ABSTRACT
The meaning of humanitas is dogged by a controversy that troubled the ancients. The antiquarian Aulus Gellius, writing in the second half of the second century AD, puts it as follows:
Correct Latin speakers do not give humanitas the meaning that it is commonly thought to have, namely what the Greeks call philanthropia, which is a sort of correctness and goodwill towards all men. Latin purists give humanitas approximately the force of the Greek paideia, which we know as education and training in the liberal arts. Those who pursue these goals are essentially human, for the cultivation of this kind of knowledge and training has been given to man alone, therefore it is called humanitas.
(Cell. NA 13.17.1)