Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/776

Rh 764 SECUNDUS. SECUNDUS, PETRO'NIUS, praefectus prae- torio along with Norbanus in the reign of Domi- tian, and one of the parties privy to the murder of the emperor. (Dion Cass. Ixvii, 15; Eutrop. viii. 1.) SECUNDUS, PLI'NIUS. [Plinius.] SECUNDUS, POMPO'NIUS. 1. A distin- guished poet in the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. He was one of the friends of Sejanus, and on the fall of that minister in A. D. 31 was thrown into prison, where he remained till the accession of Caligula in a. d. 37, by whom he was released, and who raised him to the consul- ship in A. D. 41. Dion Cassius says (lix. 6), that he had been consul seven years before the accession of Caligula ; but his name does not occur in the Fasti. In the reign of Claudius he was appointed the emperor's legatus in Germany, and in A. D. 50 defeated the Chatti, and obtained the honour of the triumphal ornaments. Secun- dus was an intimate friend of the elder Pliny, who showed his affection for him by writing his life in two books. Tacitus speaks of him (Ann. V. 8) as a man " multa morum elegantia et ingenio illustri." It was by his tragedies that Secundus obtained the most celebrity. They are spoken of in the highest terms by Tacitus, Quintilian, and the younger Pliny, and were read even in a much later age, as one of them is quoted by the gram- marian Charisius (Tac. Ann. v. 8, vi. 18 ; Dion Cass. lix. 6, 29 ; Tac. Ann. xi. 1 3, xii. 27, 28 ; Dial, de Oral. 13 ; Quintil. x. 1. § 98 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 19, xiii. 12. s. 26, xiv. 4. s. 6 ; Plin. Ep. iii. 5, vii. 1 7 ; Charisius, ap. Bothe, Foet, Seen. Lat. Fragm. vol. ii. p. 279). The prae- nomen of Pomponius Secundus is doubtful. In one passage Tacitus calls him Publius {Ann. xi. 13), and in another Lucius {Ann. xii. 27), while Dion Cassius (lix. 6) names him Quintus. Tacitus, however, call his brother Quintus. [No. 2.] 2. Q. Pomponius Secundus, the brother of the preceding, a man of abandoned character, accused Sancia and others towards the end of the reign of Tiberius, under the pretext of warding off dangers from his brother by acquiring the favour of the emperor. He subsequently revolted against the emperor Claudius. (Tac. Ann. vi. 18, xiii. 43.) POPPAEUS, Q. SECUNDUS, consul suf- fectus A. D. 9, with M. Papius Mutilus. These consuls gave their names to the celebrated Papia Poppaea lex, frequently called Julia et Papia Pop- paea. (Dion Cass. Ivi. 10 ; Diet. o/Antiq. p. 691, 2d ed.) SECUNDUS, SATRIUS, a dependant of Se- janus, accused Cremutius Cordus in A. d. 25. Pie afterwards betrayed his master, and gave informa- tion to Tiberius of the conspiracy which Sejanus had formed against him. Josephus relates {Ant. xviii. 6) that Antonia informed Tiberius of the conspiracy of Sejanus ; and hence it has been con- jectured that Secundus, unwilling or unable to have an interview with the emperor, had acquainted Antonia with the plot. Secundus was married to the notorious Albucilla. (Tac. Ann. iv. 34, vi. 8, 47 ; Senec, Consol. ad Marciam, 22.) SECUNDUS, VI'BIUS, a Roman eques, was accused of malversation {repetundae) in Mauritania, and condemned, A. D. 60. He was banished from Italy, and escaped a heavier punishment through the influence of his brother Vibius Crispus. (Tac. Ann. ziv. 28.) SEDULIUS. SECUNDUS, VITRU'VIUS, secretary to Comraodus, was put to death along with Patemus and Julianus upon the discovery of the conspiracy against the emperor in A. d. 183. (Lamprid. Corn- mod. 4.) [W. R.] SEDI'GITUS, VOLCA'TIUS, is described by Pliny {H.N. xi. 43) as " illustrem in Poetica." A. Gellius (xv. 24) has preserved from his work de Po'dtis, which appears to have been a sort of metrical Didascalia, thirteen Iambic senarians, in which the principal Latin comic dramatists are enumerated in the order of merit. In this " Canon," as it has been termed, the first place is assigned to Caecilius Statins, the second to Plautus, the third to Naevius, the fourth to Licinius, the fifth to Atti- lius, the sixth to Terentius, the seventh to Turpi- lius, the eighth to Trabea, the ninth to Luscius, the tenth, " causa antiquitatis," to Ennius. In addition to these verses, two fragments, probably from the same piece with the above, one a single line, the other extending to three, and both re- ferring to Terence, are quoted in the life of that writer ascribed to Suetonius. (Burmann, AnihoL Lat ii. 223, or No. 140, ed. Meyer ; Osann, Anal. Crit. p. 3 ; Ludewig, Ueber den Canon des Vulea- tius Sedigitus, Programm zu Neustrelitz, 4to. 1 842 ; Klussmann, de Naevio potta.) [W. R.] SEDU'LIUS, COE'LIUS, a Christian poet, who is termed a presbyter by Isidorus of Seville {de Script. Eceles. c. 7), and by Honoriusof Autun {de S.E. iii. 7). By the writer known as Anony- mus Mellicensis (c. 35, in the Bibl. Eceles. of Fabricius) he is called an Antistes, a title confirmed by two acrostic panegyrics to be found in the edition of Cellarius, while by Sigebertus of Gem- bloux {de S. E. 6), and by Trithemius {de S. E. 142) he is designated as a bishop — to which an- tistes is frequently equivalent — but no one has pre- tended to discover the see over which he presided. We cannot determine with absolute precision the date either of his birth or of his death, but the period when he flourished may be defined within narrow limits. He refers {Epist. ad Maced.) to the commentaries of Jerome, who died A. u. 420, and is himself praised by Cassiodorus {de Instit. div. let. 27 ; comp. Venant. Fortunat. Carm. viii. 1 ; Vit. S. Martin, i. 15), who was born A. D. 468, and by Pope Gelasius, who presided over the Roman Church from A. d. 492 to A. D. 496. Moreover, his works were collected after his death and pub- lished by Asterius, as we learn from a short intro- ductory epigram, to which is added, in some MSS., the note " Hoc opus Seduliua inter chartulas dis- persum reliquit: quod recollectum adornatumque ad omnem elegantiam divulgatum est a Turcio Rufio Asterio V. C. consule ordinario atque pa- tricio." Upon turning to the Fasti we discover that an Asterius was consul along with Protogenes in A. D. 449, and that Turcius Rufus Apronianus Asterius was consul along with Praesidius in a. d. 496. Combining these facts little doubt can be entertained that the latter is the person indicated above, and that we may fix the epoch of Sedulius about A. D. 450. Of his personal history we know nothing whatsoever. By Trithemius (/. c.) indeed he is said to have been a Scot, the disciple of. archbishop Hildebert ; but this and similar state- ments arose, it would appear, from confounding three different persons, all ecclesiastics, who bore the same name: — 1. Sedulius, the poet, who be- longs, as we have proved, to the fifth century.