Sacrifices: The Romans usually sacrificed cattle, sheep or pigs. The gods received
male animals as sacrifice, the goddesses female animals. The sacrifices were made
by a priest, who was supported by servants, mostly slaves.Text Postea amici cum Marco in foro Romano magnam pompam exspectant. In Via Sacra stant, aedificia clara fori spectant, multa rogant. Iam pompa praeclara ex templo Vestae appropinquat, et Marcus amicis de deis et templis et sacrificiis Romanorum narrat. Epicharmus autem: "Romani", inquit, "deos deasque magna cum diligentia curant, in aris deorum multas hostias immolant. Certe Romani iram deorum dearumque non minus timent quam servi iram dominorum." --------------------------- Reading vocabulary you needn't learn: pompa: procession Via Sacra: the Holy Street (from the Forum to the Capitolium) hostias: (animal) sacrifice Vocabulary
| curare | to care for; worship; nurse, cure | cure |
| ara | altar | |
| diligentia | care, diligence, conscientousness | diligence |
| ira | anger, rage | irate,
ire |
| via | road, street | via |
| dominus | mister, master | dominant |
servus |
slave |
serve, servant |
| sacrificium | sacrifice | sacrifice |
| praeclarus | shining, wonderful, excellent | L7:
clarus |
| minus | less | minus |
| postea | afterwards, later | |
| cum | with, together with | magna
cum laude |
| de | from, about | F: de |
| ex (also: e) | from, out of..., since | deus ex machina, ex-patriate |
| in | in, on | in |
| magna cum diligentia | with a lot of diligence | |
| non minus... quam | not less... than |
Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it. Grammar In this lesson, you'll learn the last Latin case: the Ablative. The Ablative case doesn't exist in any modern European language I know. It is often used after prepositions (like cum, de, ex, in) but it can stand alone, too (see next lesson). Fortunately, the Ablative is very often like the Dative. In the declensions you know, the only exception to that is the feminine Ablative singular, which is -a, not -ae like the Dative. So here's the complete declension scheme for the O- and A-Declensions:
Male O-Declension |
Neuter O-Declension | A-Declension (feminine) | |
| Singular | |||
| Nominative | amic-us | templ-um | femin-a |
| Genitive | amic-i | templ-i | femin-ae |
| Dative | amic-o | templ-o | femin-ae |
| Accusative | amic-um | templ-um | femin-am |
| Ablative | amic-o | templ-o | femin-a |
| Plural | |||
| Nominative | amic-i | templ-a | femin-ae |
| Genitive | amic-orum | templ-orum | femin-arum |
| Dative | amic-is | templ-is | femin-is |
| Accusative | amic-os | templ-a | femin-as |
| Ablative | amic-is | templ-is | femin-is |
I want you to pay attention to several things in this table, which will make
learning easier for you:
1) Notice the neuter declension: Nominative and Accusative are always the same;
Nominative plural ends in -a. This is a universal rule.
2) Notice that the male and neuter forms are practically the same, which is why
we say that both of them belong to the O-Declension. The only difference is
that little habit of all neuter words, which is mentioned above.
3) Notice that the Accusative singular ends in -m (-um or -am), this is a very
characteristic sign of Accusative singular in all declensions.
4) Notice that the Dative and Ablative plurals of all declensions you know end in
-is, so you can easily recognise words in those cases.
You now know everything there is to know about the A- and O-Declensions.
You might want to print this card, which shows you all the case endings together.
With this card, you can revise the declensions everywhere you go.
There's one more thing that I should mention at this point: in the lesson text, you
will find the sentence "multa rogant". In this sentence, "multa" is neuter Accusative
plural and it answers the question "what do they ask?". So it should be translated
as "a lot" or "much", even without a noun that accompanies it.
Examples:
"Amici multa rogant." = "The friends ask a lot (of questions)."
"Marcus cuncta narrare properat." = "Marcus hurries to tell everything."
"Et multa monstrat." = "He (Marcus) shows many things, too."
"Turba cuncta videt." = "The crowd sees everything."
Exercise
Transform the nouns according to the instructions (like the exercise in lesson 7).
servus: Ablative -> Plural -> Dative -> Singular -> Genitive -> Accusative
-> Plural -> Nominative -> Singular
forum: Accusative -> Plural -> Ablative -> Genitive -> Singular -> Ablative
-> Dative -> Nominative
Information: Processions and sacrifices Processions (pompae) and sacrifices (sacrificia) played an important role in the life of the Romans. For example, the chariot races in the Circus Maximus always started with a procession. These processions started at the Capitolium, went through several boroughs and ended on the race track of the Circus Maximus, in front of the VIP box. There were also processions for other events, for example when victorious generals returned, or when a politician wanted to impress the public. Here's an image of a triumph procession:
Exercise answers: servus, servo, servis, servis, servo, servi, servum, servos, servi, servus forum, forum, fora, foris, fororum, fori, foro, foro, forum