1. ăger — Lewis & Short
ăger, gri, m.a)gro/s; Germ. Acker, Eng. acre, Sanscr. agras = surface, floor; Grimm conjectured that it was connected with ago, a)/gw, a pecore agendo, and this was the ancient view; cf. Varr. L. L. 5, § 34 Müll., and Don. ad Ter. Ad. 3, 3, 47; so the Germ. Trift = pasture, from treiben, to drive.
I In an extended sense, territory, district, domain, the whole of the soil belonging to a community (syn.: terra, tellus, arvum, solum, rus, humus; opp. terra, which includes many such possessions taken together; cf.
Nieb. Röm. Gesch. 2, 694 sq.): Ager Tusculanus, ... non terra,Varr. L. L. 7, 2, 84:
praedā atque agro adfecit familiares suos,Plaut. Am. 1, 1, 38:
abituros agro Achivos,id. ib. 1, 53, 71:
ut melior fundus Hirpinus sit, sive ager Hirpinus (totum enim possidet), quam, etc.,Cic. Agr. 3, 2: fundum habet in agro Thurino, id. Fragm. ap. Quint. 4, 2, 131 (pro Tull. 14):
Rhenus, qui agrum Helvetium a Germanis dividit,Caes. B. G. 1, 2 Herz.:
ager Noricus,id. ib. 1, 5:
in agro Troade,Nep. Paus. 3:
in agro Aretino,Sall. C. 36, 1:
his civitas data agerque,Liv. 2, 16:
in agro urbis Jericho,Vulg. Josue, 5, 13.—In the Roman polity: ager Romanus, the Roman possessions in land (distinguished from ager peregrinus, foreign territory) was divided into ager publicus, public property, domains, and ager privatus, private estates; v. Smith's Dict. Antiq., and Nieb. Röm. Gesch. 2, 695 and 696; cf. with 153 sq.—
II In a more restricted sense.
A Improdued or productive land, a field, whether pasture, arable, nursery ground, or any thing of the kind; cf. Doed. Syn. 3, 7 sq.; 1, 71; Hab. Syn. 68, and Herz. ad Caes. B. G. 7, 13:
agrum hunc mercatus sum: hic me exerceo,Ter. Heaut. 1, 1, 94:
agrum de nostro patre colendum habebat,id. Phorm. 2, 3, 17:
ut ager quamvis fertilis, sine culturā fructuosus esse non potest,Cic. Tusc. 2, 5; id. Fl. 29:
agrum colere,id. Rosc. Am. 18:
conserere,Verg. E. 1, 73:
agrum tuum non seres,Vulg. Lev. 19, 19:
(homo) seminavit bonum semen in agro suo,ib. Matt. 13, 24; ib. Luc. 12, 16. —* Of a piece of ground where vines or trees are planted, a nursery:
ut ager mundus purusque flat, ejus arbor atque vitis fecundior,Gell. 19, 12, 8.—Of a place of habitation in the country, estate, villa:
in tuosne agros confugiam,Cic. Att. 3, 15 (so a)gro/s, Hom. Od. 24, 205).—
B The fields, the open country, the country (as in Gr. a)gro/s or a)groi/), like rus, in opp. to the town, urbs (in prose writers generally only in the plur.), Ter. Eun. 5, 5, 2:
homines ex agris concurrunt,Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 44:
non solum ex urbe, sed etiam ex agris,id. Cat. 2, 4, 8:
annus pestilens urbi agrisque,Liv. 3, 6; id. 3, 32:
in civitatem et in agros,Vulg. Marc. 5, 14.—And even in opp. to a village or hamlet, the open field:
sanum hominem modo ruri esse oportet, modo in urbe, saepiusque in agro,Cels. 1, 1.—
C Poet., in opp. to mountains, plain, valley, champaign:
ignotos montes agrosque salutat,Ov. M. 3, 25.—
D As a measure of length (opp. frons, breadth):
mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrum Hic dabat,in depth, Hor. S. 1, 8, 12.