ărātĭo, ōnis, f. [aro].
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. ; id. Verr. 2, 3, 98.