Lesson 47 · Review
Four place names and a word for the country — the vocabulary of a lesson about going places.
proelium committere is to join battle — literally to commit or entrust a battle, the regular Latin for beginning an engagement. terga vertere is to retreat — literally to turn the backs, plural because an army has many. Latin says what the soldiers do with their bodies and leaves you to supply the word retreat.
Caesar proelium commīsit — Caesar joined battle · hostēs terga vertērunt — the enemy retreated
English uses because before a clause and because of before a noun; Latin keeps them equally distinct. propter is a preposition with the accusative and must be followed by a noun — propter vulnera, because of the wounds. To put a whole clause after it is impossible; for that Latin uses the conjunction quod or quia — quod timēbant, because they were afraid.
Every place-relation in Latin answers one of three questions: whither, whence, or where.
The place to which is expressed by ad or in with the accusative. It answers the question Whither?
Galba ad (or in) oppidum properat — Galba hastens to the town
The place from which is expressed by ā or ab, dē, ē or ex, with the separative ablative. It answers the question Whence?
Galba ab (dē or ex) oppidō properat — Galba hastens from the town
The place at or in which is expressed by the ablative with in. It answers the question Where? The ablative used so is called the locative ablative, from locus, place.
Galba in oppidō habitat — Galba lives in the town
One short list of words throws the prepositions away and lets the case ending carry the whole meaning.
Names of towns, names of small islands, domus, home, and rūs, country — with a few other words in common use — omit the prepositions in expressions of place. The bare case does the work that ad, ab, and in do elsewhere.
Galba Athēnās properat — Galba hastens to Athens · Galba Athēnīs properat — Galba hastens from Athens · Galba Athēnīs habitat — Galba lives at Athens
Galba domum properat — hastens home · Galba domō properat — hastens from home · Galba rūs properat — hastens to the country · Galba rūre properat — hastens from the country · Galba rūrī habitat — lives in the country
Names of countries — Germānia, Italia, Gallia — do not come under the exception. With them the prepositions must not be omitted. in Italiam properat, he hastens to Italy, never Italiam properat; in Galliā habitat, he lives in Gaul.
Rōmam properat (town, no preposition) — but — in Italiam properat (country, preposition required)
Small islands are classed with towns because they generally have but one town, and the name of the town is the same as the name of the island. Naming the island and naming the town come to the same thing, so the island borrows the town's construction.
Latin once had a separate case for the place where; almost all of it has been swallowed by the ablative, and what survives hides in the shape of a genitive.
The relation at or in is regularly covered by the locative ablative (Rule 3). But Latin originally expressed it by a separate form, the locative case. That case has been merged into the ablative everywhere except in the singular of the first and second declensions. There its form is identical to the genitive singular, and its use is limited to names of towns and small islands, domī, at home, and a few other words.
To express the place in which with names of towns and small islands: if the name is singular and of the first or second declension, use the locative; otherwise use the locative ablative without a preposition.
Galba Rōmae habitat — at Rome (1st decl. sg., locative) · Galba Corinthī habitat — at Corinth (2nd decl. sg., locative) · Galba domī habitat — at home (locative)
Galba Athēnīs habitat — at Athens · Galba Pompēiīs habitat — at Pompeii — locative ablatives, because Athēnae and Pompēiī are plural and there is no plural locative form at all
Because the locative wears the genitive's clothes, the form alone will not tell you which case you are looking at. Rōmae is genitive, dative, or locative; Corinthī is genitive or locative. The sense of the sentence decides: with a verb of dwelling or remaining, and no preposition in sight, read it as a locative.
A noun that could not choose between two declensions and so kept the forms of both.
Feminine · domus, -ūs, house, home · stem domu- · base dom- · locative domī
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | domus | domūs |
| Gen. | domūs | domuum, or domōrum |
| Dat. | domuī, or domō | domibus |
| Acc. | domum | domōs, or domūs |
| Abl. | domō, or domū | domibus |
domus has forms of both the second and the fourth declension. The fourth shows in domūs, domuī, domū, domuum; the second in domō, domōrum, domōs. Where two forms are given, both are correct Latin. The accusative singular domum and the dative and ablative plural domibus are the same in either declension, so no choice arises there.
domum properat — he hastens home (acc., place to which) · domō properat — he hastens from home (abl., place from which) · domī habitat — he lives at home (locative)
Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
Rule 2 governs the place from which. What construction does it call for?
Right. The three rules answer three questions, and each has its own case. Whither? — accusative with ad or in (option a, Rule 1). Whence? — the separative ablative with ā/ab, dē, ē/ex, as in Galba ab oppidō properat. Where? — the locative ablative with in (option b, Rule 3). Note that the ablative serves two of the three rules, and only the preposition distinguishes them: ex oppidō, out of the town, against in oppidō, in the town.
Not quite — you have chosen a real rule, but the one that answers a different question. Ask which of Whither, Whence, or Where your answer belongs to.
Question 2
Which of these is correct Latin for he hastens to Italy?
Right. The exception that lets a word drop its preposition covers names of towns, small islands, domus, and rūs — and nothing else. Names of countries are expressly excluded, so Italia, Germānia, and Gallia keep ad, in, ab, ex exactly as oppidum does. Option a would be right for the town Rōma and wrong for the country around it. Option c fails twice over: the locative answers where, not whither, and it is not available to a country name in any event.
Not quite — run through the exception list and ask whether Italy is on it. Then check that the case you chose answers the question Whither?
Question 3
In Galba Corinthī habitat, Galba lives at Corinth, what is Corinthī?
Right. Rule 4 sends you first to the locative when the name is singular and of the first or second declension. Corinthus is a second-declension singular, so the locative is available, and its form is identical to the genitive singular — which is exactly what makes option b tempting. Only the sense decides: habitat asks where, and there is no noun for a genitive to depend on. Option c names the fallback construction, correct for Athēnīs because Athēnae is plural, but unnecessary here.
Not quite — check the number and declension of Corinthus against Rule 4, and remember what the locative's form is borrowed from.
Question 4
Why is Athēnīs in Galba Athēnīs habitat a locative ablative rather than a locative?
Right. The locative survives only in the singular of the first and second declensions; the plural has no locative form to offer. Athēnae and Pompēiī are plural nouns, so Rule 4's otherwise clause takes over and they use the locative ablative — still with no preposition, since they are town names. Option b inverts the facts: it is the locative ablative that normally wants in, and town names are precisely the words that drop it.
Not quite — look at the nominative Athēnae and ask what its number is. Then ask what Rule 4 requires of a name before the locative is available.
Question 5
Which set gives he hastens home, he hastens from home, and he lives at home, in that order?
Right. domus is on the exception list, so all three prepositions vanish and the endings alone carry the sense: accusative domum for the place to which, ablative domō for the place from which, and the locative domī for the place at which. Option a is the construction a word like oppidum would take — grammatical Latin in form, but not what a Roman writes for domus. Option c has the three forms of the paradigm scrambled into the wrong slots.
Not quite — domus is one of the words that omit prepositions. Match each of the three questions (Whither? Whence? Where?) to the accusative, the ablative, and the locative domī.
Question 6
The vocabulary gives domus, -ūs, yet the paradigm shows an ablative singular domō and a genitive plural domōrum. Why?
Right. domus declines in both declensions at once: the fourth shows in domūs, domuī, domū, domuum, the second in domō, domōrum, domōs. Where the paradigm prints two forms, both are good Latin and you may write either — which is what option b denies. Option c invents a distinction the language does not make: the choice of form has nothing to do with which of the two English words translates it, and it keeps a locative domī in either case.
Not quite — compare domō and domōrum against the second-declension endings you already know, and domūs and domuum against the fourth. What does it mean that the noun has both?
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