READ THIS POST! 1 of 2 /  by Anthony Gibbins

Today’s page contains two Imperative Verbs. An Imperative Verb is a Verb used to give a command. There is an example in the heading of this very post; read – in this context - is an Imperative Verb. Do it!

So what does an Imperative Verb look like in Latin? Well, it looks quite a bit like a Present Tense Verb, which is not at all surprising. After all, if you are telling someone to do something, there is no time quite like the now.

Take lego, legere, legi, lectum for example. lego means I read. To order one person to read we simply say lege! If there is more than one, we say legite! It’s that simple. In our story, Jessica asked Miranda to trust her; Trust me! she said. The Verb that means trust is credo, credere, credidi, creditum. The appropriate Imperative, therefore, is crede, as Miranda is only one person. Jessica would have said credite if she had been speaking to a pair or a crowd. The mi, by the way, means me.

Later Jessica asked Miranda to allow her to leave; allow me! she said. The Verb that means allow is sino, sinere, sivi, situm. The appropriate Imperative, therefore, is sine, as Miranda is only one person. Jessica would have said sinite if she had been speaking to a pair or a crowd. The me, by the way, means me and fugere means to escape.

You may well be wondering why both mi and me mean me. It’s a good question for another time.

Jessica was watching Miranda intently. ‘I am not your enemy, Miranda. Trust me, I beg you. Allow me to escape.’ Jessica again tried to run.

The Latin Summer School, Sydney /  by Anthony Gibbins

This week is a very exciting week for Classics in my home town of Sydney. It is the week that Sydney University is playing host to the 23rd Latin Summer School. Here are some details from the Summer School’s own website;

The Latin Summer School, held annually in January at the University of Sydney, was founded by the late Professor Kevin Lee and Dr Trevor Evans. It attracts over 200 students of all ages, from 13 up. It consists of daily tutorial sessions on a wide selection of Latin texts (provided) at all levels from beginners to advanced. The tutorials are conducted by experienced teachers from universities and schools in NSW and ACT.

In addition, there is a series of lectures: a choice of two or three each day, except for the first day when there is traditionally a key note lecture. These lectures cover a wide variety of topics of classical interest. Exceptionally, the key note lecture will be replaced in 2017 by a performance of a shortened version of Plautus's comedy Menaechmi, staged by Dr Anne Rogerson and students from the Latin Department at the University of Sydney. The performance will be in Latin with English surtitles.

One of the things that impresses me about the Latin Summer School, is that people of all ages are grouped together to indulge in their love of Latin. In our classes there are school students about to begin their final year of high school together with classists with decades of experience. Then there are those returning to Latin after a significant hiatus. One gentleman comes to mind, who last studied Latin back in 1956. There are even two women who have come straight from a one-week intensive Ancient Greek Summer School – my hat goes off to them! Today a student from a local high school told me that he was enjoying spending time with people who saw Latin as a hobby rather than a subject.

If you are a Sydney resident who has never attended the Summer School, I highly recommend it. If you are planning to trip to Australia, you might want to line it up with this wonderful event.

Jessica got up and grabbed the suitcase from the ground. She tried to escape Miranda, but the police woman (public guard) obstructed her. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘What is in the suitcase?’

veni vidi vici /  by Anthony Gibbins

veni vidi vici I came, I saw, I conquered is among the very best known of Latin phrases, second only perhaps to et tu, Brute! It is attributed to Caesar by one historian, Appian of Alexandria, and two biographers, Suetonius and Plutarch. Let us look at what each had to say;

Appian:  Agitated by Caesar’s approach, [King Pharnaces of Syria] repented, and when Caesar was twenty-five miles away sent ambassadors to arrange peace, who took him a golden crown and foolishly offered him Pharnaces’ daughter in marriage. When Caesar discovered what the gifts were, he advanced with his army and walked forward in conversation with the ambassadors until he reached the defences of Pharnaces’ camp. Then he simply…leapt on his horse, and as soon as the war-cry was uttered, routed Pharnaces and killed a large number of his men, although accompanied by only about 1 000 cavalry who formed a vanguard with him… And his dispatch to Rome about the battle ran: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ Book II. 91

Suetonius: Caesar’s first and most glorious Triumphal Procession was for the victories he gained in Gaul; the next for that of Alexandria, the third for the reduction of Pontus, the fourth for his African victory, and the last for that in Spain; and they all differed from each other in their varied pomp and pageantry… Amongst the pageantry of the Pontic triumph, a tablet with this inscription was carried before him: I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED; not signifying, as other mottos on the like occasion, what was done, so much as the speed with which it was achieved. Life of Caesar, 37

Plutarch: On leaving that country and traversing Asia, he learned… that Pharnaces, using his victory without stint, and occupying Bithynia and Cappadocia, was aiming to secure the country called Lesser Armenia... At once, therefore, Caesar marched against him with three legions, fought a great battle with him near the city of Zela, drove him in flight out of Pontus, and annihilated his army. In announcing the swiftness and fierceness of this battle to one of his friends at Rome, Amantius, Caesar wrote three words: I came, saw, conquered. In Latin, however, the words have the same inflectional ending, and so a brevity which is most impressive. Life of Caesar, 50

Note that Plutarch, who wrote in Greek, admired how snappy veni, vidi, vici sounded in Latin. Each of them is the First Person Perfect Tense Form of these three verbs; venio, venire, veni, ventum - video, videre, vidi, visum - vinco, vincere, vici, victum. You may remember that the Third Principal Part of any Verb is the First Person Perfect Tense Form. vidi I saw appears on today’s page.

Miranda ran to Jessica without delay. ‘How do you have yourself [i.e. How are you?]’ she asked her. ‘What were you doing? I saw you descending from the roof.’

she accidentally let go of the rope /  by Anthony Gibbins

The story required Jessica to accidentally let go of the rope, but I was at first uncertain how to express this idea in Latin. Here is a little of the process that helped me arrive at an (I think) acceptable solution. I was comfortable with accidentally, which is commonly expressed with casu, the Ablative of casus. The historian Nepos wrote casu accidere to happen by accident and Tacitus wrote casu procidere to accidentally fall forwards. The Noun casus itself means a falling down, and by extension an accident. So I guess the Ablative casu might be considered an Ablative of Manner. How did it happen? It happened casu by accident, accidentally.

The expression to let go of took a little more work. It is, for starters, an expression that has a wide range of uses in English. You can let go of an animal that has been caught in a trap, let go of an idea that has been keeping you up nights, or let go of a rope that you are descending from a rooftop. I needed a phrase that expressed the last. Scouring dictionaries for various uses, it seemed that the most appropriate Verb would be resolvere to unbind, untie, loosen, open, release, free and that the full expression would be Jessica released the rope from her hands.

This was the bulk of the work done. The rope funis would be the Object of the Verb and would therefore be written in the Accusative Form, funem. And as Jessica released the rope from her hands, an Ablative would be required, manibus. Grammarians call this an Ablative of Separation. This left me with the final expression, funem manibus casu resolvit. All that now remained was to run the expression by a couple of people whom I much admire for their Latinitas Latin style, Latinity. I thank them for their help, and am happy to say that it passed their scrutiny.

Jessica, shocked by the unexpected shout, accidentally let go of the rope and fell to the ground. The stolen suitcase was lying beside her.

Banksy /  by Anthony Gibbins

The sides of a Lego modular kit are, as a rule, not as beautiful as their front and back. To use an expression my mother uses, they can look a little hodge-podge. You see, when putting interesting details on the inside of a room, the outside often pays the cost. Take a look at today’s picture. Inside the Montanus is an attractive block of black wall, upon which hang the cues for the pool table. It looks great! But it means that the same block of black wall must also exist on the outside, where it makes no sense at all. To be fair, the modular kits are made to be pushed up against one other, so this rarely causes a problem. But on occasions like this, it does.

Luckily we live in the age of digital manipulation. I was able to make a minifigure that looked more or less like the iconic Bansky piece of an anarchist throwing flowers. The flowers came with a Hippy minifigure I bought at a Lego fair about eight months back. The face mask came with the Lego Bank. I took the photo with my phone (I took it from above, the minifigure is actually lying on my desk), then ran it through about six of those drawify apps that you can get for your phone. I picked the best one, and voila! A Bansky.

But sliding down the rope, Jessica was sighted by our Miranda, guarding her town below. ‘Hey!’ Miranda shouted.

more than perfect /  by Anthony Gibbins

nisi fallor unless I am mistaken, today’s page contains the very first Pluperfect Verb to occur in a Legonium story. That Verb is celaverat and it means she had hidden. Pluperfect (pronounced ploo-perfect) is a syncopation of three Latin words, plus quam perfectum which mean plus more quam than perfectum completed. The Pluperfect Tense is used to describe an action that had already been completed at a moment is the past.

Episode Six of Legonium is the first to be told entirely in the Past Tense. Jessica lowered the rope which she had (previously) hidden on the roof. At that moment - in the past - when Jessica lowered the rope, the hiding of the rope had already been completed. The hiding was therefore plus quam perfectum or Pluperfect.

For the sake of comparison, I will rewrite the entire page in the Present Tense. Each of the Perfect Tense Verbs will become Present and the Pluperfect Verb will become Perfect. The truly observant will also note the change in Tense of the Subjunctive Verb descenderet in the Purpose Clause.

Jessica longum funem in tecto celavit. funem celeriter demittit quo facilius decendat. eheu! vir feminaque eam iam tandem conspiciunt.

Jessica has hidden (not: had hidden) a long rope on the roof. She quickly lowers the rope by-which-she-might (quo) descend more quickly. Oh no! The man and the woman catch sight of her now at last.

Jessica had hidden a long rope on the roof. She quickly lowered the rope in-order-to (quo) descend more quickly. Oh no! The man and the woman caught sight of her then at last.

the marvelous variety of Perfect Stems /  by Anthony Gibbins

Okay, this will be the last post for a while about Perfect Tense Verbs, I promise*. But I did think it might be of interest to compare the Present Stem and the Perfect Stem of a few Verbs, in particular those that appear on today’s page. By doing this we will see that there are numerous ways that a Perfect Stem might relate back to the Present Stem; there is no one pattern that works for all Verbs. This may not be good news, but at least if we know what we are up against we can brace for it.

But first, a quick refresher on how we find the Present and Perfect Stems of a Verb. When we look up a Verb in a dictionary we are given the Four Principal Parts; capio, capere, cepi, captum. If we take the endings off the First and Third Principal Parts we are left with the Present Stem cap- and the Perfect Stem cep- respectively. Now let’s compare the Present and Perfect Stems of each of the Verbs on today’s page, and a few more for good measure

Present Stem              Perfect Stem

cap-                            cep-                         take/took

curr-                           cucurr-                     run/ran

ru-                               ru-                           rush/rushed

conspic-                      conspex-                 catch sight of/caught sight of

sum (not a Stem)       fu-                            am/was

ambul-                        ambulav-                  walk/walked

pon-                            posu-                        place/placed

rid-                              ris-                            laugh/laughed

My advice? As you learn Latin Verbs try and learn their Perfect Forms as well. There are patterns, but some are more predictable than others. Pay attention as you go, and hopefully the patterns will begin to show themselves with time.

Jessica took the found suitcase without delay and ran out of the room. She rushed across the roof like a ghost, nor did the people catch sight of her. 

the Perfect Tense with a Purpose Clause /  by Anthony Gibbins

Back in early December, I wrote a post to explain the various ways of expressing Purpose in Latin. If you would like, you can check it out here;

http://www.legonium.com/blog/2016/12/6/finding-your-purpose.

One of those methods was a Purpose Clause. Here is what I wrote;

Purpose Clause: This is very common. The little Adverb ut has a myriad of uses. Included in these is signposting the coming of a Purpose Clause. A Purpose Clause also requires a change in the Mood of the Verb, which is as simple (and as complicated) as changing tradit to tradat. Marcellus ad argentariam it ut pecuniam Augusto tradat. Marcellus is going to the bank in order to hand over money to Augustus. 

This is an honest, but incomplete explanation. The Subjunctive Mood Verb tradat (which is classified as a Present Tense Subjunctive) is only appropriate when the Purpose is something that still may or may not be achieved. For example, Jessica cubiculum intrat (Present) ut sarcinam quaerat. Jessica is entering the room to search for the suitcase. Or Jessica cubiculum intrabit (Future) ut sarcinam quaerat. Jessica will enter the room to search for the suitcase.

If, however, the Purpose is no longer open to be achieved, we do not use a Present Tense Subjunctive in the Purpose Clause (such as quaerat) but an Imperfect Tense Subjunctive (such as quaereret). The grammatical terms are particularly unhelpful here, so let’s just see what this looks like. Jessica cubiculum intrabat (Imperfect) ut sarcinam quaereret Jessica was entering the room to search for the suitcase or Jessica cubiculum intravit (Perfect) ut sarcinam quaereret Jessica entered the room to search for the suitcase.

In our exploration of the Perfect Tense yesterday, we saw that Jessica cubiculum intravit could mean either Jessica entered the room or Jessica has entered the room. Look at how this comes into play when translating a Perfect Verb followed by a Purpose Clause. Jessica cubiculum intravit ut sarcinam quaereret Jessica entered the room to look for the suitcase. Jessica cubiculum intravit ut sarcinam quaerat Jessica has entered the room to look for the suitcase. The implication in the second example would be that Jessica is still in the room and still hoping to find the suitcase. Neat, hey!

The man and woman therefore exited out of the room to search the roof. Jessica meanwhile entered the room like-a-ninja [perniciter] to search for the suitcase given by the sailor.