<P> Earlier hypotheses concerning the derivation of pāgus suggested that it is a Greek loan from either πήγη pége, "village well", or πάγος págos, "hill - fort". William Smith opposed these on the grounds that neither the well nor the hill - fort appear in the meaning of pāgus . </P> <P> The word pagus itself is the stem for Romance languages' words for state or country: pays (French), país (Spanish) etc . </P> <P> In classical Latin, pagus referred to a country district or to a community within a larger polity; Julius Caesar, for instance, refers to pagi within the greater polity of the Celtic Helvetii . </P> <P> The pagus and vicus (a small nucleated settlement or village) are characteristic of pre-urban organization of the countryside . In Latin epigraphy of the Republican era, pagus refers to local territorial divisions of the peoples of the central Apennines and is assumed to express local social structures as they existed variously . </P>

The word pagan comes from pagus a latin word that means