SEVENTY SEVER US. 



209 



quence of all these misfortunes and the superior 

 strength of his enemies, seemed to be verging to 

 his ruin. But, January 5, 1762, Elizabeth, the 

 empress of Russia, died; and her successor, Peter 

 III., the personal friend and admirer of Frederic, 

 concluded an armistice with him, March 16, 1762; 

 which was followed, May 5, by the peace of Peters- 

 burg. Sweden, likewise, made peace with Prus- 

 sia; and, as Peter's intercession with Austria was 

 ineffectual, the Russian emperor sent a body of 

 troops to aid the Prussians. But the emperor's 

 early death soon broke the alliance with Frederic, 

 and his successor, Catharine II., recalled the Russian 

 troops, amounting to 20,000 men, from the Prus- 

 sian service. Frederic, however, was delivered 

 from one dangerous enemy, and had gained an im- 

 portant preponderance of strength over the rest. 

 He now drove an Austrian corps from their en- 

 trenchments at Burkersdorf, recovered Schweidnitz 

 in October, left the duke of Bevern with an army 

 for the defence of Silesia, and marched to Saxony. 

 After several successful engagements, prince Henry 

 gained, October 29, an important victory over the 

 Austrian and the imperial troops at Freiberg, and the 

 king now concluded an armistice with the Austrians ; 

 but it related only to Saxony and Silesia. Under 

 duke Ferdinand and the hereditary prince of Bruns- 

 wick, the allies commenced, unsuccessfully, the cam- 

 paign of 1762 against the French; but the latter 

 were defeated, June 24, at Wilhelmsthal, driven 

 from their fortified camp at Cassel and extremely 

 weakened. Cassel itself was besieged, and, Nov. 1, 

 surrendered to the allies. Two days after this, the 

 preliminaries of peace between Britain and France 

 were signed, and the peace itself was confirmed at 

 Paris, February 10, 1763. (See Paris, Treaties 

 concluded at.} Frederic was thus exposed alone to 

 his enemies ; but he had already acquired a decided 

 superiority. A Prussian force, under Kleist, also 

 obliged several of the most important states of the 

 empire to declare themselves neutral. After a 

 short negotiation, and without the aid of foreign 

 mediation, Frederic concluded a peace with Austria 

 and Saxony at Hubertsburg, February 15, by which 

 each power received again all the territories which 

 it had possessed before the war, though in a miser- 

 able condition. The unity of purpose, which 

 marked all the measures of Frederic, and the great 

 supplies both of men and money, which he obtained 

 from the conquest of Saxony, his comprehensive 

 genius, his numerous and excellent generals, and 

 the bravery of his troops, gave the Prussian monarch 

 a superiority over his enemies, and brought to a 

 happy conclusion a war which had made the Prus- 

 sian kingdom more than once tremble on the brink 

 of destruction. This war cost Europe a million 

 lives, and exhausted all the states which took part 

 in it, without having procured to any but Britain 

 the smallest advantage. See Hist, de la Guerre de 

 tept Ans, in the posthumous works of Frederic II. ; 

 History of the Seven Years' War, by Lloyd and 

 Tempelhof; Ratzow's Charakteristick der merk- 

 wiitrd, ice. ; the Gestandnisse eines Oestreich. Ve- 

 terans [Confessions of an Austrian Veteran], by 

 Kuniaczo; and lord Dover's Life of Frederic II. 

 (London, 1832). 



SEVENTY, THE. See Septuagint. 



SEVERIANS, SEVERITES. See Gnostics, 

 and Monophj/sites. 



SEVERN (anciently Sabrina); a river which 

 rises near Plinlimmon hill, North Wales, passes by 

 Shrewsbury, Worcester, Upton, Tewksbury, and 



Gloucester, and, entering the sea, its mouth is 

 called Bristol Channel. A communication between 

 this river and the Thames, the Trent, the Dee, 

 and the Mersey and other rivers, has been opened 

 by different canals; length of its course to the sea, 

 about 200 miles. 



SEVERUS, ALEXANDER. See Alexander Se- 

 verus. 



SEVERUS, Lucius SEPTIMIUS; a Roman em- 

 peror, born at Leptis, in Africa, of a noble family. 

 He successively exercised all the offices of the state, 

 and recommended himself to notice by an ambitious 

 mind and a restless activity, that, for the gratifica- 

 tion of avarice, could endure the greatest hardships. 

 After the murder of Pertinax, Severus resolved 10 

 remove Didius Julianus, who had bought the im- 

 perial purple when exposed to sale by the preto- 

 rians (q. v.), and proclaimed himself emperor on 

 the borders of Illyricum, where he was stationed 

 against the barbarians. To support himself, he 

 took, as his partner in the empire, Albinus, who 

 was at the head of the Roman forces in Britain, 

 and immediately marched towards Rome to crush 

 Didius and his partisans. He was received with 

 acclamation ; and Julian was deserted by his favour- 

 ites, and assassinated by his own soldiers. In pro- 

 fessing that he had assumed the purple only to 

 revenge the death of the virtuous Pertinax, Severus 

 gained many adherents, and was enabled to banish 

 the pretorians, whose insolence and avarice had 

 become alarming, not only to the citizens, but to 

 the emperor. But while he was victorious at 

 Rome, Pescennius Niger was in the East, at the 

 head of a powerful army, and with the name and 

 ensigns of Augustus. Many obstinate battles were 

 fought between the imperial rivals, till, on the 

 plains of Issus, Niger was totally ruined by the 

 loss of 20,000 men. The head of Niger was cut 

 off and sent to the conqueror, who punished, in a 

 most, cruel manner, the partisans of his unfortunate 

 rival. Severus afterwards pillaged Byzantium, 

 which had shut her gates against him; and after 

 he had conquered several nations in the East, he 

 returned to Rome, resolved to destroy Albinus, 

 with whom he had hitherto reluctantly shared the 

 imperial power. He attempted to assassinate him 

 by his emissaries ; but when this had failed of suc- 

 cess, Severus had recourse to arms, and the fate of 

 the empire was again decided on the plains of Gaul. 

 Albinus was defeated, and the conqueror insulted 

 the dead body of his rival, and ordered it to be 

 thrown into the Rhone, after he had suffered it to 

 putrefy before the door of his tent, and to be torn 

 by his dogs. The adherents of Albinus shared his 

 fate; and the return of Severus to the capital 

 exhibited the bloody triumphs of Marius and Sylla. 

 The richest of the citizens were sacrificed, and 

 their money became the property of the emperor. 

 Commodus received divine honours, and his mur- 

 derers were punished in the most wanton manner. 

 Tired of the inactive life he led in Rome, Severus 

 marched into the East with his two sons Caracalla 

 and Geta; made himself master of Seleucia, Baby- 

 lon, and Ctesiphon; and advanced far into the 

 Parthian territories. From Parthia, he marched 

 towards the more southern provinces of Asia, and, 

 after he had visited the tomb of Pompey the Great, 

 entered Alexandria. The revolt of Britain recalled 

 him from the East. After he had reduced it under 

 his power, he built a wall across the northern parts 

 of the island to defend it against the frequent in- 

 vasions of the Caledonians. Hitherto successful 



