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. 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. 668: 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.