opus¹

1. Agere (ἄγειν) has an effect that exists in time only, like to do; facere, an effect that exists in space also, as to make. The acta are past as soon as the agens ceases, and remain invisible in the memory; the facta cannot properly be said to exist till the faciens ceases. Quintil. ii. 18. The agens is supposed to be in a state of activity of some kind; the faciens in a state of productive activity. 2. Agere means ‘to do’ something for one’s own interest; gerere (ἀγείρειν), for the interest of another, to execute a commission. Cic. Verr. i. 38. Quæ etiamsi voluntate Dolabellæ fiebant, per istum tamen omnia gerebantur. 3. Opus is the result of facere, as the work, ἔργον; factum is the result of agere, as the transaction; res gestæ are deeds [e.g. in war], πράξεις; acta are only political enactments. Cic. Att. xiv. 17. Multa de facto ac de re gesta; the former by the exertions of Amatius, the latter by his own wise and spirited animadversions through Dolabella. 4. Age, agedum, is an earnest exhortation, as ‘On, on!’ I nunc is an ironical exhortation, as ‘Go to!’ 5. Agere means to be active, and in the midst of business; degere, to live somewhere in a state of rest, in voluntary or involuntary inactivity. Tac. Ann. xv. 74. Deum honor principi non ante habetur, quam agere inter homines desierit, compared with iv. 54. Certus procul urbe degere. (v. 327.)

1. Opera (from περᾶν, πράσσειν,) denotes activity without intense exertion, as merely doing, or turning one’s hand to, something, in opp. to momentary inactivity; and also in opp. to thinking, speaking, advising, like ἐργασία; whereas labor denotes strenuous exertion, which is followed by fatigue, labor, in opp. to pleasure, like πόνος. Plaut. Aul. iii. 3. 7. Opera huc est conducta vestra, non oratio: comp. with Bacch. iii. 6, 11. Cic. Rep. i. 9. Otiosiorem opera quam animo. Liv. xxii. 22. Ut opera quoque impensa consilium adjuvem meum. And Liv. v. 4. Labor voluptasque dissimillima natura, societate quadam naturali inter se sunt conjuncta: comp. with Cic. Mur. 35. Plin. Ep. ix. 10. Senec. Tranq. 2. 2. Industria, gnavitas, and sedulitas, denote activity as an habitual quality, in opp. to the love of idleness; industria, of an elevated sort, the impulse to activity that animates the hero or the statesman, in opp. to ignavia, gnavitas (γενναιότης) of a useful sort, the diligence of ordinary men, and of the industrious citizen; sedulitas (sine dolore) an activity that shows itself in small matters, often even of a comic sort, the indefatigable bustling of the busy housewife, of the good-natured nurse, of any one who pays officious court to another. Colum. xii. præf. 8. Ut cum forensibus negotiis matronalis sedulitas industriæ rationem parem faceret. 3. Assiduitas and diligentia denote industry; assiduitas (from sedere) like συνέχεια, more in an extensive sense with continued and uninterrupted efforts; diligentia, (ἀλέγειν) more in an intensive sense, with careful and close application, in order to attain the end of one’s industry. 4. Studium denotes inclination and love towards the object of one’s industry, and an inward impulse. (i. 111.)