S E R 



one is a well-known confolatory epiftle on the death of 

 Tullia. 



Servius pafled through the ufual gradations of honour 

 among Romans of rank. He was firft quaellor, then edile 

 and prxtor. When the troubles of the repubhc were im- 

 pending, he was created interrex, in which quality he nomi- 

 Nated Pompey fole conful. He was himfelf conful with 

 Marcellus, in the year 51 B. C, and oppofed the motion 

 of his colleague to remove Cxfar from his command, left it 

 Ihould immediately bring on a civil war. After the battle 

 of Pharfalia he declared for Caefar, and was appointed 

 governor of Achaia. When that chief was taken off he 

 returned to Rome, and afted with the party who aimed at 

 the reftoration of public liberty. During the fiege of 

 Modena by Mark Antony, he was urged by the fenate to 

 undertake a legation to him, which, after pleading his age 

 and infirmities, he accepted : but he forefr.w it would be 

 fatal to him, and he died in Antony's camp in the year 

 43 B. C. Cicero's ninth Philippic is entirely employed in 

 pleading for a brafs ftatue to the memory of this excellent 

 man, as for one who had loll his life in the fervice of the 

 republic, which was voted by the fenate, Servius was 

 author of a great number of volumes on legal topics, none 

 of which have been preferved ; but quotations from fome 

 of them are extant in A. Gellius. 



Servius ToLLius, the fixth king of Rome, was the fon 

 of Ocrifia, a native of Corniculum, who was made a captive 

 when the Romans took that place. Tarquin the Elder 

 prefented Ocrifia to his queen Tanaquil, and having a fon 

 born while flie was in a Itate of fervitude, he was named 

 Servius. It is not at all known who the father of this 

 king was, and it was probably not till after his elevation to 

 the regal dignity that he was reprefented as having been a 

 perfon of rank who was killed in the defence of his country. 

 Young Servius was brought up in the palace, and became 

 a great favourite of the king and queen. He diftinguifhed 

 himfelf both in a civil and military capacity ; was raifed 

 to the patrician order ; had an important command in the 

 army given him ; and was at length united in marriage to 

 Tarquinia, the king's daughter. On the aflaffination of 

 Tarquin, Servius took poffeffion of the throne, which event 

 is dated in the year 577 B. C. As the fons of Ancus Mar- 

 tins, who were the authors of the confpiracy againft Tar- 

 quin, had a ftrong party among the patricians, Servius pur- 

 fued the policy of attaching the people to his intereft, by 

 paying off their debts, and making feveral regulations in 

 their favour ; and having added to his reputation by a defeat 

 of the revolted Etrufcans, he ttrengthened his title to the 

 crown by procuring a legal election from the curias. He 

 then applied himfelf to the improvement of the public 

 police, and feveral of the moft ufeful inftitutions of the 

 Roman ftate took their origin in his reign. Servius en- 

 larged the city by taking two more hills into its limits : he 

 added a fourth tribe to the three old ones : he divided the 

 whole Roman territory into tribes, with a pagus, or fortified 

 poil to each, and inltituted a cenfus, by which all the 

 Roman citizens were dillributed into fix clafles, according 

 to their property. He alfo gave to the freedmen the pri- 

 villages of citizens ; and finding the duties of the regal 

 office under the augmented population too numerous, he 

 committed to the fenate the determination t !' ordinary 

 caufes, referving to himfelf only the cognizable crimes 

 againft the ftate. Aware that he was ftill looked upon 

 by the nobles as an intruder on the throne, he endeavoured 

 to add confequence to his family by marrying his two 

 daughters to the grandfon of the late king. He now created 

 » clofer connexion between the Romans and their allies, the 



S E R 



Latins and Sabines, by the ereftion of a temple of Diana 

 at Rome, at their common expence, in which they were to 

 join in annual facrifices, and in the amicable declfion of all 

 difputes among them. Servius, in many refpedls, was for- 

 tunate as a man and a monarch ; but his greateft calamity 

 was in his youngeft daughter, who was continn.iUy urging 

 her huft)and Arunx to criminal attempts againi her father, 

 but he nobly rejefting her infamous folicitations, (he at- 

 tached herfelf to the other brother, lier filter's huftiand, 

 Tarquin, a prince of a charafter and difpofition very fimilar 

 to her own. They got rid of their partners by poifon, 

 and then, having formed an inceftuous union, they boldly 

 and openly declared Servius an ufurper, and Tarquin laid 

 claim to the throne before the fenate. The patricians 

 generally came over to his intereft ; but the great mafs of 

 the people were determined to fupport their king, who, 

 whatever might have been his defcent, had Ihewn himfelf 

 worthy of the crown which his infamous relations wilhed to 

 tear from his head. Tarquin, however, continued to in- 

 trigue with his party, and at length took the daring ftep 

 of afluming the royal robes and infignia, and feated himfelf 

 on the throne at the temple in which the fenate ad'embled. 

 He there pronounced a violent inveftive againft the perfon 

 and government of Servius, who arrived while he was fpeak- 

 ing, and approac' ed to pull down his fon-in-law from the 

 throne ; but Tarquin feized the venerable monarch by the 

 waift, and threw him down the fteps of the temple. He 

 rofe with difficulty, and was moving away by the help of 

 fome by-ftandcrs, when his unnatural daughter Tullia ar- 

 rived, who, having faluted her hufband as king, fuggefted 

 to him the ncceffity of difpatching her own father. Tar- 

 quin fc-nt perfons to perpetrate the foul deed, and Tullia 

 fealfd her cruelty and impiety by driving her chariot over 

 the dead body. Servins was murdered in his 74th year, 

 after a reign of forty-fonr years, during which he had done 

 enough to merit the title and charafter of one of the belt 

 kings of Rome. 



SERUI.A, in Ornithology, the name of a web-footed fea- 

 bird, a kind of nurgus, very common about Venice, and 

 called by Mr. Ra) mergus cirratus fufais, the brown-crefted, 

 or lefler-toothed diver, and fuppofed to be the anas longi- 

 rojira, or long-beaked duck of Gefner. This is the red- 

 breafted merganfer of Pennant. 



It is very nearly of the fize of the duck ; its head and 

 throat are of a fine changeable black and green ; on the firft 

 there is a long pendent creft of the fame colour ; the upper 

 part of the neck and of the breaft, and the whole belly, 

 white ; the lower part of the breaft ferruginous, fpotted 

 wnth black ; the upper part of the back black ; near the 

 fetting on of the wings fome white feathers, edged and tipt 

 with black ; the exterior fcapular black ; the interior white ; 

 lower part of the back, the coverts of the tail, and feathers 

 on the fides, under the wings, and over the thighs, grey, 

 marked with waving lines of black ; covers on the ridges of 

 the wings dullvy, fucceeded by a broad bar of white ; the 

 quill-feathers dufky, the tail is ftiort and brown, and the 

 legs orange-coloured ; the head and upper part of the neck 

 of the female are of a deep ruft colour ; the creft fhort, the 

 throat white, and diftinguifhed by fome other varieties of 

 colour from the mje. Thefe birds breed in the northern 

 parts of Great Britain. Pennant. 

 SERUM. See Blood. 



Serl'M Alum'mofum, Alum-'vuhey, a form of medicine pre- 

 fcribed in the late London Pharmacopeia, made of a pint of 

 milk boiled to whey with a quarter of an ounce of alum. 



'SERVONG, in Geography, a town on the N. coaft of 

 Sumatra. N. lat. j° 3'. W. long. 96^ 18'. 



SERUSKUI, 



