Latin course for the Virtual School of Languages

Lesson 23: How to become a slave

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Text
(Later Cornelia has the opportunity to ask Delia something; 
however the girl can't speak much Latin yet:)
C: Cur tam maesta es, Delia?
D: Delia non vocor.
C: Quomodo nominaris?
D: Melissa dicor; in parvo oppido Asiae habitavi: Assus vocatur.
		Inde cum necessariis Pyrrham navigabam - sed subito piratae
		videntur; temptamur, captamur, in servitium acerbum ducimur
		... (Melissa tacet et Cornelia lacrimas in oculis eius videt.)
C: Certe piratae vos Delum transportaverunt, ubi multi servi
		veneunt. Itaque hic Delia diceris.
D: Sic est; nunc serva Atiae sum. Ea domina dura est, servas
		servosque urgere et coercere et caedere solet.
C: Num saepe a domina caedimini?
D: Saepe caedimur, saepe ab ea torquemur.
C: Et cur vos coerceri et caedi iubet?
D: Quod cuncti Romani duri sunt. Gaudent se a servis timeri...
C: Erras, Melissa; non cuncti duri sunt. Fortasse mox bonam 
		dominam habebis!
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Reading vocabulary you needn't learn:
ven-ire (ven-eo): "to go to sale", to be sold
serva: female slave, servant


Vocabulary

urgêre

to drive, urge

Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it.	

Grammar
So far, we have always dealt with active verbs. In this lesson, you encountered
your first passive verbs. Fortunately, making a verb passive in Latin is easier
than making it passive in English or most romance languages: You just have to
exchange the known personal endings -o, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt, which you
learnt in lesson 8, with the following ones: -or, -ris, -tur, -mur, -mini, -ntur. The
extra vowels in the Consonantic Conjugation are the same as those for the
active endings, except for the 2nd person singular, where it is -e- and not -i-. 
The infinitive ending is -ri (instead of -re) for the A- and E-Conjugation and just 
-i for the Consonantic Conjugation. Let's have some examples of tranforming
active forms to passive ones:

voca-re / voca-ri (to call - to be called)
voc-o / voc-or  (I call - I am called)
voca-s / voca-ris (You call - You are called)
voca-t / voca-tur (He/she/it calls - He/she/it is called)
voca-mus / voca-mur (We call - We are called)
voca-tis / voca-mini (You call - You are called)
voca-nt / voca-ntur (They call - They are called)

duc-e-re / duc-i (to lead - to be led)
duc-o / duc-or (I lead - I am led)
duc-i-s / duc-e-ris (You lead - You are led)
duc-i-t / duc-i-tur (He/she/it leads - He/she/it is led)
duc-i-mus / duc-i-mur (We lead - We are led)
duc-i-tis / duc-i-mini (You lead - You are led)
duc-u-nt / duc-u-ntur (They lead - They are led)

Easy, isn't it? Another new thing, which you might not have noticed, is the use
of the Accusative in order to show a direction, as in the sentence "Romam eo".
In this case, the Accusative of "Roma" does not mean that Rome is an object,
but that the speaker goes in that direction. When translating this peculiarity,
you have to say "I go to Rome".
The Accusative of direction is also used when there is already a preposition and
it can make a vital difference: "In Colosseo vado" has to be translated as "I walk
within the Colosseum" or "I walk around in the Colosseum", whereas 
"In Colosseum vado" has to be translated as "I walk into the Colosseum".


Exercise
Find the corresponding passive form of each verb: libero, frangunt, caedimus,
delet, vides, adiuvatis, violare, terreo, ducere

Information: Slaves II
How to become a slave? There were several ways:
1. to become a war prisoner and be sold as "booty";
2. the child of a female slave is always a slave, no matter whether the father is
    free or a slave;
3. many poor free people had to sell themselves or their children and 
    "voluntarily" make themselves slaves;
4. a lot of people became slaves because of piracy or kidnapping. 
These people were sold like goods on slave markets; some cities, like the
Greek island Delos, specialised in slave trade. In Rome, slaves were mainly
traded in front of the temple of Castor and Pollux and on the forum.

In the antiquity, slaves and free people were seen as very different humans,
so different, that there were different laws for them. The master may sell
his slave anytime, he may beat him and punish him and the law won't
intervene. However, he mustn't kill him, unless the slave has committed a
lethal crime. Courts weren't allowed to torture free people but they were
allowed to torture slaves e. g. so that they would confess the crimes their 
master committed. Their master, a criminal but free citizen, mustn't be 
tortured. 



Exercise answers:
liberor, franguntur, caedimur, deletur, videris, adiuvamini, violari, terreor, duci.