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

812 SEXTUS. SEXTUS.
Rome and martyr; but it is to be observed that Ru- finns, was taken, perhaps without examination, by
finns does not express any opinion of his own as to Augustin. Modern critics have been divided;
their identity. Whether he meant Sixtus I., who some (e. g. Siberus) retain the opinion which idenwas bishop early in the second century, and whose tifies the author with Pope Sixtus II.; others (e. g.
martyrdom is doubtful, or Sixtus II., who lived Lequien, Not. ad Damnascen. i. c.) regard the author
about the middle of the third century, and was as at any rate a Christian: but Gale, Mosheim,
certainly a martyr, is not clear. Origen, however, Brucker (Hist. Philos. period ii. pars i. lib. i. cap.
twice (Contra Celsuen, lib. viii. c. 30, and In Ml]att. ii. sect. ii. ~ 34), Fontanini (Iist. Lilt. Aquileiensss,
tom. xv. 3, vol. i. p. 763, vol. iii. p. 654, ed. De- p. 302, &c.), to whom we have been much indebted,
lamre) cites the Gnomae s. Sententiae of Sextus and Fabricius, identify the author with the elder
(rFYvcZaL E4T'ou), as a work well known among Quintus Sextius (Quinti Sextii Patris), a Roman
Christians; but he does not mention either the philosopher, mentioned with great encomiums by Seepiscopal rank or the martyrdom of the writer, neca (Epistol. 64, c. 2). Seneca delighted much
whom, therefore, we can hardly identify with in a work of this Sextius, the title of which he does
Sixtus I. And as Origen makes no reference to not give, but which he praises as written with
his being a contemporary writer, and speaks of his great power. " Quantus in illo, Dii boni, vigor
book as already in extensive circulation, it is diffi- est, quantum animi! Hoc non in omnibus philocult to suppose him to have been Sixtus II., whose sophis invenies. Quorumdam scripta clarum habent
elevation to the episcopate and martyrdom were a tantumn nomen, caetera exsanguia sunt. Instituunt,
few years subsequent to Origen's own death. It disputant, cavillantur, non faciunt animum quia non
is not clear whether Origen regarded Sextus as a habent. Quum legeris Sextium dices, Vivit, viget,
Christian. Jerome cites the Sententiae of Xystus liber est, supra hominem est; dimittit me plenum in(as he writes the name, Adv. Jovinian. lib. i. c. gentis fiduciae. In quacunque positione mentis sim,
49, and In Ezekiel. c. xviii. vs. 5, 6, seq.), enume- quum hunc lego, fatebor tibi, libet omnes casus prorating him in one place among writers, all the rest vocare, libet exclamare, Quid cessas, Fortuna? conof whom are heathens, and in the other place gredere! paratum vides" (ibid.). It is observable
he expressly calls him a Pythagorean. In two that Seneca speaks of Sextius as a Stoic in reality
other places he charges Rufinus with prefixing the but not in name. From other Epistles of Seneca
name of a martyr and bishop to the productions of (lix. 6, lxiii. 11, 13, xcviii. 13, cviii. 17, and from his
"a Christ-less and heathenish " (absque Christo et De Ira, ii. 36, iii. 36) we learn that Sextius, though
ethnici), and in another place, a" most heathenish " born of an illustrious family, had declined the dig(gentilissimi) man (Hieron. In Jerem. c. xxii. vs. nity of senator when offered him by Julius Caesar;
24, 25, &c., and Ad Ctesiplont. c. 3, Epist. 43, ed. that he abstained from animal food, though for
Benedict., 133, ed. Vallars.). Augustin, who had different reasons than those ascribed to Pythagoras;
at first admitted the identity of the author of the that he subjected himself to a scrupulous self-exSententiae with one of the Sixti, bishops of Rome, amination at the close of each day; and that his
afterwards retracted his opinion (comp. De Natura philosophy, though expressed in the Greek language,
et Gratia, c. 77, and Retractat. lib. ii. c. 42). Pe- was of Roman severity: —" Sextium ecce... virum
lagius (apud August. Retractat. l. c.) appears to acrem, Graecis verbis, Romanis moribus, philosohave admitted the identity, and a Syriac version, phantem." It appears that Sextins attempted, but
perhaps made from the Latin of Rufinus, which in vain, to found a school of philosophy combining
appears to have been extant in the time of Ebed- some features of the Pythagoreans with others of
Jesu, A.D. 1300 (Assemani, Bibl. Orient. vol. i. p. the Stoics; and which was consequently classed
429), still bears the name of " Mar Xystus Epis- sometimes with one, and sometimes with the other
copus Romae." Maximus the Confessor, in the of those sects. Seneca (ANatusr. Quaest. vii. 32) says,
seventh century (Schol. ad Dionys. Areop. Aysticam " Sextiorum nova et Romani roboris secta, inter
l7zeologiam, cap. 5, apud Opp. Dionys. vol. ii. p. 55, initia sua, quum magno impetu coepisset, exstincta
ed. Antwerp, 1634), applies to our Sextus the epithet est." "Xystus Pythagoricus philosophus" is relcKAotalaTLAKcOS (lXoeoposi, "Ecclesiasticus Philo- corded in Jerome's version of the CIhronicon of
sophus;" and Damascenus, in the eighth century Eusebius as flourishing at the time of Christ's
(Sacra Parallela, Opera, vol. ii. p. 36'2, ed. Lequien), birth. He is also mentioned by Plutarch (De Procalls him Ze'Trov'PEr-C., Zestus of Rome. Genna- feet. Virtut. Sentent. Opp. vol. vi. p. 288, ed. Reiske),
dins (De Viris Illustrib. c. 17) merely calls the and by the elder Pliny (H. Nat. xviii. 68, alibi).
work " Xysti Sententiae." In the Decretum ascribed The contents of the Sententiae harmonize, on the
to Pope Gelasius the work is mentioned as re- whole, sufficiently well with this supposition of their
puted to be by Saint Xystus, but is declared to authorship; the portions which seem to approxibe spurious, and to have been written by heretics. mate most closely to the morality of the Christian
In the anonymous Appendix to the De Scriptorib. religion, may perhaps have been interpolated or
Ecclesiasticis of Ildefonsus of Toledo, it is as- altered by Rufinus. The question of authorship,
cribed to Sixtus of Rome without hesitation. The however, cannot be regarded as settled. There is
testimony of the ancients as to the authorship is difficulty in believing that a work once established
thus doubtful. An opinion mentioned by, and in reputation as the work of a heathen writer, could
therefore older than, Rufinus (who was unjustly have come to be so generally regarded as of
charged with fraud in the matter by his bitter Christian origin; though perhaps the difficulty
enemy Jerome, and the charge has been repeated would be somewhat diminished by the suggestion,
from age to age), ascribed it to Pope Sixtus, and that the work in its present form is not an original
the opinion was held by some persons, perhaps by work of Sextius, but a selection of apophthegms
most, in subsequent ages. Jerome appears to have culled from his writings, and that possibly by a
first ascribed it to a heathen author; and Jerome's Christian. The MSS. of the work vary very much
opinion, which would have had more weight but for both in the number and order of the aphorisms.
his eagerness to fasten a charge of fraud upon Ru- The first edition of the Sententiae is that of Syla