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Otium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Extract

The Romans have always been regarded as a rugged and energetic people. Originally farmers and fighters, they established a world-empire. It must therefore strike many people as curious that the Latin word indicating business, negotium, is primarily of negative connotation; it indicates the lack of leisure, leisure being semantically prior. The word otium itself, like many Latin abstract terms, bears many meanings, some relevant to the conditions of the time.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1968

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