Disputatio:Vasilla

Vicus, oppidum, urbs

Is it a vicus="village/row of houses", oppidum="town", or urbs="city"? This page says vicus, the palin page says urbs, and the english wiki page starts urbs. Indeed the city website calls itself a city, even though it only has 7000 people.? Maybe the alaskans have a different standard for city. I guess the fair thing is to call it a tiny city "pusilla urbs" or small city "parva urbs"--Rafaelgarcia 01:19, 31 Augusti 2008 (UTC)

Vicipaedia a year or more ago had a discussion of the differences among these terms; maybe a search will retrieve useful data. According to Cassell's, Cicero used vicus to mean '[1] a quarter or district of a town, or a street; [2] a village, hamlet; [3] an estate, country-seat'. A settlement of 7000 people might have seemed fairly substantial to the Romans, but it isn't all that large in today's world. In the United States, city and town (and municipality and maybe other nouns) may be technical legal terms, which don't necessarily correspond with the terms used in popular parlance, both in Latin & in English. The significance of town in New England may differ from that elsewhere within the country. Some European societies may treat the notions city and commune and such in their own ways too. These terms are slippery! IacobusAmor 03:21, 31 Augusti 2008 (UTC)