Position of Inter and Intrā

1. Inter may appear after its corresponding object.

• rex inter prīmōs cōnsisterat: he was mad a king among equals.
• mediōs inter hostēs Londinium perrēxit: he pressed on to London amid enemies (enemy ambushes.

2. Except (perhaps?) for metrical purposes, intra will always proceed it’s corresponding object.

• intrā trēs diēs: within three days
• intrā lūcem: before the day was done

The Essential AG: 435

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Some Inter-esting Distinctions

In my last post, I introduced intra, to which I will now compare and contrast intra, a considerably more common and complex preposition, individuated from intra through the following uses.

1. The et double-accusative.

• inter mōns et durum: between a rock and a hard place
• inter tē et mē: between you and me

2. The inter sē construction.

• inter sē loquuntur: they talk amongst themselves
• inter se confērunt: they compare amongst themselves

3. The ‘amid’ construction.

• inter hostium tēla: amid the weapons of the enemies
• inter imbrim: during the rainfall
• prīmus inter parēs: the first among equals

4. The temporal ‘while’ construction (with a gerund)

• inter bibendum: while drinking
• inter agendum: while carrying forward

The Essential AG: 221.15

The Flavors of Favor

How do you express favor in Latin—what verbs, cases and constructions are on your plate? There are a few basic flavors the favor construction.

The most obvious construction is faveō + a dative object. This verb only rarely appears absolutely (without an object).

• Do you favor my resources, or those of Caesar: meīs rēbus favētis, aut Caesāris?
• He prefers the stillness of the evening hours: silentiō noctis favet.

Annuō + dative of person + accusative object usually means ‘to grant + someone + something’ but may also appear as annuō + dative of person and merely mean ‘to favor someone.’

• She favored the better cause: ratiōnī maiōri annuit.

Adiuvō + accusative ordinarily means ‘aid’ but may in certain oblique cases approach ‘favor.’

• Favor us with your prayers: nōs precibus adiuvā!

The Essential AG: 367.

To Have and Holding, For as Long as You Both Shall Live

In this post, I’d like to differentiate between the three ways that habeō takes a direct object: (a) an accusative, (b) an accusative perfect participle, and (c) an infinitive.

Habeō takes an accusative direct object in the sense of ‘possessing’ that object.

• I have three sons: trēs fīliōs habeō.
• She held the scepter: sceptrum habēbat.

Habeō with the perfect participle bears the same sense as ‘habēbat‘ above: possession extended over a period of time.

• They are holding him in the prison: eum in carcere habent. (right now)
• They are holding him in prison: eum captātum in carcere habent. (continuous status of incarceration)

• They have him as a witness: eum teste habent. (at this moment).
• They have him as a witness: eum testātum habent. (for now, but also for when they might need him)

Habeō with an infinitive completes a construction of purpose.

• I have much to promise: multum habeō pollicērī.
• You have work to do: labōrem habēs facere.
• You must do the work: labōrem habēs facere. (cf. Spanish tener que)

The Essential AG: 460a, 497b

A Forbidding Post

interdīco, interdīcere, interdīxī, interdīctus: forbid
Interdīco (forbid) gets a note of it’s own in A&G because it’s case constructions have varied over time.

• Earlier writers present interdīco + dative Person & ablative Thing Forbidden
• Later writers use interdīco + dative Person & accusative Thing Forbidden

Exempla

• They forbade him fire and water: aquā et īgnī eō interdīxērunt.*
• Shall we forbid the women from wearing purple: fēminīs purpurae ūsū interdīcēmus?
• He forbade the actors from appearing on the stage: histriōnibus scaenam accedere interdīxit.

*This was the standard formally for expressing ‘he is banished’

Also, I discovered during the construction of this post that ‘forbid’ is never the past tense of the English ‘forbid.’ It is usually ‘forbade’ and rarely ‘forbad.’ I hope I wasn’t the only person making this mistake… for 21 years…

The Essential AG: 365n1

Verbs with Double Constructions

Many Latin verbs display flexibility of case use. For instance, the following verbs will take either (a) accusative Person + dative Gift; or (b) dative Person + ablative Gift.

• dōnō, dōnāre, dōnāvī, dōnātus: give
• impertiō, impertīre, impertīvī, impertītus: bestow
• induō, induere, induī, indūtus: put on (clothes)
• exuō, exuere, exuī, exūtus: take off (clothes)
• adspergō, adspergere, aspersī, adspersus: sprinkle, scatter, splatter (alt. aspergō, aspergere, etc.)
• īnspergō, īnspergo, īnspergere, īnspersī, īnspersus: sprinkle, scatter ‘into’
• circumdō, circumdāre, circumdedī, circumdatus: enclose, encircle

Exempla

• She gives her daughter a car: Fīliae autoraedam dōnat.
• She gives her daughter a car: Fīliam autoraedā dōnat.
• [More formally, we might say ‘she presents her daughter with a car.’]

• He puts the robe on his son: Nātō vestem induit.
• He puts the robe on his son: Nātum veste induit.
• [More formally, we might say ‘he dresses his son with a robe.’]

• I sprinkled the altar with water: Ārae aquam aspersī.
• I sprinkled the altar with water: Āram aquā aspersī.
• [More formally, for the first ‘I sprinkled water on the altar.’]

• I enclosed the horses with a fence: equīs caevam circumdedī.
• I enclosed the horses with a fence: equēs caevā circumdedī.
• [More formally, for the first ‘I placed a fence around the horses.’]

The Essential AG: 364

Objects Direct and Indirect

Pardon the vacation, everyone. I’ve spent the last week cramming for and completing the GRE.

Direct Objects are “immediately affected by the action of a verb” within a standard sentence.

• Direct objects always follow transitive verbs

Indirect Objects are less than immediately affected by the action of the verb

• This definition captures the indirect sensibility of genitive and ablative indirect objects, which are not your standard ‘recipient of gift’ phenomena
• Indirect objects are immediately affected by the milieu of a subject-verb-direct object ‘unit’, regardless of whether this ‘unit’ states all parts explicitly
• Indirect objects may therefore follow transitive or intransitive verbs

The accusative is the case proper to direct objects, yet an English sentence containing a direct object, where translated to Latin, may feature the other cases as well.
Direct and Indirect in Latin

The following sentences, in English, all feature ‘girl’ as direct object, yet in Latin receive either direct or indirect variations, dependent on the particular syntax of the Latin verb:

• puellam videō: I see the girl.
• puellae serviō: I serve the girl. (dative, indirect)
• puellae misereor: I pity the girl. (genitive, indirect)
• puellā ūtor: I make use of the girl. (ablative, indirect)

Note that the dative usage holds the regular ‘recipient of gift’ formula that we’d imagine in English, yet the genitive and ablative examples feature non-active verbs, which couldn’t take any object in English without a preposition.

Indeed, the conservative structure of Latin syntax allows Latin to omit many English prepositions when constructing subject-verb-direct object units:

• petit aprum: he aims at the boar.
• laudem affectat: he strives for praise.

Where the direct object/subject transition, in English, requires a preposition, Latin merely requires a shift in case:

• pater fīlium vocat: the father calls his son
• fīlius patre vocātur: the son is called by his father

The Essential AG: 274-5

Rules for the Latin Period

Sample Latin Period

Here’s the same sample Latin period from last time:

Volscī exiguam spem in armīs, aliā undique abscissā, cum tentāssent, praeter cētera adversa, locō quoquo inīquō ad pugnam congressī, inīquiōre ad fugam, cum ab omnī parte caederentur, ad precēs ā certāmine versī dēditō imperātōre trāditīsque armīs, sub iugum missī, cum singulīs vestīmentīs, īgnōminiae clādisque plēnī dīmittuntur. -Livy, iv.10

The Volscians, determined on trying the slender hope they had in arms, all others now cut off, besides many other disadvantages, having come to an engagement unfavorable for fighting, and still more so for retreat, when they were being cut down on every side, from fighting have recourse to entreaties, having given up their general and surrendered their arms, they are sent under the yoke and dismissed full of disgrace and suffering, with one garment each. (trans. Spillan)

Rules Observed in Latin Periodic Sentence Structure

“The main subject or object is put in the main clause, not in a subordinate clause.” -AG, 602

• So here, the subject Volscī is within the same clause as the main verb, dīmittuntur (a passive that takes no object)
• In this period, the main clause is divided by a series of subordinate clauses

Subordinate clauses are arranged meaningfully.

• They are arranged for emphasis, prominence of importance, distance from the speaker, following a rotation of deictic gestures, etc.
• They place cause before result, purpose before act, etc.

Asyndeton occurs frequently.

• Asyndeton is the use of coordinate clauses within their copulative conjunction.
• Here, in locō is given merely as locō, and the following, parallel clause lacks even locō itself
• Further, there are numerous plausible et‘s and atque‘s missing

Pronouns disappear save where they are needed for clarity

• Subordinate clauses are intentionally structured to surround all action around the original subject, permitting the writer to imply everything with the number, case and gender of a minimal number of words
• Objects, too, may be repeated or replaced as rarely as possible

The Romans, especially in oratorical prose, use particular patterns of verse when ending their periods

• quod scīs nihil prōdes, quod nescīs multum obest : what you know is of no use, what you do not know does great harm (Cicero, Dē Orātōre, 166) [— — ̆ x ]
• I admit no knowledge of what the ‘preferred’ patterns of verse are for ending sentences, but I imagine professional orators had specific personal tastes

The Essential AG: 602

Famous Phrase: vēnī, vīdī, vīcī : I came, I saw, I conquered.

[commentary by Caesar on his short war with Pharnaces II in 47 BC; a light patch of asyndeton missing a few et‘s]