Lectio sexta decima

Notes

1. In urbe Massiliá, and not Massiliae, since, due to the fact that Massilia is linked by it agreement to urbe, one cannot use anymore the shorter construction Massiliae (that the grammarians call locative) which allowes one to say in just one word: in Marseille.

2. Ambulans (plural ambulantes), present participle of ambulo, (ambul)as, (ambul)are, I am walking. From now on, we shall offer you the verbs in shortened form in the order: 1st person present indicative (not shortened); ending of the 2nd person (here as); ending of the present infinitive (here are).

3. Marce, Mari, and in the preceding lesson optime Fabrici, are vocatives (from voco, as, are, to call) which one employs when one addresses someone. This form is not different from the form of the subject except for the words ending in us (or in ius, and in this case the us disappears instead of being transformed into an e), as well as for some names of Greek origin: Andreas, Andrew; voc. Andrea!

4. Cenatum, is a particular mood of the verb ceno (as, are), I have dinner, which is used, after verbs of motion, instead of the infinitive. Cenans is the present participle of this same verb; plural cenantes; nobis cenantibus, to us dining, is the form of the indirect object.

5. Loquor, eris, i, I speak; loquens, speaking; venite locutum, come to speak; voluptas loquendi, the pleasure of speaking. Do not try yet to remember all of these forms, but just note that in addition to the infinitive (loqui) and the participle, which are moods which we already know, Latin, a precise language, has other verbal forms more specialized than ours. Some of these forms are declinable (agreeing in gender, number and case), which should not surprise us.

6. Porta designates the entrance (gate) of a city, janua that of a house. Portá and viá, with a long á, indicate, without the need for a preposition, the place through which one passes. With the other words one employs the preposition per, by, through; per urbem, across the city; and (P 8), per vicum.

7. Aquae Sextiae (word-by-word, the waters of Sextius), Aix-en-Provence. Equally Aquae Gratianae, the waters of Gratian (emperor who gave his name to Gatianopolis, Grenoble) became Aix-les-Bains (Savoy) and Aquae Grani, Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen).

   These Aquae (singular aqua, water) were Roman thermal cities (cities built over hot springs), the second word serving to differentiate them from each other. Oddly enough in general it is the first word which has remained (Aix, Ax, Dax, Aachen).

8. Vicus, the village, also indicates the street bordered by houses our of which villages grew.

9. Sinistrorsum (going) towards the left; sinistra, the left hand; sinister, sinistra, sinistrum, left (adjective). In the past, superstitious people considered the passage of birds as a sinister omen if it were made to their left (except if their left coincided with the East, which didn't simplify things). From this comes the second sense (current sense) of this adjective.

   Similarly dextra, right hand, dexter, tra, trum (adj.), right and dextrorsum (adv.), (going) towards the right.

10. Omnino, at all; adverb derived from the pronoun: m. and f.: omnis, every (everyone); neuter: omne, everything; pl.: omnes, every (all); neuter: omnia, all things; omnibus, for all, for all things is the form of the indirect object: an omnibus (now shortened to bus) is the name that was given to vehicle for everyone. But all in the sense of the whole is expressed by the adjective: totus, tota, totum.

Attention: P.5 should say 'ab urbe Massiliá abímus'.

Exercitatio

1. Attention! domus is here a feminine plural, we shall see why later.