190 



SEBASTIAN 



SEBASTOPOL 



Sebastian, king of Portugal (q.v.), a grandson 

 of the Emperor Charles V., perished at tlie light of 

 Alcazar in Algeria, warring against the Moors, on 

 4th AnguHt 1578. Soon after the )>attle douht was 

 thrown upon his denth, and impostors, pretending 

 to be the chivalrous young kin;:, liegan to crop up 



tir-t (in 1584) an adventurer, the son of a poor 

 Portuguese potter, who was nicknamed, half in 

 dcii-ion. half in raillery, the King of Pcnainacor ; 

 then came Matheus Alvares, a sort of brigand- 

 insurgent ; then in 1594 a Spanish c<iok of Madri- 

 gal in Castile. None of these people were taken 

 seriously. A fourth iiu|>o8tiir found more credence, 

 OIK- Marco Tnllio Catizzone, a Calahrian, who tiist 

 made his pretensions known at Venice in 1508. 

 He waa hanged at San Lucar in Spain in SeptemW 

 1803. The strongest support of these successive 

 impostors was the undying belief of the common 

 people of Portugal that their popular hero, Sebas- 

 tian, would some day reappear. The belief grew 

 particularly strong in 1807-8 during the French 

 occupation of Portugal. And even so late as 1838 

 it was used as a rallying-cry by a party of insur- 

 rectionist* amongst the Portuguese Brazilians. 

 See M. D'Antas, La faux Don Stbantien (1866). 



Sebastian. ST, a martyr of the early church, 

 wax a native of Narhonne. Under Diocletian he 

 became a captain of the praetorian guard, und 

 secretly a Christian. It coming to the ears of 

 Diocletian how Sebastian ]ier8onally encouraged 

 those who were Ix-ing led out to death for being 

 Christians, the emperor had his captain tied to a 

 stake and shot to death by archers. But they did 

 not wholly kill him ; a pious woman, Irene by 

 name, took him away, and tended his wounds. 

 As soon as he was recovered Seluistian boldly 

 faced the tyrant, and upbraided him for his cruelty. 

 Diocletian then ordered him to be beaten to death 

 (288) with rods. He is a protector against plague 

 and pestilence, and is specially honoured on 20th 

 January. Hi- first martyrdom a young and 

 handsome soldier bristling with arrows was a 

 favourite subject for the Italian religious painters, 

 as Mantegna, Veronese, and Domenichino. 



Sebastian!. FRANCOIS HORACE BASTIEX, 

 COUNT, marshal of France, was born November 10, 

 1772, at Porta d'Ampngnano, a village near Bastia, 

 M Corsica. Entering the French army in 1789, he 

 became one of Napoleon 's most devoted partisans, 

 and advanced rapidly. He fought at Marengo, exe- 

 cuted some important diplomatic sen ire in Turkey 

 in 1802-3, after which lie liecaiiie general of brigade, 

 and was wounded at Austcrlitz. In 1806 he was 

 again deputed to Turkey, this time to break the 

 alliance of the Porte with Hussia and England. 

 Hi- mi-<inn was successful, and Turkey declared 

 war upon the allies. Thereupon the English fleet 

 forced a passage through the Dardanelles, and cast 

 anchor before Constantinople. Sebastiani, liow- 

 cv.-j. speedily put the coast batteries in a state 

 tit for action, and got several small gunlioatH afloat. 

 Hut the deposition of the sultan and the treaty of 

 Tilsit put an end to the French intrigues in Turkey, 

 and Sebastiani was recalled (June 1807). He sul>- 

 equently commanded the fourth French army 

 corps in Spain, and distinguished himself in the 

 Ku-ian campaign of IHI2 and at Leip/ig. ( >n the 

 exile of Napoleon to Elba he gave in his adherence 

 to the liourhon government, but joined his obi 

 master on his return. After the revolution of 1830 

 lie h'-ld for brief |<eiii>d tin- |Kirtfolios of naval and 

 e emb 



Sebnstlano del Piombo, Italian painter, 

 whose family name was LUCIAM, and who got his 

 nickname 'Of the Seal ' ( Piombo ) because at the 

 accession of his patron, Giulio de" Medici, as pope 

 (Clement VII.) in 1523 he was given the ottire ,.t 

 sealer of papal briefs. He WM Darn at Venice in 

 I Is.'i. and learned the art of painting from Giovanni 

 Bellini and Giorgione. After painting a St Clirys- 

 ostom for the church of that saint in Venice. 

 Scliustiano was taken to Home by Agostino Chip 

 (q.v.) abont 1512. He helped to decorate Chiefs 

 palace of Farnesina with frescoes illustrating clas- 

 sical mythology, and by his excellence a- a colon rist 

 won the esteem and friendship of Michelangelo. 

 The two seem then to have worked in conjunction, 



affairs, and the embassies to Naples and 

 Lou, I. in. Inn wns more distinguished for his ele- 

 gance and graceful demeanour in the Parisian 

 salons than as a politician or administrator. II, 

 was made a marshal of France in 1840, and died at I 

 Paris, July 20, 1KS1. 



carrying out in colour designs and 

 drawings made by Michelangelo. Amongst the 

 fruits of this artistic partnership three pictures at 

 least are of the highest rank viz. ' The Raising of 

 Lazarus' (in the London National Gallery), and 

 a couple of scenes from the last days of Christ (in 

 the church of St Peter in Montorio at Home). 

 Scbastiano, who possessed no great powers of 

 invention, excelled also as a portrait-painter. The 

 best specimens of his skill in this particular line 

 embrace portraits of Pope Clement VII., Andrea 

 Doria, two members of tlie Colonna family, Sebas- 

 tiano himself, Cardinal Pole, and a lady as St 

 Agatha. An indolent man and a dilatory, SebaS' 

 tiano did little painting after his appointment as 

 papal seal-keeper; yet he invented a method of 

 painting on slate and stone. He died at Home in 

 1547. 



Srbiistopol. or SEVASTOPOL, a Russian sea- 

 port and fortress, is situated near the south west 

 extremity of the Crimea, on the southern side of 

 one of the Finest natural harliours in the world, 

 44 miles long from east to west and $ mile across. 

 The place is celebrated for the long siege of the 

 allies during the Crimean war of 1K.V4 .Vi. The 

 town and harbour were defended by several forte 

 and batteries, mounted by 700 guns in all, some of 

 heavy calibre. The forts were of immense si length, 

 built of limestone faced with grnnitc, on which 

 artillery was found to make but little impression. 

 On the land side, with the exception of a slight loop- 

 holed wall extending partially round the western 

 side, the town, previous to the siege, was entirely 

 undefended ; but the earthworks and fortifications 

 then successively extemporised by the genius of 

 General Ttxlleben kept the armies of France and 

 England at l>ay for eleven months, from October 

 1854 to Septemlior 1855. The place sustained 

 repeated lionilianlments until the capture of the 

 Malakoir and Heilan works, on September 8, 1855, 

 at length forced the Russians to evacuate the lines 

 and retire to the north side. The town was com 

 pletely mined; the docks and forts still standing 

 were blown up by French and English engineers, 

 and by the treaty of Paris (IS.'ilii were not to be 

 restored ; but the restrictions \\eic removed by the 

 abrogation of the neutrality of the Black Sea by 

 the Conference of London ( 1871 ). Since the siege 

 the town has been in great part rebuilt, but at 

 first grew slowly. Since 188.') the Russian govern- 

 ment has restored the -fortifications and recon- 

 structed the docks. Sebasto|M>l is again the naval 

 port for the Black Sen fleet; and since Isii'.t the 

 commercial |K>rt is transferred to r'eodosia or K.'illa 

 (q.v.). Before the closing of the commercial port, 

 the value of imports (largely cott.in and coal ) was 

 in some years over 1,000,000, and the exports 

 (grain ) 3,000,000 ; but the totals fluctuated some- 

 what violently, owing to customs regulations and 

 good or had harvests. Pop. (1897) 50,710, ex- 

 clusive of a garrison of 12,000. Schasto|iol was 

 founded on the site of a Tartar village im- 

 mediately after the Russian conquest of the 



