I.striving after another earnestly, emulating, rivalling, emulous (cf. aemulatio and aemulor), in a good and bad sense; constr. with dat. or as subst. with gen.
I. In a good sense, Att. ap. Auct. Her, 2, 26, 42: “laudum,” Cic. Phil. 2, 12: “laudis,” id. Cael. 14: “aemulus atque imitator studiorum ac laborum,” id. Marc. 1: “Timagenis aemula lingua,” Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 15: “itinerum Herculis,” Liv. 21, 41.—With ne and subj.: milites aemuli, ne dissimiles viderentur, Aur. Vict Caes. 8, 3.—
II. In a bad sense, both of one who, with a hostile feeling, strives after the possessions of another, and of one who, on account of his strong desire for a thing, envies him who possesses it; envious, jealous, grudging.— With gen.: Karthago aemula imperii Romani, Sall C. 10; Vell. 2, 1: “Triton,” Verg. A. 6, 173: “quem remoto aemulo aequiorem sibi sperabat,” Tac. A. 3, 8: “Britannici,” Suet. Ner. 6.—
III. Subst., a rival = rivalis: mihi es aemula, you are my rival (i. e. you have the same desire as I), Plaut. Rud. 1, 4, 20; Ter. Eun. 4, 1, 9; cf. id. ib. 2, 1, 8; “si non tamquam virum, at tamquam aemulum removisset,” Cic. Verr 2, 5, 31: et si nulla subest aemula, languet amor, Ov A. A. 2, 436.—By meton. (eccl.), an enemy: “videbis aemulum tuum in templo,” Vulg. 1 Reg. 2, 32; “affligebat eam aemula,” ib. 1, 6.— In gen., mostly of things without life, vying with, rivalling a thing, i. e. comparable to, similar to, with dat., v. Rudd. II. p. 70 (poet., and in prose after the Aug. per.): “tibia tubae Aemula,” Hor. A. P. 203: “labra rosis,” Mart. 4, 42: “Tuscis vina cadis,” id. 13, 118; Plin. 9, 17, 29, § 63; id. 15, 18, 19, § 68 al.: “Dictator Caesar summis oratoribus aemulus, i. e. aequiparandus,” Tac. A. 13, 3.!*? Facta dictaque ejus aemulus for aemulans, Sall. Fragm. Hist. 3 (cf. celatum indagator for indagans in Plaut. Trin. 2, 1, 15, unless celatum be here a gen.).
