Publius Sextilius was a Roman

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

(92 BC?) and

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

during the civil wars between Sulla and Marius. As governor in 88 BC, he refused Marius and his followers asylum in Africa.

Marius in Africa

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...

presents a highly colored version of how Sextilius rejected Marius and furnishes a moral: Little is known of this Sextilius. It is likely that he belonged to the

senatorial A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

family of Sextilii who used the ''

praenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the bi ...

'' Publius, among them a 2nd-century B.C. praetor from whom a letter fragment survives. At one time, numismatic evidence was interpreted as referring to Sextilius as praetor and

propraetor In ancient Rome a promagistrate ( la, pro magistratu) was an ex-consul or ex-praetor whose ''imperium'' (the power to command an army) was extended at the end of his annual term of office or later. They were called proconsuls and propraetors. Thi ...

, but the coin has since been determined to belong to the Augustan period. Before the arrival of Marius in Africa, Sextilius had taken a neutral position in the civil war. He had allowed some of Marius's allies to join up with

Hiempsal II Hiempsal II was a king of Numidia (ruled 88 BC - 60 BC). He was the son of Gauda, half-brother of Jugurtha, and was the father of Juba I. In 88 BC, after the triumph of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, when Gaius Marius and his son fled from Rome to Afr ...

, king of

Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

, who at that time was attempting to gain the confidence of the Marians while acting on behalf of

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had ...

. If Sextilius had been serious about carrying out his threat to treat Marius as a public enemy — a senatorial decree which sanctioned his execution at sight — he most likely would have allowed Marius to enter the country rather than warning him off. The difficulty of Sextilius's position is indicated by the consequences of his action: since no further public office for him is known, he evidently pleased neither side in the conflict.

Date of praetorship

Cicero writes of a P. Sextilius Rufus who claimed he was bound by his oath of office to follow the ''

Lex Voconia ''Lex Voconia'' (The Voconian Law) was a law established in ancient Rome in 169 BC. Introduced by Q. Voconius Saxa with support from Cato the Elder, Voconius being tribune of the people in that year, this law prohibited those who owned property ...

'' in depriving a young woman of her inheritance. E. Badian has argued that this was the P. Sextilius who became governor of Africa and dates his praetorship to 92.

Literary interests

There is some indication that Publius Sextilius took an interest in or was a

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of literature. When

Cassius Dionysius Cassius Dionysius of Utica, Tunisia, Utica ( grc, Διονύσιος ὁ Ἰτυκαῖος) was an ancient Greek agricultural writer of the 2nd century BC. The Roman Roman naming conventions, nomen, ''Cassius'', combined with the Greek cognomen, ' ...

of Utica translated the great agricultural treatise of the Carthaginian Mago into

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, he dedicated his translation to Sextilius.

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

, ''De re rustica'' 1.1.10; Robert E.A. Palmer, ''Rome and Carthage at Peace'' (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997
p. 46.
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sextilius, Publius 1st-century BC Romans Roman governors of Africa Roman Republican praetors Publius