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I was reading Orberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata and I found the following sentences:

Marcus et Quīntus sunt dūo filiī. [...] In familia Rõmāna tres līberī sunt.

Now I deduce both words mean "children", but where would I use one or another? (I looked up at some dictionaries but didn't explained the difference).

Edit: This question has led to some kind of debate whether liberī is only applied to children that are born-free. See it.

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Pablo Ivan
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2 Answers2

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Filius, i means "son" Liberi (masc. plur.) means "children" and more precisely children of free people, i.e. not slaves.

This family has 2 sons but 3 children. There probably is a daughter around somewhere.

thiebo
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    Do you know how universal this rule is? Lewis and Short cites a few examples of filii being used for children of both sexes, cf. Spanish hijos – brianpck Feb 11 '17 at 18:02
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    Latin is an extremely flexible language that had (has) a long living history. Always possible to find examples and most dictionnairies will give those exceptional examples. However, the general rules is that of filius - liberi I outlined above. You also have "pueri". And as the roman society is very preoccupied with the households, personal status' and family, you'll find an impressive amount of words describing all that. – thiebo Feb 11 '17 at 19:34
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    Fīlius singular can't be a daughter (that would be fīlia), but fīliī plural can sometimes include daughters as well: a group of males and females generally takes a masculine plural. But this is dependent on context, and the more common meaning is "sons". – Draconis Feb 11 '17 at 20:16
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    Can you support the claim that liberi is "more precisely children of free people, i.e. not slaves"? Current view among etymologists is that liberi "children" and liber "free" are two unrelated words. – fdb Feb 11 '17 at 21:55
  • @fdb: De Vaan s.v. agrees with Thiebo's etymology. – Cerberus Feb 11 '17 at 23:50
  • @Cerberus. Yes, you are right. That is the majority view. But my objection was to the supposition that “liberi” must always have its etymological meaning. Plautus uses it for the offspring of sheep. – fdb Feb 12 '17 at 17:02
  • @fdb Oh, hah. That might actually be an interesting question. Can it ever be used for non-free humans? And is this usage Plauti for lambs metaphorical/ironic or normal? – Cerberus Feb 12 '17 at 23:09
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    More here: http://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/2639/does-liberi-only-refer-to-free-children – fdb Feb 12 '17 at 23:50
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Incidentally, starting with Augustus, having three children was honorable and gave men "certain political advantages", whereas having less than three children "restricted a man's ability to accept inheritances and legacies" (Edmondson 2015: 576).

See more on ius trium liberorum in Wikipedia or in Edmondson 2015.

Alex B.
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