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iHand. He was harafl'ed by the natives, who did not dare to 

 meet him in the field, and he fuffered much from the feverity 

 of the climate. At length the Caledonians purchafed peace 

 by furrendering all the country fouth of the Clyde and Forth, 

 which he fecured by raifing a rampart between thefe firths. 

 The attempts againft his life by his fon Caracalla, joined to 

 age and a declining Hate of health, fo reduced him, that he 

 died at York in the year 209, in the 66th year of his age. 

 In his lail moments he recommended concord to his fons, and 

 his fons he recommended to the protection of the army. 

 Gibbon fpeaks of Severus ending a glorious and fuccefsful 

 reign, but other hiftorians have doubted whether Severus 

 ought to be reckoned among the good or the bad emperors ; 

 for while his perfidy towards his competitors, his cruelty to 

 vanquifhed enemies, and the general feverity of his admi- 

 niftration, juftify a very unfavourable view of his moral cha- 

 rafter, it is not denied that he pofleiied in a high degree the 

 virtues of indullry and vigour, the love of order, attention 

 - to correft abnfes, ftrift and impartial adminiftration of juf- 

 tice, and fimple and frugal habits of life. He was a good 

 judge of the charafters of men, and the empire was in ge- 

 neral well adminiftered and profperous during his reign. 



He is fuppofed to have been favourable, in the early part 

 of his reign, to Chriftians, but the rapid increafe of their 

 number feems to have alarmed him, and he is reckoned the 

 author of the fifth perfecution, which took place in the tenth 

 year of his reign, and which lafted with more or lefs violence, 

 according to Dodwell, two years, and according to Baf- 

 nage, fix years and upwards. See Lardner's Works, 

 vol. viii. ed. 1790. ch. 23. 



Severus, Cornelius, a Roman poet, who lived in 

 the reign of Augultus, was author of a poem entitled 

 " ^tna," which has fometimes been attributed to Virgil. 

 He is reported by Quintilian to have given a relation in 

 verfe of the Sicilian war, and fome lines of his on the 

 death of Cicero are quoted by Seneca the orator. It is 

 to him that Ovid is fuppofed to have addrefled one of his 

 Pontic elegies, in which he is termed " Vates magnorum 

 maxime regum." An elegant edition of the remains of 

 this writer, was publifhed with notes at Amfterdam in 

 1703, by Le Clerc : and they are printed in Mattaire's 

 «' Corpus Poetarum." 



Severus, Sanctus, a Chriftian rhetorician and poet, 

 *?as a native of Aquitaine, and flouriftied in the fourth cen- 

 tury. He wrote an eclogue, which is ftill extant, where, 

 in a dialogue between a Pagan and a Chriftian, he treats 

 of the mortality of cattle. It was firft printed in the 

 «' Poemata Vetera" of Pithxus, and has been feveral times 

 republifhed. Gronovius gave an edition of it, with a pre- 

 face, under the title " Seven Sanfti five Endeleichii Rhetoris 

 de mortibus Bourn Carmen, ab Elia Vinetto et Petro 

 Pethaeo fervatum, cum notis John Weitzii et Wolff"gang. 

 Lug. Bat. 17 1 J." Another edition was publifhed by 

 D. Richtern, with a preface, in 1747. 



SEVESE, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the Mila- 

 nefe ; 8 miles N.N.W. of Milan. 



SEVIAMALLY, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car- 

 natic ; 19 miles W. of Tritchinopoly. 



SEVIER, a county of Tenneffee, Hamilton dittrift, 

 containing 3419 inhabitants, of whom 162 are flaves. 



SEVIERVILLE, a polt-town and capital of the above 

 county ; 555 miles from Walhington. 



SEVIGNAC, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Lower Pyrenees ; 9 miles N. cf Morlaas. 



SEVIGNE', Marie Rabutin, Marquife de, in Bio. 

 graphy, a diftinguiihed lady, was born in 1626. Her 

 father, baron of Chantal and Bourbilly, died wliile (he was 



6 



very young, leaving her heirefs of the houfe of Bully Ra- 

 butin. Her rank, and the graces of her perfon and con- 

 verfation, procured her many admirers, and in 1644 (he 

 married the marquis de Sevigne, who in 1651 was killed in 

 a duel. She from this time devoted hcrfelf to her children, 

 and to the cultivation of her own mind. She had an ex- 

 traordinary afFeftion for her daughter, who, in 1669, mar- 

 ried the count de Grignan, and accompanied him to his 

 government of Provence, and this feparation gave rife to 

 the greater part of the letters which have gained her fo 

 high a reputation, though (he had many other correfpond- 

 ents. Many of M. de Sevigne's letters are of a domeftic 

 nature, but others are enlivened with court anecdotes, re- 

 marks on men and books, and topics of the period in 

 which they were written, which render them very amufing ; 

 and ill point of ftyle, they are models of epillolary writing, 

 which, perhaps, have never been furpaffed. In her letters 

 to her daughter, the reader fometimes is hurt with the ex- 

 cefs of flattery on her talents and beauty, which latter quahty 

 appears to have been a principal fource of her maternal 

 tendernefs, and the prefervation of it the great objeft of 

 her anxiety. This lady died in 1696, at the age of 70. 

 Though endowed with much penetration, and, to a certain 

 degree, with a cultivated underltanding, (he did not rife 

 much above the level of her age and fex in tafte and prin- 

 ciples. She was attached to rank and fplendour, loved ad- 

 miration, and was apt to be taken with frivolous accom- 

 plilhments in preference to folid worth. She had a deep 

 fenfe of religion, but wifhed to conciliate it with the polite 

 world, the manners and maxims of which, according to the 

 rigid fyftem of the Catholics, were entirely at variance with 

 it. She has been cenfured for want of talle in her infen- 

 fibility to the poetical merit of Racine, but this has been 

 imputed to her prepolTcflions in favour of Corneille. The 

 beft editions of her letters are that in 8 vols. 1775 ; and 

 that in 10 vols. 180 1. 



SEVIGNY, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Ardennes; 12 miles N.W. of Rethel. 

 SEVIL, in the Manege. The fevil of the branches of 

 a bridle is a nail turned round like a ring, with a large head, 

 made faft in the lower part of the branch, c ailed ^arf(?u/7/if. 

 See Banquet. 



SEUII-, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Ardennes, on the Aifne ; 12 miles S.E. of 

 Rethel. 



SEVILLE, a province of Spain, commonly called the 

 kingdom of Seville, is now exclufively, but improperly, 

 denominated Andalufia, and occupies the weftern part of 

 ancient Bcetica. Its figure is irregular, 58 leagues long 

 from E. to W., and 27 broad from N. to S. ; a point of 

 it bending towards the Straits of Gibraltar, 14 leagues 

 from N. to S. and 9 from E. to W. It is bounded to 

 the E. by Cordova ; to the E. and S.E. by Grenada ; to 

 the S. by the Atlantic and the Straits of Gibraltar ; to the 

 W. by the kingdom of Algarva, &c. ; and to the N. by 

 Eltramadura. There are two fea-ports in this province, 

 the one in the Mediterranean at Algeziras, the other on 

 the Atlantic at Cadiz : the latter is fpacious and beautiful, 

 the bell known, and the moll frequented in Spain ; its 

 bay is eight leagues round. The principal towns of the 

 kingdom of Seville are its own capital, Seville, an archi- 

 epifcopal fee ; Cadiz, an epifcopal fee, fortrefs, and fea- 

 porl ; Santa-Maria, a fea-port ; Xeres, Ecija, and OfTuna, 

 inland towns. Its rivers are, the Saltes, Guadiana, Tinto, 

 Odiel, Chanca, Verde, Barbate, Guadalette, Guadalquivir, 

 Xenil, Guadianar, Guadayra, Las Feguas, Camdon, and 

 San-Pedro. 



Sevillk, 



