Salvēte, sodālēs.
In today’s lesson we will end our trilogy on passive verbs with a discussion of instruments and agents. To help us to understand instruments and agents better, let’s look at the four sentences below:
From Handy Latin Tables Pars Secunda
Antōnius ostium pulsat. Antony knocks upon the door. We have seen plenty of sentences just like this one, with a subject in the nōminatīvus, an object in the accūsātīvus and an active verb.
Antōnius ostium baculō pulsat. Antony knocks upon the door with a stick. In this sentence, baculō plays the roie of instrument. It indicates the instrument with which Antony knocks upon the door. It is in the ablātīvus without a preposition. The verb in this sentence is active. In Capitulum Sextum we have seen other examples of an instrument with an active verb:
Dominus servōs malōs baculō verberat. The masters beats ‘bad’ enslaved men with a stick.
Mēdus viā Latīnā Tūsculõ Rõmam ambulat. Medus walks from Tusculum to Rome using the Via Latina.
Ostium baculō pulsātur. The door is knocked upon with a stick. The main difference between this sentence and the previous one is that the verb is passive. The instrument, on the other hand, works in exactly the same manner. In Capitulum Sextum we have seen other examples of an instrument with a passive verb:
Cornēlius nōn est fessus, nam is equō vehitur. Cornelius is not tired, as he is being carried by a horse.
Iūlius lectīcā vehitur. Julius îs being carried by a litter.
And in today’s reading…
Lydia verbīs Mēdī dēlectātur. Lydia is delighted by the words of Medus.
Ostium ab Antōniō pulsātur. The door is knocked upon by Antony. In this sentence, the passive verb pulsātur is accompanied by an agent. The agent, expressed by a prepositional phrase beginning with ā/ab, tells us by whom the passive verb is being performed. One difference between an agent and an instrument is that an agent will usually be a person and the instrument usually won’t be. Grammatically, agents can ONLY be used with passive verbs (not with active ones). In Capitulum Sextum we have seen many examples of an agent with a passive verb:
Saccus quem Syrus portat nōn tam magnus est quam saccus quī ā Lēandrõ portātur. The sack which Syrus is carrying is not as big as the sack which is being carried by Leander.
Dominus ā servō malō timētur. The master is feared by the ‘bad’ enslaved man.
It is now time to complete Capitulum Sextum. Julius is about to return home, where he will be greeted ab Aemiliā līberīsque laetīs. And Medus is about to arrive at the home of Lydia. READ lines 84-95.
Satis est. See you shortly.