gēns

1. Gens and natio denote a people, in a physical sense, in the description of nations, as a society originating in common descent and relationship, without any apparent reference to civilization; whereas populus and civitas denote a people in a political sense, as a society formed by civilization and compact. Sall. Cat. 10, 1. Nationes feræ et populi ingentes subacti. Cic. Rep. i. 25. 2. Gens (γενετή) includes all people of the same descent, like φῦλον; natio (from γνήσιος) a single colony of the same, like ἔθνος. Vell. P. ii. 98. Omnibus ejus gentis nationibus in arma accensis. Tac. G. 2, 38. But as gens, in this physical sense, as the complex term for several colonies, has a more comprehensive meaning than natio, so has it, at the same time, in its political accessory meaning, as a clan, γένος, or as the complex term for several families, a narrower meaning than populus; hence sometimes populus forms, as a civilized natio, a part of the natural gens. Liv. iv. 49. Bolanis suæ gentis populo, and Virg. A. x. 202; sometimes gens, as a political society, forms a part of populus: Justin. vii. 1. Adunatis gentibus variorum populorum. 3. Civitas (from κείω) denotes the citizens of a town collectively, πόλις, merely with regard to their interior connection, as including the inhabitants who are in the enjoyment of the full rights of citizenship, and the lawful possessors of the land; populus (redupl. of πόλις) means the people, δῆμος, more commonly in reference to their social relations, interior and exterior, and with the included notion of belonging to the state. A people can determine upon war as a civitas; but can carry it on only as a populus. A civitas is necessarily stationary; but a populus may consist of Nomades, or wanderers from one pasture to another.

1. Stirps, genus, and gens, denote the race usually in an ascending line, as abstract and collective terms, for majores; whereas prosapia, progenies, propago, proles, suboles, in a descending line, as abstract and collective terms for posteri. 2. Prosapia is an antiquated solemn expression, and only to be used of ancient noble families, Cic. Univ. 11. Quintil. i. 6, 40; posteritas, the usual prosaic, progenies, a select, elevated expression, Cic. Rep. ii. 22; proles and suboles, poetical expressions, Cic. Or. iii. 38; proles denotes children, as fruits destined, as a younger race, to exist with their parents; suboles, as an after-growth, destined to supply the place of the generation that is dying off. 3. Gens (γενετή) is a political, genus (γένος), a natural race. Gens consists of families, whom the founder of states has united into a community or complex family; genus consists of species and individuals, that by their common properties belong to one and the same class of beings. (v. 307).