Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A silver coin of the Roman republic, first issued in 269
b. c. It was the quarter of the denarius. Seedenarius . In the quotation there is a confusion of sestertius and sestertium. - noun The largest coin of copperalloy of the Roman empire.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A large
bronze or (rarely) smallsilver coin minted during theRoman Republic and Empire, valued at two and a halfasses .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sestertius.
Examples
-
The word sestertius signifies two asses and a half.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1756
-
They also became the first living women to be pictured and explicitly identified on a coin of the imperial mint, a bronze sestertius produced in 37–38 showing three tiny full-length images of the sisters, each captioned by name but depicted with the accoutrements of three female deities personifying abstract qualities crucial to Roman success: Securitas (Security), Concordia (Harmony), and Fortuna (Fortune).10
Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010
-
A sestertius, another bronze coin, was worth four asses.
-
That Didius Julianus would pay in Greek currency, not Roman, indicates to me that the smart money had already dumped the as, the asses, and the sestertius for drachmas.
-
Lupus flipped him a second silver sestertius and headed that way.
Wagers of Sin Asprin, Robert 1996
-
No point in offering her for sale, she wouldn't fetch a single sestertius.
Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993
-
Batiatus had no money on the premises, not one single sestertius.
Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993
-
I could give you every bribable senator's price down to the last sestertius.
Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993
-
When Sulla acceded to his request, Catilina became rich without needing to spend a single sestertius at the auctions.
Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993
-
Sulla paid in full with a promissory note for twenty silver talents at his bank, the price of a funeral Rome would talk about for days, and did not count the cost, he who normally squeezed every sestertius so carefully, so ungenerously.
The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991
frogapplause commented on the word sestertius
Valued at two and a half asses... or 100 bilbies.
A large bronze or (rarely) small silver coin minted during the Roman Republic and Empire, valued at two and a half asses.
October 9, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
What kind of a two-and-half-assed comment is that?
I couldn't give a Diocletian razoo for your amphibipygian cheekiness!
October 9, 2011
leaden commented on the word sestertius
So that works out to fiddles with a calculator . . . forty bilbies per ass.
October 9, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
Sounds expensive. If you can't afford a whole ass, perhaps with a handful of bilbies you might get a decent piece of ass.
October 9, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
What did you just call me?
October 9, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
The least you could do is slap some brackets around "Diocletian razoo."
And speaking of brackets . . . Leaden, how do you make your brackets all non-linky like that?
October 11, 2011
leaden commented on the word sestertius
An HTML tag anywhere between the brackets disarms them. I usually use a set of span tags, e.g., “<span>stage direction</span>” renders as “stage direction”. (The placement of the tags doesn’t matter; “stage direction<span></span>” works just as well.) Below I used
fiddles with a
<a href="/lists/the-universal-calculator">calculator</a>
(Originally I also had span tags in there, but since you got me thinking about it, I realized I don’t need them in addition to the anchor.)
If you nest brackets, only the innermost are magic; if I had wanted merely a mundane, commonplace, humdrum (dare I say quotidian?) arithmetic-only calculator, I could have just typed
fiddles with a [calculator]
to get
fiddles with a [calculator]
October 12, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
Let the money shine, Let the money shine in
The money shine in
October 12, 2011
frogapplause commented on the word sestertius
I think bilby has eaten too much fermented fruit and too many tainted insect larvae.
October 12, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
When the asses are in the Seventh House
And bronze aligns with orichalc
Then peace will guide the planets
But stuff that, let's hear moneytalk
October 12, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
Leaden: Thanks!
Bilby: I'm surprised you'd like a musical called Hare.
October 12, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
This is the dawning!
October 13, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
How can one have too many tainted insect larvae?
*puzzled*
October 13, 2011
leaden commented on the word sestertius
Ruzuzu: Je vous en prie.
Whispering (Is he OK? Should we call someone?)
October 13, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
leaden: On peut se tutoyer, non?
bilby: I thought you were veg*n.
October 13, 2011
leaden commented on the word sestertius
Mais oui, je t'en prie (provided we have this exact conversation again, as I’ve now spent all my French).
(Tutoyer gives me an idea for a list.)
October 13, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
Agreed (though I still had something up my sleeve about an aunt and a plume).
October 13, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
Are you implying that bandicoots in your land aren't feted to plumpage with delectable veg*n tainted insect larvae? Witchettofu grubs are to die for.
*worried*
October 14, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
Bandicoots? Never heard of 'em.
October 14, 2011
bilby commented on the word sestertius
It's Friday, shouldn't you be executing criminals or something?
October 14, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word sestertius
*Lines up a row of insect larvae. Their crime? Being tainted with tasty.*
October 14, 2011