Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/823

SEXTUS. the legate of Octavian. He obeyed, but still re- mained in Old Africa, hoping that the present harmony between Octavian and Antony would not be of long continuance. He had not to wait long ; for on the breaking out of the Perusinian war, soon afterwards, Fulvia and L. Antonius urged him to take possession of New Africa. He accord- ingly marched against Fango, whom he defeated and drove into the hills, where he put an end to his life [Fango]. Thus Sextius again obtained the command of both provinces, but he was unable to keep them long ; since Lepidus, after the con- clusion of the Perusinian war, received both Old and New Africa as his share of the Roman world, and landed in the country with an army of six legions. Sextius could not resist this force, and accordingly resigned the government to the trium- vir. (Dion Cass, xlviii. 22 — 24 ; Appian, B. C. V. 12, 26, 75.) 8. Sextius Naso, b. c. 44. [Naso.] 9. Q. Sextius, one of the conspirators against Q. Cassius Longinus, quaestor of Further Spain, in B. c, 48. On the suppression of the conspiracy, he purchased his life from Longinus, by giving him a sum of money (Hirt. B. Alex. 55). He is called M. Silius by Valerius Maximus (ix. 4. § 2). 10. Q. Sextius, a contemporary of Julius Caesar, and a Stoic philosopher, whose praises are fre- quently celebrated by Seneca. The latter parti- cularly admired one of his works (Senec. Ep. 64). For further information respecting him see Senec. JEp. 73, 98, de Ira, iii. 36, and Sextus, No. 11. SE'XTIUS PACONIA'NUS. [Paconianus.] SEXTUS (2t|Tos), Greek writers. 1. Afri- can us or LiBYCus {Ai€vs), a philosopher mentioned by Suidas and Eudocia (s. v.), who ascribe to him iKewTiKa 61/ ^t€iois t', Scepiica in Libris decern, koX Uvppwueia, Pyrrhonia, thus evidently confounding him with Sextus Empiricus ; or, which is more probable, speaking altogether of Empiricus, but under an unusual and probably inaccurate name. [Sextus Empiricus.] 2. African us. [Africanus, Sextus Julius.] 3. Of Chaeroneia, a Stoic philosopher, nephew of Plutarch, and one of the instructors of the em- peror Marcus Aurelius (Jul. Capitolin. Vita M. An- tonin. Philos. ; Suid. s. v. MdpKOS ; comp. Antonin. De Rebus suis, i. 9). According to Suidas it was during the reign, and indeed in the latter part of the reign of Marcus, and when Sextus was teach- ing at Rome, that the emperor attended his in- structions. He is perhaps the " Sextus the Phi- losopher," mentioned by Syncellus as flourishing under the reign of Hadrian. Suidas (s. v. 'Z^i,Tos Xatpojj/eus) confounds the nephew of Plutarch with a contemporary or nearly contemporary philosopher, Sextus Empiricus [Sextus Empiricus] : and this confusion, into which several modern critics have also fallen, makes it difficult to determine to which of the two the particulars mentioned by him in the article are to be referred. When he states that Sextus was the disciple of Herodotus of Philadel- phia, and was so high in the favour of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, that he was invited to share with him the judgment-seat, it is prob.able that our Sextus is spoken of. To him also we may suppose the account to refer, that an impostor, who re- sembled him in features, attempted to personate him, and thus to obtain possession of his honours and property. The impostor is said to have been discovered, through his ignorance of Greek learning, SEXTUS. 811 by the emperor Pertinax. Suidas ascribes to our Sextus two works, 'H0jKa, Ethica, and 'ETTKr/ceTrxiKd, fiiSKia dfKa, Episceptica (for which some propose to read SKeTTTtwa, Sceptica, or ert S/ceTrrt/ca), Li/jris decern. Menage (vid. Kuster, Not in Suid.) sus- pects that the mention of the second work has been inserted by some transcriber, who confounded the two Sexti above mentioned ; but the mistake (if such it be) is probably to be attributed to Suidas himself or the authority from whom he took it, for we find it also in the Ionia of the empress Eudocia. But it is not impossible that one, perhaps both of these titles, were intended to apply to certain AjoAelets, Disseriationes, written in the Doric dialect, and which Fabricius describes as Disseriationes Antiscepticae. They are five in number, and very short. The subjects are: — 1. riepi dyaQov koX kukov, De Bono el Mala. 2. Ilepi KaKou KoL alarxpo^, De Honesto et Turpi. 3. Tlepi diKaiov Kol dSiKov, De Justo et Injusto. 4. Ilepi dKi]Qda5 koX ;//eu5oi;s, De Veritate et Falsitate. 5. An Vhius et Sapientia doceri possint These were published by Hen. Stephanus (Henri Etienne), among the Fragmenta Pytliagoraeorum, without an author's name ; and appeared, still anonymously, but with a Latin version and notes, by John North, in the Opmcula Mythologica, Physica, Elhica, of Gale, 8vo. Cambridge, 1670, and Amst. 1688. John North, in his first note, asserts that the author's name was Mimas, founding his assertion on a passage in the fourth Dissertatio, of which the reading has since been corrected. They were again printed, with North's version, but without his notes, by Fabricius {Biblioth. Grace, vol. xii. p. 617, ed. vet.). These dissertations, it has been conjectured, were written by Sextus of Chaeroneia : but whether the conjecture is well founded, and if so, whether they are the 'H0j/cc« or the 'E-rrKTKeTr- TiKa of Suidas, is altogether uncertain. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 528, note b., ed. Harles ; Idem, Notae in Testimonia praejioca Operibus Sex. Empirici. ) 4. Christian us, a Christian writer of the reign of Severus who wrote a work Tlepl dvaffrd- treois, De Resurrectione, which has long been lost. (Euseb. H. E. v. 27 ; Hieron. De Viris Illustrib. c. 50 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 746, ed. Harles, and vol. xii. p. 615, ed. vet.) 5. Empiricus. [See below, Sextus Empiri- cus.] 6. Grammaticus, a Greek grammarian, other- wise unknown, cited by the scholiast on Homer, II. X. 155, p. 270, ed. Villoison. 7. Julius Africanus. [Africanus, Sbx. Julius.] 8. LiBYCus. [No. 1 ; and Sextus Empiricus, below.] 9. Medicus. [See below, Sextus Empiricus.] 10. Platonicus. [Placitus.] 1 1. Pythagoraeus ; otherwise Sextius, Six- Tus, or Xystus. There is extant a little book of moral and religious aphorisms, translated by Rufi- nus into Latin, and probably interpolated by the translator, who is known to have been sufficiently unscrupulous in such matters, and who has ad- mitted, in his preface to the work, that he had made certain additions from the advice of a religious father to his son, " electa quaedara reiigiosi parentis ad filium." The author is called by Rutinus in the preface, Sixtus ; and Rufinus adds that he was identified by some persons with Sixtus, bishop of