Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

698 S E Y -
Gregory says he had the legend from the interpretation of “ a
certain Syrian ” ; in point of fact the story is very common in
Syriac sources. It forms the subject of a homily of Jacob of Sarug
(ob. 521 A.D.), which is given in the Acta Sanctorum. Another
Syriac version is printed in Land’s Anecdota, iii. 87 sq. ; see also
Barhebrseus, Ohron. Eccles., i. 142 sq., and compare Assemani,
Bib. Or., i. 335 sq. Some forms of the legend give, eight sleepers,—
e.g., an ancient MS. of the 6th century now in the British Museum
{Cat. Syr. MSS., p. 1090). There are considerable variations as to
their names. The legend rapidly attained a wide diffusion through¬
out Christendom ; its currency in the East is testified by its accept¬
ance by Mohammed (sur. xviii.), who calls them Ashdb al-KaJif,
“the men of the cave.” According to Al-Biruni {Chronology, tr.
by Sachau, p. 285) certain undecayed corpses of monks were shown
in a cave as the sleepers of Ephesus in the 9th century. The seven
sleepers are a favourite subject in early medkeval art.
SEVERN, The, next to the Thames in length among
the rivers of England, rises at Maes Hafren on the eastern
side of Plinlimmon, on the south-south-west borders of
Montgomeryshire, and flows in a nearly semicircular
course of about 200 miles to the sea; the direct distance
from its source to its mouth in the Bristol Channel is
about 80 miles. By the Britons it was called Halfren,
and its old Latin name was Sabrina. Through Mont¬
gomeryshire its course is at first in a south-easterly direc¬
tion, and for the first 15 miles it flows over a rough
precipitous bed. At Llanidloes, where the valley widens
to a breadth of one or two miles and assumes a more
fertile appearance, it bends towards the north-east, passing
Newtown and Welshpool. On the borders of Shropshire it
receives the Vyrnwy, and then turning in a south-easterly
direction enters the broad rich plain of Shrewsbury, after
which it bends southward past Ironbridge and Bridg¬
north to Bewdley in Worcestershire. In Shropshire it
receives a number of tributaries (see Shropshire). Still
continuing its southerly course through Worcestershire it
passes Stourport, where it receives the Stour (left), and
Worcester, shortly after which it receives the Teme (right).
It enters Gloucestershire at Tewkesbury, where it receives
the Avon (left), after which, bending in a south-westerly
direction, it passes the town of Gloucester, 18 miles below
which the estuary widens out into the Bristol Channel, at
the point where it receives from the left the Lower Avon
or Bristol river, and from the right the Wye.
From Newtown its fall is 465 feet, the average fall per mile being
about 2 feet 3 inches, but from Ironbridge to Gloucester, a distance
of about 70 miles, the fall is only about 103 feet. Between Stour¬
port and Gloucester the breadth is 150 feet, but below that town
the breadth rapidly increases and the banks become bolder and
more picturesque. Owing to the gradual decrease in the width
and depth of the Bristol Channel the tide enters with great force,
forming a tidal wave or bore about 9 feet in height, which at cer¬
tain times causes great destruction, among the more serious inun¬
dations being those of 1606, 1687, 1703, and 1883. The total area
drained by the Severn is about 4500 square miles. Its navigation
extends to about 150 miles above its mouth ; barges can ascend as
far as Stourport, and large vessels to Gloucester. Owing to the diffi¬
culties of the navigation the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal, 18
miles in length, was constructed, admitting vessels of 350 tons to
Gloucester, the river only admitting vessels of 150 tons. The only
other important port is Bristol, but there are a few smaller ports
and fishing towns, while by means of canals the Severn has con¬
nexion with some of the principal towns of England. With the
Thames it is connected by the Stroudwater and Thames and Severn
Canals; by various canals it has communication with the Trent
and the rivers of the north; and the Hereford and Gloucester Canal
connects those two cities. The Severn is a good salmon river, and
is specially famous for its lampreys.
SEVERN, Joseph (1793-1879), portrait and subject
painter, was born in 1793. During his earlier years he
practised portraiture as a miniaturist; and, having studied
in the schools of the Royal Academy, he exhibited his
first work in oil, Hermia and Helena, a subject from the
Midsummer Night's Dream, in the Royal Academy Exhibi¬
tion of 1819. In 1820 he gained the gold medal and a
three years’ travelling studentship for his Una and the
Red Cross Knight in the Cave of Despair, a painting now
-S E Y
in the possession of the representatives of the late Lord
Houghton. He accompanied his friend Keats the poet to
Italy, and nursed him till his death in 1821. In 1861 he
was appointed British consul at Rome, a post which he
held till 1872, and during a great part of the time he also
acted as Italian consul. His most remarkable work is the
Spectre Ship from the Ancient Mariner. He painted
Cordelia Watching by the Bed of Lear, the Roman
Beggar, Ariel, the Fountain, and Rienzi, executed a large
altarpiece for the church of St Paul at Rome, and pro¬
duced many portraits, including one of Baron Bunsen and
several of Keats. He died at Rome August 3, 1879.
SEVERUS, Lucius Septimius, the twenty-first emperor
of Rome, reigned from 193 to 211 a.d. He was born in
146 at Leptis Magna, an African coast town in the
district of Syrtes, whose ancient prosperity is still attested
by its extensive ruins. In this region of Africa, despite
its long possession by the Romans, the Punic tongue was
still spoken by the people in general. Severus had to
acquire Latin as a foreign language, and is said to have
spoken it to the end of his days with a strong African
accent. After he had arrived at the throne he dismissed
abruptly from Rome a sister who had come to visit him,
because he felt shame at her abominable Latin. Yet
Severus and his dynasty were almost the only emperors
of provincial descent who frankly cherished the province
of their origin, while the province showed true loyalty to
the only Roman emperor ever born on African soil, and
to the successors who derived their title from him.
Of the origin of the Severi nothing is known : it is a
natural but very doubtful conjecture that the L. Septimius
Severus, a native of Africa, addressed by the poet Statius,
was an ancestor of the emperor who bore the same name.
The father of Severus was a Roman citizen of equestrian
rank, and it may safely be affirmed that the family held
a poor position when he was born, but had risen in
importance by the time he reached manhood. Two of
his uncles attained to consular rank. Fulvius Pius, the
maternal grandfather of Severus, is often identified with
the man of that name who was governor of Africa, and,
after being condemned for corruption by Pertinax, was
highly honoured by Didius Julianus; but dates are
strongly against the identification. Of the future emperor’s
education we learn nothing but its results. Spartianus
declares him to have been “very learned in Latin and
Greek literature,” to have had a genuine zeal for study,
and to have been fond of philosophy and rhetoric. But
the learning of rulers is often seen through a magnifying
medium, and we may better accept the statement of Dio
Cassius that in the pursuit of education his eagerness was
greater than his success, and that he was rather shrewd
than facile. No doubt in his early years he acquired that
love for jurisprudence which distinguished him as emperor.
Of his youth we know only that it was entirely spent at
Leptis. Beyond that there is merely one anecdotal fabri¬
cation giving an account of youthful wildness.
The removal of Severus from Leptis to Rome is attri¬
buted by his biographer to the desire for higher education,
but was also no doubt due in some degree to ambition.
From the emperor Marcus Aurelius he early obtained, by
intercession of a consular uncle, the distinction of the
broad purple stripe. At twenty-six, that is, almost at the
earliest age allowed by law, Severus attained the qusestor-
ship and a seat in the senate, and proceeded as quaestor
militaris to the senatorial province of Baetica, in the
Peninsula. While Severus was temporarily absent in
Africa in consequence of the death of his father, the
province of Baetica, disordered by invasion and internal
commotion, was taken over by the emperor, who gave the
senate Sardinia in exchange. On this Severus became