I.a sharing, parting, partition; a division, distribution.
I. In gen.: si quā in re discrepavit ab Antonii divisione nostra partitio, Cic. de Or. 3, 30, 119: “aequabilis praedae partitio,” id. Off. 2, 11, 40: “aerarii,” id. Sest. 24, 54; “esp.,” the division of an inheritance, id. Caecin. 5, 15; id. Leg. 2, 20, 50 sqq.: “partitionem artium facere,” id. de Or. 1, 6, 22; id. Fin. 1, 13, 45; Quint. 3, 4, 1: nec partitione minuitur, Aug. Civ. Dei, 10, 3 init.—
II. In partic.
A. In philos. lang., a logical division into parts or members, a partition: “definitiones aliae sunt partitionum, aliae divisionum: partitionum, cum res ea, quae proposita est, quasi in membra discerpitur ... divisionum autem definitio formas omnes complectitur, quae sub eo genere sunt, quod definitur, etc.,” Cic. Top. 5, 28; cf.: in partitione quasi membra sunt: ut corporis caput, umeri, manus, latera, crura, pedes et cetera: in divisione formae sunt, quas Graeci ἰδέας vocant: “nostri, si qui haec forte tractant, species appellant,” id. ib. 6 fin.; so id. ib. 8, 34; Quint. 4, 5, 1 sqq.; 15, 10, 63; 7, 1, 1.—
B. In rhet., a rhetorical division into parts or heads, a partition, the Gr. διαίρεσις; also used as a title of rhetorical treatises: “recte habita in causā partitio illustrem et perspicuam totam efficit orationem,” Cic. Inv. 1, 22, 31 sq.; Quint. 1, 2, 13.—So the title of Cicero's treatise De Partitione Oratoriā.
