DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13855#0345
SENIOKES.
7
SERVUS.
original number of 100 [centum) senators.
3. The right of sitting in the orchestra in the
theatres and amphitheatres. This distinction
was first procured for the senators by Scipio
Africanus Major, 194 b. c. 4. On a certain
day in the year a sacrifice was offered to
Jupiter in the Capitol, and on this occasion
the senators alone had a feast in the Capitol;
the right was called the jus publico epulandi,
5. The jus liberae legationis. [Legatus, p.
224.]
SENIOKES. [Comitia.]
SEPTEMYIRI EPULOXES. [Epulottes.]
SEP'TIMONTIUM, a Roman festival which
was held in the month of December. It was
celebrated by the montani, or the inhabitants
of the seven ancient hills or rather districts
of Rome, who offered on this day sacrifices to
the gods in their respective districts. These
sacra were, like the Paganalia, not sacra
publica, but privata. They were believed to
have been instituted to commemorate the
enclosure of the seven hills of Rome within
•the walls of the city, and must certainly be
referred to a time when the Capitoline, Qui-
rinal, and Yiminal were not yet incorporated
with Rome.
SEPTUM. [Comitia, p. 107.]
SEPTUNX. [As.]
SEPULCRUM. [Funus.]
SERA. [JahuA.]
SERIUUM (o-ijptxd^), silk, also called bom-
btjeinum. Raw silk was brought from the
interior of Asia, and manufactured in Cos, as
early as the fourth century b. c. From this
island it appears that the Roman ladies ob-
tained their most splendid garments [Coa
Testis], which were remarkably thin, some-
times of a fine purple dye, and variegated
with transverse stripes of gold. Silk was
supposed to come from the country of the Seres
in Asia, whence a silk garment is usually
called Serica vestis. Under the empire the
rage for such garments was constantly on the
increase. Even men aspired to be adorned
with silk, and hence the senate, early in the
reign of Tiberius, enacted ne vestis Serica vims
fcedaret. The eggs of the silkworm were first
brought into Europe in the age of Justinian,
a. d. 530, in the hollow stem of a plant from
" Serinda," which was probably Khotan in
Little Bucharia, by some monks who had learnt
the method of hatching and rearing them.
SERTA. [Corona.]
SERVUS (SoiAos), a slave. (1) Greek.
Slavery existed almost throughout the whole
of Greece ; and Aristotle says that a complete
household is that which consists of slaves
and freemen, and he defines a slave to be a
1 ving working-tool and possession. None
of the Greek philosophers ever seem to have
objected to slavery as a thing morally wrong;
Plato in his perfect state only desires that no
Greeks should be made slaves by Greeks, and
Aristotle defends the justice of the institution
on the ground of a diversity of race, and
divides mankind into the free and those who
are slaves by nature; under the latter de-
scription he appears to have regarded all
barbarians in the Greek sense of the word,
and therefore considers their slavery justifi-
able. In the most ancient times there are
said to have been no slaves in Greece, but we
find them in the Homeric poems, though by
no means so generally as in later times.
They are usually prisoners taken in war,
who serve their conquerors: but we also
read as well of the purchase and sale of
slaves. They were, however, at that time
mostly confined to the houses of the wealthy.
There were two kinds of slavery among the
Greeks. One species arose when the inhabit-
ants of a country were subdued by an invad-
ing tribe, and reduced to the condition of
serfs or bondsmen. They lived upon and
cultivated the land which their masters had
appropriated to themselves, and paid them a
certain rent. They also attended their
masters in war. They could not be sold out
of the country or separated from their fami-
lies, and could acquire property. Such were
the Helots of Sparta [Helotes], and the
Penestae of Thessaly [Penestae]. The other
species of slavery consisted of domestic slaves
acquired by purchase, who were entirely the
property of their masters, and could be dis-
posed of like any other goods and chattels :
these were the SoiAoi properly so called, and
were the kind of slaves that existed at Athens
and Corinth. In commercial cities slaves
were very numerous, as they performed the
work of the artisans and manufacturers of
modern towns. In poorer republics, which
had little or no capital, and which subsisted
wholly by agriculture, they would be few :
thus in Phocis and Locris there are said to
have been originally no domestic slaves.
The majority of slaves was purchased ; few
comparatively were born in the family of the
master, partly because the number of female
slaves was very small in comparison with the
male, and partly because the cohabitation of
slaves was discouraged, as it was considered
cheaper to purchase than to rear slaves. It
was a recognised rule of Greek national law
that the persons of those who were taken
prisoners in war became the property of the
conqueror, but it was the practice for Greeks
to give liberty to those of their own nation
on payment of a ransom. Consequently
almost all slaves in Greece, with the excep-
tion of the serfs above-mentioned, were bar-
z
7
SERVUS.
original number of 100 [centum) senators.
3. The right of sitting in the orchestra in the
theatres and amphitheatres. This distinction
was first procured for the senators by Scipio
Africanus Major, 194 b. c. 4. On a certain
day in the year a sacrifice was offered to
Jupiter in the Capitol, and on this occasion
the senators alone had a feast in the Capitol;
the right was called the jus publico epulandi,
5. The jus liberae legationis. [Legatus, p.
224.]
SENIOKES. [Comitia.]
SEPTEMYIRI EPULOXES. [Epulottes.]
SEP'TIMONTIUM, a Roman festival which
was held in the month of December. It was
celebrated by the montani, or the inhabitants
of the seven ancient hills or rather districts
of Rome, who offered on this day sacrifices to
the gods in their respective districts. These
sacra were, like the Paganalia, not sacra
publica, but privata. They were believed to
have been instituted to commemorate the
enclosure of the seven hills of Rome within
•the walls of the city, and must certainly be
referred to a time when the Capitoline, Qui-
rinal, and Yiminal were not yet incorporated
with Rome.
SEPTUM. [Comitia, p. 107.]
SEPTUNX. [As.]
SEPULCRUM. [Funus.]
SERA. [JahuA.]
SERIUUM (o-ijptxd^), silk, also called bom-
btjeinum. Raw silk was brought from the
interior of Asia, and manufactured in Cos, as
early as the fourth century b. c. From this
island it appears that the Roman ladies ob-
tained their most splendid garments [Coa
Testis], which were remarkably thin, some-
times of a fine purple dye, and variegated
with transverse stripes of gold. Silk was
supposed to come from the country of the Seres
in Asia, whence a silk garment is usually
called Serica vestis. Under the empire the
rage for such garments was constantly on the
increase. Even men aspired to be adorned
with silk, and hence the senate, early in the
reign of Tiberius, enacted ne vestis Serica vims
fcedaret. The eggs of the silkworm were first
brought into Europe in the age of Justinian,
a. d. 530, in the hollow stem of a plant from
" Serinda," which was probably Khotan in
Little Bucharia, by some monks who had learnt
the method of hatching and rearing them.
SERTA. [Corona.]
SERVUS (SoiAos), a slave. (1) Greek.
Slavery existed almost throughout the whole
of Greece ; and Aristotle says that a complete
household is that which consists of slaves
and freemen, and he defines a slave to be a
1 ving working-tool and possession. None
of the Greek philosophers ever seem to have
objected to slavery as a thing morally wrong;
Plato in his perfect state only desires that no
Greeks should be made slaves by Greeks, and
Aristotle defends the justice of the institution
on the ground of a diversity of race, and
divides mankind into the free and those who
are slaves by nature; under the latter de-
scription he appears to have regarded all
barbarians in the Greek sense of the word,
and therefore considers their slavery justifi-
able. In the most ancient times there are
said to have been no slaves in Greece, but we
find them in the Homeric poems, though by
no means so generally as in later times.
They are usually prisoners taken in war,
who serve their conquerors: but we also
read as well of the purchase and sale of
slaves. They were, however, at that time
mostly confined to the houses of the wealthy.
There were two kinds of slavery among the
Greeks. One species arose when the inhabit-
ants of a country were subdued by an invad-
ing tribe, and reduced to the condition of
serfs or bondsmen. They lived upon and
cultivated the land which their masters had
appropriated to themselves, and paid them a
certain rent. They also attended their
masters in war. They could not be sold out
of the country or separated from their fami-
lies, and could acquire property. Such were
the Helots of Sparta [Helotes], and the
Penestae of Thessaly [Penestae]. The other
species of slavery consisted of domestic slaves
acquired by purchase, who were entirely the
property of their masters, and could be dis-
posed of like any other goods and chattels :
these were the SoiAoi properly so called, and
were the kind of slaves that existed at Athens
and Corinth. In commercial cities slaves
were very numerous, as they performed the
work of the artisans and manufacturers of
modern towns. In poorer republics, which
had little or no capital, and which subsisted
wholly by agriculture, they would be few :
thus in Phocis and Locris there are said to
have been originally no domestic slaves.
The majority of slaves was purchased ; few
comparatively were born in the family of the
master, partly because the number of female
slaves was very small in comparison with the
male, and partly because the cohabitation of
slaves was discouraged, as it was considered
cheaper to purchase than to rear slaves. It
was a recognised rule of Greek national law
that the persons of those who were taken
prisoners in war became the property of the
conqueror, but it was the practice for Greeks
to give liberty to those of their own nation
on payment of a ransom. Consequently
almost all slaves in Greece, with the excep-
tion of the serfs above-mentioned, were bar-
z