SALMASIUS, CLAUDIUS, a French writer of uncommon abilities and erudition, descended from an ancient and noble family, and born at or near Samur in the year 1596. His mother, who was a Protestant, infused her notions of religion into him, and he at length converted his father. He settled at Leyden; and in 1650 he paid a visit to Christina queen of Sweden, who is reported to have shown him ex-
traordinary marks of regard. Upon the violent death of Charles I. of England, he was prevailed on by the royal family, then in exile, to write a defence of that king; which was answered by our Milton in 1651, in a work entitled Defensio pro Populo Anglicano contra Claudii Salmasii Defensionem Regiam. This book was read over all Europe, and conveyed such a proof of the writer's abilities, that he was respected even by those who hated his principles. Salmasius died in 1653; and some did not scruple to say that Milton killed him by the acuteness of his reply. His works are numerous, and of various kinds; but the greatest monuments of his learning are, his Notæ in Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores, and his Exercitationes Pliniane in Solinum.