Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/797

Rh SEQUESTER. deserving of much credit, as has been already re- marked [Vol. III. p. 742,a.] ; and on this particular occasion the authorities which Livy followed appear to have indulged in more than their usual mendacit}^ A memorial of Ids victory was preserved in the Capitol, under the name of the Marcian shield, containing a likeness of the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal. But notwithstanding his services he gave great offence at Rome, by assuming the title of propraetor in his despatch to the senate announcing his victory. (Liv, xxv. 37 — 39, xxvi. 2 ; Plin. //. A'', xxxv. 3. s. 4 ; Frontin. Strut, ii. 6. § 2, ii. 10. § 2 ; Val. Max. i. 6. § 2, ii. 7. § 15, viii. 1 5. § 11 ; Appian, Hisp. 1 7, where he is con- founded with Marcelliis.) On the arrival of P. Scipio in Spain in B. c. 210, MarCius was treated by the new general with great distinction. After the capture of New Carthage, Scipio sent him with a third of the army to lay siege to the important town of Castulo, which after- wards surrendered, when Scipio advanced against it in person. Marcius was next despatched against Astapa, which he laid in ruins. During the dan- gerous illness of Scipio in B c. 206, the command of the troops devolved upon Marcius. In the same year he marched against Gades with a land force, while Laelius attacked the town by sea ; but it is unnecessary to enter further into a detail of his exploits. He and the propraetor M. Junius Si- lanus were the two chief officers of Scipio through- out the whole of the war ; and Marcius in par- ticular gained so much of the approbation of his general, that the latter said that Marcius wanted nothing to make him equal to the most celebrated commanders except " nobilitas ac justi honores." (Liv. xxviii. 19, 22, 34—36, 42, xxxii. 2 ; Polyb. xi. 23 ; Appian, Hisp. 26, 31—34.) Q. SEPT FT I US, a Roman eques oppressed by Verres. (Cic. Verr.m. 14.) SEPU'LLIUS BASSUS. [Bassus.] SEPU'LLIUS MACER. [Macer.J SEQUESTER, VI'BIUS, is the name attached to a glossary which professes to give an account of the geographical names contained in the Roman poets. Prefixed is an introductory letter, addressed by Vibius to his son Virgilianus, in which the nature and object of the works are briefly explained. The tract is divided into seven sections : — 1. Flu- mina. 2. Pontes. 3. Locus. 4. Nemora. 5. Pa- ludes. 6. Monies. 1. Gentes. To which in some MSS. an eighth is added, containing a list of the seven wonders of the world. In each division the objects are arranged alphabetically, and the de- scriptions are extremely short, indicating, for the most part, merely the country in which the river, spring, lake, grove, swamp, hill, or nation, is to be found, and even when some farther notices are annexed they are expressed in very succinct terms. Concerning the author personally we know ab- solutely nothing, nor are we able to determine, even approximately, the epoch to which he belongs. We cannot state positively that he refers to writers later than Lucan and Statins ; but he appears to have been indebted to scholiasts for any little in- formation which he records, and from more than one passage it would seem highly probable that he copied Servius (e. g. Montes s. v. Calillus). If this be true he must be referred to some period not earlier than the middle of the fifth century ; but the evidence is after all so meagre, that we cannot venture to speak with certainty. VOL. III. SERAPION. 785 Several names appear in this piece which are to be found in no other ancient writer. Some of these have arisen from misapprehension on the part of the compiler himself, others are palpable corruptions, while a few are doubtless derived from sources to which we have no access. The general merits of Sequester have been very fairly estimated by Hes- selius, "Scriptor est, nisi multis in locis interpo- latus sit incredibilem in modum, non magni judicii magnaeve facultatis, nee tamen scit nihil. Sed non est inutilis." The Editio Princeps was printed at Rome by Joannes de Besicken, 4to. 1 505. The first edition, in which the text appeared in tolerable purity, was that of Hesselius, 8vo. Rotterod. 1711 ; the most recent, and the best, is that of Oberlinus, 8vo. Argent. 1778, which contains a large body of very learned and useful notes. [W. R.] SERAMBUS (Sijpa.ugos), an Aeginetan statuary of unknown date, made the bronze statue of the Olympic victor Agiadas. (Paus.vi. 10. § 2.) [P. S.] SERA'PIA. [Felix, Laelius.] SE RATIO, a surname of P. Cornelius Scipic Nasica, consul B. c. 138. [Scipio, No. 24.] SERA'PION {^tpaiviuv) or SARA'PION, lite- rary. 1. Of Antioch, a writer on Geography, whom Pliny mentions among his chief authorities. {Elench. Lib. ii. iv. v.) He seems to be the same as the Serapion who is twice mentioned by Cicero as very unintelligible, and as a severe critic ol Eratosthenes. {Ad Alt. ii. 4, 6.) 2. Aelius Serapion, of Alexandria, a distin- guished sophist and rhetorician, in the time of Hadrian. (Suid. s.v.) The following works of his are enumerated by Suidas : Flepl twu eu ra7s /xeXfTuis dixapTavo/ufPcou, 'AKpodaewv fii§ia f, UauTTyvpiKos eV 'ASpiav^ t^ l3aaieT, BovXevriKos 'A?.e^av5pev(nu, El ^SiKaiws HKoltwv "Oiiripov dW- ire^uife tiis TToKireias, Texvv p-nropiK-q^ and many other works. There is also a little work on astro- logy ascribed to him. (Lambec. vii. p. 256.) The Greek Anthology contains an epigram of his. {'Qmwck. Anal. vol. ii. p. 291 ; Jacobs, .472<A. Graec. vol. iii. p. 5, vol. xiii. p. 951.) 3. A younger Serapion, of Alexandria, is men- tioned by Porphyry as a pupil of Plotinus. ( Vit. Plot. 7.) 4. A philosopher of Hierapolis (Steph. Byz. s.v. 'lepdiroKis), probably the same as the following. 5. A philosopher who flourished at Rome under the early emperors, and who is censured for his false eloquence by Seneca. {Epist. 40 ; comp. Muret. Adv.) 6. A philosopher of a later period, the friend of Isidore, of whom Suidas (s. v.) gives a long eu- logistic notice, extracted from the Life of Isidore by Damascius, but containing scarcely any facts of general interest. His library is said to have con- sisted of three volumes, one of which was the Orphic poems. 7. Of Ascalon, wrote on the interpretation of dreams. (Fulgent. Mi/th. i. 13 ; Tertullian. de Anima, 46.) 8. There was at least one poet of this name, perhaps more. A Serapion of Athens, who, from the context, was evidently an epic poet, is intro- duced by Plutarch as a speaker in his dialogue on the reason of the Pythia's no longer giving oracles in verse (p. 396). Another of the interlocutors compares Serapion's poems to those of Homer and Hesiod, for their force, and grace, and the style of 3b