sescenta

ses-centi (less correctly sex-centi; cf. Ritschl Proleg. ad Plaut. p. 114), ae, a, num. card. adj. [sex-centum].

I.

Prop., six hundred: sescenti aurei nummi Philippii. [p. 1685] Plaut. Poen. 1, 1, 38:

Romuli aetatem minus his sescentis annis fuisse cernimus,

Cic. Rep. 2, 10, 18: argenti sescentum ac mille, Lucil. ap. Non. 493, 32:

curriculum longum sescentos pedes,

Gell. 1, 1, 2.—

II.

Meton., like our hundred or thousand, to signify an immense number, an innumerable quantity, any amount, etc. (perh. because the Roman cohorts consisted originally of six hundred men; very freq. in prose and poet. ):

sescentae ad eam rem causae possunt colligi,

Plaut. Trin. 3, 3, 62:

sescentas proinde scribito jam mihi dicas: Nihil do,

Ter. Phorm. 4, 3, 63:

venio ad epistulas tuas, quas ego sescentas uno tempore accepi,

Cic. Att. 7, 2, 3:

jam sescenti sunt, qui inter sicarios accusabant,

id. Rosc. Am. 32, 90:

sescentos cives Romanos,

id. Verr. 2, 2, 48, § 119.—As subst.: sescenta, ōrum, n. plur., an immense number of things:

sescenta sunt, quae memorem, si sit otium,

Plaut. Aul. 2, 4, 41; cf. Cic. Div. 2, 14, 34; id. Att. 2, 19, 1; 6, 4, 1; 14, 12, 1:

sescenta tanta reddam, si vivo, tibi,

Plaut. Bacch. 4, 9, 111; so id. Ps. 2, 2, 37.