400 



SERENUS, AULUS SEPTIMIUS. 



SERGIUS I. 



410 



' Serapiou de Simplic. Medicam. Historia Lihri VII., Nicol. Mutono 

 interprete.' It has been often printed in the same volume with the 

 work of the elder Serapion, as for a long time they were supposed to 

 be written by the same person. 



SERE'NUS, AULUS SEPTIMIUS, a Roman poet. Some of the 

 ancients call him merely Serenus, and others merely Septimius ; and 

 from this circumstance it has been inferred by some modern scholars 

 that these two names belong to two individuals (Wernsdorf, ' Poet. 

 Lat. Mm.,' ii., p. 247, &c.) ; but Marius Victorinus, Terentianus Maurus, 

 and Sidonius Apollinaris, frequently call him by his two names, Sep- 

 timius Sereuus, and therefore decide the question. He was a contem- 

 porary of Terentianus Maurus and of Martial (' Epigr.,' i. 87), and must 

 consequently have lived in or shortly after the reign of Vespasian. Of 

 the circumstances of his life nothing is known with certainty. Some 

 modern scholars have supposed that the fifth poem in the fourth book 

 of the ' SylvB ' of Statius is addressed to Septimius Serenus, as all 

 that is mentioned of the person addressed in that poem appears to be 

 just what might be expected in apoet likeSerenus : but the manuscript 

 reading in Statius is not Serenus, but Severus ; and consequently the 

 whole biography of Serenus, which has been made up out of that poem, 

 is uncertain in the highest degree. The only thing we know of him 

 is, that he was an extreme admirer of country life ; for it is the country 

 with all its charms that forms the subject of his poems, which he 

 published under the title of ' Opuscula Ruralia.' Of these poems only 

 a few fragments have been preserved by the ancient grammarians. 

 They are however sufficient to show that Serenus was a lyric poet of 

 very great talents. The poem called ' Moretum,' which has frequently 

 been printed together with the works of Virgil, is ascribed by Werns- 

 dorf to Serenus ; and ' Copa,' another work of the same kind, has 

 likewise been attributed to Serenus by some modern scholars. 

 Terentianus Maurus (' De Metris,' p. 2423, Putsch.) mentions another 

 poem of Serenus, which is called ' Falisca,' and which probably con- 

 tained a description of the country life in the district of the Faliscans. 

 lu this poem, he used a peculiar kind of verse, consisting of three 

 dactyls and one pyrrhic; and this metre is by Terentiauus called 

 ' metrum Faliscum,' and the poet himself Faliscus. 



Compare the ' Essay ' of Wernsdorf on Serenus, in his ' Poet. Lat. 

 Minores,' ii. p. 247, &c. ; and the collection of fragments, including the 

 'Moretum ' and the ' Copa,' in the same vol., pp. 264-298. 



SERENUS SAMO'NICUS (QUINTUS), sometimes called SAMMO- 

 Nicus SERENUS, the name of two persons, father and son, who lived in 

 the 3rd century of the Christian era. The father wrote a number of 

 works in verse, which Geta and Alexander Severus read with pleasure 

 (Spartian., ' Vit. Ant. Get.,' 4to, p. 136, ed. Paris, 1603; Lamprid., 

 ' Vita Sever.,' p. 186) ; but he was put to death by order of Caracalla. 

 (Spartian., ' Vit. Caracall.,' p. 128. Compare Casaub., in 'Script. Hist. 

 Aug.,' pp. 290, 428.) The son was tutor to the younger Gordian, to 

 whom he left in legacy his father's rich library, consisting of 62,000 

 volumes. (Jul. Capitolin., ' Vit. Gordian II.,' p. 235.) We have no 

 means of deciding which of the two is the author of the Latin poem 

 that we possess under this name, entitled ' De Medicina Prsecepta 

 Saluberrima ; ' for while the more ancient writers ascribe it to the 

 father, the more modern (e.g., Morgagni and Ackermann) consider it 

 to be the work of the son. It consists of 1115 hexameter lines, divided 

 into 65 chapters, which treat of various diseases, with their remedies. 

 Now and then, but very rarely (says Sprengel), does Serenus show that 

 he had reflected on the nature and more remote causes of diseases, as 

 for example when he attributes dropsy to obstructions of the spleen 

 and liver (cap. 27, v. 498). He sometimes gives sound advice upon 

 the treatment of diseases, and even gives his opinion against the 

 incantations employed in the cure of fevers (cap. 51, v. 938). Not- 

 withstanding this, he everywhere shows himself a zealous defender of 

 the prejudices of his time ; he affects a particular veneration for the 

 numbers three, seven, and nine, and recommends the use of magical 

 characters. For the cure of the species of intermittent fever called 

 ilfjuTptTouos, or double tertian, he recommends the use of the famous 

 ' Abracadabra,' of which he gives the following description (cap. 52, 

 v. 944, et seq.) : 



" Inscvibis chartao, quod dieitur ABRACADABRA, 

 Soepius : et subter repetis, sed detrahe summtc, 

 Et magis atque magis desint clemcnta flguris 

 Singula, qua semper rapies, et cetera flges, 

 Donee in angustuin redigatur litera conum. 

 His lino ncxis collum redimire memento." 



Thug forming an equilateral triangle in this manner : 



ABRACADABRA 



ABKACADABR 



ABRACADAB 



ABRACADA 



A B R A C A D 



A B R A C A 



A B R A C 



A B R A 



A B R 



For further information respecting this magical word, see Du Cange, 



' Glossar. Med. et Inf. Latin.,' ed. Paris, 1840; Hofmann, 'Lex. Univ.;' 

 Sprengel, 'Hist, de la Med.,' torn, ii., p. 147; C. Steph. 'Diet. Hist.,' 

 &c., p. 8, edit. N. Lloyd ; Ger. Jo. Voss., ' Op.,' t. 5, p. 24. 



The first edition of the Poem of Serenus, according to Choulant 

 (' Handbuch,' &c.), was printed, tine loco et anno, in 4to, or large 8vo, 

 at Milan, in black letter, before the year 1484. This edition is very 

 scarce, and is said by Panzer ('Annal. Typogr.,' vol. it, p. 555) to 

 have been printed at Rome. The next edition (containing also 

 Rhemnius Fannius, ' De Ponderibus et Mensuris ') is that of Leipzig, 

 4to, 1515 ; the two best are that by Keuchenius, 8vo, Amstel., 1662 

 (reprinted 1706, 8vo) ; and that by Ackermann, 8vo, Lips., 1786. The 

 poem has also been frequently printed with Celsus, and is contained 

 in several collections of medical works, e. g. the ' Aldine,' fol., 

 Venet., 1547; that of H. Stephens, fol., Paris, 1567; and that of 

 Rivinus, 8vo, Lips., 1754 : it is also inserted witli copious notes hi P. 

 Burmaun's 'Poctaj Latini Minores,' 4to, Leid., 1731. Much historical 

 and critical information is to be found in ' J. Bapt. Morgagui Epistolae 

 in Serenum Samonicum,' 8vo, Patav., 1721, which are reprinted in 

 several editions of Celsus, and also in 'Morgagni Opuscula Miscellanea,' 

 fol., Venet., 1763. See also C. G. Gruner, ' Varitc Lectiones in Q. 

 Serenum Samonicum, e Codice Vratislaviensi decerptae, 4to, pp. 32, 

 Jense, 1782 ; C. G. Gruner, ' Var. Lect. in Q. Ser. Sam., ex Nicol. 

 Marescalci Enchiridio excerptac,' 4to, Jensc,1803; andReuss, 'Lectiones 

 Sammonicse,' 4to, Wirceb., 1837. 



SERGELL, JOHANN TOBIAS, a Swedish sculptor of great merit, 

 was born at Stockholm, on the 8th of September 1740, and was the 

 son of a gold-laco maker and embroiderer. He himself was at first 

 apprenticed to a stone-mason, and worked as such at the royal palace 

 at Stockholm, which was then in progress; but his quickness and 

 cleverness attracting the notice of the sculptor Larcheveque, he was 

 taken by him as a pupil. After assisting him in modelling the two 

 statues of Gustava Wasa and Gustavus Adolphus, Sergell obtained a 

 travelling pension in 1767, and went to Rome, where he remained 

 nearly twelve years, and produced many works that excited general 

 admiration among the professors and patrons of art. On quitting 

 Italy he visited Paris, where his ' Othryades,' a figure of a wounded 

 Greek soldier, half life size (afterwards placed in the Luxembourg) 

 gained him his admission into the Academy of Fine Arts. From Paris 

 he proceeded to London, whence he was almost immediately sum- 

 moned by Gustavus III., who conferred upon him the appointment of 

 court sculptor. In 1784 he accompanied that monarch in his visit to 

 Rome, and it was by his advice that Gustavus there purchased, among 

 many other valuable works of art, the celebrated ' Endymion,' for the 

 royal museum at Stockholm. 



Catherine II. was afterwards desirous of securing his talents in her 

 service, and made him the most flattering offers; but though wealth 

 as well as distinction awaited him at St. Petersburg, Sergell's attach- 

 ment to his sovereign and his native land, and his indifference to 

 riches, induced him to remain in Sweden with the comparatively 

 trifling pension of 600 rix-dollars. The untimely end of Gustavus, 

 whom he regarded rather as his friend than his master and patron, so 

 affected him that he fell into a deep melancholy, and was for a length 

 of time wholly incapable of doing anything in his profession. It was 

 not till a few years before his death that he regained something like 

 his wonted composure of mind, but it was then almost too late for 

 him to think of retrieving the time that had been lost to art. He 

 died at Stockholm, on the 26th of February 1814, in his seventy- 

 fourth year. 



Sergell's works are distinguished by vigour cf conception, by energy 

 and grace of style, and by perfect freedom from that mannerism and 

 sickly affectation into which sculpture had fallen in the hands of his 

 immediate predecessors and contemporaries. Among his principal 

 statues are the group of 'Cupid and Venus,' 'Diomedes carrying off 

 the Palladium,' Othryades, a Faun, Gustavus III., 'Oxenstierna 

 dictating to the Muse of History the Deeds of Gustavus Adolphus,' 

 ' Mars and Venus,' a Venus Callipyge, most of which are in the 

 royal museum. One of his finest productions, ' The Resurrection,' a 

 composition in alto-rilievo for the Adolph-Frederick Church at Stock- 

 holm, exists only in the model, having never been executed in marble ; 

 as was the case with a number of other subjects. His busts and 

 portrait medallions were highly esteemed, both for fidelity of likeness 

 and for artistic merit. 



SE'RGIUS I., a Syrian by birth, succeeded Conon in the see of 

 Rome, A.D. 687. Two candidates for the see, a priest called Theodore 

 and also the Archdeacon Paschal, each of whom had numerous parti- 

 sans, were on the point of coming to blows, when the principal citizens 

 .and officers of the garrison, in order to avoid a tumult, proposed to 

 elect Sergius, who had acquired a reputation for piety and learning. 

 The proposal being adopted by many of the clergy, Sergius, escorted 

 by a numerous retinue, was taken to the Lateran church, the doors of 

 which were broken open, and those of the opposite or Theodore's 

 faction, who had fortified themselves in it, being driven out, Sergius 

 was chaired, and Theodore was one of the first to salute him as 

 pontiff. Paschal did the same afterwards, being forced to it by the 

 multitude. Before Conon's death Paschal had promised a sum of 

 money to the Exarch of Ravenna, who, as the representative of the 

 Byzantine emperor in Italy, had the right of giving or withholding hia 

 sanction to the election, and the money had been given for the purpose 



