6. L.Sestius, the son of No. 5, by his first wife, Postumia (Cic. Fam. 13.8). He is probably the same as the L. Sestius who served under M. Brutus in Macedonia, and distinguished himself by his devotion to the leader of the republican party. After the death of the latter, he preserved his images and cultivated his memory with pious care; but far from giving offence to Augustus by this conduct, the emperor admired his fidelity to his friend, and gave him a public token of his approval by making him consul suffectus in his own place in B. C. 23 (D. C. 53.32). Appian (App. BC 4.51) erroneously calls him Publius. One of Horace's odes is addressed to this L. Sestius (Carm. 1.4). The only difficulty in supposing this L. Sestius to be the son of No. 5, arises from the circumstance of his being described in the Capitoline Fasti, as L. SESTIUS VIBI N., P. F., whereas we know from Cicero that P. Sestius [No. 5] was the son of L. Sestius. It is, however, not impossible that the consul wished, like many other of the Roman nobles in the age of Augustus, to connect himself with the old Roman families, and therefore called himself the grandson of Vibius, because that was a praenomen in the old Sestia gens, as we see from the Capitoline Fasti, in which P. Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, consul in B. C. 452, is described as VIBI. N., P. F.

The annexed coins refer apparently to this L. Sestius, as they were struck by a person of the same name who was the proquaestor of Bratus The obverse of the first represents a woman's head with L. SESTI PRO Q., and the reverse a tripod with a secespita on one side, and a simpuvium on the other, and the legend Q. CAEPIO BRVTVS PRO COS. The obverse of the second is nearly the same as the reverse of the first : the reverse contains a seat with a spear, in allusion to his being quaestor, and the legend L. SESTI PRO Q. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 312.)