Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/778

Rh rcG SEGIMERUS. Christiana" of G. Fabricius, fol. Basil. 1564; in the Bibliot1i£ca Patrum Max. fol. Liigd. 1677, vol. vi. p. 458 ; in the Corpus Poctarum Lat. of Mat- taire, vol. ii. p. 1060 ; and in the fifth volume of the Colledio Pisaurensis. [W. R.] SEGESTA (2€7t'(rT7j). The Trojan Phoeno- damas (others call him Hippotes, Ippoteus or Ip- sostratus) had three daughters. When he was to be compelled by Laomedon to expose one of them to the marine monster which was ravaging the country, he called the people together and in- duced them to compel Laomedon, whose guilt had brought the monster into the country, to expose his own daughter Hesione. Laomedon then took vengeance by causing some sailors to convey the three daughters of Phoenodamas to a desert part of the coast of Sicily (some say Libya). One of these maidens was Segesta or Egesta, with whom the river god Crimissus, in the shape of a bear or a dog, begot Aegestus, Egestus or Acestes, by whom Egesta in Sicily was built. (Tzetz. ad Ly- coph. 471, 953; Serv. ad Aen. i. 550, v. 30; Dionys. i. 52.) [L. S.] SEGESTES, a Cheruscan chieftain, the oppo- nent of Arminius. He was alternately the con- queror and the captive of his great rival. Private injuries embittered their political feud, for Arminius carried off and forcibly married the daughter of Segestes. In a. d. 9 Segestes warned Quintilius Varus of the conspiracy of Arminius, Sigimer and other Cheruscan chiefs against him, and coun- selled him to arrest them ere tlie revolt broke out. His warning was disregarded, and Varus perished. In A. D. 14 Segestes was forced by his tribesmen into a war with Rome ; but he still corresponded with the enemy, and sent to Gerraanicus informa- tion of the plans and movements of the Cheruscans. His treachery was probably discovered, since the Cheruscans attacked Segestes in his own house, and he was rescued with difficulty by a detachment sent by Germanicus. Segestes was accompanied to the Roman camp by his children, his slaves, and clients. He extenuated his part in the war by pleading his services to Augustus, who had granted him the Roman franchise, and he offered to nego- tiate peace with the insurgent Germans. Germa- nicus assigned Segestes a secure dwelling-place in Narbonne, and pardoned his son Sigimundus, who had revolted. The daughter of Segestes, although clinging rather to the cause of her husband, Armi- nius, than to her father's, was sent with her infant son to Ravenna. (Tac. Ann. i. 55 — 59 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 118 ; Flor. iv. 12.) [W. B. D.] SEGE'TIA, a Roman divinity, who, together with Setia or Seja and Semonia, was invoked by the early Italians at seed time, for Segetia, like the two other names, is connected with sero and segcs. (Piin. //. N. xviii. 2. 2 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 16 ; August. De Civ. Dei, iv. 8 ; comp. Tertull. Dc Spect. 8.) [L- S.] SEGIME'RUS (" the Conqueror"), brother of Segestes, was one of the leaders of the Cheruscans in the revolt of Lower Germany, in a. d. 9. He was present with Arminius in the camp of Varus, and lured him on to his defeat and death [Arminius]. In A. D. 15 Segimerus surrendered himself and his son Sesithaces to Stertinius, a lieutenant of Ger- manicus. He was banished to Cologne. His son's pardon was obtained with more difficulty, since Sesithaces was accused by the survivors of Varus's legions of Laving treated with contumely their SEJANUS. leader's remains. (Tac. Ann. i. 71 ; Strab. vii. p, 293 ; Dion Cass. Ivi. 19.) [W. B. D.] SEGIMUNDUS, the son of Segestes, was ap- pointed priest of an altar in the neighbourhood of Cologne, probably the altar raised to Augustus Caesar. He afterwards rejoined his tribe, the Che- ruscans. In A. D. 14 Sigimundus was one of the envoys whom Segestes sent to Germanicus, when the Cheruscans were besieging him in his own house. Germanicus pardoned the previous defection of Sigimundus, and allowed him to share his father's exile in Narbonne. [Segestes.] (Tac. Jwra. i. 57, 58 ; Strab. vii. p. 291.) [W. B.D.J SEGONAX, one of the kings of Cantium in Britain, who joined Cassivellaunus to oppose Caesar. (Caes. E.G. v. 22.) SEGU'LIUS, an artist in gold (awnz/eir, sic), whose name is found in a Latin inscription (Gruter, p. dcxxxix. 1), in which his full name is D. Segulius Alexsa (sic). The last word, in this case, as in the names of Aulus and Quintus Alexa [Quint as], is commonly supposed to be an abbreviation of the genitiye A lexandri or of Alexas ; but Raoul-Ro- chette thinks that it is a distinct cognomen. (Leitre a M. Schorn, pp. 125, 401, 2d ed.) [P. S.] SEGU'LIUS LA'BEO, a friend of Octavianus, B. c. 43, is called by Cicero, " homo nequissimus." (Cic. ad Fam. xi. 20, 21.) SEJA'NUS, AE'LIUS. Dion Cassius says that his praenomen was Lucius. Tacitus {Ann. iv. 1, &c.) is our chief authority for the history of this infamous instrument of Tiberius. Sejanns was born at Vulsinii, in Etruria : he was the son of Seius Strabo, a Roman eques, who was commander of the praetorian troops at tlie close of the reign of Augustus and the commencement of that of Ti- berius. Velleius Paterculus (ii. 127) says that he was of illustrious descent on the maternal side ; and Lipsius conjectures that his mother was of the Junia Gens, because Junius Blaesus, proconsul of Africa, was the maternal uncle of Sejanus (Tacit. Ann. iii. 72). Rumour accused him of selling himself, when a young man, to the lust of Apicius, a rich debauchee (Dion Cass. Ivii. 19). Sejanus ultimately gained such influence over Tiberius, that this suspicious man, who was close and re- served to all mankind, opened his bosom to Seja- nus, and made him his confidant. Sejanus had a body capable of enduring fatigue, and a mind capable of the boldest designs : he concealed his own thoughts, and was a calumniator of others ; he could fawn and crouch to power, though he was insolent to those below him ; to the world he put on the appearance of moderation, but his greedi- ness had no bounds ; and to accomplish his pur- poses he could be magnificent and profuse, as well as laborious and vigilant. Such was the character of the man who for many years governed Tiberius. In the year in which Augustus died, A. d. 14, Sejanus was made the colleague of his father in the command of the Praetorian bands, and was sent by Tiberius to accompany his son Drusus, in his visit to the mutinous legions in Pannonia (Tacit. Ann. i. 24). Upon his father being sent as governor to Egypt, Sejanus had the sole command of the Praetorian cohorts. When Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, by her heroic resolution, had prevented the bridge over the Rhine from being destroyed, and thus secured to the Roman legioTis their retreat from the east bank of the river, the suspicious temper of Tiberius, who was afraid of a