Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem. In order to restore peace to the church, Heraclius issued in 639 an edict composed by Sergius, prohibiting all controversies on the disputed point; but the remedy did not prove effectual. Sergius died in the same year.
SERLIO, Sebastiano, a celebrated Italian architect, was born at Bologna in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. If not a pupil, he is said by Vasari to have inherited the artistic effects, of Baldassari Peruzzi; but he appears to have formed himself as an architect upon the study of Vitruvius, the ancient remains in Rome and other Italian cities, and the more recent buildings in Venice. He was at Pesaro in 1511-14, but he does not appear to have at that time practised as an architect: Lanzi thinks he was then a decorative painter. He afterwards went to Verona, where he drew and measured the amphitheatre, &c.; then to Vicenza, where he built a church; and in 1534 to Venice, where he formed an acquaintance with Sanmicheli, Sansovino, and other distinguished architects then in that city. Still intent on investigating architectural antiquities, he proceeded to Pola, Ancona, Spoleto, and finally to Rome, where he completed and published (folio, 1537) his "Regole Generali di Architettura," being a treatise on the five orders of architecture. This work introduced him to the notice of Francis I., then in Rome, who invited him to France. He went thither with his family in 1541, and was directed by the king to make a design for the court of the Louvre; but, according to Milizia, he had the magnanimity to recommend the design of Lescot as superior to his own. Serlio seems to have been chiefly engaged upon the palace of Fontainebleau, and at St. Germain-en-Laye. The death of Francis (1547) deprived him of his office, and he retired to Lyons, where he was obliged to sell his architectural drawings to maintain his family. He afterwards returned to Fontainebleau, and there died in 1552. In France Serlio devoted a good deal of time to the completion of his architectural writings, which long enjoyed a great reputation.—J. T—e.
SERRES, Dominic, R.A., marine-painter, was born at Auch, department of Gers, France, in 1722. He was intended for the priesthood, but ran away from the seminary and went to sea. Working his way upwards, he had become master of a vessel engaged in the trade to Havannah, when his ship was taken by the English in 1762. Whilst a prisoner in the Marshalsea, Serres amused himself with his pencil; and on his liberation, finding that his drawings of ships met with a ready sale, he took a few lessons of Brooking the marine-painter, and adopted painting as his profession. His pictures were exclusively of ships and sea-fights; and the knowledge of nautical matters which they displayed rendering them very popular with naval officers, he received numerous commissions. Some paintings of naval reviews procured him the appointment of marine-painter to the king. Serres was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and in 1792 was elected librarian. He died in November, 1793. Many of his pictures of British naval victories were engraved. As works of art his pictures are not of much value. Six paintings by him are in the Naval gallery at Greenwich hospital.—J. T—e.
SERRES, Olivier de, a distinguished agriculturist, was born at Villeneuve de Berg in the Viverais in 1539, and died in 1619. His knowledge of agriculture brought him under the notice of Henri IV., and he was employed in the improvement of the royal domains. He wrote a work on agriculture, and on farm management; as well as a treatise on silk worms, and the culture of the white mulberry as food for them.—J. H. B.
SERTORIUS, Quintus, the Roman general, was born of respectable parentage at Nursia, in the country of the Sabines. At an early age he served with distinction in Gaul, and fought under Marius at Aix, in the great battle with the Teutones, 101 b.c. After some campaigns in Spain, he held the office of quæstor in Gaul, and showed remarkable military talents in the Marsic war, 91. On the commencement of the civil war, 88, he joined the party of Marius not from any admiration of that brutal soldier, whose character he rightly estimated, but, as it would seem, from animosity to the nobles, by whom his own career had been systematically impeded. He does not appear to have had any share in the guilt of the massacres perpetrated by Marius at Rome; and finding that horrible outrages were committed by the slaves whom the latter had enlisted, he fell upon them in their camp, and cut to pieces four thousand of them. In 83 he was prætor, but not being able to maintain himself in Italy after Sulla's return, he retired with a small army into Spain. Driven from this retreat by Sulla's lieutenants, he crossed over to Morocco, whence after various adventures he sailed for Lusitania with two thousand six hundred men in 81. Here his wise policy conciliated the natives, while his great military genius, aided by a superior knowledge of the country and the assistance of a friendly population, enabled him to defeat the generals whom the hostile faction then dominant at Rome successively sent against him. Gradually he extended his authority from Portugal over the greater part of Spain, while his strength was much increased by numerous refugees who had been driven from Italy by the violence of Sulla's partisans. Q. Metellus, an experienced general, was at length sent against him by the senate, but Sertorius still kept his ground. To give greater dignity and stability to his government he established a senate of three hundred Romans, while he gratified the natives by forming a school at Huesca in Arragon where their children were trained and educated after the Roman fashion. Taking advantage of the credulity of the people, he trained a white fawn to follow him about, and persuaded the ignorant natives that he received through the animal divine messages from the gods. In 77 Pompey was sent by the senate to the aid of Metellus, and the two generals gained several victories over the lieutenants of Sertorius. When, however, he commanded in person, they were unable to gain any advantage, and Pompey, after a severe combat on the banks of the Sucro, was only saved from defeat by the timely arrival of his colleague. Sertorius now formed an alliance with Mithridates, king of Pontus, but though still victorious in the field, his life was drawing to a close. Many of the Spaniards were alienated from him by the oppressions practised in his name, though against his orders, by his Roman subordinates; and Sertorius, apprehending a conspiracy, put to death the youths intrusted to his care who were being educated at Huesca, an act which forms the chief blot on his memory. Many of the Roman nobles who had joined him were jealous of his power, and a very large reward had been offered by Metellus for his head. Ten of his officers, all of them Romans, conspired against him, and Sertorius was murdered at a banquet in 72, after nine years' successful resistance of the power of Rome. Equally eminent as a soldier and a statesman, he was also an accomplished man of letters, and his oratory is praised by Cicero. Our information respecting this remarkable man is unhappily very imperfect; but so far as we can judge, his moral character was decidedly superior to that of his contemporaries. His general conduct towards the native populations which he governed was liberal and humane; he hated licentiousness, and the rapine and cruelty always so prevalent among the Roman soldiery, he repressed with a stern hand.—G.
SERVANDONI, Giovanni Niccola, a celebrated Italian painter and architect, was born at Florence, May 2, 1695. In painting his master was Panini; in architecture he is said by most authorities to have studied under De Rossi, but the date of De Rossi's death renders that impossible. Servandoni early acquired distinction as a decorative artist. He was largely employed in getting up those scenic spectacles at that time so much in fashion on festive occasions. His celebrity in this line caused him to be invited to Lisbon, where he was intrusted with the remodelling on a costly scale of the grand opera, in doing which he introduced a great variety of new machinery, scenic effects, &c. His success here caused him, in 1724, to be invited to Paris, where he performed similar achievements, but on even a grander scale. So great was now his fame, that he was consulted on most occasions of unusual pomp. For the duke of Würtemberg he contrived an entertainment, in which four hundred horses appeared on a stage at one time to perform various surprising evolutions. He directed the splendid pageants given at Vienna, on the occasion of the marriage of the emperor with the princess of Parma. He was sent for to England to direct the public celebration of the peace of 1716. Whilst in England he painted a stair-case in Burlington street, and some scenes for the opera. As an architect his great work is the façade of St. Sulpice, a florid yet heavy design, of two orders, Doric and Ionic, with two massive towers. He also built a church at Coulanges; a rotondo of twelve corinthian columns in the form of a temple, for Marshal Richelieu; the grand altars for Sens cathedral, and the Chartreux at Lyons; mansions in France, Brussels, and Portugal; fountains, &c. He lived in a style of profuse splendour, and notwithstanding all his employments, left little property. He died at Paris, January 29, 1766.—J. T—e.
