Declaring and Waging War in Latin: Semantic Observations based on Aulus Gellius 16, 4, 1

Abstract

The formula for the declaration of war specifies that the enemy is acting aduersus populum romanum, who, in contrast, retaliates by going to war with (cum) the enemy. This is not a case of stylistic uariatio: the use of the syntagmata bellum gerere and pugnare aduersus or cum, and of verbal prefixes as in adgredi or congredi, discloses differences in meaning. The preposition aduersus and compounds with ad- express an offensive movement of attack, whereas cum and con- denote an engagement in which one matches oneself with the other, in line with the sociative signification of the two morphemes. This distinction has corollaries in certain aspects of ius fetiale and in the various terms used to designate the enemy: unlike hostis, aduersarius is almost never used in relation to a war ritually declared with a foreign power, but rather for the enemy in a civil war – that pure violence which tears apart the body of society.