I. A ploughing, and in gen. the cultivation of the ground, agriculture: “iteratio arationis peracta esse debet, si, etc.,” Col. 11, 2, 64: “aratione per transversum iterata,” Plin. 18, 20, 49, § 180: “ut quaestuosa mercatura, fructuosa aratio dicitur,” Cic. Tusc. 5, 31, 86.—
II. Meton. (abstr. for concr.), ploughed land, Plaut. Truc. 1, 2, 47 (cf. aratiuncula): “(calsa) nascitur in arationibus,” Plin. 27, 8, 36, § 58.— Esp., in Roman financial lang., the public farms or plots of land farmed out for a tenth of the produce (cf. arator, I. B.), Cic. Phil. 2, 39 fin.; Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 98.
