ager

1. Rus (ἄροτον) denotes the country, in opp. to the town or city, the village with what belongs to it; whereas ager (ἀγρός) the country, in opp. to the district in general, the open country or fields. Cels. Med. 1. Sanum oportet . . . modo ruri esse, modo in urbe, sæpiusque in agro. 2. Rusticus denotes, like ἀγροῖκος, merely residing in the country; agrestis, like ἄγριος, growing wild in the fields, like ferus, but as a milder expression, for ferus (φῆρες) denotes wildness as an inward nature; agrestis, merely as a mark of the place of residence, or of extraction. 3. In a spiritual sense, rusticus denotes more an intellectual, agrestis more a moral roughness; rusticus, like countrified, has a reference to bashfulness and uncouthness; in its best sense, it is allied to innocence; in its worst, to awkwardness; whereas agrestis, like boorish, has a reference to shamelessness and vulgarity, is never used in a good sense, but borders on feritas, and answers to the German word Flegelei, ‘churlishness.’ The rusticus, in opp. to urbanus, violates only the conventional laws of decorum; the agrestis, in opp. to humanus, the natural laws of decorum also. 4. When Cicero wishes to give to rusticus a still milder sense, and secure it from ambiguity, he adopts the word rusticanus; so that, according to him, rusticus is one who actually lives in a country-village, rusticanus, one who resembles those who live in country-villages; hence among the rusticani the municipes may be reckoned, as rusticorum similes.

1. Villa (dimin. of ἕδος) denotes a country-house, usually with a real estate; fundus, a real estate, usually with a country-house; prædium, sometimes a country-house, sometimes a real estate, like landed property. At the same time villa is an architectural term; fundus, an economical term; prædium, a juridical term. Cato, R. R. 3. Ita ædifices, ne villa fundum quærat, neve fundus villam. 2. Villa, fundus, and prædium, suppose a proprietor, like portio; whereas ager, arvum, rus, and campus, are thought of without reference to a proprietor, like pars. 3. Ager and campus denote the field, whether cultivated or not; ager (ἀγρός), the open field, in opp. to ground that is built upon, or planted with trees, consequently in opp. to urbs, oppidum, vicus, hortus, silva, like ἀγρός; whereas campus (κῆπος) denotes the low-lands and plains, like πεδίον, consequently in opp. to the high-lands, mons and collis; Cic. Div. i. 42. N. D. ii. 60. Colum. i. 2. Herenn. iv. 18. 25. Curt. viii. 1, 4. 4. Rus and arvum denote the corn-field; rus (ἄροτος) in opp. to the village or the town, like ἄρουρα; arvum, in opp. to pasture-lands and plantations, consequently in opp. to pabulum, pascuum, pratum, olivetum, Sall. Jug. 95. Cic. N. D. i. 45. Plaut. Truc. i. 2, 47. Hor. Ep. i. 16, 2. like ἄροτος. Cic. Fr. ap. Quintil. iv. 2. Fundum habet in agro Tiburino Tullius paternum. Orat. iii. 33. De fundo emendo, de agro colendo. Tac. G. 26. Arva per annos mutant, et superest ager. (iii. 5.)