L AS PRÁCTICAS DEL LIDERAZGO ESCOLAR EFECTIVO

16 line 1 mī (see Unit 4); line 2 faveō + dative be favourable to; line 3 attuleris compound of ad and ferō, ferre, tulī, lātum (see Unit 15) bring; line 5 omnibus cachinnīs all manner of laughter.

18 line 1 dēliciae plural with singular meaning darling; meae to be taken with puellae (genitive singular); lines 2–4 quōcum = cum quō, cf. Unit 8; prīmum digitum the first part of (her) finger, i.e. the tip of her finger (see Unit 21); solet must be understood with lūdere, tenēre (line 2) and dare; line 5 possem I wish I could (optative subjunctive; see Unit 22).

points to remember

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3 Nouns of the fifth declension are feminine (diēs and merīdiēs are usually masculine).

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3 Participles are the parts of verbs that function as adjectives.

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3 Latin has only three participles: present active (amans loving), perfect passive (amātus loved), future active (amāturūs going to love).

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3 The tense of a participle depends on whether the action that it expresses happened before, at the same time as, or after that of the verb of its clause.

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3 An agent is expressed by ā/ab + abl., an instrument by the plain ablative.

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3 The cardinal numbers for 1–3, 200–900 and mīlia thousands are declined.

Excursus

roMan nuMEraLs

Only tradition and the occasional need for something distinctively different (as on clock dials) have kept Roman numerals in use up to the present day.

The Roman system is clumsy in the extreme when compared with the Arabic (originally Indian), which was adopted by Europe in the Middle Ages. It has no single symbols for 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9; its lack of nought, 0, has serious consequences in the expression of large numbers. The symbols which it employs are:

I one C hundred

V five IƆ or D five hundred x ten CIƆ or M thousand

L fifty

Other numbers are made up by the repetition, combination, or both, of these basic elements according to the following rules:

a Repeated digits are added together (III = 3; CCCC = 400), with the exceptions noted in c.

b A smaller digit is added to a preceding larger digit (DC = 600;

LXXVI = 76) but subtracted from a larger number which follows (IX = 9). The latter procedure takes precedence within one number, e.g. CCCXXIV (324) = CCCXX + IV (not CCCXXI + V).

c Ɔ to the right of IƆ multiplies it by 10 (IƆƆƆ = 50,000); by putting C in front of I for as many times as Ɔ follows we multiply the right-hand number by 2 (CCCIƆƆƆ = 100,000).

d A line above multiplies by 1,000 (VI = 6000).

Further examples will be found in the table of numbers in Appendix 6.

Grammar

1 aBLaTIVE aBsoLuTE

This construction (absolute here means independent), in its simplest form, involves a noun or pronoun and a participle that are both in the ablative case and that stand apart from (i.e. are grammatically independent of) the rest of the sentence; naturally there is a connection in sense as otherwise there would be no point in putting the two together. We have an absolute construction (the nominative absolute) in English. Although it is a little clumsy, we can say the enemy having been conquered, Hannibal arrived at Carthage. In Latin this becomes hoste victō Hannibal Karthāginem advēnit.

It is important that the subject of the ablative absolute (here hoste) is not referred to in the rest of the sentence. We should not say hoste victō Hannibal eum interfēcit (lit. the enemy having been conquered Hannibal killed him – i.e. someone else) if we mean that Hannibal both conquered and killed his enemy (i.e. if hoste and eum refer to the same person); the ablative absolute would not be truly absolute and grammatically detached from the rest of the sentence. We express this as Hannibal hostem victum interfēcit (lit. Hannibal killed the conquered enemy).

The ablative absolute has the same rules about tenses and implied agents (with a perfect participle) as other uses of participles (see Unit 11).

An ablative absolute can be expanded with words that qualify its subject or participle, but the two basic elements (noun/pronoun + participle) are always present, except in one particular type: iuvenis eram consule Plancō.

I was a young man, Plancus (being) consul, i.e. when Plancus was consul.

Latin does not have a present participle of the verb sum. Consequently when we want an ablative absolute of the type Darius being king (i.e. when Darius was king, is king, or will be king, according to the tense of the finite verb) we simply put Dārīus and rex into the ablative, viz Dārīō rēge. The second element can also be an adjective: tranquillō marī, ā Graeciā domum veniēmus the sea (being) calm, (i.e. when the sea is calm) we shall come home from Greece.

12

2 usE oF parTICIpLEs InsTEaD oF aBsTraCT nouns

An abstract noun followed by a concrete noun in the genitive is a normal expression in English, e.g. the capture of the city, the burning of the Capitol, the murder of Caesar. Latin can form phrases of this sort but they are much less common than in English. Instead, Latin qualifies the concrete noun (city, Capitol, Caesar) with a participle which expresses the sense of the English abstract noun: urbs capta, Capitōlium incensum, Caesar occīsus. But should not these phrases mean the city having been captured, the Capitol having been burnt, Caesar having been murdered? The answer is that Caesar occīsus can mean either the murder of Caesar or Caesar having been murdered (and similarly with the other phrases), but it will always be clear in a particular context which meaning is intended. In Caesar occīsus humum cecidit Caesar, having been murdered, fell to the ground, the logical, and grammatical, subject is Caesar (as the answer to the question: who or what fell to the ground?). In Caesar occīsus cīvēs terruit (lit. Caesar having been murdered terrified the citizens) the grammatical subject is still Caesar but, as the answer to the question who or what terrified the citizens? is not Caesar but the fact that he had been murdered, the latter is the logical subject. We must therefore translate the murder of Caesar terrified the citizens.

This construction can occur in other grammatical cases. It is most common with the perfect participle. Other examples are:

Rēs pūblica per mē dēfensa eōrum benevolentiam nōbīs conciliāvit. My defence of the state (lit. the state defended by me) won their friendship for us.

Annō ante nātum Ennium. In the year before the birth of Ennius (lit. before Ennius having been born).

Ab urbe conditā. From the foundation of the city (lit. from the city having been founded. This phrase, often abbreviated to AUC, was used in dates calculated from the traditional foundation of Rome in 753 BC).

Memorābilem pugnam fēcit Hasdrubal captus. The capture of Hasdrubal made the battle memorable.

3 usEs oF THE supInE

The supine (see Unit 4) is a verbal noun belonging to the fourth

declension, but it only exists in two forms, the accusative singular, which is the form quoted in principal parts of verbs, and the ablative singular.

The supine in -um (i.e. the accusative singular) is used to express purpose after verbs of motion or verbs implying motion:

Lēgātōs ad Caesarem mittunt auxilium rogātum. They send envoys to Caesar to ask for help.

Gladiātōrēs in arēnam pugnātum vocāvit. He called gladiators into the arena to fight.

In this construction English normally uses an infinitive but in Latin the infinitive is only used in this way in poetry. On how to express purpose by a clause (which also could be used in the above examples) see Unit 13. For the only other use of the supine in -um see Unit 14.

The supine in -ū (i.e. the ablative singular) is only found after certain adjectives (used either adjectivally or as nouns), and fās right, nefās wrong (see Unit 25), where in English we would have a present active (or sometimes passive) infinitive. It occurs in a limited number of verbs, mostly those indicating saying or perceiving, e.g. mīrābile dictū wonderful to relate; rēs audītū crūdēlis, vīsū nefāria a thing cruel to hear, evil to see;

fās audītū right to hear.

4 nuMEraLs (2)

There are three other types of numerals in addition to cardinals (see Unit 11). Full tables will be found in Appendix 6.

a Ordinals are the set of numerals which arrange in order, viz first, second, third, etc. Latin ordinals are all first and second declension adjectives, except for prior (see Unit 19) and alter (see Unit 10) which are used instead of prīmus first and secundus second when a series of two only is described.

b Numeral adverbs are semel once, bis twice, ter three times, quater four times, etc.

c Distributive numerals have no one-word equivalents in English. Their primary meaning is one each, two each, etc. They are all first and second declension adjectives.

Legiōnēs singulās posuit Brundisī, Tarentī, Sipontī. He stationed one legion each at Brundisium, Tarentum, and Sipontum.

Bīna hastīlia ferunt. They carry two spears each.

Distributives are also used with words which have a special meaning in the plural (see Unit 8), except that ūnus replaces singulī. Here they have the same meaning as cardinals: duae litterae two letters of the alphabet;

bīnae litterae two letters (epistles); ūna castra one camp; sēna castra six camps.

Latin reading