Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A monetary unit of ancient Rome equivalent to 1,000 sesterces.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A money of account used by the ancient Romans in reckoning large sums: it was equal to a thousand sestertii.
Etymologies
- Latin (mīlle) sēstertium, (a thousand) sesterces, genitive pl. of sēstertius, sesterce; see sesterce. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“So ridiculous, moreover, we are in our attires, and for cost so excessive, that as Hierome said of old, Uno filio villarum insunt pretia, uno lino decies sestertium inseritur; 'tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oaks and a hundred oxen into a suit of apparel, to wear a whole manor on his back.”
“_Aspice Regulum, qui ex paupere et tenui ad tantas opes per flagitia processit, ut ipse mihi dixerit, cum consuleret, quam cito sestertium sexcennies impleturus esset, invenisse se exta duplicata, quibus portendi millies et ducenties habiturum.”
“Upon examining the state of his affairs, he found that there remained no more of his estate than centies sestertium, 80,729l. 3s. 4d., which seeming to him too small to live upon, he ended his days by poison.”
“Sardesus to the last sestertium -- to gain me back my quarry and my vineyards -- all that I have lost -- I would not give up that slave.”
The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy
“[139] From a passage in Dio, lxxviii.p. 899, this sum appears to have been _decies sestertium_, about 9,000_l. _ sterling.”
“: “Quadringenties sestertium ex Sicilia contra leges abstulisse.””
“When we had sat down on the steps of the fountain, he answered that all his life he had been collecting sestertium after sestertium, to redeem his beloved son; but his master, a certain Pansa, when the money was delivered to him, took it, but kept the son in slavery.”
“And wilt thou believe that I, who have still sound judgment to the value of a sestertium, and sense to the value of an as, let myself be borne away by these fantasies, and I do this for the reason that, if they are not possible, they are at least grandiose and uncommon?”
“Saying this, he took out a small coin, and began to search for a knife at his belt; having found it, he scratched with the point on the sestertium the sign of the cross; this coin he gave to the laborer.”
“Cautum enim est, ut ex bonis ejus, qui sestertium centum millium pa - tritnonium reliquerat, et pauciores quam trcs liberos habebat, sive is testtimcnto facto, sive intestatiis mortuus eral, virilis pars patrono deberetur.”
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