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

7 86 SERENA. SERENUS.
their language. It is, therefore, scarcely to b) foster-mother of the emperor Honorius, and wife
doubted that this Serapion is the same poet from of Stilicho. [HONORIUS; STILICHO.] [W. P.]
whose e4rr Clemens Alexandrinus quotes certain SERENIA'NUS, AE'LIUS, a member of the
statements respecting the Sibylline oracles. (Strom. consilium of the emperor Alexander Severus, is
vol. i. p. 304.) Stobaeus, again, quotes two called by Lampridius "omnium vir sanctissimus."
iambic verses from a certain Serapion. (Serin. 10.) (Alex. Sever. 68.)
9. There are also some Christian writers of this SERE'NUS, AE'LIUS, an Athenian gramname, but not of sufficient importance to require marian of uncertain date, wrote an epitome of the
particular notice. What is known of them, as work of Philo on Cities and their illustrious men,
well as of the other Serapions, will be found in in three books, and an epitome of the commentary
Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 154-158, and of Philoxenus on Homer, in one book (Suidas, s. v.
the other passages there referred to). [P. S.] Zeprjvos; comp. Etym. M. s. vv.'ApaivoXq and BovSERA'PION (4eparlwv), a physician of Alex- KFc'pas). Serenus also wrote'A7rolveu'oveure,,a,
andria (Galen, Introd. c. 4. vol. xiv. p. 683), who from which Stobaeus makes numerous extracts
lived in the third century B. c., after Herophilus, (Stobaeus, Floril. xi. 15, et passin). Photius
Elrasistratus, and Philinus, and before Apollonius makes mention (Bibl. Cod. 279, p. 536, a., ed.
Einpiricus, Glaucias, Heraclides of Tarentum, Me- Bekker) of dramas, written in different metres, by
nodotus, Sextus Empiricus (Gal. 1. c.; Celsus, the grammarian Serenus,who is probably the same.De M1ed. i. praef. p. 5), and Crito (Galen, De person as the preceding. (Vossius, De Hist. Graecis,
Coompos. I'edican. sec. Gen. vi. 4. vol. xiii. p. 883). p. 498, ed. Westermann.)
He belonged to the sect of the Empirici, and so SERE'NUS, AMU'LIUS, one of the prinmuch extended and improved the system of Phi- cipal centurions (primipilares) in Galba's army in
linus, that the invention of it is by some authors Rome in A. D. 69. (Tac. Hist. i. 31.)
attributed to hint (Cels. 1. c.). Dr. Mead, in his SERE'NUS, ANNAEUS, one of the most in" Dissert. de Numis quibusdam a Smyrnaeis in timate friends of the philosopher Seneca, who deMedicorumHonorem cusis"(Lond. 1724,4to. p.51), dicated to him his work De Tranquillitate. He
tries to prove that he was a follower of Erasis- was praefectus vigilum under Nero, and died in
tratus, because his name appears upon a medal consequence of eating a poisonous kind of fungus.
discovered at Smyrna, where it is known that the (Senec. Ep. 63; Tac. Ann. xiii. 13; Plin. L. N.
school of Erasistratus flourished; but it is not at xxii. 23. s. 47.)
all certain that the physician is the person in SERE'NUS, GRA'NIUS, legatus of the em.
whose honour the coin was struck. Serapion wrote peror Hadrian in Asia, wrote to the latter, reagainst HIippocrates with much vehemence (Galen, monstrating with him upon the injustice of conDe Sulfig. Empir. c. 13, vol. ii. p. 346, ed. Chart.), demning Christians to death without any definite
but neither this, nor any of his other works, are charge being brought against them. In consequenlce
now extant. He is several times mentioned and of this letter Hadirian ordered Minucius Fundanus,
quoted by Celsus (v. 28. 17, p. 115), Galen (De the successor of Serenus in Asia, to condemn no
Meth. Med. ii. 7, vol. x. pp. 136, 143; De Comnpos. Christian unless convicted of some crime. (Oros.
Medicam. sec. Loc. x. 2, De Compos. Medicarm. vii. 13; Euseb. H. E. iv. 8, 9.)
sec. Gen. ii. 9, vi. 4, vol. xiii. pp. 343, 509, 883; SERE'NUS, Q. SAMMONICUS (or SamoDe Remed. Pareb. ii. 17, vol. xiv. p. 450), nicus), enjoyed a high reputation at Rome, ill
Caelius Aurelianus (De MforSb. AcM. ii. 6, iii. 4, the early part of the third century, as a man
8, 17, 21, De liorb. Ciron. i. 4. pp. 84, 195, 212, of taste and varied knowledge. He lived upon
246, 263, 322), Aitius (ii. 2. 96, iv. 3. 11, 17, terms of intimacy with the court, and must have
pp. 296, 747, 767), Paulus Aegineta (iii. 64, been possessed of great wealth, since he accuiv. 25, vii. 17, pp. 484, 515, 678), and Nicolaus mulated a library amounting, it is said, to 62,000
Myrepsus (De Compos. olledicam. i. 66, x. 149, volumes (Capitolin. Gordian. 18). As the fiiend
pp. 374, 580), who have preserved some of his of Geta, by whom his compositions were studied
medical formulae, which are not of much value. with great pleasure, he was murdered while at
(See Sprengel's Gesch. der Arzneik. vol. i. ed. supper, by command of Caracalla, in the year A. D.
1846.) 212 (Spartian. Caracall. 4, Get. 5), leaving beIt may be useful to remark that this Serapion hind him many learned works (cuius Libri plurimi
nlust not be confounded with either of the two ad doctrinal exstant, Spartian. 1. c.). Sidonius
Arabic physicians of the same name. (See Penny Apollinaris (CareA. xiii. 21) celebrates his matheclclop.) [W. A. G.] matical lore, and that he turned his attention to
SERA'PION, a highly celebrated scene-painter, antiquarian pursuits may be gathered from Arnowho failed, however, in his attempts to depict the bius (adv. Gentes, vi. 17) and Macrobius (Sat. ii.
human figure. We have no better clue to the time 1 3), of whom the latter quotes some remarks by
at which he flourished than the following obscure Sammonicus upon the sumptuary Lex Fannia,
passage in Pliny: -Maeniana, inquit Farro, omnia while in another place (Sat. iii. 9), he extracts at
operiebat Serapionis tabu6a; sub Veteribus (Plin. full length from the fifth book of his Res Reconditae,
HI.N. xxxv. 10. s. 37). The invention of scene- the ancient forms by which the gods of a bepainting is ascribed to Sophocles. (Aristot. Poit. leaguered town were summoned forth by the
4.) [P. S.] besiegers, and the place itself devoted to the
SEPA'PIS or SARA'PIS (2iparls), an Egyp- destroying powers. In the Saturnalia also (ii. 12),
tian divinity, the worship of which was introduced is preserved a letter by Sammonicus addressed to
into Greece in the time of the Ptolemies. Apol- the emperor Septimius Severus, on the honours
lodorus (ii. 1. ~ 1) states that Serapis was the rendered at solemn banquets to the sturgeon. Acname given to Apis after his death and deification. cording to Lampridius he must have been either
(Comp. Callim. Ep. 39, and Isis.) [L. S.] an orator or a poet, or perhaps both, for it is reSERE'NA, niece of Theodosius the Great, corded by the Augustan historian in his life of