Lewis : ager

ager, ăger, gri, m. ἀγρός ; Germ. Acker, Eng. acre, Sanscr. agras = surface, floor; Grimm conjectured that it was connected with ago, ἄγω, 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. 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.

In a more restricted sense. 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 ἀγρός, Hom. Od. 24, 205).

The fields, the open country, the country (as in Gr. ἀγρός or ἀγροί ), 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.

Poet., in opp. to mountains, plain, valley, champaign: ignotos montes agrosque salutat, Ov. M. 3, 25.

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.