Festus, Pescennius
a senator, put to death without trial by the emperor Severus, A. D. 196-7, after his victory over Albinus. (Spartian. Severus, 13; comp. D. C. 75.8; Herodian. iii. p. 115.) An historian of this name is mentioned by Lactantius (Instit. 1.21), in speaking of the human sacrifices practised at Carthage. Lactantius calls the history of Festus Satura, i. e. a miscellany.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.