CESTIUS, LUCIUS, surnamed Pius, Latin rhetorician, was a native of Smyrna, a Greek by birth. According to Jerome, he was teaching Latin at Rome in the year 13 B.C. As an orator in the schools he enjoyed a great reputation. As a public orator, on the other hand, he was a failure. Specimens of his declama tions will be found in the works of Seneca the rhetorician.
See Seneca, Controv., ix. 3, 12; J. Brzoska, in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyklopadie, iii. 2 (1899) and Suasoriae, vii. 13 (for anec dotes).