I. A.. Lit., one that ploughs, a ploughman; freq. poet. = agricola, a husbandman, farmer, Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 38: caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Crebrius, * Lucr. 2, 1164: “luce sacrā requiescat arator,” Tib. 2, 1, 5: “Concidere infelix validos miratur arator Inter opus tauros,” Ov. M. 7, 538; 8, 218; 15, 553: neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus aut aratorigni, * Hor. C. 1, 4, 3 et saep.—Adj.: “taurus arator,” Ov. F. 1, 698: “bos arator,” Suet. Vesp. 5; v. Zumpt, § 102.—
B. In the Rom. lang. of finance, aratores, the cultivators of public lands for a tenth of the produce; cf. aratio, II. (usu. the Roman knights): “aratorum penuria,” Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 55; so id. ib. 2, 1, 37; 2, 2, 13; 2, 2, 64; 2, 3, 20; 2, 3, 27; 2, 3, 50; id. Phil. 3, 9; Inscr. Orell. 3308; Suet. Aug. 42.—
II. Meton., The Ploughman, a constellation, Nigid. and Varr. ap. Serv. ad Verg. G. 1, 19.
