The Return of Marcus Sextus (French: Le Retour de Marcus Sextus) is an oil on canvas history painting by the French artist Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, from 1799.

[1][2][3] It depicts the fictional Roman general Marcus Sextus, who had been banished during the rule of Sulla.

After Sulla's fall, he returns home to Rome to discover his wife is dead.

It was originally intended to feature the figure of Belisarius, but Guérin altered it.

[4] It appears to have served as an allegory for the situation in the French Republic, following the Reign of Terror, with Sulla representing Maximilien Robespierre, and Marcus Sextus the French émigrés who were returning to the country under the more moderale rule of the Directorate.