SEBE´THUS(Fiume della Maddalena), a small river of Campania, flowing into the Bay of Naples, immediately to the E. of the city of Neapolis. It is alluded to by several ancient writers in connection with, that city (Stat. Silv. 1.2. 263; Colum. 10.134; Vib. Sequest. p. 18), and is generally considered to be the same with the stream which now falls into the sea a little to the E. of Naples, and is commonly called the Fiume della Maddalena. This rivulet, which rises in a fountain or basin called La Bolla, about 5 miles from Naples, is now a very trifling stream, but may have been more considerable in ancient times. The expressions of poets, however, are not to be taken literally, and none of the geographers deem the Sebethus worthy of mention. Virgil, however, alludes to a nymph Sebethis, and an inscription attests the local worship of the river-god, who had a chapel (aedicula) erected to him at Neapolis. (Gruter, Inscr. p. 94. 9.)
[E.H.B]