sestertius

Forms

sēstertius m (genitive sēstertiī or sēstertī); second declension^[1] Written HS as the coin and in sums of money.^[2][3] The genitive plural is usually sēstertium.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmis (“half”) + tertius (“third”), contracted from ⟨*sēmis-tertius⟩, “the third (unit) half”, that is, two and a half.^[2][3][1] The OLD compares German drittenhalb.^[2] De Vaan traces sēmi- to Proto-Italic *sēmi- and Proto-Indo-European *sēm-i (“in one”), with the meaning shifting from “in one” to “one of two” and “half”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The jurist Maecianus reports that the law of the Twelve Tables calls a measure of two and a half feet sestertius pes.^[2] De Vaan dates it in the texts from Varro.^[4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means “worth two and a half units”, and Columella records sestertium as the farmers' name for a spade that digs two and a half feet deep.^[2] As a masculine noun, short for nummus, it is the coin worth two and a half asses, a quarter of a dēnārius, which Cicero uses in reckoning prices.^[2][3] It was later reckoned at four asses.^[1] With multiples of mīlia it counts thousands of sesterces, and Catullus leaves mīlia out.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables, as reported by Maecianus, of a foot of two and a half.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of thousands of sesterces.^[2][4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the coin in prices of grain.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, decem sestertia for ten thousand sesterces.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of a spade.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Worth two and a half times the unit.^[2][3][1]
2. With mīlia (or alone in the neuter plural), so many thousand sesterces.^[2][3]

Noun

1. A sesterce, a coin worth two and a half asses, a quarter of a dēnārius.^[2][3][1]
2. (neuter) A spade that digs two and a half feet deep.^[2]

Word family

• sēstertium

Related words

• sēmis
• tertius
• nummus
• dēnārius
• as

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de