A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

796 SESTIUS. SESTIUS.'lCANUS. consul B. C. 452, is spoken of under his behalf contrary to the expectation of many;
CAPITOLINUS Vol. I. p. 606, a.], where he is er- but although Cicero thought he had grounds of
roneously called Sextius. offence against Sestius,. he did not like to incur
2. P. SESTIUS, called by Livy a man of a pa- the reproach of ingratitude which would have
trician gens, but a different person from the pre- been brought against him, if he had refused to
ceding, was accused by C. Julius Julus, one of the assist the tribune who had proposed his recal
decemvirs, in B. C. 451 (Liv. iii. 33; for further from banishment; and as Pompey was still at
particulars, see JUL us, No. 2.) enmity with Clodius, he required Cicero to under3. P. SESTIUS, quaestor B. C. 414. (Liv. iv. take the defence of the accused. Cicero could not
50.) deny the fact that Sestius had broken the public
4. L. SEsrIus, the father of No. 5, did not peace; but he maintained that his client deserved
obtain any higher dignity than that of tribune of praise and not punishment, because he had taken
the plebs. (Cic. pro Sest. 3.) up arms in defence of himself, the saviour of the
5. P. SESTIus, also written P. SEXTIUS in many Roman state, and consequently in defence of the
MSS. and editions of Cicero, the son of No. 4, was state itself. Sestius was unanimously acquitted on
defended by Cicero in B. c. 56, in an oration which the 14th of March, chiefly, no doubt, in conis extant. Although the ancestors of Sestius had sequence of the powerful influence of Pompey.
not gained any distinction in the state, he formed (Cic. pro P. Sestio, passim; Cic. in Cat. i. 8, ad
matrimonial alliances with two of the noblest fa- Farn. v. 6, ad Att. iii. 19, 20, 23, ad Q. Fr. i. 4,
milies at Romne. His first wife was Postumia, ad Att. iv. 3, pro 111il. 14, post Red. in Sen. 8, post
the daughter of C. Postumius Albinus, by whom Red. ad Quir. 6, ad Q. Fr. ii. 3, 4; Drumann,
he had two children, a daughter and a son. On Gesclsiclte Romns, vol. v. p. 664, &c.)
the death of Postumia he married a second time In B. C. 53, Sestius was praetor, and it appears
Cornelia, the daughter of L. Scipio Asiaticus, who from a passage of Cicero, in which he speaks (ad
was consul in B. c. 83, when his troops deserted Fans. v. 20. ~ 5) of Sestius having taken some
to Sulla. He lived in exile at Massilia, where his money which L. Mescinius Rufus, Cicero's quaestor
daughter and Sestius paid him a visit. Sestius in Cilicia, had deposited in a temple, that Sestius
began public life in B. c. 63 as quaestor to C. An- afterwards obtained the province of Cilicia as protonius, Cicero's colleague in the consulship. He praetor. On the breaking out of the civil war in
-warmly co-operated with Cicero in the suppression B. C. 49, Sestius was with Pompey in Italy, and
of the Catilinarian conspiracy. He defeated at wrote Pompey's reply to the propositions of Caesar,
Capua the attempts of the conspirators, and from at which Cicero expresses great vexation on acthence hastened to Rome at Cicero's summons, count of the miserable style in which Sestius was
who feared fresh commotions when the new tri- accustomed to write, and declares that he never
bunes entered upon their office on the 10th of read any thing ao7loriwE'crrepov than the document
December. But when this danger passed away, which went forth in Pompey's name (Cic. ad Att.
Sestius followed C. Antonius into Etruria, and it vii. ] 7, comp. ad Fano. vii. 32, 1" omnia omnium
was chiefly owing to him and M. Petreius that dicta, in his etiam Sestiana, in me conferri ais ").
Catiline's army was defeated. On the conclusion of He subsequently deserted the Pompeian party and
the war, he accompanied Antonius to Macedonia joined Caesar, who sent him, in B. c. 48, into
as proquaestor, and there distinguished himself, Cappadocia, where it appears that he remained:according to Cicero, by his upright administration. some time. He was alive in B. c. 43, as appears
In B. C. 57, he was tribune, and took an active from Cicero's correspondence. (Hirt. B. Alex. 34;
part in obtaining Cicero's recal fronm banishment. Cic. ad Att. xiii. 2, 7, xv. 17, 27 xvi. 4, ad Farn.
Like Milo, he kept a band of armed retainers xiii. 8.)
to. oppose P. Clodius and his partizans; and 6. L. SESTIUS, the son of No. 5, by his first
lie was wounded in one of the many affrays wife, Postumia (Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 8). lHe is prowhich were then of daily occurrence in the streets bably'the same as the L. Sestius who served under
of Rome. Cicero, on his return to Rome in the M. Brutus in Macedonia, and distinguished himautumn of this year, returned him thanks in self by his devotion to the leader of the republican
the senate and also before the people for his party. After the death of the latter, he preserved
exertions on his behalf. Still Cicero felt himself his images and cultivated his memory with pious
aggrieved by the way in which Sestius had pro.- care; but far from giving offence to Augustus by
posed his recal, and still more because the latter this conduct, the emperor admired his fidelity to
had not taken sufficient care to indemnify him for his friend, and gave him a public token of his apthe loss of his property, which Clodius had con- proval by making him consul suffectus in his own
fiscated. A coolness thus arose between Cicero place in B. C. 23 (Dion Cass. liii. 32). Appian
and Sestius. Still this did not affect the relation (B. C. iv. 51) erroneously calls him Publius. One
in which Sestius and Clodius stood to one another. of Horace's odes is addressed to this L. Sestius.Sestius was anxious to bring Clodius to trial before (Carmz. i. 4). The only difficulty in supposing this
he was elected to the aedileship; but he did not L. Sestius to be the son of No. 5, arises from the
succeed in this: Clodius became aedile in B. C. 56, circumstance of his being described in the Capiand caused two accusations to be brought against toline Fasti, as L. SESTIUS P. F. VIBI. N., whereas
his enemy. Cn. Nerius accused him of bribery we know from Cicero that P. Sestius [No. 5] was
at the elections, and M. Tullius Albinovanus of the son of L. Sestius. It is, however, not imVis during his tribunate. The former accusation possible that the consul wished, like many other of
appears to have been dropt; but he was brought the Roman nobles in the age of Augustus, to conto trial for vis before the court presided over by nect himself with the old Roman families, and
the praetor M. Aemilius Scaurus. He was de- therefore called himself the grandson of Vibius,
fended by M. Crassus and Hortensius, as well as because that was a praenomen in the old Sestia
by Cicero, the latter of whom came forward on gens, as we see from the Capitoline Fasti, in