Plautus is, to be sure, an old comick writer: but in the days of Scipio and Lelius, we find, Terent. Heautontim. act ii. scene 3,
"…. hoc ipsa in itinere alteræ Dum narrat, forte audivi."
'You doubt my having authority for using genus absolutely, for what we call family, that is, for illustrious extraction. Now I take genus in Latin, to have much the same signification with birth in English; both in their primary meaning expressing simply descent, but both made to stand [Greek: kat exochaen] noble descent. Genus is thus used in Hor. lib. ii. Sat. v. 1. 8,
"Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est."
'And in lib. i. Epist. vi. 1. 37,
"Et genus et forinam Regina pecunia donat."
'And in the celebrated contest between Ajax and Ulysses, Ovid's
Metamorph. lib. xiii. 1. 140,
"Nam genus et proavos, et quæ—non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco."
'Homines nullius originis, for nullis orti majoribus, or nullo loco nati, is, you are "afraid, barbarous."
'Origo is used to signify extraction, as in Virg. Ãneid i. 1. 286,