204 



SERVIUS TULLIUS SESTERTIUS. 



particular kind of property, but could either be 

 limited to a particular person (servitus pcrsoiiulit'), 

 or so connected with real property (prtedium doin- 

 irtans), that the owner of the same, whoever he 

 might be, could exercise his right upon the estate 

 subjected to the servitude (prcedium serviens~). 

 The servitude consisted either in a right to do some 

 act, as to gather fruit from the estate, &c. (servitus 

 affirmative^), or to prevent the owner of the pro- 

 perty from doing certain acts, as building walls be- 

 yond a certain height, blocking up a window, &c. 

 (servitus negativa). The owner of a property to 

 which a servitude was attached, could not, by the 

 Roman law, be obliged to perform any act himself 

 (servitus infaciendo consistere nequif): but this rule 

 is not adhered to, in modern times, in those coun- 

 tries where the civil law prevails. Personal servi- 

 tudes consist either in the full use of the property, 

 and its products (ususfructus), or in a limited use 

 (usus) of the same (as, for instance, merely free 

 occupancy habitatio^. The usufruct was originally 

 allowed only in regard to those things which were 

 not consumed in the use, but was afterwards ex- 

 tended to such things as were consumed by use, 

 but could be replaced by articles similar in number 

 and quality (quasi usus fructus). Servitudes con- 

 nected with real estate (servitutespr&diorum), which 

 were divided into servitudes on tenements (pr&dio- 

 rum urbanorum), and servitudes on land (pratdiorum 

 rusticorum), were, by the old Roman law, required 

 to be attached to a permanent cause (causam perpe- 

 tuam}, and to be designed for the preservation of 

 some actual advantage. They could not, therefore, 

 by the Roman law, be limited by conditions, or for 

 a term of time, but were inseparable from the pro- 

 perty, and indivisible. Servitudes being burdens 

 upon an estate, the usufructuary must respect the 

 rights of the owner of the same, and use his own 

 rights civiliter, that is, with as little injury to the 

 former as possible. 



SERVIUS TULLIUS, the sixth king of Rome, 

 was the son of a slave, given by Tarquin to Tana- 

 quil, his wife. Young Servius was educated in the 

 palace of the monarch, and raised himself to so much 

 consequence, that Tarquin gave him his daughter 

 in marriage. Servius became the favourite of the 

 people and the darling of the soldiers, and was raised 

 to the throne, on the death of his father-in-law. 

 He defeated the Veientes and the Tuscans, estab- 

 lished the census, beautified the city, and enlarged 

 its boundaries by taking within its walls the hills 

 Quirinalis, Viminalis, and Esquilinus. He also di- 

 vided the Roman people into tribes, and built several 

 temples. Servius married his two daughters to the 

 grandsons of his father-in-law; the elder to Tar- 

 quin, and the younger to Aruns. The wife of 

 Aruns murdered her own husband, to unite herself 

 to Tarquin, who had likewise assassinated his wife. 

 Servius was murdered by his own son-in-law, and 

 his daughter Tullia ordered her chariot to be driven 

 over the mangled body of her father (533 B. C.). 

 Such is the history of Servius, as commonly related. 

 But see Niebuhr's Roman History (3d ed., 1828), 

 in the chapters On the Legend of Tarquinius Pris- 

 cus and Servius Tullius, and Critical Examination 

 of the History of Tarquin and Servius. 



SERVUS SERVORUM (servant of servants'); 

 the title which the popes give themselves. 



SESAMUM ORIENT ALE; a plant, known 

 from a very ancient period, and very interesting on 

 account of the economical purposes to which it is 

 applied. It was originally brought from India, and 



is said to grow wild in Ceylon, and along the coast 

 of Malabar. It^ is called semsem in Egypt and 

 other parts of th*e East, where it is cultivated ex- 

 tensively on account of the seeds, and an oil which 

 they yield, not unlike or inferior to the oil of al- 

 monds. This plant was introduced into Carolina, 

 from Africa, by the negroes, and succeeds there 

 perfectly. It is called bene or bonny. The oil 

 will keep many years, does not acquire any rancid 

 smell or taste, but, on the other hand, in two years 

 becomes quite mild, and is a good substitute for 

 olive oil. The negroes use the seeds as an aliment. 

 The sesamum was introduced into Jamaica by the 

 Jews, and is now cultivated in most parts of the 

 island. It is called vanglo or oil plant; and the 

 seeds are frequently used in broths by many of the 

 Europeans, but the Jews make them chiefly into 

 cakes. In Japan, China, and Cochin-China, where 

 they have no butter, they use the oil for frying fish, 

 and in dressing other dishes, as a varnish, and, 

 medicinally, as a resolvent and emollient. Pliny 

 speaks of this oil as equally good to eat and burn. 

 Nine pounds of the seed yield upwards of two 

 pounds of oil. The plant grows to the height of 

 two feet or more; the stem is upright, herbaceous, 

 hairy, and almost cylindrical; the leaves are oval 

 oblong, the inferior ones opposite, with long leaf- 

 stalks, entire, or with some very distant teeth ; the 

 superior, much narrower, entire, acuminate, almost 

 alternate, and nearly sessile: the flowers are soli- 

 tary, axillary, and the corolla is white, and resem- 

 bles, in form, that of the foxglove S. indicum is 

 another species, cultivated in Egypt, and used for 

 the same purposes as the preceding. 



SESOSTRIS; a king of Egypt, who by some 

 has been deemed the Shishak of Scripture, but 

 whom Champollion has shown to be a different per- 

 son. He is called Sethos, and Sethosis, and his 

 royal name is Ramses, or Rameses. He reigned in 

 the fifteenth century B. C. Sesostris was a great 

 conqueror, who overran Asia, and is said to have- 

 erected magnificent temples in all the cities of his 

 empire, to have built a great wall on the eastern 

 boundary of Egypt, and to have dug a number of 

 .canals from the Nile, for the purposes of commerce 

 and irrigation. 



SESSILE; a botanical term, signifying without 

 footstalks. 



SESSION, COURT OF, in Scotland, the highest 

 civil judicatory in the kingdom. See Scotland, di- 

 vision Jurisprudence. 



SESSIONS. For the quarter sessions, seeCourts. 



SESTERTIUM. See Sestertius. 



SESTERTIUS; an ancient Roman silver coin, 

 worth two and a half asses (hence the name sesqui- 

 tertius, the third half). (See As.~) In sterling 

 money, the sestertius was about one penny and a 

 quarter; but it was not at all periods precisely the 

 same. The neuter form, sestertium, denotes a 

 much larger amount. It generally appears in the 

 plural, and signifies not a real coin, but a sum of 

 1000 sestertii. If the sum amounts to 1,000,000 

 or more, a numeral in ies is connected with scster- 

 tium (e. g. quadragies sestertium is four millions or 

 sestertii, i. e. quadragies centena millia sestertiorum 

 nummorum). Sometimes the numeral adverb is used 

 alone, and decies ei dedit signifies decies sestertium, 

 i. e. decies centena millia sestertiorum, or a million. 

 The sestertius was generally expressed by the let- 

 ters L. L. S. (i. e. libra libra semis'); and these 

 letters were contracted into H. S. In common 

 life, it was generally called nummus only. (For the 



