Text (Marcus and his friends remain at the inn. The bulldog is rather friendly to his "compatriots" and Demaratus talks about the time when his country wasn't occupied by the Romans:) "Multa saecula Athenae, patria mea, liberae erant. Nos Graeci liberi eramus cuncti, dum in nostris oppidis liberi habitabamus. Interdum tyranni in nonnullis oppidis regnare studebant, sed Graeci vitam liberam valde amabant et tyrannos ut adversarios fugare solebant." Tum Epicharmus: "Pisistratus quidem multos annos imperium Athenarum obtinebat, quod bonus et iustus erat..." Sed Marcus: "Dionysius autem Syracusanis totidem fere annos imperabat, quamquam neque bonus neque iustus, sed iniustus et malus erat: Populum enim iniuriis terrebat, multos viros integros necabat. Dionysio quidem magnum regnum, magnae divitiae erant; neque tamen beatus, immo vero miser erat, quod semper insidias timebat." --------------------------- Reading vocabulary you needn't learn: Athenae (plural): Athens Athenarum: (here:) over Athens Syracusani: (plural) citizens of the antique city Syracus on Sicily totidem: as many Vocabulary
| habitare | to live | F: habiter |
| regnare | to reign, rule | reign |
| obtinere | to hold, keep, maintain; obtain | obtain |
| insidiae, -arum (pl) | treachery, ambushes, conspiracy | insidious |
| annus, -i | year | annals; Anno Domini |
| tyrannus, -i | tyrant | tyrant |
imperium, -i |
sovereignity, realm, command |
imperialism |
| regnum, -i | kingdom, rule | reign; I: regno |
| saeculum, -i | century, era | F: siècle |
| beatus, -a, -um | happy | beatification |
| iniustus, -a, -um | unjust |
L11: iustus; injustice; F: injuste
|
| malus, -a, -um | bad, wicked, evil |
malevolent; F: mal
|
| nonnulli, -ae, -a (pl) | some, several | "not-zero" |
| dum | as long as, while | EO: dum |
| fere | about, almost; generally | |
| quamquam | although | EO: kvankam |
Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it. Grammar This lesson's topic is the simple past. In Latin, the simple past is formed by inserting -ba- between verb stem (e. g. voca-) and personal ending (e. g. -mus). The result would be "voca-ba-mus" in this case. The other forms are formed accordingly, except that the a of -ba- and the personal ending -o (for 1st person singular) should be combined to be "-bo". If you have paid attention in the last lesson, you know that the ending -bo is already claimed by the 1st person singular future. So the Romans decided to use -m as the personal ending for the 1st person singular in the simple past. So the correct forms are: voca-ba-m, voca-ba-s, voca-ba-t, voca-ba-mus, voca-ba-tis, voca-ba-nt. The verb "esse"(to be) uses its future stem er- here too, the only difference to its future forms is that the vowel between er- and the personal ending is not i (as in -bi-)but a (as in -ba-) in this case. The forms of "esse" in the simple past tense are: eram, eras, erat, eramus, eratis, erant. (compare to the future forms: ero, eris, erit, erimus, eritis, erunt) Notice that here, too, the normal o became m for the 1st person singular. One more annotation: as you might have noticed already, the part of the sentence that answers the question "when?" is usually in the accusative. For example, see the sentences "Multa saecula Romani cum Germanis pugnabant." or "Nonnullos annos cum amicis in Sicilia habitabimus." Exercise Transform the words according to the scheme: 1. maneo -> past -> 2nd person -> plural -> future -> 3rd person -> singular -> present -> imperative 2. sum -> past -> plural -> 3rd person -> future -> singular -> 2nd person -> present
Information on Pisistratus Information on Dionysius
Exercise answers: 1: maneo, manebam, manebas, manebatis, manebitis, manebunt, manebit, manet, mane! 2: sum, eram, eramus, erant, erunt, erit, eris, es