partītĭo, ōnis, f. [2. partio], 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.