egestās

Paupertas (redupl. of parum) denotes poverty only as narrowness of means, in consequence of which one must economize, in opp. to dives, Cic. Parad. 6. Quintil. v. 10, 26, like πενία; whereas inopia and egestas denote galling poverty, in consequence of which one suffers want, and has recourse to shifts; inopia, like ἀπορία, objectively, as utterly without means, so that one cannot help one’s self, in opp. to copia or opulentia; Cic. Parad. 6. Sen. Vit. B. 15. Tac. Hist. iii. 6; egestas, like ἔνδεια, subjectively, as penury, when a man feels want, in opp. to abundantia; lastly, mendicitas (from μαδίζειν,) as absolute poverty, in consequence of which one must beg, like πτωχεία. The pauper possesses little enough; the inops and egenus, too little; the mendicus, nothing at all. In the kingdom of Plutus, according to the order of rank, the pauperes would occupy the middle station, who must live the life of citizens, and economize; the inopes and egeni, if not in a state of overwhelming necessity, would occupy the station of the poor, who live from hand to mouth, and must occasionally starve; the mendici, the station of the beggars, who, without property of any sort, or the means of earning it, live on alms. Cic. Parad. 6. Istam paupertatem vel potius egestatem et mendicitatem tuam nunquam obscure tulisti. Sen. Ep. 17. 50. Ovid, Rem. 748. Suet. Gr. 11. Vixit in summa pauperie, et pæne inopia. Plin. Ep. iv. 18. Inopia vel potius, ut Lucretius ait, egestas patrii sermonis. Cic. Inv. i. 47. Propter inopiam in egestate esse. (iii. 111.)