Sextus

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Sextus is mentioned by Dante in Canto XII of the Inferno, in the catalogue of the violent against their neighbors who run through the river of boiling blood in the seventh circle. The verse places him next to Attila and Pyrrhus: «e Pirro e Sesto; e in etterno munge». According to the critical note, Sextus is the son of Pompey the Great and, having become a pirate, carried out raids throughout Italy, as Dante knew from Lucan (Phars. VI 119-22) and from Orosius (Hist. VI, XVIII 19). The note specifies that the group with which he is associated comprises the leaders of ravaging and plundering armies, distinct from the bloodthirsty tyrants against their own subjects mentioned previously.