SEPTIMIUS
721
SEPTUAGESIMA
of Sept-Fons, removed his community thither, and
rebuilt the church and regular structures. In 1847
he was elected vicar-general of the Congregation
of the Ancient Reform of Our Lady of La Trappe,
which followed the constitutions of the Abbot de
, Ranc6. In 1892, when the three congregations were
united in one order, the then Abbot of Sept-Fons,
Dom Sebastian Wyart, was elected first abbot-
general, and, a little later. Abbot of Citeaux. Its
most noted foundations are N. -D. de la Consola-
tion near Peking, China, and N. -D. de Maristella
Kstado de S. Paulo, Brazil.
Sept-Fons, ou les Trappistes de N. D. de Saint Lieu (Moulins, 1816) ; La Trappe, by a Sept-Fona Trappist (Paris, 1870) ; Sept- Fons, impressions et souvenirs par un ami de ce monasthe (Dijon, 1895); Maupertuy, Histoire de la reforme de VAbbaye de Sept- Fons (Paris, 1702); Manriqoe, Annates cisterciences (Lyons, 1642); Gallia Christiana, lY ; Hvohes, Annates d'Aiguebelle {Ya.\- ence, 1863) ; Tallon, Notices sur les monastkres de I'ordre de la Trappe (Paris, 1855); Ppannenschmidt, Illustrierte Gesch. drr Trappislen (Paderborn, 1873) ; Urbain, Mimoires manuscrits sur N. D. du Gard et N. D. de Sept-Fons (1910); Decretum apos- tolicum quo instituta: sunt du(B congregationes B. M. de Trappa in Gallia (1847).
Edmond M. Obrecht.
Septimius Severus, founder of the African dynasty of Roman emperf)rs, b. at Leptis Magna in Africa, 11 April, 146; d. at York, England, 4 February, 211. Severus came from a family that had become Roman citizens. In his career as an official at Home and in the provinces he had been favoured by the Emperor Marcus Aurclius. In the reign of Commodus he was appointed legate of the fourth legion on the Euphrates; this gave him the opportunity to become acquainted with affairs in the J]ast. He married Julia Domna, a member of a priestly family of Emesa, who was the mother of Caracalla and Geta. When the Emperor Pertinax was killed by the mutinous .soldiers at Rome, Severus, who was then governor of Upper Pannonia, was proclaimed emperor at Carnuntium by the legions on the Danube. The fact that the leaders of the troops in the eastern and western parts of the empire were at once ready to follow him is evidence that Severus himself had shared in the conspiracy against the dead emperor. Severus had clear political vision, still he cared nothing for the interests of Rome and Italy. He nourished within himself the Punic hatred of the Roman spirit and instinct and furthered the provincials in every way. He was revengeful and cruel towards his opponents, and was influenced by a blindly superstitious belief in his destiny as written in the stars. With iron will he laboured to reorganize the Roman Empire on the model of an Oriental des- potism. The troops in the East had proclaimed as emperor the capable governor of Syria, Pescennius Niger; the legions in Britain, the governor Clodius Albinus. On the other hand the soldiers in Italy and the senators came over to the side of Severus; Julian us, the prefect of the Pretorian Guard, was executed. Severus rested his power mainly upon the legions of barbarian troops; he immortalized them upon the coinage, granted them, besides large gifts of money and the right of marriage, a great number of privileges in the military and civil service, so that gradually the races living on the borders were able to force Rome to do their will. The Pretorian Guard was made into a troop of picked men from the provinces; in the first years of the emperor's reign their commander was the shrewd Caius Fulvius Plautianus, who exerted a great influence over Severus. After making careful prep- aration for the decisive struggle, and having .secured his opponent in Britain by the bestowal of the title of Ca?sar, Severus entered upon a campaign against his dangerous rival Niger. He defeated Niger's sub- ordinate Ascellius iEmilius at Cyzicus and Niger him- self at Issus. He then advanced into Mesopotamia, established the new Province of Osrhoene and the new legion called the Parthian. He divided several old provinces into smaller administrative districts. After XIII.— 46
this, while at Antioch, he declared war against Albinus
and returned to Europe by forced marches. In 197
the decisive battle was fought with Albinus near
Lyons in Gaul. Albinus had under him the legions
of Britain, Gaul, Germany, and Spain, yet in spite of
severe losses Severus was the conqueror. Albinus
was killed, his adherents were utterly destroyed in a
bloody civil war, and their property was confiscated
for the emperor. The common soldiers received the
right of entering the Senate and the equestrian order.
For the greater security of the imperial power the
Parthian legion was garrisoned upon Mount Alba
near Rome. Severus went to Asia a second time,
traversed the countries on the Euphrates and Tigris,
strengthened the Roman supremacy, and gave the
natives equal rights with the Italians. He then went
to Egypt where he granted the city of Alexandria the
privilege of self-government. During the reign of
Severus the fifth persecution of the Christians broke
out. He forbade conversion to Judaism and to
Christianity. The persecution raged especially in
Syria and Africa. In 203 Saints Perpetua and Felici-
tas and their companions suffered martyrdom at Car-
thage. The emperor returned to Rome for the cele-
bration of the tenth year of his reign, erected the
triumphal arch that still exists, and strengthened his
hold on his hordes of mercenaries by constant gifts
of money and the bestowal of favours detrimental to
military discipline. The Senate was replaced by the
Consistorium principis, one of the members of which
was the celebrated jurist Papinian. Although he had
suffered for years from rheumatic gout, Severus went
to Britain, where trouble had broken out, in order to
give occupation to his sons, who were at deadly en-
mity with each other. He restored Hadrian's Wall,
and strengthened again the Roman power in Britain.
Schiller, Gesch. der rom. Kaiserzeit, I (Gotha, 1883) ; Reville, La religion A Rome sous les Sevkres (Paris, 1886) ; Neumann, Der riimische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche, I (Leipzig, 1890); db Cavalieri, La Passio SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis (Rome, 1896); vo.N Do.maszewski, Gesch. der rOmischen Kaiser (Leipzig, 1909); DnRUY, Hill, of Rome, tr. Ripley (Boston, 1894).
Karl Hoebkr.
Septuagesima (Lat. septuagesima, the seventieth) is the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Lent, known among the Greeks as " Sunday of the Prodigal " from the Gospel, Luke, xv, which they read on this day, called also Domim'ca Circumdederunt hy the Latins, from the first word of the Introit of the Mass. In liturgical literature the name "Septuages- ima" occurs for the first time in the Gelasian Sacra- mentary. Why the day (or the week, or the period) has the name Septuagesima, and the next Sunday Sexagesima, etc., is a matter of dispute among writers. It is certainly not the seventieth day before Easter, still less is the next Sunday the sixtieth, fiftieth, etc. Amularius, "De eccl. off.", I, i, would make the Septuagesima mystically represent the Baby- lonian Captivity of seventy years, would have it begin with this Sunday on which the Sacramentaries and Antiphonaries give the Introit "Circumdederunt me undique" and end with the Saturday after Easter, when the Church sings "Eduxit Dominus populum suum." Perhaps the word is only one of a numerical series: Quadragesima, Quinquagesima, etc. Again, it may simj^Iy denote the earliest day on which some Christians began the forty days of Lent, excluding Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from the observance of the fast.
Septuagesima is to-day inaugurated in the Roman Martyrology by the words: "Septuagesima Sunday, on which the canticle of the Lord, Alleluja, ceases to be said". On the Saturday preceding, the Roman Breviary notes that after the "Benedicamus" of Vespers two Alleluias are to be added, that thence- forth it is to be omitted till Easter, and in its place "Laus tibi Dominc" is to be said at the beginning of the Office. Formerly the farewell to the Alleluia
