| 释义 |
‖ sestertium|sɛˈstɜːʃɪəm|
Pl. sestertia |-ʃɪə|; also 6 sex-, -cia, -tiaes, 7 -tias.
[L., usually explained as the gen. pl. sestertium of sestertius sesterce (with ellipsis of mille a thousand), taken as neut. sing.
The use of the sing. in the sense ‘1000 sesterces’, which must on this view have existed, does not appear to be found in the classics; the pl. for ‘thousands of sesterces’ was common. On the other hand, the gen. pl. sestertium, after decies ten times, centies a hundred times, was used with ellipsis of centena millia (= 100,000), and when so used was sometimes treated as a neut. sing.]
A sum of a thousand sesterces.
1540–1Elyot Image Gov. xxx. (1544) 71 b, Euery Sestertium (which in englysh money of olde grotes..amounteth to .iiii. li .xvi. s. viii. d.). 1549W. Thomas Hist. Ital. 27 b, Plinie saieth, that The conueighaunce of this water [Aqua Claudia] did coste .555. thousande sextertia..the summe amounteth to .vii. millions and .viii. hundred thousand poundes of our money. 1598Meres Palladis Tamia ii. 284 b, Octauia..gaue him [sc. Virgil] for making 26 verses, 1137 pounds, to wit, tenne Sestertiaes for euerie verse. 1603B. Jonson Sejanus i. i, There is a Gentleman of Rome would buy... Sat. A Tribunes place, my Lord. Sei. What will he giue? Sat. Fiftie Sestertia. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1851) II. 832/1 They thought it better to deposit five hundred sestertia each. 1834Lytton Pompeii i. iii, ‘I will play no more,’ said Glaucus, ‘I have lost thirty sestertia.’ 1842W. Smith's Dict. Class. Antiq. 875 Up to the time of Augustus..the sestertium = {pstlg}8. 17. 1; after the reign of Augustus the sestertium = {pstlg}7. 16. 3. |