Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

SEVIR.

342

SICA.

The sestertius was the denomination of money
almost always used in reckoning considerable
amounts. There are a very few examples of
the use of the denarius for this purpose.
The mode of reckoning was as follows :—■
Sestertius = sestertius nummus = numnitts.
Sums below 1000 sestertii were expressed by
the numeral adjectives joined with either of
these forms. The sum of 1000 sestertii -
mille sestertii = M sestertium (for sestertio-
rum) = M nummi = M nummum (for num-
morum) = M sestertii nummi = M sestertium
nummum = sestertium. These forms are used
with the numeral adjectives below 1000 :
sometimes millia is used instead of sestertia:
sometimes both words are omitted : some-
times nummum or sestertium is added. For
example, 000,000 sestertii = sescenta sestertia
= sescenta millia = sescenta = sescenta ses-
tertia nummum. For sums of a thousand
sestertia (i. e. a million sestertii) and upwards,
the numeral adverbs in ies (decies, undecies,
vicies, $c.) are used, with which the words
centena millia (a hundred thousand) must be
understood. With these adverbs the neuter
singular sestertium is joined in the case re-
quired by the construction. Thus, decies
sestertium = decies centena millia sestertium
= ten times a hundred thousand sestertii —
1,000,000 sestertii = 1000 sestertia: millies
II S = millies centena millia sestertium = a
thousand times one hundred thousand sestertii
= 100,000,000 sestertii = 100,000 sestertia.
When the numbers are written in cypher, it
is often difficult to know whether sestertii or
sestertia are meant. A distinction is some-
times made by a line placed over the numeral
when sestertia are intended, or in other
words, when the numeral is an adverb in ies.
Thus

IIS. M.C. = 1100 sestertii, but

HS. MX. = HS millies centies
= 110,000 sestertia -
110,000,000 sestertii.

Sesterce is sometimes used as an English
word. If so, it ought to be used only as the
translation of sestertius, never of sestertium.

SEVIR. [Equitks.]

SEX SUFFRAGIA. [Equites.]

SEXTANS. [As.]

SEXTARIUS, a Roman dry and liquid
measure. It was one-sixth of the congius,
and hence its name. It was divided, in the
same manner as the As, into parts named
uncia, sextans, guadrans, triens, quincunx,
semissis, $c. The uncia, or twelfth part of
the sextarius, was the Cyathcs ; its sextans
was therefore two cyathi, its guadrans three,
its triens four, its quincunx five, &c. (See
Tables.)

SIBYLLIXI LIBRI. These books are said
to have been obtained in the reign of Tar-
quinius Priscus, or according to other ac-
counts in that of Tarquinius Superhus, when a
Sibyl (Si/SuAAa), or prophetic woman, presented
herself before the king, and offered nine
books for sale. Upon the king refusing to
purchase them, she went and burnt three,
and then returned and demanded the same
price for the remaining six as she had done
for the nine. The king again refused to
purchase them, whereupon she burnt three
more, and demanded the same sum for the
remaining three as she had done at first for
the nine ; the king's curiosity now became
excited, so that he purchased the books, and
then the Sibyl vanished. These books were
probably written in Greek, as the later ones
undoubtedly were. They were kept in a
stone chest under ground in the temple of
Jupiter Capitolinus, under the custody of
certain officers, at first only two in number,
but afterwards increased successively to ten
and fifteen, of whom an account is given
under Decemviri. The public were not
allowed to inspect the books, and they were
only consulted by the officers, who had the
charge of them, at the special command of
the senate. They were not consulted, as the
Greek oracles were, for the purpose of getting
light concerning future events ; but to learn
what worship was required by the gods, when
they had manifested their wrath by national
calamities or prodigies. Accordingly we find
that the instruction they give is in the same
spirit; prescribing what honour was to be
paid to the deities already recognised, or
what new ones were to be imported from
abroad. When the temple of Jupiter Capito-
linus was burnt in b. c. 82, the Sibylline
books perished in the fire ; and in order to
restore them, ambassadors were sent to various
towns in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, to
make fresh collections, which on the rebuild-
ing of the temple were deposited in the same
place that the former had occupied. The
Sibylline books were also called Fata Sibyl-
Una and Libri Fat ales. Along with the
Sibylline books were preserved, under the
guard of the same officers, the books of the
two prophetic brothers, the Marcii, the Etrus-
can prophecies of the nymph Bygoe, and
those of Albuna or Albunea of Tibur. Those
of the Marcii, which had not been placed
there at the time of the battle of Cannae,
were written in Latin.

SICA, dim. SICILA, whence the English
sickle, a curved dagger, adapted by its form
to be concealed under the clothes, and there-
fore carried by robbers and murderers. Sica
may be translated a scimitar, to distinguish