A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

and SEX. QUINTI'LIUS MA'XIMUS, two brothers remarkable for their mutual affection, high character, learning, military skill, and wealth, who flourished under the Antonines. They were consuls together in A. D. 151; were subsequently ioint governors, first of Achaia, and afterwards of Pannonia; they addressed a joint epistle to M. Aurelius, to which he gave a rescript (Dig. 38. tit. 2. s. 16.4); they wrote jointly a work upon agriculture frequently quoted in the Geoponica ; and, having been inseparable in life, were not divided in death, for they both fell victims at the same time to the cruelty of Commodus, guiltless of any crime, but open to the suspicion that, from their high fame and probity, they must have felt disgusted with the existing state of affairs and eager for a change.

SEX.CONDIANUS, son of Maximus, is said to have been in Syria at the period of his father's death, and, in anticipation of his own speedy destruction, to have devised an ingenious trick for escape. The story, as told by Dio Cassius, is amusing and romantic, but bears the aspect of a fable. (Lamprid. Commod. 4, and Casaubon's note; D. C. 72.5, and Reimarus's note ; Philostrat. Vit. Sophist. 2.1.11; Needham, Prolegom. ad Geoponica, Cantab. 1704.)

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