nation Copy link Outline 1. gens, ntis (most gen. and comprehensive term)2. nātio (properly, a tribe forming a people by itself, whether the whole of the race or not3. pŏpŭlus (a people or organized political community) • nation: 1. gens, ntis (most gen. and comprehensive term): the great and warlike n. of the Aequians, Aequorum g. magna et ferox, Cic. Rep. 2, 20: belonging to the n. of the Germans, ex g. [numeroque] Germanorum, Caes. B. G. 6, 32: through all n.s and tribes, per omnes g. nationesque, Quint. 11, 3, 87: Cic. Man. 11, 31: cf. id. N. D. 3, 39, 93, where the following gradation is given: singuli homines ... civitates ... nationes et gentes. The pl. gentes sometimes = foreign n.s: cf. Tac. G. 33. 2. nātio (properly, a tribe forming a people by itself, whether the whole of the race or not: also in gen. sense: cf. Tac. G. 2, fin., where it is stated that the name of a tribe [natio] became ultimately that of the entire race [gens]; also exx. supr.): all (other) n.s can bear slavery: our state cannot, omnes n. servitutem ferre possunt: nostra civitas non potest, Cic. Ph. 10, 10, 20. 3. pŏpŭlus (a people or organized political community): v. people.