Nerius

• name of a Roman gens. So Cn. Nerius, Cic. Q. Fr. 2, 3, 5.—Perh. the same, celebrated as a usurer, Hor. S. 2, 3, 69; v. Wüstem. ad loc.

of the Papinian tribe, accused P. Sestius of bribery in B. C. 56 (Cic. ad Q. Fr. 2.3.5). This Cn. Nerius may be the same as the Nerius who was quaestor in B. C. 49, as we learn from some interesting coins, of which a specimen is annexed. The obverse represents the head of Saturn, with NERI Q. VRB. (i.e. quaestor urbanus), and the reverse some military standards, with L. LEN(T). C. MAR(C). COS. (i. e. L. Lentulus and C. Marcellus, consuls). The head of Saturn on the coin has evident reference to the temple of that deity, the aerarium at Rome, of which the quaestors had the charge, and where likewise the standards were kept, to which fact the reverse alludes (comp. Dict. of Ant. s. v. Aerarium). The names of the consuls prove both that the coin was struck in B. C. 49, and that Nerius belonged to their party; and it is not improbable that the head of Saturn was employed as an emblem in allusion to the treasury having been broken open by Caesar, and with a view of intimating that he had thus violated the sanctity of a temple. (Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 160, 161.)

A Roman who accused P. Sestius of vis in the case defended by Cicero in his oration Pro Sestio ( Q. Fratr. ii. 3, 5).