MATSEC SEC Latin flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

First declension ending

Nouns in -a, genitive -ae; mostly feminine, but occupations such as agricola (farmer), nauta (sailor) and poeta (poet) are masculine and take masculine agreement.

Third declension genitive

The genitive singular in -is gives the stem for all other cases, e.g. rēx, rēgis (stem rēg-); the nominative alone cannot show the stem.

Ablative of means

The ablative without a preposition expresses the instrument or means by which something is done, e.g. gladiō occīsus est, 'he was killed with a sword'.

Ablative of agent

With a personal agent in a passive sentence, Latin uses ā or ab plus the ablative, e.g. ā Caesare victus est, 'he was defeated by Caesar'.

Dative of possession

With esse, the dative names the possessor rather than the thing possessed, e.g. mihi liber est, 'I have a book' (literally 'a book is to me').

Genitive of value

Used with verbs of valuing to state worth, e.g. magnī aestimō, 'I value greatly'; tanti, quanti and pluris appear in this construction.

Accusative of duration

Length of time is expressed by the accusative without a preposition, e.g. decem annōs regnāvit, 'he reigned for ten years'.

Ablative of time when

The precise point in time is expressed by the ablative without a preposition, e.g. eōdem diē, 'on the same day'.

Principal parts

Four forms giving present indicative, present infinitive, perfect indicative and perfect passive participle, from which all tense stems can be built, e.g. capiō, capere, cēpī, captum.

Present passive infinitive

Formed from the present stem plus -rī in the first, second and fourth conjugations (amārī, monērī, audīrī) but by adding -ī to the third conjugation infinitive (capī).

Future perfect active

Built from the perfect stem with -erō, -eris, -erit, -erimus, -eritis, -erint; it expresses an action completed before a future moment.

Sequence of tenses rule

Primary main tenses take present or perfect subjunctive; historic main tenses take imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive. The perfect subjunctive may stand in historic sequence for immediate result.

Purpose clause

Introduced by ut (negative nē) with the subjunctive, answering 'in order that'; a relative pronoun with subjunctive (quī + subj.) can replace ut.

Result clause

Signalled in the main clause by tam, ita, tantus or adeō, and takes ut (positive) or ut nōn (negative) with the subjunctive; never nē.

Indirect command

Verbs of ordering or asking (imperō, rogō, persuādeō) take ut/nē plus subjunctive; imperō and persuādeō take a dative of the person commanded.

Indirect question

An interrogative word (quis, quid, cūr, ubi, num) followed by a subjunctive verb, e.g. rogāvit ubi essēs, 'he asked where you were'.

Cum circumstantial clause

Cum with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive means 'when, since, although'; cum with the present or perfect indicative is purely temporal.

Fearing clause

After timeō or vereor, nē introduces what is feared may happen and ut introduces what is feared may not happen; both take the subjunctive.

Ablative absolute

A noun or pronoun with a participle or adjective in the ablative, grammatically detached from the sentence, e.g. hīs rēbus cognitīs, 'when these things had been learned'.

Gerundive of obligation

The future passive participle in -ndus with esse expresses necessity or duty, and its agent stands in the dative, e.g. Carthāgō dēlenda est, 'Carthage must be destroyed'.

Deponent verbs

Verbs passive in form but active in meaning, such as hortor, sequor, loquor and proficīscor; they still have active participles, gerunds and supines.

Semi-deponent verbs

Verbs with active forms in the present system but passive forms with active meaning in the perfect system, e.g. audeō, audēre, ausus sum, 'I dare'.

Indirect statement accusative

After verbs of saying or thinking, the subject of the reported clause goes into the accusative and the verb into the infinitive, e.g. dīxit mīlitēs venīre.

Dactylic hexameter

Six feet of dactyls (-uu) or spondees (--), with a strong caesura usually in the third foot; the epic metre of Vergil and Ovid.

Elegiac couplet

A dactylic hexameter followed by a pentameter, used by Catullus, Propertius and Ovid in love elegy and by Ovid in the Fasti.

Hendecasyllables

An eleven-syllable line used by Catullus in his short lyric and invective poems, such as the sparrow poems; the metre signals a lighter, personal tone.

Roman comedy metres

Plautus and Terence write in iambic senarii for spoken passages and trochaic septenarii or iambic septenarii for passages accompanied by the tibia.

Vergil Aeneid

Epic in twelve books on Aeneas's journey from Troy to Italy, linking Roman destiny to the fall of Troy; the set text passage should be read for theme and characterisation.

Catullus love poetry

Catullus's poems on Lesbia range from tender lyric to bitter invective; identify address, hyperbole and learned allusion, and note the elegiac or hendecasyllabic metre.

Ovid Metamorphoses

A hexameter poem of fifteen books narrating transformations from creation to Julius Caesar; set passages are read for narrative technique and rhetorical vividness.

Cicero's prose style

Cicero uses periodic sentences, tricolon crescendo, rhetorical questions and asyndeton; in speeches, identify exordium, narratio, argumentatio and peroratio.

Historiography style

Sallust and Livy favour speeches in indirect discourse, archaisms and rapid narrative; Sallust's brevity and Livy's fuller, more rhetorical manner are worth contrasting.

Translation technique

Read the whole sentence first, find the main verb, then resolve cases and subordinate clauses; leave ambiguous words until the structure is clear, and check tense and voice in context.