Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/816

Rh 804 SEVERUS. 1 — 18; Dion Cass. Ixxx. frag.; Lamprid. Alex. Sevp-r.^ comp. Antonin. Elagab. , Victor, de Caes. xxiv., Epit. xxiv. ; Euirop. viii. 14 ; Zosim. i. 11 —13.) [W. R.] COIN OP ALEXANDER SEVERUS. SEVE'RUS, A. CAECFNA. [Caecina, No. 4.1 SEVE'RUS, CA'SSIUS, a celebrated orator and satirical writer, in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, is supposed by Weichert to have been born about B. c. 50. He is called in the Index of Authors to the thirty-fifth book of Pliny Longula- nus, that is, a native of Longula, a town of Latium. He was a man of low origin and dissolute cha- racter, but was much feared by the severity of his attacks upon the Roman nobles. He must have commenced his career as a public slanderer very early, if he is the person against whom the sixth epode of Horace is directed, as is supposed by many ancient and modern commentators. He at- tracted particular attention by accusing of poison- ing, in B. c. 9, Nonius Asprenas, the friend of Augustus, who was defended by Asinius Pollio ( Suet. ^«^. 56 ; Plin. //. A^. xxxv. 12. s.46 ; Quintil. X. I. § 23 ; Dion Cass. Iv. 4). Towards the latter end of the reign of Augustus, Severus was banished by Augustus to the island of Crete on account of his libellous verses against the distinguished men and women at Rome ; but as he still continued to write libels, he was deprived of his pro- perty in the reign of Tiberius, a. d. 24, and re- moved to the desert island of Seriphos, where he died in great poverty in the twenty-fifth year of his exile. Hieronymus places his death in a. d. 33, and if this be correct he was banished in a. d. 8. Cassius Severus introduced a new style of oratory, and is said, by the author of the Dialogue on Orators (cc. 19, 26), to have been the first who deserted the style of the ancient orators ; and ac- cordingly Meyer observes, that dividing the history of Roman oratory into three epochs, Cato would be the chief of the older school, Cicero of the middle period, and Severus of the later. The works of Severus were proscribed, but were per- mitted by Caligula to be read again. (Tac. Ann. i. 72, iv. 21, de Oral 19, 26 ; Senec. Contrm. iii. init. ; Quintil. x. 1. § 116 ; Suet. Callg. 16, Vitetl. 2 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 10. s. 12 ; Macrob. Saf. ii. 4 ; Hieron. in Euseh. Chron. 2048 ; Weichert, De Lucii Varii et Cassii Parmensis Vila, Grimae, 1836, pp. 190—212, where the reader will find every thing that is known about Cassius Severus ; ' Drumann, Geschichte lioms, vol. ii. p. 161 ; Meyer, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, pp. 545 — 551, 2d ed.) SEVE'RUS, CATI'LTUS. 1. Consul in A. d. 120, was made by Hadrian governor of Syria, and subsequently praefectus urbi, but was removed from the latter post in a. d. 138, because he expressed disapprobation at the adoption of An- SEVERUS. toninus Pius, in consequence of his being anxious to gain the empire for himself. He was the maternal great-grandfather of the emperor M. Aurelius [see Vol. I. p. 439]. Severus was a friend of the younger Pliny, several of whose letters are addressed to him. (Capitolin. Sjmrt. 5, 15, 24, M. Anton. 1 ; Plin. Ep. i. 22, iii. 6, v. 1, et alibi.) 2. A relation of the emperor Alexander Severus, and a member of his consilium, is described as vir omnium doclissimus. (Lamprid. Alex. Sever. 68.) SEVE'RUS, CE'STIUS. [Cestius, No. 5.] SEVE'RUS, CI'NCIUS, slain by the emperor Septimius Severus (Spartian. Sever. 13), is pro- bably the same as the pontifex Cingius Severus, who is mentioned in connection with the burial of Commodus. (Lamprid. Commod. 20.) SEVE'RUS, CLAU'DIUS. 1. The leader of the Helvetii, a. d. 69. (Tac. Hist. i. 68.) 2. Cn. Claudius Severus, consul with Sex. Erucius Clarus, in A.o. 146, in which year the emperor Severus was bora, (Spartian. Sever. 1 ; Cod. Just. 6. tit. 26. s. 1.) 3. Ti. Claudius Severus, consul a. d. 200, with C. Aufidius Victorinus. (Cod. Just. 8. tit. 45. s. 1. et alibi.) SEVE'RUS, CORNE'LIUS, according to the criticism of Quintilian, more distinguished as a verse-maker than as a poet, was contemporary with Ovid, by whom he is addressed in one of the Epistles written from Pontus. He Avas the author of a poem entitled Bellum Siculum, which he was prevented by death from completing. Seneca has preserved (Suasor. vii.) a fragment by Severus, on the death of Cicero ; and in one of his Epistles he speaks of him as having written upon Aetna ; but whether this was an independent piece or was in- cluded in the Sicilian War, we cannot tell. [See LuciLius Junior.] The above-mentioned fragments, and a few in- considerable scraps, collected chiefly from the gram- marians, will be found in Wernsdorf, Pott. Lai. Min. vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 21 7, 225, comp, vol. iv. pt. i. p. 33, vol. V. pt. iii. p. 1469. (Ovid, Ep. ex Pont. iv. 2. 2 ; Senec. Suasor. vii. Epist. Ixxix. ; Quintil. X. 1. § 89.) [W. R.] SEVE'RUS, CU'RTIUS, a Roman officer in Syria, in a. d. 52. (Tac. Ann. xii. 55.) SEVE'RUS, FLA'VIUS VALE'RIUS, Ro- man emperor, A. D. 306 — 307. After the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, followed by the ele- vation of Galerius with Constantius Chlorus to the rank of Augusti, it became necessary, in order to maintain the scheme of the empire, to appoint new Caesars [Diocletianus]. The right of nomi- nation was conceded to Galerius, who selected two creatures of his own, devoted, as he believed, to his interests, Maximinus Daza and Severus. The latter, an obscure Illyrian adventurer, altogether unknown, save as the dissolute, although faithful, adherent of his patron, was invested with the insignia of his new dignity at Milan, on the Ist of May, a.d. 305, by Herculius in person, and obtained Italy, and probably Africa and Upper Pannonia also,'a8 his provinces. But as soon as intelligence was received of the death of Constantius Chlorus, which hap- pened at York, in July, a. d. 306, Severus was forthwith proclaimed Augustus in his stead, by Galerius, and soon after was instructed to quell the disturbances excited by the usurpation of Maxen- tius. The details of this disastrous campaign, t/ie advance of Severus upon the capital, the defection