Ramesses. Diodorus calls him Sesoosis. Sesostris is the Ramses, who is the third king of the nineteenth dynasty, the son of Seti, and father of Menepthah. He is often termed Ramses II. or the Great, by way of distinction from Ramses the first king of his dynasty. During the lifetime of his father he marched into Arabia, and conquered it. After this he conquered the greater part of Libya. When he became king he first attacked the Ethiopians, whom he subdued. Sailing with a large fleet from the Red sea, he traversed the coasts of Asia as far as India, and conquered all the peoples in them. From Asia he crossed into Europe, where he subdued the Scythians and Thracians. In the various countries subjugated he is said to have erected pillars, on which he inscribed his name and conquests. After a campaign of nine years' duration he returned to Egypt, loaded with spoils, and having many captives. At Pelusium he was nearly destroyed by the treachery of his brother, who was regent of Egypt during his absence. After punishing the delinquent, he adorned the temples of the gods, and rewarded his warriors. His multitudinous prisoners were employed in public works. He surrounded many cities with high mounds to protect them from the inundations of the Nile; dug canals to carry off the superfluous waters of the river; built a wall from Pelusium to Heliopolis, as a protection against the Syrians and Arabians; dedicated a huge ship of cedar-wood to the divinity of Thebes; and raised two obelisks as monuments of the greatness of his power, on which he had inscriptions engraved. After reigning sixty-six years he was overtaken with blindness, and put an end to his life. He was also called Sethosis, which Bunsen reads Se-sothis, i.e., son of Sothis or Seti. Wilkinson places him 1355 b.c.; but Bunsen, 1392-1326 b.c. There is little doubt that many of the exploits attributed to Sesostris are mythical. The deeds of different kings have been thrown together by tradition. Those of the second and third kings of the nineteenth dynasty have been manifestly confounded.—(See Herodotus, ii.; Diodorus, i.; Bunsen's Ægypten's Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, vol. iii.; Bunsen's Bibelwerk I., i. ccx.)—S. D.
SESTINI, Domenico, Numismatist, born in Florence of worthy parents, August 10, 1750; died in the same city, having preserved his faculties to extreme old age, June 8, 1832. He studied under the clerks regular of the Scuole Pie, subsequently spent some while at Buonsollazzo in the Trappist convent; but early abandoned the austere rule of that brotherhood, and entered on a career of travel and laborious research, which appeared more congenial to his temperament and talents. Sicily, Hungary, Vienna, Constantinople, Naples, Wallachia, Aleppo, Berlin, Alexandria, these and other places alternately received him as a sojourner, under various patronage; his attention being specially directed to the collection and classification of coins, which, following and carrying further the system of Eckhel, he brought forward as illustrations and certifiers of history. His services having been secured by Sir Robert Ainslie, English ambassador to the Porte, he collected for the Ainslie museum more than ten thousand medals, without reckoning duplicates. Finally, after his many wanderings he obtained an honorary professorship in the Pisan university, and died in his own land, leaving a respected name. In the Biografia degli Italiani Illustri, edited by Emilio de Tipaldo, 1837, mention is made of a MS. "Sistema Geografico-numismatico," in 14 vols. folio, composed by Sestini, and purchased by the Grand Duke Leopoldo II. Of Sestini's numerous published works the following titles form a sample—"Lettere Odeporiche;" "Viaggio curioso, scientifico, antiquario, per la Valachia, Transilvania ed Ungheria sino a Vienna;" "Viaggi ed Opuscoli diversi;" "Agricoltura, Prodotti e Commercio della Sicilia;" "Classes generales geographiæ, numismaticæ, populorum et Regum;" "Relazione sui Moderni Falsificatori."—C. G. R.
SESTO, Cesare da, called also Cesare Milanese, was born near Milan, but the exact date of both his birth and his death is unknown. He was the scholar and a close imitator of Leonardo da Vinci; but he also spent some time with Raphael at Rome, and imitated also that great master. The Studj gallery at Naples possesses a picture by Cesare showing the imitation of both masters—an Adoration of the Kings—in which the Madonna and Child are from Leonardo, and the other figures from Raphael. His pictures are often carefully and beautifully painted, with a very simple expression in his heads; but he was fond of shot colours for his draperies. His masterpiece is considered "San Rocco," now in the Melzi gallery at Milan. His countryman Lomazzo asserts that Cesare da Sesto never turned out a work that was not perfect. He died about 1524.—(Lomazzo, Trattato del Arte della Pittura, &c.)—R. N. W.
SETTALA, Lodovico, in Latin Septalius, medical doctor, born in Milan 1550 or 1552; died in 1633. He studied in the Jesuit schools, afterwards in the university of Pavia. Various states competed for his services, but he gave the preference to his birthplace, and there accepted a medical appointment; and when in 1576 and 1630 a pestilence ravaged Milan, his skill was exerted to aid the sufferers. He left a son, Manfredi, remarkable for erudition and inventive talent; and was the author of works on medical and other subjects, including "Commentaria in Aristotelis problemata; Commentaria in Hippocratem de aeribus, aquis, et locis;" seven books '"Delia Ragione di Stato;" and a composition "De peste et pestiferis affectibus."—C. G. R.
SETTLE, Elkanah, an English poet, who though now dropped out of the lists of famous English writers, was in his day enabled, by the malicious patronage of Lord Rochester and others, to vex the soul of Dryden, and assume the air of a rival of that great poet. Elkanah was born at Dunstable in 1648, and in his eighteenth year went to Trinity college, Oxford, which he left without taking a degree. His first appearance in literature was as a whig pamphleteer, in which character he achieved some success. In 1671 his first play, "Cambyses," was made the fashion by Rochester, who anxious to humble Dryden, procured a still greater vogue for Settle's next drama, "The Empress of Morocco," in 1673. To some animadversions on Dryden in this play the great master of satire replied with asperity, and gibbeted Settle under the name of "Doeg" in Absalom and Achitophel. Settle not only replied to Dryden's Medal by a poem in defence of the whigs, entitled "The Medal reversed," but even published an answer to Absalom and Achitophel, with the title of "Azaria and Hushai." Of plays he wrote altogether fifteen. His latter days were unfortunate. From a whig who had superintended the fireworks at the burning of the pope's effigy, he became a panegyrist of James II., and a volunteer in his army. The revolution of 1688 left him without court friends. He subsisted on a pension paid to him as the city poet, for a "Triumph of London," written every lord mayor's day. He gradually sank to the composition of drolls for the shows at Bartholomew fair, and even acted the part of a dragon in a case of green leather. He died in the Charterhouse, February 12, 1723-24.—R. H.
SEVERINUS, Pope, succeeded Honorius, 28th May, 640. He was a native of Rome, and a man of virtue, benevolence, and moderation. He died on the 2nd August, 640.—S. D.
SEVERUS, Cornelius, a Roman poet, was contemporary with Ovid, who has addressed to him one of his Epistles from Pontus in terms of affectionate regard. He appears from hence to have been the author of a poem, entitled "Bellum Siculum;" and a fragment of his is quoted by the elder Seneca in the Suasoriæ. So far as we can judge from these scanty testimonies, Severus does not appear to have possessed much claim to literary distinction.—G.
SEVERUS, Lucius Septimius, Roman emperor, 193-211, was born in 146, of an equestrian family near Leptis in Africa. He was the only native of that continent who ever attained the imperial dignity. Severus received a good education, and was sent by his family at an early age to push his fortunes at Rome. He soon became distinguished for his military talents, and filled the office of prætor at the age of thirty-two. After occupying many important posts with increasing influence and success, he was appointed to the rank of commander-in-chief in Illyricum and Pannonia. Here, after the murder of Pertinax, he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers at Carnutum in 193. Professing his intention to avenge the death of Pertinax, whom he had recognized as emperor, he set forward for Italy at the head of his army. The senate declared him a public enemy, but Didius Julianus, the titular emperor, whose claims were supported by the senate, was deserted by the prætorian guards, and perished almost without resistance. Severus now master of Rome, cashiered the prætorians, and put to death the murderers of Pertinax. Treating with just contempt the servile flattery of the senate, who tried to gain his favour by making him out to be a descendant of the ancient Alban kings, Severus, after taking measures for the tranquillity of Italy, left the city for the East within thirty days after he had entered it His presence was indeed urgently required in Asia to oppose his rival Pescennius
