Chapter 37

RULE 1: The base of the verb eo is -i- (or -e-, seen in eo, eunt and the present subjunctive).

RULE 2: The ablative case shows place from which and time at which.

RULE 3: The accusative case shows motion toward and time during which.

RULE 4: The locative case shows place where and is used primarily with names of cities and islands.

I. Grammar

A. Eo

Except for the variation of the base (-i- or -e-), eo hardly qualifies as an irregular verb. Tell students that the base of the verb is i- with expected endings, except when it appears as e- (eo, eunt and the present subjunctive). Call to their attention the similar variation in the base of the present active participle, iens (euntis). The future endings (-bo, -bis, etc.) will cause little problem, since students are already familiar with this method of constructing the future. You might note to those students who have become annoyed by the frequency of composite conjugation in Latin, such as fero/tuli and facio/fio, that here is a Latin verb which is not composite in its conjugation, though its English counterpart (go/went) is.

B. The Locative Case

Students are often surprised to discover that so late in their study of Latin they have yet to learn all the cases, but the relative infrequency of the locative in Latin merits its displacement to such a late point in the course. The locative amounts to little more than a special usage with certain nouns and city names. The five examples listed by Wheelock on page 178, II (1) and domi (page 179) cover virtually all the examples beginning students will encounter. Students will do as well to memorize these six forms and their translations as to wrestle with the concept of a new case.

C. History of the Locative Case

Indo-European had a separate locative form which was absorbed into the ablative case in Latin, analogized to constructions like the ablative of point (location) in time. To say that “the locative case has the form of the genitive in the singular of the 1st and the 2nd declensions” (Wheelock, page 178, note 2) is valid only for classical Latin and belies the origin of the locative. In Old Latin, the locative ending was -ei (genitive = -i), cf. Greek ekei.

D. The Accusative of Duration of Time

If you introduced this construction with the ablative of time in Chapter 15, this part of the lesson should be review. If not, it’s high time to introduce it. In either case, be sure to stress the use of the accusative without a preposition. Thus far, students have encountered the prepositionless accusative only as the object of a verb form or the subject of an infinitive.

E. “The Devil and the Thirteenth-Century Schoolboy”

In reviewing for Test 3, we will read together in class a passage of Medieval Latin, “The Devil and the Thirteenth-Century Schoolboy” by Caesar of Heisterbach. You will be expected to prepare the passage as homework prior to our in-class translation of the text. All vocabulary is included in the notes attached to the passage or in the vocabulary at the back of Wheelock. Questions about the translation and grammar of this passage will appear as part of Test 3.

Click here for a downloadable version of that text.

II. Vocabulary

• Athenae: The name of the city is plural, cf. Queens, Los Angeles, Fairbanks, Buenos Aires, Grand Rapids, Two Eggs (Texas) and Syracusae (in this vocabulary list).
• domus: A “heteroclite” noun (i.e. of variable declension), domus represents a mixture of two inherited parallel systems, a u-stem and an o-stem declension. It comes from a widely attested Indo-European base, *dem-/dom-/dm-, cf. Greek despotes “master, despot” (originally *dems-pot-es, “house-owner”), dapedon “building site” (originally *dm-pedom, “house-floor”). By Grimm’s Law, Latin d = English t, therefore, domus is cognate with English tame and timber (< *dem-rom “building material”).
• Roma: Ironically, Roma may be an Etruscan name in origin. Many sites in Latium (e.g. mons Palatinus, mons Velius, Subura) are most likely Etruscan names in origin, supporting the legends that the Etruscans controlled early Rome.
• gratus: + dative, “grateful to . . . , pleasing to . . . ”.
• ut + indicative: This construction will come as a surprise to most students who by now are used to ut + subjunctive. Reinforce that the indicative has a “factual” sense and the subjunctive an “unreal” sense; therefore, from the speaker’s perspective ut with the indicative states a truer or more verifiable reason, “he came when he was elected (and I am certain that he was elected)”, than the subjunctive, “he came in order to be elected (but I am not saying whether he was elected or not)”.
• abeo, pereo, redeo: The compounds of eo should be analysed for the way the compound affects the basic meaning of the verb “go.” Only pereo should cause any difficulty: eo with the compound per- in the sense “thoroughly” is a Latin euphemism for “die”—literally “to pass through”, cf. English “pass on/away”—and note that the perfect perii has a present sense, “I am dead.”
• interficio: = inter- (with -ter- in its comparative-contrastive sense, see Chapter 5, s.v. propter) + facio, literally “make apart or different,” i.e. “set apart (from the living), do away with.”
• licet: An impersonal verb, licet is the first such form students have encountered. They should learn to translate it first literally (“it is permitted (for someone to do something”), then in better English (“one may”). As well as taking a dative and an infinitive, licet also takes the subjunctive—without ut!—e.g. licet redeas “you may return.” The latter is an instance of frozen parataxis, i.e. parallel but unequal constructions linked without a subordinating conjunction. In other words, this construction arose as two separate sentences (parataxis), “it is permitted” and “you (may) go,” with the second, the dependent thought, put in the subjunctive to show its subordinate status to the first. Many subjunctive clauses originated in this way but, unlike licet, added a conjunction such as ut to introduce the subordinate clause.
• soleo: This is a semi-deponent verb (see Chapter 34) and takes a complementary infinitive.

III. Sentences

Practice and Review

1. Indirect command.
2. A past contrary-to-fact condition.
3. Ne + quidem—not a jussive subjunctive!
4. A concessive participle, “although having said these things, they will not persuade me . . . ”; indirect command.

6. A causal participle, possibly concessive.
7. A present simple-fact condition: the subjunctive curet is jussive, not in the apodosis of a future less vivid condition.
8. A passive periphrastic inside indirect statement!

11. Note that egredere and sequere are imperatives.

IV. Review for Test 3