A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

776 SEMELE. SEMIRAMIS.
the inhabitants by his violent and tyrannical cha- Dionysus, with whom she was pregnant (Apoliod,
racter, and at length, by his oppressive exactions iii. 4. ~ 3; Ov. Mlet. iii. 260, &c.; Ilygin. Faeb.
of money, excited such a sedition among them that 179). Pausanias (ix. 2. ~ 3) relates that Actaeon
they set fire to the gymnasium in which he had was in love with her, and that Artemis caused him
taken refuge, and he perished in the flames, or, to be torn to pieces by his dogs, to prevent his
according to another account, put an end to his own marrying her. The inhabitants of Brasiae, in Lalife, in order to avoid a more cruel fate (Joseph. conia, related that Semele, after having given birth
Ant. xiii. 13. ~ 4; Appian, Syr. 69; Porphyr. ap. to Dionysus, was thrown by her father Cadmus in
Euseb. Arm. p. 169). The death of Seleucus may a boat upon the sea, and that her body was driven
probably be assigned to the year B. C. 94. to the coast of Brasiae, where it was buried;
His coins, like those of all the later Seleucidan whereas Dionysus, whose life was saved, was
kings, bear his titles at full length. [E. H. B.] brought up at Brasiae (Paus. iii. 24. ~ 3). After
SELEUCUS (E'Ahevcos), literary. 1. A poet, her death, the common account continues, she was
the son of the historian Mnesiptolemus, who flou- led by her son out of the lower world, and carried up
rished under Antiochus the Great. A paederastic to Olympus as Thyone (Pind. 01. ii. 44, PYt!l. xi.
scolion of his is preserved by Athenaeus (who calls 1; Pans. ii. 31. ~ 2, 37. ~ 5; Apollod. iii. 5. ~ 3).
him Tol TrCV hAapciY io'aTdWC Vro77Trr'7V), and also A statue of her and her tomb were shown at
in the Greek Anthology. (Athen. xv. p. 697, d.; Thebes. (Paus. ix. 12. ~ 3, 16. ~ 4.) [L. S.]
Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 291;Jacobs, Ant#. Graec. SEMI'RAMIS (,Fys/payus) and NINUS (N7vol. iii. p. 5, vol. xiii. p. 951.) vos), the mythical founders of the Assyrian em2. A grammarian of Emesa, who composed two pire of Ninus or Nineveh. Their history is
books of Parthian history, a commentary on the related at length by Diodorus (ii. 1-20), who
lyric poets, and a poem on fishing (dksleu-Ld'), in borrows his account from Ctesias. According to
four books (Suid. s. v.). Athenaeus, however, this narrative, Ninus was a great warrior, whe
quotes the latter as the work of Seleucus of Tarsus built the town of Ninus or Nineveh, about B. C.
(vii. p. 320, a.). 2182 [see above, p. 712, a.], and subdued the
3. A distinguished grammarian of Alexandria, greater part of Asia. Semiramis was the daughter
who also taught at Rome. He was surnamed Ho- of the fish-goddess Derceto of Ascalon in Syria,
soerices, and, in addition to commentaries on pretty and was the fruit of her love with a Syrian youth
well all the poets, wrote a number of grammatical but being ashamed of her frailty, she made away
and miscellaneous works, the titles of which are with the youth, and exposed her infant daughter.
given by Suidas (s. v.). There are some other in- But the child was miraculously preserved by doves,
significant persons of this name. (See Vossius, de who fed her till she was discovered by the shephIist. Graec. p. 496, ed. Westermann; Fabric. herds of the neighbourhood. She was then brought
Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 86, 184, n., 522, vol. ii. up by the chief shepherd of the royal herds, whose
p. 27, vol. iv. p. 166, vol. v. p. 107, vol. vi. p. name was Simmas, and from whom she derived
378.) [P. S.] the name of Semiramis. Her surpassing beauty
SELEUCUS, an engraver of precious stones, of attracted the notice of Onnes, one of the king's
unknown date, one of whose gems is extant; it is friends and generals, who married her. He subsea carnelian, engraved with a small head of Silenus. quently sent for his wife to the army, where the
(Bracci, 104; Stosch, 60.) [P. S.] Assyrians were engaged in the siege of Bactra,
SELI'CIUS, an usurer, and a friend of P. Len- which they had long endeavoured in vain to take.
tulus Spinther (Cic. ad Att. i. 12, iv. 18. ~ 3, ad Upon her arrival in the camp, she planned an atFam. i. 5, a.). Orelli thinks (Onom. Tull. s. v.) tack upon the citadel of the town, mounted the
that Selicius may perhaps be the same name as walls with a few brave followers, and obtained
the Secilius (YrqcikLos) mentioned in Dion Cassius possession of the place. Ninus was so charmed
(xxxv. 3), but this Secilius is called Sextilius in by her bravery and beauty, that he resolved to
Plutarch. (Lucull. 25.) make her his wife, whereupon her unfortunate
SELINUS (:sXwvovs), a son of Poseidon, was husband put an end to his life. By Ninus Semiking of Aegialos and father of Helice. (Pans. vii. ramis had a son, Ninyas, and on the death of Ninus
1. ~ 2; Eustath. ad Hornm. p. 292.) [L. S.] she succeeded him on the throne. According to
SE'L1US. 1, 2. P. and C. SELII, two learned another account, Semiramis had obtained from her
men, friends of L. Lucullus, who had heard Philon husband permission to rule over Asia for five days,
at Rome. (Cic. Acad. ii. 4.) and availed herself of this opportunity to cast the killg
3. SELIUS, a bad orator mentioned by Cicero into a dungeon, or, as is also related, to put him to
about B. C. 51 (ad Fall. vii. 32). death, and thus obtained the sovereign power.
A. SE'LLIUS, elected tribune of the plebs in (Diod. ii. 20; Aelian, V. HI. vii. 1.) Her fame
his absence in B. C. 422. (Liv. iv. 42.) threw into the shade that of Ninus; and later
SE'MELE (e3EAs77), a daughter of Cadmus and ages loved to tell of her marvellous deeds and her
Harmonia, at Thebes, and accordingly a sister of heroic achievements. She built numerous cities,
Ino, Agave, Autonol, and Polydorus. She was and erected many wonderful buildinlgs; and several
beloved by Zeus (Hom. 11. xiv. 323, Hymnn. in of the most extraordinary works in the East, which
B:tcch. 6, 57; Schol. ad Pind. 01. ii. 40), and were extant in a later age, and tile authors of which
HIera, stimulated by jealousy, appeared to her in were unknown, were ascribed by popular tradition
the form of her aged nurse Beroe, and induced her to this queen. In Nineveh she erected a tomb for
to pray Zeus to visit her in the same splendour and her husband, nine stadia high, and ten wide; she
majesty with which he appeared to Hera. Zeus, built the city of Babylon with all its wonders,
who had promised that he would grant her every
request, did as she desired. He appeared to her * Herodotus only once mentions Semiramis
as tile god of thunder, and Semele was consumed (i. 184), where he states that she was a queen of
by the fire of lightning; but Zeus saved her child Babylon, who lived five generations before Nitocris,