Sextia gens

The gens Sextia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, from the time of the early Republic and continuing into imperial times. The most famous member of the gens was Lucius Sextius Lateranus, who as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of the annual magistrates, until the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, otherwise known as the "Licinian Rogations," in the latter year. This law, brought forward by Sextius and his colleague, Gaius Licinius Calvus, opened the consulship to the plebeians, and in the following year Sextius was elected the first plebeian consul. Despite the antiquity of the family, only one other member obtained the consulship during the time of the Republic. Their name occurs more often in the consular fasti under the Empire.[1][2]

Origin

The nomen Sextius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Sextus, meaning "sixth", which must have belonged to the ancestor of the gens.[3] It is frequently confounded with that of the patrician gens Sestia,[1] and in fact the two families may originally have been the same; however, Roman authors treated them as distinct gentes.[4] The plebeian gens Sextilia was derived from the same praenomen.[3]

Praenomina

The main praenomina of the early Sextii were Marcus, Lucius, and Gaius, the most common names throughout all periods of Roman history. From filiations, we know that some of them also used Numerius and Sextus, of which the former was relatively uncommon at Rome. Later generations of this gens used Publius, Titus, and Quintus, all of which were also common. Epigraphy provides instances of Vibius, a name that was also used by the patrician Sestii, supporting the theory of a common origin.

Branches and cognomina

Most of the Sextii under the Republic bore no surname, or else had only personal cognomina, instead of family-names. These included Baculus, Calvinus, Lateranus, Naso, Paconianus, and Sabinus.[1]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Sextii Calvini

  • Gaius Sextius, grandfather of the consul of 124 BC
  • Gaius C. f. Sextius, father of the consul of 124 BC
  • Gaius Sextius C. f. C. n. Calvinus, consul in 124 BC, and afterwards assigned the administration of Gaul. He conquered the Salluvii, and founded the colony of Aquae Sextiae.[19][20][21]
  • Gaius C. f. Sextius Calvinus, described by Cicero as an excellent but sickly orator who stod as a candidate as praetor against Servilius Glaucia.[22] He was probably a son of the consul[23] and probably the same man as the praetor who restored the altar of an unknown deity. He may also have been the Gaius Calvinus who was a friend of Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo, described as only having one eye.[24] Several historians have also identified him as the Sextius who was quaestor under Lucius Calpurnius Bestia in 111 BC.[25]
  • Publius Sextius Calvinus, Late Republican descendant of the consul of 124 BC, attested from a statue base in Thespiis[26]

Sextii Africani

See also

Notes

  1. "Marcus Silius" in Valerius Maximus.

References

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 810 ("Sextia Gens").
  2. Livy, vi. 34–42.
  3. Chase, p. 123.
  4. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 795 ("Sestia Gens").
  5. Livy, iv. 49.
  6. Fasti Capitolini, AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114.
  7. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 108–111, 113–115.
  8. Livy, xxx. 26, 27.
  9. Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum, 29.
  10. Cicero, Brutus, 48.
  11. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 541, 543 (note 4).
  12. Cicero, In Verrem, iii. 67, v. 45, 54.
  13. Caesar, De Bello Gallico, ii. 25, iii. 5, vi. 38.
  14. Appian, Bellum Civile, ii. 113.
  15. Hirtius, De Bello Alexandrino, 55.
  16. Valerius Maximus, ix. 4. § 2.
  17. Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, 64, 73, 98, De Ira, iii. 36.
  18. Tacitus, Annales, vi. 3, 4, 39.
  19. Livy, Epitome, 61.
  20. Strabo, Geographica, iv. p. 180.
  21. Velleius Paterculus, i. 15.
  22. Cicero, Brutus, 34, De Oratore, ii. 60, 61.
  23. Broderick, Bonaventure Finnbarr (1940). The So-called Altar of Calvinus on the Palatine Hill, in Rome: Identified as the Altar Erected by Romulus as a Part of the Ceremony of Founding Rome. Indiana University. p. 8.
  24. Smith, William (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. J. Murray. p. 585.
  25. Pina Polo, Francisco; Díaz Fernández, Alejandro (2019). The Quaestorship in the Roman Republic. KLIO / Beihefte. Neue Folge. Vol. 31 (illustrated ed.). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 319. ISBN 9783110666410.
  26. PIR 2022: von Rohden, Dessau; pp. 236
  27. Tacitus, Annales, vi. 29.
  28. Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 19, xiv. 46.
  29. Tacitus, Annales, xvi. 10, 11.
  30. Fasti Ostienses, CIL XIV, 244.
  31. Mennen, Power and Status of the Roman Empire.

Bibliography

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