I.a joining or putting together, a connection (class.; esp. freq. in the trop. signif., and in Quint.).
I. Lit.: corporum, * Lucr. 1, 243: “aedificiorum,” the building of, Dig. 39, 2, 15: “ratis,” Aus. Per. Odyss. 5.—
II. Trop., connection, coherence (very freq. in Quint.): “mirabilis est apud illos (sc. Stoicos) contextus rerum: respondent extrema primis, etc.,” Cic. Fin. 5, 28, 83; cf.: “in toto quasi contextu orationis,” id. Part. Or. 23, 82; and: “rerum ac verborum,” Quint. 11, 2, 2: “verborum,” id. 11, 2, 28; 11, 2, 24: “sermonis,” id. 8, 3, 38: “dicendi,” id. 10, 7, 26: “per partes dissolvitur, quod contextu nocet,” id. 5, 13, 28; 9, 4, 55. historia non tam finitos numeros quam orbem quendam contextumque desiderat, id. 9, 4, 129; cf. “Ernest. Lex. Techn. p. 90: litterarum,” the succession of the letters, id. 1, 1, 24 sq.; cf.: “in contextu operis,” in the course, Tac. H. 2, 8.