Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/800

788 SERRANUS. ciiWos, is mentioned by Cicero as alive at the time of the Social War, B. c. 90. (Cic. pro Cluent 7.) 5. L. Sergius, a scriba of Cicero, when he was quaestor in Sicily, B. c. 75. (Cic. Verr. iii. 78.) 6. L. Sergius, the armiger of Catiline, and subsequently one of Clodius's mob. (Cic. pro Dom. 5, 33.) 7. Sergius, proscribed by the triumvirs in b. c. 43, lay concealed in the house of Antony, till the latter obtained his pardon. (Appian, B. C. iv. 45) SE'RGIUS (2ep7ios), of Zeugma, a town in Syria, the son of Aphthonius, was, according to Suidas (s. «.), praefectus praetorio, a consu- laris and a patrician. He wrote an epitaphium on his brother Sabinus, and a work against Aelius Aristeides. SE'RGIUS, a grammarian of uncertain date, but later than the fourth century, the author of two tracts ; the first entitled In primam Donati Edi- tionem Commentanum [see Don'atus] ; the second, In secundam Donati Editionem Commentaria, which were first published in the collection of minor grammarians, printed at Milan, fol. 1504, and which will both be found in the "Grammaticae Latinae auctores antiqui" of Putschius (4to. Han- nov. 1605, pp. 1816—1838). The former appears under its best form in the " Analecta Grammatica" of Endlicher, who has also printed from a Bobbio MS., now at Vienna, a fragment of Sergius, de Arte Grammatica. By some scholars this Sergius is supposed to be the same person with Servius Maurus Honoratus, the celebrated commentator on Virgil ; but there is still extant (pp. 1779—1799, ed. Putsch.) a commentary by Servius upon the second edition of Donatus altogether different from that which bears the name of Sergius. [W. R.] SERMO, M. MA'RCIUS, tribune of the plebs B. c. 172, in conjunction with his colleague Q. Marcius Scylla, compelled the consuls of that year to go into their provinces, and also proposed the rogatio Marcia de Liguribus. (Li v. xlii. 21.) SERRA'NUS, was originally an agnomen of C. Atilius Regulus, consul B. c. 257, but afterwards became the name of a distinct family of the Atilia gens. The origin of the name is uncertain. Most of the ancient writers derive it from serere, and relate that Regulus received the surname of Serra- nus, because he was engaged in sowing when the news was brought him of his elevation to the con- sulship ("Serentem invenerunt dati honores Ser- ranum, unde cognomen," Plin. H. N. xviii. 3. 8.4 ; " te sulco, Serrane, serentem, Virg. Aen. vi. 845 ; Cic. pro Sex. Rose. 18 ; Val. Max^. iv. 4. § 5.) It appears, however, from coins, that Saranus is the proper form of the name, and Perizonius {Animadv. Hist. c. 1) thinks that it is derived from Saranum, a town of Umbria. 1. C. Atilius Regulus Serranus, consul B.C. 257. [Regulus, No. 4.] 2. C. Atilius Serranus, probably son of the preceding, was praetor B. c. 2 1 8, the first year of the second Punic "War, and was sent into northern Italy, to strengthen the army of the other praetor, L. Manlius, who was attacked by the Boii. At a later period of the year, he and his colleague re- signed their command to the consul P. Scipio, who returned from the Rhone to oppose Hannibal in Italy. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship for b. c. 216. (Liv. xxi. 26, 39, 62 ; Appian, Annib. 5 ; Polyb.iii. 40 ; Liv. xxii. 35.) 3. C. Atilius Serranus, probably the eldest SERRANUS. I son of No. 2, curule aedile b. c. 193, with L. Scri- bonius Libo. They were the first aediles who exhibited the Megalesia as ludi scenici ; and it wag in their aedileship that the senators had seats assigned them in the theatre, distinct from the rest of the people. He did not obtain the praetorship till B. c. 185. (Liv. xxxiv. 54 ; Val. Max. ii. 4. § 3 ; Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 69, ed. Oreili ; Liv. xxxix. 23.) 4. A. Atilius Serranus, probably the second son of No. 2, was praetor B. c. 1 92, and obtained, as his province, Macedonia and the command of the fleet, under the pretext of carrying on hos- tilities against the Lacedaemonian tyrant Nabis, but in reality that he might be ready to act in the threatening war against Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. In the following year he retained the command of the fleet till the arrival of his successor, C. Livius Salinator ; and as the war had been al- ready declared against Antiochus, he captured in the Aegean a large fleet of transports carrying pro- visions to the king, and brought the ships into the Peiraeeus. He was praetor a second time in b. c. 173, and obtained the jurisdictio urbana. He was ordered in the same year to renew with Antiochus Epiphanes the treaty which had been concluded with his father. In B. c. 171 he was sent, with Q. Marcius Philippus and others, as am- bassador into Greece, to counteract the designs and influence of Perseus. An account of this embassy, and of the way in which he and Phi- lippus deceived the Macedonian monarch, is given in the life of Philippus [Vol. III. p. 286, a.]. In the following year, B. c. 170, he was consul with A. Hostilius Mancinus, and obtained Italy as his province, while his colleague had the conduct of the war against Perseus. ( Liv. xxxv. 1 0, 20, 22, xxxvi. 20 ; Appian, Syr. 22 ; Liv. xli. 28, xlii. 1, 6, 37, 38, 44, 47 ; Polyb. xxvii. 2 ; Liv. xliii. 9.) 5. M. Atilius Serranus, probably the third son of No. 2, was one of the triumvirs appointed in B. c. 190, for settling new colonists at Placentia and Cremona. He is probably the same as the M. Atilius who was praetor in b. c. 174, and obtained the province of Sardinia. (Liv. xxxvii. 46, xli. 21.) 6. M. Atilius Serranus, praetor b. c. 152, in Further Spain, defeated the Lusitani, and took their principal city, Oxthracae. (Appian, Hisp. 58.) 7. Sex. Atilius Serranus, consul b. c. 1 36, with P. Furius Philus. (Obsequ. 84 ; Cic. de Off. iii. 30, ad Att. xii. 5.) 8. C. Atilius Serranus, consul b. c. 106 with Q. Servilius Caepio, the year in which Cicero and Pompey were born. Although a " stultissimus homo," according to Cicero, he was elected in pre- ference to Q. Catulus (Obsequ. 101 ; Gell. xv. 28 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 53 ; Cic. pro Plane. 5). He was one of the senators who took up ai-ms against Satur- ninus in b. c. 100. (Cic, pro C. Rabir. 7.) 9. Atilius Serranus, one of the distinguished men slain by order of Marius and Cinna, when they entered Rome at the close of b. c. 87. (Ap- pian, B. C. i. 72.) 10. Sbx. Atilius Serranus Gavianus, ori- ginally belonged to the Gavia gens, but was adopted by one of the Atilii. He was quaestor io B. c. 63 in the consulship of Cicero, who treated him with distinguished favour ; but in his tri- bunate of the plebs, B. c. 57, he notwithstanding allowed himself to be purchased by Cicero's eno-