Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/780

Rh 768 SEIUS. {De Tranquillitate, c. 11), there scarcely remained a fragment of it for the executioner to drag to the river. Many of the friends of Sejanus perished at the same time, among whom was probably his uncle Junius Blaesus. His surviving son and a daughter shared his fate. The daughter was probably the child who had been betrothed to Drusus, the son of Claudius. The girl was so ignorant of what was going on that she frequently asked why they were dragging her along, that she would never do so any more, and would consent to a whipping. The Avriters of the time stated that it was a thing un- heard of for a virgin to be capitally punished by the triumviri, and accordingly she was ravished by the executioner before she was put to death. (Tacit. Ann. v. 9.) Apicata, the divorced wife of Sejanus, after having informed Tiberius by letter that his son Drusus had been poisoned by Sejanus and Livia, killed herself. This disclosure brought about more executions. It is said that Tiberius would have pardoned Livia, but that her mother Antonia would not pardon her, and compelled her to die by star- vation. The property of Sejanus was taken from the aerarium into the fiscus. (Tacit. Ann. vi. 2.) In addition to the Annals of Tacitus, the chief authorities for the history of Sejanus are Suetonius, Tiberius, and Dion Cassius, Ivii. Iviii. All the authorities are referred to by Tillemont, Histoire des Empereum, vol. i. Velleius Paterculus is a panegyrist of Sejanus ; and if Tacitus has told the truth of Sejanus, Paterculus was a vile flatterer. The fact that he dedicated his work to M. Vinicius, who was consul A. D. 30, shows the latest period at which he was writing. He may have perished with Sejanus. [Paterculus.] [G. L.] SEJA'NUS, L., was praetor A. d. 32. Though a friend of Aelius Sejanus, and probably a kinsman, he was spared by Tiberius. This Sejanus, at the celebration of the Floralia, employed only bald- headed persons to perform the ceremonies, which were prolonged to the evening, and the spectators were lighted out of the theatre by five thousand children, with torches in their hands and their heads shaved. This was done to ridicule Tiberius, who was bald at the top of his head. The emperor affected to know nothing of this insult. It became a fashion, in consequence of this affair, to call bald persons Sejani. (Dion Cassius, Iviii. 19.) [G. L.] SEILENUS. [SiLENUs.] SEIUS. 1. M. Seius L. p., distinguished himself by his largesses to the people in his curule aedileship, although he had been previously con- demned to the payment of so great a fine that he had no longer sufficient property to entitle him to a place in the equestrian census. We do not know the year in which he was aedile ; but Cicero says that he was elected in preference to M. Pupius Piso, who was consul in B. c. 61 (Plin. //. N. xv. 1 ; Cic. (le Of. ii. 17, pro Plane. 5). In B.c. 52 he accused M. Saufeius, who was defended by Cicero [Saupkius, No. 2]. In the following year, B. c. 51, he was involved in the condemnation of Plaetorius {incendio Plaetoriano ambustus^ Cic. ad Alt. V. 20. § 8). [Plaetorius, No. 5.] He was a friend of Atfcicus and Cicero, and the latter laments his death in b. c. 45. ( Ascon. in Milon. p. 55, ed. Orelli ; Varr. R. R. iii. 2. § 7, iii. 10. § 1 ; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 7, ad Alt. v. 13, xii. 1 1.) 2. M. Seius, probably the son of the preceding, SELENE. was a friend, and apparently legatus, of D. Brutus, in b. c. 44. (Cic. cui Fam. xi. 7.) 3. Seius, was a partisan of M. Antonius, after the death of Caesar, and is therefore abused by Cicero {Phil. xii. 6). The person called Viseius in another passage of Cicero {Phil. xiii. 12), is pro- bably a false reading for Seius. 4. Cn, Seius, had the finest horse of his age, which was fated to bring destruction to whoever possessed it. Seius was condemned and put to death by M. Antonius, afterwards the triumvir, ap- parently during the civil war between Caesar and the Pompeians. This horse then passed into the hands of Dolabella, and afterwards into those of Cassius, both of whom perished by a violent death. Hence arose the proverb concerning an unfortunate man : ille homo Jiabet equum Sejanum. (Gell. iii. 9.) SEIUS PO'STUMUS. [Postumus.] SEIUS QUADRA'TUS, condemned A. d. 32. (Tac. Ann. vi. 7.) SEIUS STRABO. [Strabo.] SEIUS TU'BERO. [Tubero.] SEIREN. [Siren.] SELE'NE (SeATjVT?), also called Mene, or Latin Luna, was the goddess of the moon, or the moon personified into a divine being. She is called a daughter of Plyperion and Theia, and accordingly a sister of Helios and Eos (Hes. Theog. 371, &c.; Apollod. i. 2. § 2 ; Schol. ad Find. Isthm. v. 1, arf Apollon. Rhod. iv. 55) ; but others speak of her as a daughter of Hyperion by Euryphaessa (Hom. Hymn. 31. 5), or of Pallas (Hom. Hymn, in Merc. 99, &c.), or of Zeus and Latona (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 175), or lastly of Helios (Eurip. I.e.; comp. H^fgin. Praef. p. 10, ed. Muncker). She is also called Phoebe, as the sister of Phoebus, the god of the sun. By Endyraion, whom she loved, and whom she sent to sleep in order to kiss him, she became the mother of fifty daughters (Apollod. i. 7. § 5 ; Cic. Fuse. i. 38 ; Catull. QQ. 5 ; Pans. v. 1. § 2) ; by Zeus she became the mother of Pan- deia, Ersa, and Nemea (Horn. Hymn. 32. 14 ; Plut. Sympos. iii. in fin. ; Schol. ad Find. Nem. Hypoth. p. 425, ed. Bockh). Pan also is said to have had connexion with her in the shape of a white ram (Virg. Georg. iii. 391). Selene is de- scribed as a very beautiful goddess, with long wings and a golden diadem (Hom. Hymn. 32. 1, 7), and Aeschylus {Sept. 390) calls her the eye of night. She rode, like her brother Helios, across the heavens in a chariot drawn by two white horses, cows, or mules (Ov. Fast, iv. 374, iii. 1 1 0, Rem. A m. 258 ; Auson. ^jp. v. 3 ; Claudian,i?a/)<. Proserp. iii. 403 ; Nonn. Dionys. vii. 244). She was re- presented on the pedestal of the throne of Zeus at Olympia, riding on a horse or a mule (Pans. v. 1 1. § 3) ; and at Elis there was a statue of her with two horns (Pans. vi. 24. § 5). In later times Se- lene was identified with Artemis, and the worship of the two became amalgamated (Callim. Hymn, in Dian. 114, 141 ; Soph. Oed. Tyr. 207 ; Plut. Sympos. I.C.; Catull. 34. 16; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 511, vi. 118). In works of art, however, the two divinities are usually distinguished ; the face of Selene being more full and round, her figure less tall, and always clothed in a long robe ; her veil forms an arch above her head, and above it there is the crescent. (Hirt, Myihcl. Bilderb. p. 38.) At Rome Luna had a temple on the Aventine. (Liv. xl. 2 ; Ov. Fast. iii. 884.) [L. &] SELE'NE. [Clbopatba, No. 8.]