MATSEC AM Latin key terms

A Latin participial construction in which a noun and a participle stand in the ablative case, grammatically separate from the main clause, expressing circumstance, cause, or time, e.g. urbe capta, 'the city having been captured'.

The indirect statement construction in which a verb of saying, thinking, or perceiving is followed by a subject in the accusative and a verb in the infinitive, e.g. dicit Caesarem venisse, 'he says that Caesar came'.

Reported speech or thought rather than a direct quotation, expressed in Latin by the accusative and infinitive in primary or secondary sequence, and by the subjunctive in subordinate clauses within it.

The rule governing subjunctive tense in subordinate clauses: a primary main verb (present, future, future perfect) takes present or perfect subjunctive, while a historic main verb takes imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive.

A Latin verb mood used for commands, wishes, purpose, result, indirect questions, and clauses in indirect speech; it has four tenses and is recognised by distinctive endings such as -m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt.

A subordinate clause expressing the aim of an action, introduced by ut (negative ne) with a subjunctive verb, e.g. venit ut regem videret, 'he came to see the king'.

A subordinate clause showing the consequence of an action, introduced by ut (negative ut non) with a subjunctive verb, often signalled in the main clause by words such as tam, ita, or tantus.

A subordinate clause introduced by cum. With the indicative it marks time ('when'); with the subjunctive it may express circumstance, cause, concession, or time, often rendered 'since' or 'although'.

A question reported rather than asked directly, expressed in Latin by a verb of asking or knowing plus an interrogative word and a subjunctive verb, e.g. rogavit quid faceret, 'he asked what he was doing'.

A verbal adjective. Latin has present, perfect, and future participles; the perfect passive participle is common in ablative absolute and passive constructions, while the future participle often expresses purpose.

A passive verbal adjective in -ndus, -nda, -ndum expressing obligation or fitness, as in Carthago delenda est, 'Carthage must be destroyed'; it also appears in gerundive-of-purpose constructions with ad or causa.

A verbal noun in -ndi, -ndo, -ndum, -ndo, used in oblique cases to express the doing of an action, e.g. ars scribendi, 'the art of writing'.

A defective verbal noun with only accusative (-um) and ablative (-u) forms. The accusative follows verbs of motion to express purpose, e.g. eo dormitum, 'I go to sleep'.

The non-finite verb form expressing the verbal idea without person or number. Latin has present, perfect, and future infinitives, active and passive, and they are central to indirect statement.

A verb passive in form but active in meaning, such as loqui ('to speak'), hortari ('to encourage'), and sequi ('to follow'). Its participles may still be passive in sense.

A verb active in form in the present system but passive in form with active meaning in the perfect system, e.g. audere, audeo, ausus sum ('to dare').

The Latin case with the widest range of uses, including separation, means or instrument, manner, comparison, time when, and place from which; it also forms the base of the ablative absolute.

The case of possession and description, also used with certain verbs and adjectives and as the object of verbs of remembering and forgetting; partitive genitive marks a whole of which a part is named.

The case of the indirect object, also used with many verbs meaning help, please, trust, and obey, and in possessive constructions with esse, e.g. liber est mihi, 'I have a book'.

The use of a present-tense verb in a narrative about past events to make the action vivid; in Latin it counts as primary sequence for subordinate subjunctives.

A verb used only in the third person singular, often with an infinitive or a dative of person, e.g. licet ('it is allowed'), oportet ('it is necessary'), and placet ('it pleases').

A prose manner, associated with Cicero, in which clauses are suspended and held back until the main verb closes the sentence, producing a balanced, rhythmical unit called a period.

The deliberate separation of words that belong together, often an adjective from its noun, e.g. magnum virum, creating emphasis or suspense; a hallmark of Latin verse and periodic prose.

A rhetorical figure consisting of three parallel clauses or phrases, often with increasing length (tricolon crescens), giving weight and rhythm to a speech or narrative passage.

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or lines, used for emphasis and emotional force, e.g. repeated nunc or ille in speeches and verse.

The omission of conjunctions between words or clauses, producing a rapid, staccato effect, as in veni, vidi, vici; the opposite of polysyndeton.

The deliberate repetition of conjunctions, especially -que and et, to slow the pace and give each item separate weight, often used in epic lists and rhetorical amplification.

A rhetorical arrangement in which the order of elements in one phrase is reversed in the next, ABBA, e.g. arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris; common in verse and in balanced prose.

A hexameter in which two adjectives and two nouns interlock in the pattern adjective A, adjective B, verb, noun A, noun B, much favoured by Virgil and imitated by later epic poets.

The running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse line into the next without a pause, used to vary rhythm and create momentum or surprise in hexameter and elegiac verse.

A word-break within a metrical foot, especially the strong break in the third or fourth foot of a hexameter, which shapes the line's rhythm and phrasing.

The dactylic line of six feet used in epic and didactic verse, e.g. the Aeneid and Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, with dactyls and spondees and a fixed cadence in the final two feet.

A pair of lines consisting of a dactylic hexameter followed by a pentameter, the metre of elegy, epigram, and Ovid's love poetry and exile poetry.

A genre written in elegiac couplets; in Latin it covers love poetry (Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid) and, in Ovid's exile poems, lament and petition rather than mourning for the dead.

A poet's polite refusal to write a particular kind of poetry, typically grand epic or panegyric, often claiming inadequacy or a preference for lighter genres; a common topos in Augustan verse.

The system by which wealthy Romans supported poets and writers, notably Maecenas' support of Virgil and Horace; poems often address patrons, negotiate obligations, and praise or flatter them.

A speech or poem of formal praise, often addressed to an emperor or patron; in Latin literature it ranges from Pliny's Panegyricus to passages of epic and consolatory verse.

Abusive or censorious writing attacking a named individual, a major mode of Roman satire and of Ciceronian oratory, as in the speeches against Catiline and Antony.

A genre of censorious or mocking verse and prose, represented by Horace, Persius, and Juvenal in verse and by Petronius and Seneca in prose; it comments on vice and folly rather than attacking individuals only.

The assumed voice or mask through which a poet or narrator speaks, distinct from the author's own views; central to reading Horace's satires and Ovid's love elegy.

A historical or legendary example used to illustrate a moral or rhetorical point, common in Cicero's speeches and in Livy's narrative, often drawn from early Roman history.

The art of persuasive speech, codified in the three genres (judicial, deliberative, epideictic) and in the parts of a speech; central to Cicero's works and to the training behind Latin prose style.