Sestia (gens)
Encyclopedia
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. The gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
was originally patrician, but in later times there were also plebeian
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
members. The only member of the family to obtain the consulship
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
under the Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
was Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, in 452 BC.
Origin of the gens
The nomenRoman naming conventions
By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...
Sestius is frequently confounded with that of Sextius
Sextia (gens)
The gens Sextia was a plebeian family at 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...
, and the two names may originally have been the same; but the ancient writers evidently regarded them as two distinct names. If they are in fact two forms of the same name, then Sestius is probably a patronymic surname, based on the common praenomen
Praenomen
The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...
Sextus, meaning "sixth." The same name gave rise to the plebeian gens Sextilia
Sextilia (gens)
The gens Sextilia was a plebeian family at Rome. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Sextilius, consular tribune in 379 BC...
.
Praenomina used by the gens
The praenomina used by the Sestii included PubliusPublius (praenomen)
Publius is a Latin praenomen, or personal name. It was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and was very common at all periods of Roman history. It gave rise to the patronymic gens Publilia, and perhaps also gens Publicia. The feminine form is Publia...
, Lucius
Lucius (praenomen)
Lucius is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. The feminine form is Lucia . The praenomen was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gentes Lucia and Lucilia, as well as the cognomen Lucullus...
, Vibius
Vibius (praenomen)
Vibius is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was occasionally used throughout the period of the Roman Republic and perhaps into imperial times. It gave rise to the patronymic gens Vibia. The feminine form is Vibia...
, and Titus
Titus (praenomen)
Titus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, and was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. It was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gens Titia. The feminine form is Tita or Titia...
. The Sestii are the only patrician family known to have used Vibius.
Branches and cognomina of the gens
The only cognomenCognomen
The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...
of the early Sestii is Capitolinus, probably referring to the Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
, where the family may have lived. The consul of 452 BC bore the agnomen
Agnomen
An agnomen , in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the cognomen was initially. However, the cognomina eventually became family names, so agnomina were needed to distinguish between similarly named persons...
Vaticanus, apparently referring to the Vatican Hill
Vatican Hill
Vatican Hill is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome...
, across the Tiber from the Capitol. Towards the end of the Republic, the surnames Pansa, meaning "splay-footed," and Gallus, a cock
Rooster
A rooster, also known as a cockerel, cock or chanticleer, is a male chicken with the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels...
or a Gaul
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
, are found.
Members of the gens
- This list includes abbreviated praenominaPraenomenThe praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...
. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.- Vibius Sestius Capitolinus, grandfather of the consul of 452 BC.
- Publius Sestius V. f. Capitolinus, father of the consul of 452 BC.
- Publius Sestius P. f. V. n. Capitolinus Vaticanus, consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
in 452 BC; the following year, he was one of the decemvirsDecemviriDecemviri is a Latin term meaning "Ten Men" which designates any such commission in the Roman Republic...
charged with drawing up the first ten tablesTwelve TablesThe Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
of Roman law. - Publius Sestius, accused of murder by Gaius Julius Iulus, one of the decemvirs, in 451 BC; apparently a different man from the decemvir Capitolinus.
- Publius Sestius, quaestorQuaestorA Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
in 414 BC. - Lucius Sestius, tribune of the plebsTribuneTribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
, probably early in the 1st century BC CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
calls him Lucius, but in the Capitoline FastiFastiIn ancient Rome, the fasti were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events...
, his grandson's filiation is P. f. Vibi n. - Publius Sestius L. f., praetorPraetorPraetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
in 53 BC; he was a friend and ally of Cicero, by whom he was defended in 56. He was with PompeiusPompeyGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
on the outbreak of the Civil WarCaesar's civil warThe Great Roman Civil War , also known as Caesar's Civil War, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire...
, but subsequently went over to CaesarJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, who sent him into CappadociaCappadociaCappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...
in 48 BC. - Lucius Sestius Pansa, made a demand resisted by Quintus Tullius CiceroQuintus Tullius CiceroQuintus Tullius Cicero was the younger brother of the celebrated orator, philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was born into a family of the equestrian order, as the son of a wealthy landowner in Arpinum, some 100 kilometres south-east of Rome.- Biography :Cicero's well-to-do father...
in 54 BC. - Publius Sestius P. f., to whom Cicero wrote circa 53 BC, had been condemned for an unknown offense.
- Titus Sestius Gallus, owned the land where Publius Clodius PulcherPublius Clodius PulcherPublius Clodius Pulcher was a Roman politician known for his popularist tactics...
was slain in 52 BC. - Lucius Sestius P. f. L. n.Lucius Sestius Quirinalis AlbinianusLucius Sestius Quirinalis Albinianus was a proquaestor of Marcus Iunius Brutus and a suffect consul in 23 BC. Albinianus was a son of Publius Sestius...
, consul suffectus in 23 BC.