who mention it, an- nals or history, which comprised the records of Rome from the earliest to his own timos. We
 * Christus in monte docet," and the like.