55 
SEE 
against the Catholics, and made a very severe attack upon 
the Jesuits, entitled “ Doctrinae Jesuiticae precipua capita.” 
As a learned author, he is chiefly known by an edition of 
Plato in three volumes folio, printed by Henry Stephens in 
1578, with notes and a new Latin version, which however, 
is not remarkable for correctness. The principal of his 
other works are as follow: “ Commentariorum de statu 
Religionis et Rei-publicse in Regno Francise,” comprising 
•the events from 1557 to 1576: “Memoire de la Troisidme 
Guerre civile sous Charles IX.“ Recueil des Choses memo- 
rabies avenues en France sous Henri IT., Francois II., Charles 
IX., et Henri III.;” and “ Inventaire General de l’Histoirede 
France.” Serres towards the end of his life, engaged in 
the hopeless design of uniting the Catholic and reformed 
churches, which brought on him the contempt of one party 
and the enmity of the other. He died in 1598. 
SERRES (Oliver de), an eminent agriculturist, was 
bom in 1539, at Villeneuve de Berg, in the Vivarais. 
Serres wrote works which rendered him the oracle of the 
cultivators in that age, and many of his ideas have been co¬ 
pied by later writers without acknowledgment. His “ The¬ 
atre d’Agriculture, et Menage des Champs,” 1600, has been 
several times reprinted. It has been described by Haller as 
“ a great and valuable work, written by an experienced man, 
fond of simplicity, and not at all attached to expensive 
methods.” He published treatises on the management of 
silk-worms, the collection of the silk, and the culture of the 
white mulberry-tree, which he introduced into France. 
SERRES, a small town in the south-east of France, de¬ 
partment of the Upper Alps, with 1100 inhabitants. It 
has some small manufactures of hats, cloth, and leather; 
24 miles west-south-west of Gap. 
SERRET, a village of Anatolia, in Asiatic Turkey; 30 
miles west of Castamena. 
SERREY, or Sieraje, a small town in the north-east 
of Poland, in the palatinate of Augustow. Population 
•1100; 37 miles north of Grodno. 
SERRIERES, a small town in the south-east of France, 
department of the Ardecho, on the Rhone. Population 
1700; 15 miles north of Tournon. 
SERRIERES, a village in the north of Switzerland, on 
the lake of Neufehatel, with some manufactures of paper 
and hardware; 2 miles south-west of Neufehatel. 
SERRIS, a town of Hindostan, province of Bahar, and 
district of Rhotas. It is the chief town of a small district 
■called Serris Columbah. Lat. 24.50. N. long. 84. 18. E. 
SERROPALPUS, in Entomology, a genus of insects, of 
the order Coleoptera, whose Generic Character, is as fol¬ 
lows: antenna setaceous; four unequal feelers; the an¬ 
terior ones are the longer, and deeply serrate, composed of 
four joints, the last very large, truncate, compressed, pa- 
telliform; the posterior ones are subclavate; thorax mar¬ 
gined, concealing the head, with a prominent angle on each 
side; the head is deflected; and the feet formed for digging. 
There are two species:— 
1. Serropalpus striatus.'—The body of this insect is brown; 
the shells striate.—It inhabits the island of Runsale, and is 
described in the Stockholm Transactions for the year 1786; 
where it is said to be found chiefly on old wooden buildings, 
in the evening in autumn, and is about the size of the Elater 
aterrimus. 
2. Serropalpus laevigatus.—This species is characterized 
by a black body, and smooth shejls.—It inhabits different 
parts of Europe, and is likewise described in the volume of 
the Stockholm Transactions already referred to. 
SERRURIA, in Botany, a name altered by Mr. Salisbury 
and Mr. Brown, from the Serraria of professor John Bur- 
mann, who in his Plantae Africanee, 266, establishes the 
latter appellation, in honour of Dr. Joseph Serrurier, Pro¬ 
fessor at Utrecht. It comprehends chiefly those plants de¬ 
scribed under the Linnsen term. Protea. 
To SE'RRY, v. a. [serrer, French; serrato, Italian. Dr. 
Johnson.— Sera is the Cornish term for lock, or shut upl] 
To press close; to drive hard together. The participle only 
is used. 
SEE 
With them rose 
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms 
Appear’d, and serried shields in thick array. Milton. 
Foul dissipation follow’d, and forc’d rout; 
Nor serv’d it to relax their serried files. Milton. 
SERSALISIA, separated by Mr. Brown, in his Prodr. 
Nov. Holl., from the Linnaean Sidero.vi/lon ; but the cha¬ 
racter does not seem very clear. 
SERT, a town of Kurdistan, in Asiatic Turkey. Its 
name and position, as well as the tradition of the inhabitants, 
point it out as the ancient Tigranocerta, the capital of 
Tigranes, who peopled it chiefly by prisoners seized during 
his invasion of Syria and Cappadocia. In the year 69 
A.C. it was taken and plundered by Lucullus, but retained its 
importance till after the Saracen invasion. It is now only 
a large village, containing about 3000 inhabitants, partly 
Mahometans, partly Armenian Christians, accommodated, 
with three small mosques, a college, and Armenian church. 
It is situated in a small plain, surrounded on every side by 
high mountains, and is washed by the river Kabour. There 
are no remarkable monuments of any kind, the country 
affording no durable materials. The surrounding territory 
is in a comparatively improved state of culture. The chief 
of Sert possesses almost absolute authority, and is in every 
respect a powerful feudal lord; 75 miles south-east of 
Diarbekir. 
SERTORIUS (Quintus), a distinguished Roman com¬ 
mander, was a native of Nursia, in the Picentine region of 
Italy. He made his first campaign under Servilius Caepio, 
against the Cimbrians and Teutones in Gaul. In an early 
engagement he was severely wounded, and would have lost 
his life, if he had not possessed sufficient vigour to swim 
across the Rhone, when encumbered with his armour. He 
next served under Marius, and exhibited proofs of valour 
and talents, which much ingratiated him with that general. 
Spain was the next great theatre of his exertions, where he 
served under Didius, and acquired much reputation in the 
campaign. On his return to Rome, he was made questor 
in Cisalpine Gaul; and when the social war broke out, he 
brought a well-timed reinforcement to the Roman army. 
In a battle that ensued, he lost an eye, a mark of bravery 
in which he always gloried, and which pointed him out to 
the plaudits of the people, whenever he appeared in the 
theatre, and other public places. He was candidate for 
the tribuneship, but was disappointed in his hopes by the 
overbearing interest of Sylla: he accordingly joined the 
party of Marius in the succeeding civil war. He com¬ 
manded one of the three armies which invested Rome, and 
honourably distinguished himself by abstaining from all 
those acts of cruelty which disgraced the arms of Cinna and 
Marius. When Sylla gained the ascendancy in Italy, Ser- 
torius withdrew to Spain, of which country he had been 
appointed pretor. Here he hoped to be able to revive his 
cause, and with this view he detached a body of troops to 
seize the passes of the Pyrenees; but the murder of their 
commander induced them to abandon their post, and conse¬ 
quently laid Spain open to Sylla’s officers. After some 
various adventures, chiefly of the disastrous kind, Sertorius 
went into Africa, and assisted the Mauritanians to throw 
off the yoke of a tyrannical king; defeating one of Sylla’s 
generals, by whom he was supported. His reputation now 
caused him to be invited to Lusitania; and sailing thither 
with a small body of Romans and Africans, he obtained 
such an ascendancy over the natives that he soon had the 
command of the whole Lusitanian nation. He exercised 
them in the arts of warfare, and introduced a rigid discipline 
among them ; but Roman tactics being unsuitable to them, 
he adopted a service better suited to the nature and circum¬ 
stances of the country. He defeated, with his new trained 
armies, several Roman generals, who were sent against him, 
and instituted a senate in competition with that of Rome, 
and imitated all the forms of the republic. He foiled the 
attempts of that eminent commander, Metellus, to reduce 
him; continually harassing his troops by sudden attacks and 
skirmishes. 
