SLLC Preliminary key terms

A Latin participial phrase made up of a noun or pronoun plus a participle, both in the ablative case, that stands apart from the main clause and states the circumstances under which the main action happens.

The Latin case that most often marks separation, means or instrument, agent with a passive verb, and accompaniment; it also supplies the noun in absolute phrases and in many prepositional expressions.

The Latin case used for the direct object of a verb, for the object of many prepositions, and for the subject of an infinitive in indirect statement; it also expresses extent of space and duration of time.

The Latin case marking the indirect object, the person interested in or benefited by an action, and the possessor with esse; it also follows a set of verbs and adjectives that take no direct object.

The Latin case expressing possession, the whole of which a part is taken, and the quality or description of a noun; it is also the case governed by certain verbs and adjectives of remembering, forgetting, and filling.

A genitive naming the whole from which a part is drawn, used after words for a portion, number, or quantity such as pars, plus, satis, or a comparative or superlative, as in pars militum, part of the soldiers.

A reported clause in Latin with its verb in the infinitive and its subject in the accusative, introduced by a verb of saying, thinking, or perceiving; English usually renders it with a that-clause.

The non-finite verb form that names an action without marking person or number; Latin uses present, perfect, and future infinitives, and the tense of the infinitive shows the time of the action relative to the main verb.

A verbal adjective that shares in the tense and voice of a verb while declining like an adjective; Latin has present active, perfect passive, and future active participles, each with its own characteristic ending.

The Latin verb mood used for commands, wishes, purpose and result clauses, indirect questions, and conditions that are contrary to fact; its forms are learned from the present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect stems.

A subordinate clause expressing the aim of an action, introduced by ut or ne with the subjunctive; English renders it with so that, in order to, or lest, and the negative is always ne rather than non.

A subordinate clause stating the consequence of an action, introduced by ut or ut non with the subjunctive and regularly signalled in the main clause by words such as tam, ita, sic, tantus, or tot.

A reported question whose verb stands in the subjunctive after a verb of asking, knowing, or wondering; the introductory word is an interrogative such as quis, quid, cur, ubi, or num.

A future passive participle declining like an adjective that expresses obligation or fitness, as in delenda est Carthago; with a transitive verb it may also express purpose after prepositions.

The verb form in which the subject receives the action; Latin builds it with personal endings for the present system and with the perfect participle plus forms of esse for the perfect system, with the agent in the ablative.

A Latin verb with passive form but active meaning, such as loqui, to speak, or sequi, to follow; it supplies participles that are active in sense, and its perfect participle may still be used passively in the ablative absolute.

A verb used only in the third person singular with no expressed subject, such as licet, it is allowed, or placet, it pleases; the person affected stands in the dative case.

An uninflected word governing a noun in the accusative or ablative case to express place, time, manner, or cause; in and sub take the accusative for motion and the ablative for rest.

The four forms of a Latin verb from which all its other forms are built: present indicative first person singular, present infinitive, perfect indicative first person singular, and perfect passive participle, as in amo, amare, amavi, amatus.

One of the five families of Latin nouns and adjectives, each with its own set of case endings; knowing a noun's genitive singular identifies its declension, as puella, puellae shows the first.

One of the four regular families of Latin verbs, distinguished by the vowel before the infinitive ending, as amare, monere, regere, audire; a fifth group contains the verbs of the esse type.

A subordinate clause introduced by cum, taking the indicative when it simply marks time and the subjunctive when it expresses circumstance, cause, or concession, often with the sense of since or although.

A verbal noun declining only in the singular oblique cases, expressing the idea of an action in cases other than the nominative, as ars scribendi, the art of writing.

A verbal noun with only two forms in common use: the accusative in -um after verbs of motion to express purpose, and the ablative in -u after certain adjectives such as facilis or mirabilis.

A subordinate clause after a verb of fearing, introduced by ne when one fears that something will happen and by ne non or ut when one fears that it will not, with the verb in the subjunctive.

A reported order or request whose verb stands in the subjunctive after a verb of ordering or asking, introduced by ut for a positive command and ne for a prohibition.

The rule by which a subjunctive verb in a subordinate clause takes a primary tense when the main verb is present or future and a secondary tense when the main verb is past.

Literally the public thing or commonwealth; the standard Latin phrase for the Roman state, used of the Republic and, by extension, of public affairs and political life in any period.

The supreme power of command held by kings, consuls, praetors, and dictators, including military authority and the right to enforce obedience; it was limited within the city and granted for a fixed term.

One of the two annually elected chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, each holding imperium, presiding over the senate and assemblies, and commanding armies; the office gave its name to the year.

The fixed ladder of public offices a Roman aristocrat was expected to climb in order: quaestor, aedile or tribune, praetor, and finally consul, with minimum ages set by law from the second century BCE.

An annually elected official, sacred and inviolable in person, who could veto acts of magistrates and assemblies and summon the plebeian council; the office was created in the early Republic to protect plebeians.

The two broad social orders of early Rome: patricians, the hereditary aristocratic families who alone first held public office, and plebeians, the rest of the citizen body, who won political equality over several centuries.

The oldest living male of a Roman household, holding legal authority over its members, slaves, and property, including the power to arrange marriages and to punish or disown those in his power.

The long-standing relationship in which a client depended on a patron for legal help, money, and protection in return for political support, daily attendance, and services; it shaped Roman social and electoral life.

Three wars between Rome and Carthage: the first (264-241 BCE) over Sicily, the second (218-201 BCE) with Hannibal's invasion of Italy, and the third (149-146 BCE) ending in Carthage's destruction.

Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BCE), author of the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, the epic that traces Rome's origins to Aeneas and became a school text almost immediately.

Vergil's twelve-book epic in dactylic hexameter telling of Aeneas's flight from Troy, his wanderings, and his war in Italy to found the line that would produce Rome; it was left unfinished at the poet's death.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), orator, consul in 63 BCE, and author of speeches such as the Catilinarians and the Philippics, plus rhetorical works, philosophical dialogues, and a large body of letters.

Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE), general and author of the Commentaries on the Gallic and civil wars, written in clear third-person prose; dictator for life, he was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 BCE.

The metre of Latin epic and didactic poetry, with six feet of dactyls or spondees and a regular caesura; the fifth foot is almost always a dactyl, and the sixth a spondee or trochee.

The Roman political ideal of freedom from arbitrary rule, associated with the laws, the senate, and the rights of the citizen; it was claimed by rival factions and could mean different things in the late Republic.