8 
S E J 
tection, and admitted a Chinese garrison into his capital. 
They were afterwards withdrawn •, and during the late war 
between the Nepaulese and British, the Segwin rajah was 
taken under the protection of the British, and his independence 
secured by the last treaty of peace. This territory has not 
been recently surveyed by any European, but is known to be 
mountainous and unproductive. 
SEHIMA, in Botany, so called by Forskal, from its 
Arabic name ; a genus of that author’s, separated from 
Ischsemum, but apparently without sufficient reason. 
SE'JANT, adj. Sitting. 
SEJANUS (yElius), celebrated in the history of Rome for 
the tyranny of his administration, was a native of Vulsinii, 
in Etruria. Under Tiberius, he rose to great favour, and 
was appointed governor to young Drusus. When the thea¬ 
tre of Pompey was destroyed by fire, the emperor, at the 
time that he declared his intention of rebuilding it, pro¬ 
nounced an eulogy on Sejanus before the senate, on which 
that servile body decreed him a statue, to be placed in the 
new edifice. Having by his artifices and dissimulation ob¬ 
tained a complete ascendancy over the mind of Tiberius, 
he applied himself to strengthen the fabric of his power, and 
pave the way to higher honours. With this view he ingra¬ 
tiated himself as much as possible with the praetorian guards, 
and he created a great personal interest in the senate, by 
means of his recommendations to lucrative places, and he 
is said to have secured the wives of many men of high rank 
by secret promises of marriage. The imperial family being, 
as he thought, a considerable obstacle to his projects of am¬ 
bition, he determined upon their destruction: and, begin¬ 
ning with Drusus, the son of the emperor, who had manifested 
a jealousy of his influence, he entered into a criminal intrigue 
with his wife Livia, the sister of Germanicus, by means of 
whom he was supposed to have caused a slow poison to be 
administered to that prince, which occasioned his death. 
He next endeavoured to persuade Tiberius to quit Rome, 
and retire to a life of repose, that the whole care of govern¬ 
ment might devolve upon himself, and that nothing should 
reach the emperor’s ears but through a channel subject to his 
controul. This he effected in the twelfth year of Tiberius’s 
reign, and from that moment Sejanus was master of Rome. 
The dislike manifested by the emperor to the widow and 
family of Germanicus was inflamed by the minister, till his 
persecution of them ended in the banishment and death of 
Agrippina and her two sons. Every kind of homage was 
now paid to the minister; Rome was crowded with his sta¬ 
tues, and the senators all vied with each other in adulation 
of the favourite. At length Tiberius began to be suspicious 
of his designs, but for a time he concealed his suspicions, and 
even while under the fear of danger, he conferred upon his 
minister additional marks of his favour, making him his col¬ 
league in the consulship. He however gradually withdrew 
from him the tokens of his confidence, and finding that the 
symptoms of this change had greatly diminished the crowds 
that attended his levees, he proceeded, though with much 
caution, to the measures for his destruction. Pie now ap¬ 
pointed another commander of his praetorians. Sejanus, 
knowing the extent of his own guilt, began to be alarmed: 
he called together his friends and followers, and held forth 
to them the most flattering promises, and having increased 
the number of his partisans, formed a conspiracy to seize the 
sovereign power. A powerful league was formed with asto¬ 
nishing rapidity, and great numbers of all descriptions, sena¬ 
tors as well as military men, entered into the plot. But he 
was betrayed by his confidential friend and prime agent of 
the minister. He sent Macro to Rome with a special com¬ 
mission, and giving him ample powers that might be 
adapted to all emergencies. Early in the morning of the 
15th, before the kalends of November, a report was spread, 
that letters had arrived at Rome, with the view of augment¬ 
ing still farther the honours of Sejanus. The senate was 
summoned to meet in the temple of Apollo, near the impe¬ 
rial place. Sejanus attended without delay, and a party of 
praetorians followed him. Macro met him in the vestibule 
of the temple. He approached the minister with all. demon 
S E I 
strations of profound respect, and taking him aside, told 
him not to be surprised that he had not received a letter from 
the emperor himself, but, says he, I am this day to deliver the 
emperor’s orders. Sejanus, elated with joy, expecting some 
unlooked-for dignity, entered into the senate-house, and 
Macro followed. He opened his commission by reading a 
long letter in the senate to the consuls from Tiberius, which 
concluded with an order to seize his person; instantly the 
whole assembly loaded with insults and reproaches the man 
at whose feet they lately bent, and the people began to throw 
down and treat with every indignity the statues before which 
they had been accustomed to offer sacrifices. His person 
was seized, and thrown into prison, and being accused of 
high treason, he was condemned without a single defender. 
On the same day he was executed, and his body thrown into 
the Tiber. A massacre of his relations took place, and even 
his infant children were inhumanly slaughtered. This took 
place in the year 31 of the Christian era. 
SEIBO, a town of the island of Hispaniola, situated on 
the margin of a small river, and containing, with its 
jurisdiction, 5000 persons. The church is a handsome struc¬ 
ture of stone. It was here the Spanish patriots first assembled 
to meet the French general Ferrand, who was coming 
against them ; and about two leagues nearer the capital, on 
the main road, he met with that defeat, on the 7th of 
November, 1809, which cost him his life, and laid the 
foundation of their independence; 50 miles east-north-east of 
St. Domingo. 
SEIBOUSE, a river of Algiers, which falls into the 
Mediterranean, near Bona. 
SEICHE, a small river in the north-east of France, which 
falls info the Vilaine, near Rennes. 
SEICHES, a small town in the south-west of France, 
department of the Lot and Garonne. Population 1300; 6 
miles north-east of Marmande. 
SEICHES, a small town in the north-west of France, 
department of the Maine and Loire, with 1400 inhabitants; 
9 miles north-east of Angers. 
SEIDA, or Seyda, a small town of Prussian Saxony; 
10 miles east of Wittenberg. Population 800. 
SEIDAU, a small town of Saxony, in Lusatia, in the 
immediate vicinity of Bautzen. Population 1400. 
SEIDENBERG, a small Jown of the Prussian states, in 
Upper Lusatia, on the borders of Bohemia, and 10 miles 
south-south-east of Gorlitz. Population 1000. 
SEIDORF, a large village of Prussian Silesia, near 
Hirschberg. Population 1000. 
SEIFERSDORF, La n gen, a large village of Prussian 
Silesia, near Reichenbach. Population 1000. 
SEIFERSHAU, a village of Prussian Silesia; 7 miles 
west of Hirschberg, and 64 west of Breslau. Population 
1100. 
SEIFINCOT, a village of England, in Gloucestershire; 
4 miles from Stow, and 6 from Campden. 
SEIGHFORD, a parish of England, in Staffordshire; 
3 miles west-north-west of Stafford. Population 866. 
SEIGNE, Col de la. See Col. 
SEIGNELAY, a small town in the interior of France, in 
the department of the Yonne, on the Senin. It contains 
1300 inhabitants, and is 6 miles north of Auxerre. 
SEIGNEU'RIAL, adj. Invested with large powers; 
independent.—Those lands were seigneurial. Temple .— 
They were the statesmen, they were the lawyers ; from them 
were often taken the bailiffs of the seigneurial courts. 
Burke. 
SE'IGNIOR, [ senior , Lat., seigneur, Fr., signore, 
Ital.] A lord. The title of honour given by Italians. 
SEIGNORAGE, or Sf.ignourage, 5. A right or due 
belonging to a seigneur, or lord. 
SEIGNORAGE is particularly used for a duty belonging 
to the prince for the poining of money, called also coinage. 
This duty is not always the same, but changes according 
to the pleasure of the prince,- and the occasions of state. 
SE'IGNIOllY, s. [seigneurie, Fr.] A lordship; a 
territory. 
Were 
