SES

 

Catalogue Raisonné of J. L. Speranza’s Publications – H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Ses

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sesti – Ossia: Grice e Sesti: la ragione conversazionale e la romanità nel circolo dei Sesti -- Roma antica. Note su Dicta. Il Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice. Sesti (Roma, Lazio): la ragione conversazionale e la romanità nel circolo dei Sesti. Both the Sextian circle and Grice articulate a conception of reason that is inseparable from disciplined practice, but they apply it at different levels of life. In the circle of the Sesti, reason is exercised as a lived Roman habitus: a Stoic–Pythagorean regimen in which conversation, moral self-examination, and Romanitas form a continuous fabric of action, speech, and character. Reflection at day’s end, the restrained, almost administrative reckoning of one’s conduct, and the emphasis on Roman customs and modes of speaking treat rationality as something enacted in ordinary exchanges and social forms, not theorized as an abstract property. Grice’s theory of reason-governed conversational meaning offers a structural analogue on the philosophical plane: communication itself is governed by norms of accountability, restraint, and appropriateness, where saying too much, misclassifying what is at issue, or converting practice into essence counts as a rational failure. Just as the Sestian avoids reifying Romanitas into a scholastic genus and insists it “returns to the forum,” Grice resists treating meaning or rationality as metaphysical categories, treating them instead as products of use, intention-recognition, and cooperative expectation. In both cases, reason operates not as a system of doctrines but as a regulative discipline that keeps inquiry, self-description, and communal life from collapsing into empty catalogues or abstract idols, anchoring rationality in the responsible management of what is said, done, and left unsaid. Grice: “Italians refer to  Sozione as the teacher of Seneca the Younger. Historically, he was a philosopher of the Sextian school (Scuola dei Sestii), an eclectic Roman school that combined Stoicism with Pythagoreanism.    Etymology The name Sozione is the Italianized version of the Greek Sotion (Σωτίων). Its etymology is rooted in the Greek word soter (σωτήρ), meaning "savior" or "deliverer". In the context of ancient philosophers, it was a common name often associated with those who "preserved" or "saved" the successions (diadochai) of philosophical thought.  Modern Italian Surname for the Gens Sextia If we trace the surname of his predecessors, specifically Quintus Sextius (Quinto Sestio), the founder of his school, into modern Italian, it follows several patronymic and phonetic evolutions: Sestio: This remains the most direct continuation of the Latin Sextius and is still found as a rare surname in Italy today. Sesto / Sesti: These are the primary modern Italian derivatives of the name Sextus or Sextius. Sesti is the common pluralized/patronymic form typical of Italian surnames. Sestito: Particularly common in Southern Italy (Calabria), this signifies "son of Sesto" or a descendant of the Sextia line. Sisto: A variant that evolved through ecclesiastical influence (the name of several Popes), popularized from the Latin Sixtus.  In modern Italy, a descendant of the gens Sextia would most likely carry the surname Sesto, Sesti, or Sestito.  Would you like to explore the specific Pythagorean-Stoic practices that Sozione taught to Seneca, such as his famous vegetarianism?Tutor of Seneca. In glossary to Roman philosophers, in Roman philosophers. Filosofo pitagorico, appartenente alla scuola dei Sestii, e accolge anche motivi etici di derivazione del Portico Vive a Roma all'epoca di OTTAVIANO e di TIBERIO e e tra i maestri di Seneca. Sozione.: il circolo dei Sesti. Sozione.  GRICEVS: Salvē, Sestī. Audīvī vos in circulō Sestiōrum etiam de Rōmānitāte disserere—quasi esset genus aliquod in Acadēmiā, inter “animal” et “angelum”. SESTI: Salvē, Grice. Rōmānitās genus? Immo sapor est: in moribus, in sermone, in togae ipsius plicīs. Sed quid tibi vidētur? GRICEVS: Ego tantum animadvertō hoc: si quis in scholā clāmat “Rōmānitās!”, statim quaerit quasi esset ἰδέα (sic, Graecīs litterīs), atque in catalogō specierum reponenda; cum tamen Rōmānitās saepe magis usus sit quam essentia—nec “species” est, sed quoddam “species” facit, dum de eā disputāmus. SESTI: Rōmānitās! Inplicātūram tuam dē Rōmānitāte supra τὸπον οὐρανόν tollis, Grice, magnifice erudite! Nam dum negās eam esse speciem in schola, ostendis quomodo ipsa disputātiō de ἰδέᾳ Rōmānitātem quasi in caelum metaphysicum extollat—cum illa, ridēns, in forum redeat. In some cases, Grice does not know -- he has the order: Sesti, Sesto, Sestio -- for alphabetical convenience -- but classicists have studied this? If Settimia was a gens, the good formation would be Sestia (Sextia), not Sesta (Sexta) -- Still, the Sesti -- or Sexti, were more prominent than the one Sextius (Sestio) that Grice has -- "It's odd" - Yes, classicists have studied this, and Grice’s uneasiness is justified. The trouble is that several different things are crossing at once: the praenomen Sextus, the nomen Sextius, later cognomina and derivatives, and then modern Italian surname formations such as Sesti, Sesto, Sestio, Sestito, and Sisto, none of which map neatly back onto one ancient rule. The first point is the Roman one. If the gens is Sextia, the normal gentilicial form is indeed Sextius for a male and Sextia for the gens or for a female bearer. So on strict Roman grounds Grice is right: if one is looking for the ancient nomen of the gens, one wants Sextia, not Sexta. Sexta is normally just the feminine of the ordinal or personal name Sextus, not the standard way of naming the gens. In other words, Septimia works like a gens-name; Sextia would too. Sexta would not ordinarily be the corresponding gentilicial form. That means the ancient family behind Quintus Sextius and the so-called Sextian school is the gens Sextia, with Sextius as the masculine nomen. So if Grice is ordering by gens, the strict antiquarian shelf would really be Sextia or, in Italianised masculine filing, Sestio for the individual bearing Sextius. That is the clean Roman answer. But then the second point is the Italian one, and here the waters become muddier. Modern Italian surnames do not preserve Roman gentilicia in a mechanically regular way. They pass through medieval and regional phonetic changes, patronymics, plural family forms, ecclesiastical influence, and local habits. So Sesti and Sesto may become much more visible in modern Italy than Sestio, even if the ancient nomen behind them was Sextius. That does not mean the ancient gens was “really” Sesti or Sesto. It means posterity has naturalised the name differently. This is why Grice’s order, Sesti, Sesto, Sestio, makes practical sense as a modern filing convenience, even if it is not philologically pure. Sesti is a common Italian plural-family surname formation. Sesto is a natural vernacular outcome from Sextus or from related personal-name lines. Sestio is the closest straightforward continuation of Sextius and therefore the best antiquarian shelf if one wants to keep contact with the Roman nomen. But because Sesti and Sesto may be much more socially familiar in Italian onomastics, they can overshadow the stricter form. So the oddity Grice feels is real. The form most faithful to the Roman gens, Sestio, is not necessarily the most prominent in modern surname visibility. And the more prominent modern forms, Sesti and Sesto, may derive partly from Sextus as a praenomen and partly from later family developments, not just from Sextius as nomen. In other words, several etymological streams are flowing together under one modern-looking cluster. That is why one should not expect a perfectly parallel series like Septimia, Settimio, and then something equally neat for Sextia. Sext- in Italian had a more varied afterlife than septim-. The phonetic and ecclesiastical history of Sisto especially complicates matters further, because Sixtus enters the picture through church usage and papal names, and that can displace what a purely Roman-gentilicial development might have looked like. So the dry answer for Grice would be this. Yes, if one is talking strictly about the ancient gens, the right underlying form is Sextia, with Sextius for the male nomen. Sestio is therefore the closest Italianising continuation of the Roman gentilicial form. But Sesti and Sesto are more visible because modern Italian surnames do not preserve ancient nomina by a single regular rule; they mix patronymic, phonetic, and regional developments. Hence the prominence of Sesti or Sesto over Sestio is historically understandable, even if it looks philologically untidy. So Grice’s instinct is sound: the neat Roman expectation would point to Sextia and Sextius, not to Sexta. But the actual Italian afterlife of the name is messier, and classicists and onomasticians would indeed say that this messiness is exactly what one should expect once Roman gentilicia pass through many centuries of vernacular life. Sesti (a. u. c. DCCLXX). Dicta. Roma.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestilio – Ossia: Grice e Sestilio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestilio The gens Sextilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first member of this gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Sextilius, consular tribune in 379 BC. None of the family obtained the consulship, but they endured throughout Roman history from the early Republic into imperial times.[1][2]  Origin The nomen Sextilius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Sextus. The nomen of the gens Sextia was derived from the same name, much as the praenomen Quintus gave rise to the gentes Quinctia and Quinctilia.[3][4]  Praenomina The praenomina used by the Sextilii included Gaius, Lucius, Marcus, Publius, and Quintus, all of which were very common throughout Roman history. Although Sextilius was derived from Sextus, none of the Sextilii known to history bore that name.[5]  Branches and cognomina The Sextilii were not divided into families with distinctive surnames. Most of the Sextilii under the Republic bore no cognomen, but a few surnames are found in later times and under the Empire.[6]  Members Gaius Sextilius, tribunus militum consulari potestate in 379 BC, in which year an equal number of patricians and plebeians were elected to the office.[7] Sextilia, a Vestal Virgin, who was condemned for incest, and buried alive in 273 BC.[8] Lucius Sextilius, one of the tresviri nocturni, who were accused by the tribunes of the plebs, and condemned, because they had arrived too late to put out a fire in the Via Sacra.[9] Marcus Sextilius, of Fregellae, assured the consuls of 209 BC, during the Second Punic War, that eighteen of the Roman colonies were ready to furnish the state with soldiers, when twelve had refused to do so.[10] Publius Sextilius, governor of Africa in 88 BC, forbade Marius to land in the country.[11][12] Sextilius, an Etruscan, betrayed Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo to the assassins of Marius and Cinna, in 87 BC, although he had previously been defended by Caesar, when accused of a very grave offense.[13][14] Sextilius, legate of Lucius Licinius Lucullus during the Mithridatic War, was sent to attack Tigranocerta.[15] Sextilius, a praetor, was carried off by the pirates, shortly before Pompeius was appointed to the command of the war against them.[16][17] Aulus Sextilius, a negotiator or money-lender in Acmonia, a town in Phrygia, described by Cicero as a homo improbus.[18] Gaius Sextilius, the nephew of Marcus Aufidius Lurco, described by Cicero as a man et pudens et constans et gravis. He may be the same man as the praetor Sextilius mentioned by Varro.[19][20] Publius Sextilius, quaestor in 61 BC.[21] Quintus Sextilius, a friend of Titus Annius Milo.[22] Sextilius Andro, of Pergamum, mentioned by Cicero.[23] Publius Sextilius Rufus, succeeded to the property of Quintus Fadius Gallus in a dishonorable manner.[24] Gaius Sextilius Rufus, quaestor in Cyprus in 47 BC. In the wars following the death of Caesar, he commanded the fleet of Gaius Cassius Longinus.[25] Sextilius Hena, a poet of Corduba, in Hispania, wrote a poem on the death of Cicero, of which the first line is quoted by Seneca.[26] Sextilia, a virtuous Roman matron, and the mother of the emperor Vitellius; she lived to see her son emperor, but died shortly before his fall.[27][28] Sextilius Felix, was stationed on the frontiers of Raetia by Marcus Antonius Primus in AD 70, to watch the movements of Porcius Septimius, procurator of the province under Vitellius. There he remained until the following year, when he helped to quell an insurrection of the Treviri.[29] Sextilius Agesilaus Aedesius, vicar of Hispania between 355 and 376.[30][31] See also List of Roman gentes References  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.  Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, vi. 30.  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.  George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897).  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.  Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, vi. 30.  Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita Epitome, 14.  Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium libri IX, viii. 1. damn. 5.  Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xxvii. 9, 10.  Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, "Marius", 40.  Appianus, Bellum Civile, i. 62.  Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium libri IX, v. 3. § 3.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore, iii. 3.  Appianus, Bella Mithridatica, 84.  Plutarchus, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, "Pompeius," 24.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Lege Manilia, 12.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Flacco, 15.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Flacco, 36.  Marcus Terentius Varro, Rerum Rusticarum libri III, i. 1. § 10.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Flacco, 13.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, ii. 1. § 3.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Flacco, 34.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, ii. 17.  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xii. 13. § 4, xiii. 48.  Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Suasoriae, 6, pp. 45, 46, ed. Bip.  Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae ii. 64, 89, iii. 67.  Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, "Vitellius," 3.  Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae iii. 5, iv. 70.  CIL VI, 510, CIL VI, 31118  PLRE, vol. 1, pp. 15–16. Works cited  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)  Jones, A.H.M.; J.R. Martindale & J. Morris (1971–1992). Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07233-6. Categories: Roman gentesSextilii And about THIS gens? Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestilio – Ossia: Grice e Sestilio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestilio For the Sextilii, my first-best choice is Sextilia, mother of the emperor Vitellius. Not because she is politically important, but because she gives a beautifully Gricean problem of hope, title, and conversational perspective. The ancient tradition (Tacitus and Suetonius) preserves the striking fact that she lived long enough to see her son become emperor, but died before his downfall. In retrospect, this becomes almost a philosophical problem about what counts as a "successful" description of a life. A Speranzian title: Grice e Sextilia: Imperator, Filius, Fortuna.  A vignette SEXTILIA. Filius meus princeps est. (My son is emperor.) +> My highest hope for his public career has been fulfilled. AMICA. Fortuna celeriter vertitur. (Fortune turns quickly.) +> Present success need not be stable. SEXTILIA. Hodie princeps est. (Today he is emperor.) +> Present truth is not invalidated by future reversal. AMICA. Sed quid dicent posteri? (But what will posterity say?) +> Historical description may differ from contemporary description. SEXTILIA. Ego mater sum, non posteritas. (I am a mother, not posterity.) +> Maternal evaluation follows a different criterion from historical judgment.  The Gricean point is that "Vitellius is emperor" and "Vitellius is doomed" may both be true under different descriptions. The mother's conversational interests differ from those of Tacitus. History loves the ending; the mother lives in the middle. Sextilia gives us a nearly perfect clash between:  present and retrospective description, maternal and historical viewpoint, success and catastrophe.   A tiny epigram: TACITVS. Vitellius cecidit. (Vitellius fell.) +> The reign ended in failure. SEXTILIA. Sed imperavit. (But he ruled.) +> The fact of the achievement remains. GRICE. Uterque verum dicit. (Both speak truly.) +> Different descriptions may be simultaneously correct. Dry Speranzian formula:  Catiline gives us conspiracy; Sertorius gives us legitimacy; Sextilia gives us something rarer. She reminds us that a mother's conversational world is not written by Tacitus. History sees the fall; she saw the accession.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestilio – Ossia: Grice e Sestilio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestilio A close second choice would be Sextilius Hena, the Cordovan poet who wrote on Cicero's death, because poetry and lament are always fertile Gricean territory. But we possess only the report that Seneca quotes the opening line of a poem on Cicero's death; we have far less material to work with.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestio Coin of Lucius Sestius, consul suffectus in 23 BC The gens Sestia (Sēstia)[1] was a minor patrician family at ancient Rome. The only member of this gens to obtain the consulship in the time of the Republic was Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, in 452 BC.[2]  Origin The nomen Sestius is sometimes confused with that of Sextius, and these families may in fact share a common origin; but Roman writers considered them distinct gentes.[2] If Sestius and Sextius are two forms of the same name, then Sestius is probably a patronymic surname, based on the common praenomen Sextus, meaning "sixth". The same name gave rise to the plebeian gens Sextilia.[3] The plebeian Sestii known from the later Republic may have been descendants of freedmen, or of Sestii who relinquished their patrician status.  Praenomina The main praenomina used by the Sestii included Publius, Lucius, Vibius, and Titus. The Sestii are the only patrician family known to have used Vibius. Epigraphy also provides an example of the rare praenomen Faustus, although as it was borne by a freedwoman, it is unclear whether the name previously belonged to members of this ancient family.  Branches and cognomina The only cognomen of the early Sestii is Capitolinus, presumably referring to the Capitoline Hill, where the family must originally have lived.[4] The consul of 452 BC bore the agnomen Vaticanus, apparently referring some association with the Vatican Hill, across the Tiber from the Capitol. Towards the end of the Republic, the surnames Pansa, meaning "splay-footed,"[5] and Gallus, a cock or a Gaul, are found.[6]  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Vibius Sestius Capitolinus, grandfather of Publius Sestius Capitolinus, the consul of 452 BC. Publius Sestius V. f. Capitolinus, father of Publius, the consul of 452 BC. Publius Sestius P. f. V. n. Capitolinus Vaticanus, consul in 452 BC; the following year, he was one of the decemvirs charged with drawing up the first ten tables of Roman law.[7][8][9] Publius Sestius, accused of murder by Gaius Julius Iulus, one of the decemvirs, in 451 BC; apparently a different man from the decemvir Capitolinus.[10] Publius Sestius, quaestor in 414 BC.[11] Lucius Sestius,[i] tribune of the plebs, probably early in the first century BC.[12][13] Publius Sestius L. f., praetor in 53 BC; he was a friend and ally of Cicero, by whom he was defended in 56. He was with Pompeius on the outbreak of the Civil War, but subsequently went over to Caesar, who sent him into Cappadocia in 48 BC. Lucius Sestius Pansa, made a demand resisted by Quintus Tullius Cicero in 54 BC.[14] Publius Sestius P. f., to whom Cicero wrote circa 53 BC, had been condemned for an unknown offense.[15] Titus Sestius Gallus, owned the land where Publius Clodius Pulcher was slain in 52 BC.[16] Lucius Sestius P. f. L. n. Albanianus Quirinalis, consul suffectus in 23 BC.[13][17] Lucius Sestius L. l. Carres, a freedman buried in a first-century sepulchre at Rome, along with Fausta Sestia Amaryllis and Publius Caesenus Cerdo.[18] Fausta Sestia Ɔ. l. Amaryllis, a freedwoman buried at Rome, age 20, shares her tomb with the freedmen Lucius Sestius Carres and Publius Caesenus Cerdo.[18] See also List of Roman gentes Sextia gens Notes  Cicero calls him Lucius, but in the Capitoline Fasti, his grandson's filiation is P. f. Vibi n. The inconsistent names in Cicero and the Capitoline Fasti have led some to speculate that the grandson was a member of another family, although the substitution of a common praenomen for a rare one was quite common. Another explanation would be that the filiation in the Capitoline Fasti was "borrowed" from Sestius' ancestor, Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, whose father and grandfather were named Publius and Vibius, respectively. References  Chapter 3, Charles E. Bennett (1907) The Latin Language – a historical outline of its sounds, inflections, and syntax. Allyn & Bacon, Boston.  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 795 ("Sestia Gens").  Chase, p. 123.  Chase, p. 114.  Chase, p. 110.  Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary, s.v. Gallus.  Livy, iii. 32-34.  Dionysius, x. 54.  Festus, s. v. peculatus.  Livy, iii. 33, 34.  Livy, iv. 50.  Cicero, Pro Sestio, 3.  Fasti Capitolini.  Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, ii. 11.  Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, v. 17.  Cicero, Pro Milone, 31.  Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 41, 383 ff.  CIL VI, 39714 Bibliography Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, Pro Milone, Pro Sestio. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romaike Archaiologia (Roman Antiquities). Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome. Sextus Pompeius Festus, Epitome de M. Verrio Flacco de Verborum Significatu (Epitome of Marcus Verrius Flaccus' On the Meaning of Words). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897). D.P. Simpson, Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York (1963). Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1989). Categories: SestiiRoman gentes And from THIS gens? Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestio For the Sestii, I would choose Publius Sestius, Cicero's friend and client, the man defended in the speech Pro Sestio. Not because he is the most powerful Sestius, but because Pro Sestio is almost a Gricean treasure-house. The whole case turns on what political actions, associations, and public conduct are taken to mean. A Sestian title almost suggests itself: Grice e Sestio: quid significat esse bonum civem? The issue is not merely:  What did Sestius do?  but rather:  What is Rome entitled to infer from what Sestius did?  That is pure Grice.  A vignette SESTIVS. Rem publicam defendi. (I defended the Republic.) +> My conduct is to be interpreted as civic service. ACCVSATOR. Turbas collegisti. (You gathered mobs.) +> The same conduct is to be interpreted as sedition. SESTIVS. Causa mutat nomen. (The cause changes the name.) +> The description assigned to an action depends upon the purpose attributed to it. CICERO. Non quaeritur quid factum sit, sed quo consilio. (The question is not what was done, but with what intention.) +> Political acts cannot be understood without speaker's intention. ACCVSATOR. Eventus satis loquitur. (The outcome speaks sufficiently.) +> Consequences are enough to determine significance. CICERO. Eventus saepe clamat; consilium significat. (The outcome often shouts; intention signifies.) +> Meaning lies closer to intended purpose than to public noise.  This is very close to Grice's distinction between:  what happened, what people inferred, what the agent intended.  Cicero's defence repeatedly attempts to redescribe Sestius' behaviour under a different description. The prosecution says:  disturbance, faction, violence.  Cicero says:  defence of the constitution, loyalty, public service.  The facts may overlap; the meaning is disputed. One tiny epigram: CICERO. Pro Sestio dico. (I speak on behalf of Sestius.) +> Sestius' actions require interpretation. GRICE. Omnis defensio est interpretatio. (Every defence is an interpretation.) +> Advocacy consists largely in assigning the preferred description to the facts. Dry Speranzian formula:  Catiline asks whether conspiracy means revolution; Servilius Ahala asks whether popularity means kingship; Sestius asks whether political activism means sedition or patriotism. Cicero's answer is characteristically Roman: first settle what the action means, and only then decide whether it was a crime.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestio A close second choice would be Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, the decemvir associated with the drafting of the Twelve Tables. There the Gricean problem would be:  When a law is written, is the law what the words say, or what the decemvirs intended?  A very legal-Hart-Grice theme. And for the decemvir, do we know the names of the other nine? And when people like Tullio Cicero learned the twelve tables by heart, would they know who ten men were associated with them -- being associated is 'being the author'? Thanks Yes. For a Roman schoolboy of Cicero's generation, the Twelve Tables were far more famous than the individual decemvirs. Cicero himself says that boys learned them ut carmen necessarium, almost as a required chant or catechism. The text, not the committee, became the cultural monument. On the names, our sources (primarily Livy and Dionysius) do preserve the traditional membership of the first decemvirate of 451 BC. The list is not entirely free from textual doubts, but it conventionally includes:  Appius Claudius Titus Genucius Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus Publius Curiatius Titus Romilius Spurius Postumius Aulus Manlius Servius Sulpicius Publius Horatius Titus Veturius  So your Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus is one member of the ten traditionally associated with producing the first ten tables. The Gricean question, however, is excellent:  Is being a decemvir the same thing as being an author?  Not really. A Roman, and even more a modern legal theorist such as Hart, would probably distinguish:  the text the promulgators the authority behind the text  The Twelve Tables are not remembered as:  "the work of Sestius, Claudius, Horatius, etc."  They are remembered as:  "the law of the Twelve Tables."  The authors dissolve into the authority of the institution. A Grice-Speranza vignette might run: DISCIPVLVS. Duodecim Tabulas memini. (I know the Twelve Tables by heart.) +> The legal text has entered cultural memory. MAGISTER. Et decemviros? (And the decemvirs?) +> Knowledge of the authors is being tested. DISCIPVLVS. Vix. (Hardly.) +> The text has eclipsed its producers. SESTIVS. Leges scripsimus. (We wrote the laws.) +> The decemvirs claim legislative authorship. GRICE. Scripsistisne, an publicastis? (Did you write them, or promulgate them?) +> Authorship and institutional authority are not identical. SESTIVS. Utrumque fortasse. (Perhaps both.) +> Legal creation involves both composition and official enactment. The deeper comparison is with Plato, Homer, or Virgil. A Roman educated person knew the names of those authors. But one did not generally approach the Twelve Tables as "Sestius' book" or "Appius Claudius' book." The law acquired a kind of anonymous authority. Dry Speranzian formula:  Cicero probably remembered more lines of the Twelve Tables than names of the decemvirs. The Tables became immortal; the ten authors became footnotes. That is one mark that a text has ceased to belong to its writers and begun to belong to a civilization. And in Grice's England, the closest would be the Charta magna? Thanks Yes, in Grice's England the closest analogue is probably Magna Carta, though not perfectly. The comparison works because both became something larger than their original political occasion.                              RomeEnglandTwelve TablesMagna CartaLearned by educated RomansKnown by educated EnglishmenRegarded as foundational lawRegarded as constitutional foundationAuthors largely forgottenIndividual barons largely forgottenText survives as symbolText survives as symbol The interesting Gricean point is authorship. Ask an educated Roman:  Who wrote the Twelve Tables?  He might struggle through a few decemvirs. Ask an educated Englishman:  Who drafted chapter 39 of Magna Carta?  He is even less likely to know. Yet both can quote, paraphrase, or invoke the text. So we get: DISCIPVLVS ROMANVS. Duodecim Tabulae dicunt... (The Twelve Tables say...) +> Authority is attributed to the text rather than to its individual authors. DISCIPVLVS ANGLICVS. Magna Carta says... +> Constitutional authority is attributed to the document rather than to King John or the barons. And Grice would probably enjoy the shift from:  X said that p  to  Magna Carta says that p.  For a document does not literally say anything. The usage is institutional, almost a legal personification. One difference, however, is significant. The Twelve Tables were genuinely a school text. Cicero says boys learned them by heart. Magna Carta was never memorized by generations of English schoolboys in quite that way. The nearer English equivalent in terms of educational recitation might almost be parts of the Book of Common Prayer or the King James Bible. So:  Constitutionally: Magna Carta is the nearest analogue. Pedagogically: the analogy is weaker.  A dry Speranzian epigram: SESTIVS. Decem viri leges scripserunt. (Ten men wrote the laws.) +> The laws once had authors. IURISCONSULTUS. Duodecim Tabulae dicunt. (The Twelve Tables say.) +> The authors have disappeared behind the authority of the text. ANGLUS. Magna Carta says. +> Constitutional memory prefers documents to draftsmen. GRICE. The highest compliment to an author may be that nobody remembers who wrote him. +> Complete institutional uptake tends to erase individual authorship.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestio. The gens Sextia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, from the time of the early Republic and continuing into imperial times. The most famous member of the gens was Lucius Sextius Lateranus, who as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of the annual magistrates, until the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, otherwise known as the "Licinian Rogations," in the latter year. This law, brought forward by Sextius and his colleague, Gaius Licinius Calvus, opened the consulship to the plebeians, and in the following year Sextius was elected the first plebeian consul. Despite the antiquity of the family, only one other member obtained the consulship during the time of the Republic. Their name occurs more often in the consular fasti under the Empire.[1][2]  Origin The nomen Sextius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Sextus, meaning "sixth".[3] It is frequently confounded with that of the patrician gens Sestia,[1] and in fact the two families may originally have been the same; however, Roman authors treated them as distinct gentes.[4] The plebeian gens Sextilia was derived from the same praenomen.[3]  Praenomina The main praenomina of the early Sextii were Marcus, Lucius, and Gaius, the most common names throughout all periods of Roman history. From filiations, we know that some of them also used Numerius and Sextus, of which the former was relatively uncommon at Rome. Later generations of this gens used Publius, Titus, and Quintus, all of which were also common. Epigraphy provides instances of Vibius, a name that was also used by the patrician Sestii, supporting the theory of a common origin.  Branches and cognomina Most of the Sextii under the Republic bore no surname, or else had only personal cognomina, instead of family-names. These included Baculus, Calvinus, Lateranus, Naso, Paconianus, and Sabinus.[1]  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Marcus Sextius, tribune of the plebs in 414 BC, proposed that a colony should be sent to Bolae.[5] Numerius Sextius, grandfather of Lucius Sextius Lateranus, the tribune.[6] Sextus Sextius N. f., father of the tribune Lateranus.[6] Lucius Sextius Sex. f. N. n. Sextinus Lateranus, tribune of the plebs with Gaius Licinius Calvus from 376 to 367 BC, succeeded in passing the lex Licinia Sextia, opening the consulship to the plebeians; in 366 he became the first plebeian consul.[2][6][7] Marcus Sextius Sabinus, plebeian aedile in 203 BC, and praetor in the following year, obtained Gaul as his province.[8] Sextius, quaestor of the consul Lucius Calpurnius Bestia in Numidia, in 111 BC.[9] Publius Sextius, praetor designatus in 100 BC, was accused of bribery by Titus Junius, and condemned. He might be the same person as the quaestor of 111.[10][11] Sextius, lictor of Verres in Sicily, and his favorite executioner.[12] Publius Sextius Baculus, a centurion primus pilus with Caesar's army in Gaul, who distinguished himself on many occasions by his great bravery.[13] Sextius Naso, one of the conspirators against Caesar in 44 BC.[14] Quintus Sextius,[i] conspired against Quintus Cassius Longinus, governor of Hispania Ulterior, in 48 BC. After the conspiracy was suppressed, Sextius purchased his life from Cassius in exchange for a large sum of money.[15][16] Quintus Sextius, a Sextian philosopher during the time of Caesar; his works were admired by the younger Seneca.[17] Sextius Niger, a Sextian physician during the early Empire, and author of a pharmacological work. Sextius Paconianus, one of the agents of Sejanus, who was imprisoned after his master's downfall in AD 31, and subsequently strangled for having written some libellous verses against the emperor.[18] Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus, a second century Roman senator, entombed at Petra. Sextii Calvini Gaius Sextius, grandfather of the consul of 124 BC Gaius C. f. Sextius, father of the consul of 124 BC Gaius Sextius C. f. C. n. Calvinus, consul in 124 BC, and afterwards assigned the administration of Gaul. He conquered the Salluvii, and founded the colony of Aquae Sextiae.[19][20][21] Gaius C. f. Sextius Calvinus, described by Cicero as an excellent but sickly orator who stod as a candidate as praetor against Servilius Glaucia.[22] He was probably a son of the consul[23] and probably the same man as the praetor who restored the altar of an unknown deity. He may also have been the Gaius Calvinus who was a friend of Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo, described as only having one eye.[24] Several historians have also identified him as the Sextius who was quaestor under Lucius Calpurnius Bestia in 111 BC.[25] Publius Sextius Calvinus, Late Republican descendant of the consul of 124 BC, attested from a statue base in Thespiis[26] Sextii Africani Titus Sextius, one of Caesar's legates in Gaul, he subsequently held the province of Africa on behalf of the triumvirs, until the government was given to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, in 40 BC. Sextia, the wife of Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus; they took their own lives after Scaurus was accused of maiestas in AD 34.[27] Titus Sextius Africanus, was discouraged by Agrippina from marrying Junia Silana, the widow of Gaius Silius; in AD 62 he took the census in the provinces of Gaul.[28] Sextia, the mother-in-law of Lucius Antistius Vetus; they were put to death by the emperor Nero in AD 65.[29] Titus Sextius Magius Lateranus, consul in AD 94.[30] Titus Sextius Cornelius Africanus, consul in AD 112 with the emperor Trajan.[30] Titus Sextius Lateranus, consul in AD 154.[30] Titus Sextius Magius Lateranus consul in AD 197.[31] See also List of Roman gentes Sestia gens School of the Sextii Notes  "Marcus Silius" in Valerius Maximus. References  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 810 ("Sextia Gens").  Livy, vi. 34–42.  Chase, p. 123.  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 795 ("Sestia Gens").  Livy, iv. 49.  Fasti Capitolini, AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114.  Broughton, vol. I, pp. 108–111, 113–115.  Livy, xxx. 26, 27.  Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum, 29.  Cicero, Brutus, 48.  Broughton, vol. I, pp. 541, 543 (note 4).  Cicero, In Verrem, iii. 67, v. 45, 54.  Caesar, De Bello Gallico, ii. 25, iii. 5, vi. 38.  Appian, Bellum Civile, ii. 113.  Hirtius, De Bello Alexandrino, 55.  Valerius Maximus, ix. 4. § 2.  Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, 64, 73, 98, De Ira, iii. 36.  Tacitus, Annales, vi. 3, 4, 39.  Livy, Epitome, 61.  Strabo, Geographica, iv. p. 180.  Velleius Paterculus, i. 15.  Cicero, Brutus, 34, De Oratore, ii. 60, 61.  Broderick, Bonaventure Finnbarr (1940). The So-called Altar of Calvinus on the Palatine Hill, in Rome: Identified as the Altar Erected by Romulus as a Part of the Ceremony of Founding Rome. Indiana University. p. 8.  Smith, William (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. J. Murray. p. 585.  Pina Polo, Francisco; Díaz Fernández, Alejandro (2019). The Quaestorship in the Roman Republic. KLIO / Beihefte. Neue Folge. Vol. 31 (illustrated ed.). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 319. ISBN 9783110666410.  PIR 2022: von Rohden, Dessau; pp. 236  Tacitus, Annales, vi. 29.  Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 19, xiv. 46.  Tacitus, Annales, xvi. 10, 11.  Fasti Ostienses, CIL XIV, 244.  Mennen, Power and Status of the Roman Empire. Bibliography Marcus Tullius Cicero, Brutus, De Oratore, In Verrem. Gaius Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War). Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Alexandrino (On the Alexandrine War). Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), Bellum Jugurthinum (The Jugurthine War). Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome. Strabo, Geographica. Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Roman History. Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium (Memorable Facts and Sayings). Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger), Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), De Ira (On Anger). Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales. Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897). T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952–1986). Inge Mennen, Power and Status in the Roman Empire, AD 193–284, Brill (2011). Christian Settipani, Prosopographie sénatoriale romaine: nouveautés autour des Sextii, L’Année Epigraphique (2014). Categories: SextiiRoman gentes And from THIS gens? Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestio. For the Sextii, there are two very strong candidates:  Lucius Sextius Lateranus (the first plebeian consul) Quintus Sextius the philosopher (founder of the Sextian school, admired by Seneca)  For a purely Grice-Speranza vignette, I would actually choose Quintus Sextius the philosopher. Why? Because Seneca preserves exactly the sort of thing that fascinates Grice: self-examination, intention, action, and the daily accounting of one's conduct. The Sextian school stands halfway between philosophy and moral therapy. One can imagine:  Grice e Sestio: Examen Vespertinum SEXSTIVS. Quid hodie peccavi? (What error did I commit today?) +> The day is to be reviewed under norms of rational conduct. DISCIPVLVS. Nemo te accusat. (No one accuses you.) +> External prosecution is absent. SEXSTIVS. Ego satis accusator sum. (I am prosecutor enough.) +> Self-scrutiny can replace public accusation. DISCIPVLVS. Quid quaeris? (What are you looking for?) SEXSTIVS. Non quid factum sit tantum, sed quo animo. (Not merely what was done, but with what intention.) +> Action-description depends on motive. DISCIPVLVS. Ergo iudex et reus idem es? (Then judge and defendant are the same person?) SEXSTIVS. Ita; sed testis quoque. (Yes; and witness as well.) +> Moral examination unites agency, testimony, and judgment.  This is very close to Grice because the crucial question is not:  What happened?  but  What did I mean in doing it?  That is almost the ethical analogue of speaker-meaning.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sestio. If you want the more constitutional and Roman choice, however, then Lucius Sextius Lateranus is magnificent. The whole struggle of 376-367 BC turns on a communicative puzzle: How long can a veto mean "no" before it means "not yet"? For ten years Sextius and Licinius blocked the normal magistracies until their reforms were passed. A miniature: PATRICIVS. Cur magistratus non creatis? (Why do you not allow magistrates to be elected?) SEXSTIVS. Quia lex nondum lata est. (Because the law has not yet been passed.) PATRICIVS. Decem annos idem dicis. (You have been saying the same thing for ten years.) SEXSTIVS. Quod decem annos verum est. (Because it has been true for ten years.) PATRICIVS. Ergo vetas? (Then you veto?) SEXSTIVS. Immo differo. (Rather, I postpone.) +> A veto is being redescribed as a demand for future inclusion. That is almost a political theory of conversational implicature: the explicit act is obstruction; the intended message is constitutional reform.  Dry Speranzian formula:  The Servilii gave Rome Brutus; the Sextii gave Rome introspection. Quintus Sextius asks what a man meant by his actions; Lateranus asks what a veto meant by its persistence. Grice would probably have enjoyed both, but the philosopher gets there first.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sestio – Ossia: Grice e Sestio: la ragione conversazionale del fallito morale – Roma. Note su Dicta. Il Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice. Quinto Sestio (Roma, Lazio): la ragione conversazionale del fallito morale. Both Quintus Sextius and H. P. Grice treat reason not as an abstract faculty but as a practice exercised in accountable exchange, though they operate on different planes. Sextius’ nightly moral examination trains the agent to render an intelligible account of himself before a rational standard, insisting on economy, discrimination, and the avoidance of self-serving prolixity; the formula “if any” already signals that mere cataloguing of faults can become a surrogate for correction. Grice’s theory of reason‑governed conversational meaning generalizes this discipline from ethical self-scrutiny to communicative action: speakers are rationally answerable for what they intend others to recognize, and hearers are entitled to distinguish what is strictly said from what is merely sought as an excuse or moral alibi. In Gricean terms, Sextius’ practice inculcates sensitivity to implicature avant la lettre—teaching followers to notice when inquiry itself functions as partial satisfaction, when reasons are supplied to discharge responsibility rather than to guide amendment. Both, then, converge on a conception of rationality as governance by norms that penalize verbosity, reward relevance, and value selective silence: wisdom lies not in saying or confessing more, but in discerning what genuinely calls for response and reform. He founds his own school in Rome that draws heavily on La Setta di CROTONE and IL PORTICO. S. preaches an ascetic way of life, which includes vegetarianism, and exhorts his followers – whom he called ‘Sestiani’ – to reflect at the end of each day on their moral failings – “if any.” Upon his death, his son, also called Quinto S., inherits the school, but it does not long survive him. One of the Sestiani is SOTIONE, who becomes Seneca’s tutor – Seneca himself is influenced by the school’s teachings for some time.  GRICEVS: Salvē, Sestī. Audio tē “Sestiānōs” tuōs quottīdiē ad rationem vocāre—ac, post cēnam, quasi tabulas acceptī et expensī, vitia sua recognoscere: “si qua tamen sunt.” SESTIVS: Salvē, Grice. Ita est: nōn scholam facimus ut strepāmus, sed ut vincāmus cupiditātēs. Qui vespere sibi iudex est, mane sibi magister erit. GRICEVS: Pulchrē. Sed animadvertō quotiēns dīcitur “fallītum morale,” statim quis velut quaerat rationem excūsātiōnis—quasi ipsa inquisitiō sit iam partim satisfactio. Itaque, cum tu “si qua sunt” addis, discipulus discit non solum peccāta numerāre, sed etiam supervacua omittere—ne plus temporis impendat in catalogō quam in emendātiōne. SESTIVS: Inplicātūra tua, auguste Grice, est ultrā omnem “fallītum morale” quī cōgitārī possit—ut par est! Nam docēs: sapientia non est multum conquerī, sed rectē dīscernere quid sit corrigendum—et quid tantum verbi causa quaerātur. Sestio, Quinto (a. u. c. DCCIV). Dicta. Roma.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sesto – Ossia: Grice e Sesto: la ragione conversazionale delle sentenze trasformative – Roma. Note su Dicta. Il Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice. Sesto (Roma, Lazio): la ragione conversazionale delle sentenze trasformative. Grice and Sesto converge on a shared intuition that reason operates not as a merely formal calculus but as a norm-governed practice shaped by human purposes, yet they articulate this insight at different levels. Sesto’s Sentences work by ethical compression: brief maxims, drawn from Stoic, Pythagorean, and wisdom traditions, are designed to transform the hearer by disciplining the passions, so that rational understanding emerges through moral reform; meaning here is inseparable from exhortation, and the success of a saying lies in its capacity to re‑shape character. Grice, by contrast, relocates transformational force from moral content to conversational structure: his theory of reason-governed conversational meaning explains how speakers, assuming shared rational norms, routinely mean more than they say by generating implicatures that hearers are entitled to infer. Where Sesto’s sentences transform by inculcation and ethical habituation, Grice’s utterances transform by inference and recognition of intention; yet both presuppose a cooperative rational audience for whom understanding is not passive reception but an active achievement. The joke about Chomsky calling Sesto’s sentences “transformational” is thus apt: Sesto’s maxims transform lives, Grice’s pragmatics transform how we understand meaning, but both depend on a shared conviction that reason shows itself in use, in the disciplined crossing from what is said to what is meant or lived. S. is a compiler – The “Sentences of Sesto” are mainly of an ethical nature and show signs of a variety of influences including traditional wisdom literature, and IL PORTICO. They proclaim that wisdom is attained through the conquest of the passions. – Chadwick, “The sentences of Sextus,” Cambridge. Grice: “Chomsky thought that the sentences of Sextus were ‘transformational’!”  GRICEVS: Dic, Seste, num sententiae tuae, passionibus victis, implicant plus quam dicunt, an Porticus tantum tacet? SESTVS: Grice, ego sententias colligo ut animos transformem, nam qui iram superat iam dimidium sermonis intellegit. GRICEVS: Mirum est, Chomskyus eas transformationales vocaret, quasi verba mutentur dum mores corriguntur. SESTVS: Rideat Chomskyus, Grice, modo animi mutentur, nam Romae optima grammatica est vita temperata. Oops. Grice may have had something wrong. It is Sestio (Italianised for Sextius) which seems more prominent -- the circle of the Sextii -- whereas Sextus (Italianised name Sesto) is merely known for a treatise on sentences -- less prominent, no circle. For the former we have a good Sextia gens, before, ordinarily, the Settimia one -- for Sextus (Sesto) we should just assume that someone in the census was dropping an 'i' somewhere? Yes, that correction improves the picture considerably. Quintus Sextius and the Sextian circle belong with the gens Sextia, and that is the clean Roman case. There the i is not optional ornament but part of the nomen: Sextius, Italianised as Sestio. So if Grice wants the strict antiquarian shelf, this school goes under Sestio, and from there back to gens Sextia. That is perfectly sound. Sextus, by contrast, is a different animal. It is primarily a praenomen, or at least a personal name-form, not automatically the nomen of the gens Sextia. So the author of the Sentences of Sextus, if called simply Sextus or Sesto in Italian, does not thereby become a member of the gens Sextia. One must not solve that by imagining some census clerk lazily dropped the i. That would be too bureaucratic, too accidental, and too modern a fantasy. The better explanation is onomastic, not scribal. Sextius and Sextus are related forms in the larger family of names built on sext-, but they are not interchangeable. Sextius is a nomen gentilicium. Sextus is a praenomen or personal name. One may indeed move historically from one to the other in family memory, modern surnames, or later confusions of transmission, but that does not mean every Sextus is secretly a Sextius with a lost letter. So Grice should distinguish two cases. In the Sextian school, Quintus Sextius is genuinely a Sextius. Therefore gens Sextia is available and should be used. This is the clean case of a Roman nomen giving you a gens. In the Sentences of Sextus, the name Sextus may simply be the personal name under which the compiler or attributed author circulated. That does not entitle one to infer gens Sextia unless independent evidence supports it. The absence of the i is not best treated as an error in the census but as evidence that we are not dealing with the same name-category in the first place. That is why the prominence of Sestio over Sesto in your material now makes perfect sense. The school with a historical founder, Quintus Sextius, naturally leaves a stronger and more respectable ancient trail, because Sextius is a Roman nomen of a known gens. The compiler Sextus is more elusive, and his name remains at the level of personal designation rather than clearly gentilicial classification. So the short answer for Grice is this. No, one should not assume that Sesto is merely Sestio with the i dropped by some ancient registrar. Rather, Sextius and Sextus are distinct though related Roman name-forms. The first supports gens Sextia; the second does not by itself do so. Hence the circle of the Sextii is securely gentilicial, while the Sentences of Sextus belong to a more uncertain and less genealogically informative naming situation. If you like, I can next give you a very tight filing rule for Grice’s catalogue: Sestio when the ancient source is Sextius and a gens is in view; Sesto when the source is merely Sextus and no gens can safely be inferred. Grice compares Sesto to "H. P. Grice" and "G. R. Grice" -- Herbert Paul Grice and Geoffrey Russell Grice -- calling Sesto Sesto would be like calling Grice "Paul" or "Herbert" -- and calling the other Grice "Geoffrey" or "Russell" -- Grice cannot think of an Oxonian philosopher with just ONE name, other than Gilbert Ryle, but the other Ryle Grice knows is Ryle's twin sister, Mary. So it would be like calling Ryle, at Oxford, "Gilbert," rather than "Mary"? Yes, that is a good analogy, and it helps expose the difference neatly. Calling the author of the Sentences simply Sesto can indeed be misleading if one then starts hearing Sesto as though it were the principal family designation in the modern surname sense. In that respect Grice’s comparison with H. P. Grice or G. R. Grice is apt. If one called H. P. Grice “Paul” or “Herbert” in a bibliographical catalogue, one would be privileging part of the personal name where modern usage privileges the family name Grice. Likewise, if one called Gilbert Ryle simply “Gilbert,” one would be making him sound like a first-name acquaintance rather than the philosophical figure posterity knows as Ryle. And something structurally similar can happen with Sextus. Sextus is primarily a praenomen or personal name-form. So if an ancient figure is known simply as Sextus, that is much closer to calling someone by his given name than to citing him by a stable family name. By contrast, Sextius is a nomen, and therefore much closer to the Roman family-classificatory element. So Sestio behaves more like Ryle or Grice in a catalogue, whereas Sesto behaves more like Gilbert or Herbert. That said, one must keep the historical difference in view. The Romans did not have surnames in the modern British sense, and later textual transmission often preserves figures by the most memorable or available element of the name, not always by the element we would most like for neat prosopography. So the comparison is illuminating, but not exact. It shows the filing problem rather than solving it by direct equivalence. Your Ryle example is especially good because it brings out the social oddity. At Oxford, “Ryle” is the philosopher. “Gilbert” sounds over-familiar, almost domestic, and “Mary” would be still further off because it identifies another member of the family altogether. Likewise, to call a figure “Sesto” where the more relevant Roman classificatory form would be Sextius can make him sound more like a personal acquaintance or a bare individual name than like a man situated in a gens. So the clean conclusion would be this. Yes, calling the compiler of the Sentences “Sesto” is in one respect like calling Grice “Herbert” or Ryle “Gilbert”: it foregrounds the personal-name side rather than the family or classificatory side. That is why Grice is right to feel the pull of Sestio as the more proper shelf for the philosophically and prosopographically serious case. Sextus, by itself, remains too close to the level of given name. And in fact that may be exactly why the figure remains vaguer. A name preserved at the level of Sextus is less genealogically helpful than one preserved as Sextius. It leaves us with a person; it does not so readily give us a house.Sesto (a. u. c.DCCCLXXX). Dicta. Roma.