The participles which you learned in the last chapter were employed by the Romans in two very common constructions introduced below, the “ablative absolute” and the “passive periphrastic.”
The ablative absolute is a type of participial phrase generally consisting of a noun (or pronoun) and a modifying participle in the ablative case; somewhat loosely connected to the rest of the sentence (hence the term, from absolūtum, loosened from, separated) and usually set off by commas, the phrase describes some general circumstances under which the action of the sentence occurs.
Rōmā vīsā, virī gaudēbant, Rome having been seen, the men rejoiced.
As typified by this example, the ablative absolute always is self-contained, i.e., the participle and the noun it modifies are both in the same phrase and the noun of the ablative absolute phrase is not referred to at all in the attached clause. In other types of participial phrases (such as those seen in Ch. 23), the participles modify some noun or pronoun in the attached clause; compare the following example, which has an ordinary participial phrase, with the previous example:
Rōmam videntēs, virī gaudēbant, seeing Rome, the men rejoiced.
In this instance the participle modifies the subject of the main clause, and so an ablative absolute cannot be used.
Like other participial phrases, the ablative absolute can be translated quite literally, as in Rōmā vīsā, (with) Rome having been seen. Often, however, it is better style to transform the phrase to a clause, converting the participle to a verb in the appropriate tense, treating the ablative noun as its subject, and supplying the most logical conjunction (usually “when,” “since,” or “although”), as explained in the last chapter; thus, a more idiomatic translation of Rōmā vīsā, virī gaudēbant would be when Rome was (had been) seen, the men rejoiced. Compare the following additional examples:
Hīs rēbus audītīs, coepit timēre.
These things having been heard, he began to be afraid.
Or in much better English:
When (since, after, etc., depending on the context) these things had been heard, he began …
When (since, after, etc.) he had heard these things, he began …
In the ablative absolute, the ablative noun/pronoun regularly comes first, the participle last; when the phrase contains additional words, like the direct object of the participle in the preceding example, they are usually enclosed within the noun/participle “frame.”
As seen in the following examples, even two nouns, or a noun and an adjective, can function as an ablative absolute, with the present participle of sum (lacking in classical Latin) to be understood:
Caesare incertō, bellum timēbāmus.
Since Caesar was uncertain (with Caesar uncertain), we were afraid of war.
Despite its horrendous name, the passive periphrastic conjugation is simply a passive verb form consisting of the gerundive (i.e., the future passive participle) along with a form of sum.1 The gerundive, as a predicate adjective, agrees with the subject of sum in gender, number, and case, e.g., haec fēmina laudanda est, this woman is to be praised.
The gerundive often conveys an idea of necessary, obligatory, or appropriate action, rather than simple futurity, and this is the case in the passive periphrastic construction. Hence id faciendum est means not simply this is about to be done, but rather this has to be done; hic liber cum cūrā legendus erit, this book will have to be (must be) read with care.
Just as Latin uses the auxiliary sum in its various tenses in this construction, English commonly uses the expressions “has to be,” “had to be,” “will have to be”; “should,” “ought,” and “must” are other auxiliaries commonly used in translating the passive periphrastic (cp. dēbeō, which, as you have already learned, is also used to indicate obligatory action).
Instead of the ablative of agent, the dative of agent is used with the passive periphrastic. A literal translation of the passive periphrastic + dative of agent generally sounds awkward, and so it is often best to transform such a clause into an active construction; consider the following examples:
Hic liber mihi cum cūrā legendus erit, this book will have to be read by me with care or (better) I will have to (ought to, must, should) read this book with care.
Illa fēmina omnibus laudanda est, that woman should be praised by all or everyone should praise that woman.
Pāx ducibus nostrīs petenda erat, peace had to be sought by our leaders or our leaders had to seek peace.
Carth
gō, Carthginis, f., Carthage (a city in North Africa)
fbula, -ae, f., story, tale; play (fable, fabulous, confabulate; cp. fāma)
impertor, imperāt
ris, m., general, commander-in-chief, emperor (cp. parō, imperium, imperō, Ch. 35)
impérium, -iī, n., power to command, supreme power, authority, command, control (imperial, imperialism, imperious, empire)
perfúgium, -iī, n., refuge, shelter (cp. fugiō)
sérvus, -ī, m., and sérva, -ae, f., slave (serf, servant, servile, service; cp. serviō, Ch. 35)
sōlcium, -iī, n., comfort, relief (solace, consolation, inconsolable)
vúlnus, vúlneris, n., wound (vulnerable, invulnerable)
re- or red-, prefix, again, back (recede, receive, remit, repeat, repel, revert)
ut, conj. + indic., as, just as, when
pósteā, adv., afterwards (cp. post)
accípiō, -cípere, -c
pī, -céptum, to take (to one’s self), receive, accept (cp. capiō)
excípiō, -cípere, -cpī, -céptum, to take out, except; take, receive, capture (exception, exceptionable)
recīpiō, -cīpere, -cpī, -céptum, to take back, regain; admit, receive (recipe, Rx, receipt, recipient, receptacle, reception)
péllō, péllere, pépulī, púlsum, to strike, push; drive out, banish (compel, compulsion, compulsory, dispel, expel, impel, propel, repel, pelt, pulsate, pulse)
expéllō, -péllere, -pulī, -púlsum, to drive out, expel, banish (expulsion)
nrrō (1), to tell, report, narrate (narration, narrative, narrator)
quaérō, quaérere, quaes
vī, quaestum, to seek, look for, strive for; ask, inquire, inquire into (acquire, conquer, exquisite, inquire, inquest, inquisition, perquisite, query, quest, question, request, require)
rdeō, rīdre, rsī, rsum, to laugh, laugh at (deride, derisive, ridicule, ridiculous, risibilities; cf. rīdiculus, Ch. 30, subrīdeō, Ch. 35)
Igne vīsō, omnēs virī et uxōrēs territae sunt et ultrā urbem ad lītus īnsulae nāvigāvērunt, ubi perfugium inventum est.
Populō metū oppressō, iste imperātor nōbīs ex urbe pellendus est.
Ōrātor, signō ā sacerdōte datō, eō diē revēnit et nunc tōtus populus Latīnus gaudet.
Gēns Rōmāna versūs illīus scrīptōris magnā laude quondam recēpit.
Laudēs atque dōna huius modī ab ōrātōribus dēsīderābantur.
Imperiō acceptō, dux magnanimus fidem suam reī pūblicae ostendit.
Aliquis eōs quīnque equōs ex igne ēripī posteā iusserat.
Cernisne omnia quae tibi scienda sunt?
Ille, ab arce urbis reveniēns, ab istīs hominibus premī coepit.
Cupiō tangere manum illīus militis quī metū caruit atque gravia scelera contrā rem pūblicam oppressit.
Iste dux prōtinus expulsus est, ut imperium excipiēbat.
Illae servae, autem, perfugium sōlāciumque ab amīcīs quaerēbant.
Cornū audītō, ille miles, incertus cōnsiliī, cōpiās ad mediam īnsulam vertit.
When the common danger had been averted, two of our sons and all our daughters came back from Asia.
Our hopes must not be destroyed by those three evil men.
Since the people of all nations are seeking peace, all leaders must conquer the passion for (= of) power. (Use an ablative absolute and a passive periphrastic.)
The leader, having been driven out by both the free men and the slaves, could not regain his command.
Carthāgō dēlenda est. (Cato.)
Asiā victā, dux Rōmānus fēlix multōs servōs in Italiam misit. (Pliny the Elder.)
Omnibus ferrō mīlitis perterritīs, quisque sē servāre cupiēbat. (Caesar.)
Quidquid dīcendum est, līberē dīcam. (Cicero.—liberē, adv. of liber.)
Haec omnia vulnera bellī tibi nunc sānanda sunt. (Cicero.—sānāre, to heal.)
Nec tumultum nec hastam mīlitis nec mortem violentam timēbō, Augustō terrās tenente. (Horace.—tumultus -ūs, disturbance, civil war.—violentus, -a, -um.—Augustus, -ī.)
Tarquiniō expulsō, nōmen rēgis audīre nōn poterat populus Rōmānus. (Cicero.)
Ad ūtilitātem vītae omnia cōnsilia factaque nōbīs regenda sunt. (Tacitus.—ūtilitās, -tātis, benefit, advantage.)
Homō stultus, “Ō cīvēs, cīvēs,” inquit, “pecūnia ante omnia quaerenda est; virtūs et probitās post pecūniam.”
Pecūniae autem cupiditās fugienda est. Fugienda etiam est cupiditās glōriae; ēripit enim lībertātem. Neque imperia semper petenda sunt neque semper accipienda; etiam dēpōnenda nōn numquam.
(Horace, Epistulae 1.1.53, and Cīcero, Dē Officiīs 1.20.68.—dēpōnō, -ere, to put down, resign.)
Caelō receptus propter virtūtem, Herculēs multōs deōs salūtāvit; sed Plūtō veniente, quī Fortūnae est filius, āvertit oculōs. Tum, causa quaesītā, “Ōdi,” inquit, “illum, quod malīs amīcus est atque omnia corrumpit lucrī causā.”
(Phaedrus, Fābulae 4.12.—Herculēs, -lis.—salūtāre, to greet.—Plūtus, -Ī, god of wealth.—Fortūnae, here personified.—corrumpō, -ere, to corrupt.—lucrum, -Ī, gain, profit.)
Rīdēns saturās meās percurram, et cūr nōn? Quid vetat mē rīdentem dīcere vērum, ut puerīs ēducandīs saepe dant crūstula magistrī? Quaerō rēs gravēs iūcundō lūdō et, nōminibus fictīs, dē multīs culpīs vitiīsque nārrō. Sed quid rīdēs? Mūtātō nōmine, dē tē fābula nārrātur!
(Horace, Sermōnēs 1.1.23-27, 69-70; prose adaptation.—per + currō.—vetāre, to forbid. — puerīs … magistrī, the order of the nouns is varied for effect: indirect obj., direct obj., subject.—crūslulum. -Ī, cookie, pastry.—fingō, -ere, fīnxī, fictum, to form, invent, make up.)
6. tumultuous.—”Violent” is clearly based on vīs.—Originally the Romans, counting March as the first month of the year, named the fifth month Quīntīlis (quīntus, fifth), but Julius Caesar renamed it lūlius (July) because he was born in July. Subsequently, when the Roman Senate gave Octavian, Caesar’s heir, the title of “Augustus” (the august, the revered one), the Senate also changed the name of the sixth month (Sextīlis) to Augustus (August). “Dē Cupiditāte“: Herculean—salute; cp. salvēre, salūs.—plutocrat, a word of Gk. origin.—lucre, lucrative.—”The Satirist”: veto.—crust.—fiction, fictitious, fictive.
Salvēte, amīcae amīcīque! Quid agitis hodiē? Bet you didn’t know that Rx and “recipe” came from the same word (see recipiō in the Vocab.), but now, thanks to Latin, you do! There are countless derivatives from the capiō family, as you have seen already; and from excipere there are some “exceptionally” familiar phrases: exceptiō probat regulam, the exception proves the rule, and exceptīs excipiendīs, with all the necessary exceptions (lit., with things excepted that should be excepted: recognize the gerundive?). And, by analogy with this last, what are the idiomatic and the literal meanings of the very common phrase mūtātīs mūtandīs? (If you can’t figure that out, it’s in your Webster’s, along with hundreds of other Latin phrases, mottoes, words, and abbreviations in current Eng. usage!)
Some other gerundives that pop up in Eng.: agenda (things to be done), corrigenda (things to be corrected, i.e., an errāta list), and even the passive periphrastics dē gustibus nōn disputandum est, sometimes shortened simply to dē gustibus (you can’t argue about taste), and quod erat dēmōnstrandum (which we’ve seen before), abbreviated Q.E.D. at the end of a mathematical proof.
Servus, also in the new Vocab., gives us one of the Pope’s titles, servus servōrum deī (another is pontifex, the name of an ancient Roman priestly office, which may originally have meant bridge-builder—because priests bridge the gap between men and gods?); and quaere is used in Eng. as a note to request further information. Nunc est satis: valēte atque semper rīdēte!