Sextia (gens)

The gens Sextia was a plebeian family at 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.

The nomen Sextius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Sextus, meaning "sixth", which must have belonged to the ancestor of the gens. It is frequently confounded with that of the patrician gens Sestia, and in fact the two families may originally have been the same; however, Roman authors considered them distinct gentes. The plebeian gens Sextilia was derived from the same praenomen.

The Sextii used a variety of praenomina, including Marcus, Gaius, Lucius, Publius, Quintus, and Titus, all of which were very common throughout Roman history. There are early examples of Sextus, the praenomen that gave the family its name, and perhaps also of Numerius. Some of the Sextii also used the praenomen Vibius, a name that was also used by the patrician Sestii, suggesting that the two gentes may indeed have shared a common origin.

...
Wikipedia