Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
masc. proper name, from Latin, properly "the sixth," originally denoting a sixth child, from sextus "sixth," from sex "six" (see six; also see Octavian).
Wikipedia
Sextus is an ancient Roman praenomen or "first name". Its standard abbreviation is Sex., and the feminine form would be Sexta. It is one of the numeral praenomina, like Quintus ("fifth") and Decimus ("tenth"), and means "sixth". Although it is sometimes thought that these names originally referred to birth order and were then handed down through the family line, they may have also have been a reference to the month of birth. Similar names were used among the Sabellians. The gens name Sextius is a related form.
Among those named Sextus are:
- Sextus Roscius
- Sextus Pompeius (younger son of Pompey the Great)
- Sextus Pompeius (relatives of Pompey the Great)
- Sextus Propertius
- Sextus Empiricus
- Sextus Appuleius
- Sextus Pomponius
- Sextus Martinianus
- Sextus Tarquinius
- Sextus Julius Africanus
- Sextus Julius Frontinus
- Sextus Julius Caesar
- Sextus Attius Varus
- Sextus Aelius Paetus Catus
- Sextus Afranius Burrus
- Sextus Cornelius Repentinus
Sextus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was common throughout all periods of Roman history. It was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gentes Sextia and Sextilia. The feminine form is Sexta. The name was regularly abbreviated Sex., but occasionally is found abbreviated S. (usually used for the praenomen Spurius), or Sext.
Sextus was about the tenth most-common praenomen for most of Roman history, although it became slightly more common in imperial times, as other praenomina declined in popularity. Many families did not use it, but it was widespread amongst all social classes, and was favored by some families. The name survived the collapse of Roman civil institutions in the 5th and 6th centuries, and has continued in use into modern times.
Usage examples of "sextus".
So I expect you to make sure both Sextus and Gaius are elected curule aediles, with enough money in their purses to put on the kind of games and shows the people will remember affectionately when they go to the polls to elect praetors.
Actors were hired, chariots for them to ride in: the ancestors would include King Ancus Marcius, Quintus Marcius Rex, Iulus , that early Julian consul, Sextus Caesar and Lucius Caesar, and Gaius Marius and his son.
He had made certain arrangements, in the course of which he had caused Sextus Parker to stare with surprise and to sweat with dismay, but which nevertheless were successfully concluded.
All this left so vivid an impression of the wisdom of his friend on the mind of Sextus Parker, that in spite of the harrowing fears by which he had been tormented on more than one occasion already, he allowed himself to be persuaded into certain fiscal arrangements, by which Lopez would find himself put at ease with reference to money at any rate for the next four months.
Only a backbencher, but never mere lobby fodder, this most senior of the Julius Caesars left in the Senate now his older brother, Sextus, was dead.
And here was Ferdinand Lopez asking it, who, Sextus Parker had latterly regarded as an opulent man,--and asking it not at all on his knees, but, as one might say, at the muzzle of a pistol.
As I fortuned to take my voyage into Thessaly, about certaine affaires which I had to doe ( for there myne auncestry by my mothers side inhabiteth, descended of the line of that most excellent person Plutarch, and of Sextus the Philosopher his Nephew, which is to us a great honour) and after that by much travell and great paine I had passed over the high mountaines and slipperie vallies, and had ridden through the cloggy fallowed fields.
From Sextus, a benevolent disposition, and the example of a family governed in a fatherly manner, and the idea of living conformably to nature.
The Corpus includes the following collections of cannons and decretals: The Decretum of Gratian (1142), the Liber Extra (1234), the Liber Sextus (1298), the Constitutiones Clementinae (1318 or 1317), and the two books of Extravagantes, -- the Extravagantes of John XXIV, and the Extravagantes Communes.
When it had become clear to Sextus what his father meant him to understand by his mysterious silent action, he proceeded to get rid of the foremost men of the State by traducing some of them to the people, whilst others fell victims to their own unpopularity.