Sergius paulus (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Paclus (Seroius). SERJEANTS is used in Ac 16'^'-»« as an approxi- mate English rendering of fta!i5ovxoi ( = ' rod- bearers'), which represents in Greek the Latin liitores, officials whose duty it was to attend the Roman magistrates, to execute their orders, and especially to administer the punishments of scourg- ing or beheading. For this purpose they carried, as their mark of office, the fasces, a bundle of rods with an axe inserted. At Philippi they were attached to the arparriyoi, i.e.

the duvinviri, or prmtores, who administered justice in that Roman colony (Marquart, i. 47511'.); but who found on this occasion that by summarily inflicting stripes and imprisonnunt, without due trial, they had violated the rights of Roman citizens, and so had to undo, as be.-^t they might, the effects of the rash action for which they, rather than their instruments the lictors, were responsible. William P. Dickson. SERON (2i)/)wi').

— 'The commander of the host of Syria' (4 ipxi^v rijt Jwd/ifojj 'Lvpias), who was de- feated by Judas Maccabieus at Beth-horon, 1 Mac S**-"'-; Jos. Ant. XH. vii. 1.