obliged to withdraw to Africa in consequence of the advance of the forces of Sulla over the Pyrenees, he carried on a campaign in Mauretania, in which he defeated one of Sulla's generals and captured Tingis (Tangier). This success recommended him to the people of Spain, more particularly to the Lusitanian tribes in the west, whom Roman generals and governors of Sulla's party had plundered and oppressed. Brave and kindly, and gifted with a rough telling eloquence, Sertorius was just the man to impress them favourably, and the native militia, which he organized, spoke of him as the “new Hannibal.” Many Roman refugees and deserters joined him, and with these and his Spanish volunteers he completely defeated one of Sulla's generals and drove Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius, who had been specially sent against him from Rome, out of Lusitania, or Further Spain as the Romans called it. Sertorius owed much of his success to his statesmanlike ability. His object was to build up a stable government in the country with the consent and co-operation of the people, whom he wished to civilize after the Roman model. He established a senate of 300 members, drawn from Roman emigrants, with probably a sprinkling of the best Spaniards, and surrounded himself with a Spanish bodyguard. For the children of the chief native families he provided a school at Osca (Huesca), where they received a Roman education and even adopted the dress of Roman youths. Strict and severe as he was with his soldiers, he was particularly considerate to the people generally, and made their burdens as light as possible. It seems clear that he had a peculiar gift for evoking the enthusiasm of rude tribes, and we can well understand how the famous white fawn, a present from one of the natives, which was his constant companion and was supposed to communicate to him the advice of the goddess Diana, promoted his popularity. For six years he may be said to have really ruled Spain. In 77 he was joined by M. Perperna (or Perpenna) Vento from Rome, with a following of Roman nobles, and in the same year the great Pompey (q.v.) was sent to conquer him. Sertorius proved himself more than a match for his adversaries, utterly defeating their united forces on one occasion near Saguntum. Pompey wrote to Rome for reinforcements, without which, he said, he and Metellus would be driven out of Spain. Sertorius was in league with the pirates in the Mediterranean, was negotiating with the formidable Mithradates, and was in communication with the insurgent slaves in Italy. But owing to jealousies among the Roman officers who served under him and the Spaniards of higher rank he could not maintain his position, and his influence over the native tribes slipped away from him, though he won victories to the last. In 72 he was assassinated at a banquet, Perperna, it seems, being the chief instigator of the deed.
See Plutarch's lives of Sertorius and Pompey; Appian, Bell. civ. and Hispanica; the fragments of Sallust; Dio Cassius xxxvi. 25, 27, 28, xliv. 47; Vell. Pat. ii. 25, 29, 30, 90.
SERURIER, JEAUME MATHIEU PHILIBERT, Comte (1742-1819), French soldier, was born at Laon of middle-class parentage. After being lieutenant of the Laon militia, he entered the royal army, and served in the campaigns in Hanover (1759), Portugal (1762) and Corsica (1771). At the beginning of the Revolution he had attained the rank of major, and in its course he became colonel, brigadier-general and finally general of division. He fought under Kellermann and B. L. J. Schérer in the army of the Alps in 1795, and under Bonaparte in Italy at Vico, Mondovi, Castiglione and Mantua. Besides his military qualities, he showed great administrative talent in governing Venice (1797) and Lucca (1798). He helped Bonaparte in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, and had a brilliant career under the empire, when he was made senator, count, marshal, and governor of the palace of the Invalides. In 1814, however, he voted for the downfall of Napoleon, and under the Restoration was made a peer of France. He was dismissed from all his posts for having joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and died in retirement. A statue has been raised to his memory at Laon.
See L. Tuetey, Un Général de l'armée d'Italie, Serurier (Paris, 1899).
SERVAL (Felis serval), an African wildcat, ranging from Algeria to the Cape. It is of medium size, with long limbs, short tail, and tawny fur spotted with black; the head and body may measure 40 in. and the tail 16 in. Messrs Nicolls and Eglington, joint authors of The Sportsman in South Africa, state that the serval is fairly common in South Central Africa, frequenting the thick bush near rivers, and preying on the smaller antelopes, guinea-fowls and francolins. The mantles made from its skin are reserved for chiefs and dignitaries of native tribes. Serval kittens can be tamed with little trouble, but are difficult to rear.
SERVAN, JOSEPH MICHEL ANTOINE (1737-1807), French publicist, was born at Romans (Dauphiné) on the 3rd of November 1737. After studying law he was appointed avocat-général at the parlement of Grenoble at the age of twenty-seven. In his Discours sur la justice criminelle (1766) he made an eloquent protest against legal abuses and the severity of the criminal code. In 1767 he gained great repute by his defence of a Protestant woman who, as a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had been abandoned by her Catholic husband. In 1772, however, on the parlement refusing to accede to his request that a present made by a grand seigneur to a singer should be annulled on the ground of immorality, he resigned, and went into retirement. He excused himself on the score of ill-health from sitting in the States General of 1789, to which he had been elected deputy, and refused to take his seat in the Corps Législatif under the Empire. Among his writings may be mentioned Réflexions sur les Confessions de J.-J. Rousseau (1783) and Essai sur la formation des assemblées nationales, provinciales, et municipales (1789). His Œuvres choisies and Œuvres inédites have been published by De Portets. His brother Joseph Servan de Gerbey (1741-1808) was war minister in the Girondist ministry of 1792.
See “Lettres inédites de Servan,” in Souvenirs et mémoires (vol. iv., Paris, 1900).
SERVAN (or Servando known as Servandoni), JEAN NICOLAS (1695-1766), French decorator, architect and scene-painter, was born on the 2nd of May 1695. He was the son of a carriage-builder at Lyons. From 1724 to 1742 he was director of decorations at the Paris Opera, at that time situated in a wing of the Palais-Royal. His activity was considerable, whether as a painter or as an inventor of scenic contrivances for fêtes at the marriage of royal personages. He also designed the decorations for altars, and the façade for the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris. He died in Paris on the 19th of January 1766. His writings include Description abrégée de l'église Saint Pierre de Rome (Paris, 1738), and La Relation de la representation de la forêt enchantée sur le théâtre des Tuileries, le 31 mars 1754.
SERVETUS, MICHAEL [Miguel Serveto] (1511-1553), physician and polemic, was born in 1511[1] at Tudela in Navarre, his father being Hernando Villanueva, a notary of good family in Aragon. His surname is given by himself as “Serveto” in his early works, “per Michaelem Serueto, alias Reues.” Later he Latinized it “Servetus”; when writing French (1553) he signs “Michel Seruetus.”[2] It is probable that he was of the same family as the Spanish ecclesiastic Marco Antonio Serveto de Reves (d. 1598), born at Villanueva de Sigena in the diocese of Huesca (Latassa, Bibl. nuevo, 1798, i. 609). At this place is the traditional mansion of the family, and in the parish church the family altar with the family arms (Christian Life, 29th Sept. 1888). Servetus at Geneva makes Villanueva his birthplace, assigning it to the adjoining diocese of Lerida. His later adopted surname, Villanovanus or de Villeneufve, was no mere pseudonym since he followed his father's example. Of his education we only know that his father sent him to study law at Toulouse, where he first became acquainted with the Bible (1528). From 1525 he had found a patron in Juan de Quintana (d. 1534), a Franciscan
- ↑ This date rests on his own testimony (both at Vienna and Geneva) and that of Calvin. An isolated passage of the Geneva testimony may be cited in favour of 1509.
- ↑ The form Servet first appears in a letter of Oecolampadius to the senate of Basel (1531) and is never used by himself. Mosheim's “Servede” is an imaginary form.
