Text De antiquis Poenorum et Romanorum inimicitiis et de earum causis poetae Romanorum varia scribunt. Apud Vergilium legimus Aeneam, postquam Troia a Graecis expugnata et deleta est, paucis cum amicis fugam capessivisse ventisque adversis in Africam agitatum esse. Ibi Dido regina ante nonnullos annos Carthaginem aedificaverat; nam et ipsa e patria fugata erat. Ubi Sychaeus, vir eius, dolo et insidiis necatus est, ipsius quoque vita in periculo fuerat; ipsi enim insidiae paratae erant. Itaque Dido cum paucis sociis e patria exierat, per multas terras ignotas erraverat, novam patriam quaesiverat. Vix Aeneas Carthaginem intraverat, cum Dido eum virum pulchrum et probum adamavit; amabat et Aeneas ipse reginam; iamque Dido nuptias cogitabat, cum Aeneas a deis ad officium revocatus est: Clam abiit Italiamque petivit! Id ipsum Dido valde dolebat. --------------------------- Reading vocabulary you needn't learn: Carthaginem: (Accusative of) Carthago ad-amare: to grow fond of nuptiae, -arum: marriage; nuptias cogitare: to consider marriage revocare (ad): here: to remind (of) Vocabulary
| aedificare | to build, construct | L5: aedificium |
| agitare | to rouse, put into motion, hunt | agitation |
| legere | to read, collect; select |
lectern; I: legere, D: Lektüre
|
| scribere | to write, compose | script, EO: skribi |
| causa, -ae | cause, reason, motive; case, lawsuit; situation | cause |
| poeta, -ae | poet (male) | poet, D: Poet |
dolus, -i |
fraud, deceit, trap, treachery |
|
| ventus, -i | wind, storm |
vent, EO: vento
|
| adversus, -a, -um | adverse, opposite, opposing | adverse |
| ignotus, -a, -um | unknown | L12: notus |
| probus, -a, -um | upright, liberal, generous, good |
probity
|
| varius, -a, -um | various, varied, colourful | various |
| ipse, ipsa, ipsum | himself, herself, itself | |
| apud | among, at | EO: apud |
| clam | secretly, in secret, stealthily | D: klammheimlich |
| cum (with perfect tense) | when suddenly | |
| ubi (with perfect tense) | as soon as, wherein |
Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it.
Grammar
There are two new aspects of grammar in this lesson, but you'll find them
easy because they are based on forms you already know.
The first new aspect of grammar is the Pluperfect (past perfect). The
Latin name "Plus-quam-perfect"("more than perfect") describes it's usage: it's
used when an action is even longer ago (further in the past) than the past or the
perfect tense. The actual amount of time is rather unimportant, both yesterday
and 100BC could be described using the past tense and perfect tense, but if
you talk for example about yesterday's news and say "yesterday they discovered
a temple that was built in 100BC", you're using the Pluperfect because
the construction of the temple happened in the past, but before that other event
in the past (yesterday's discovery).
It's actually very easy. For active forms, you just add the imperfect forms of esse
(eram, eras, erat...) to the perfect stem. For example:
1) laudav = perfect stem of "laudare" -> "to praise"
+ eram = 1st person singular of esse's past ("I was")
= laudaveram = 1st person singular Pluperfect of "praise"
= "I had praised"
2) portav = perfect stem of "portare" -> "to carry"
+ erant = 3rd person plural of esse's past ("They were")
= portaverant = 3rd person singular Pluperfect of "carry"
= "They had carried"
The passive forms are even easier. You take the Perfect Passive forms and
change the form of present-tense esse into imperfect. For example:
1) laudatus sum -> laudatus eram
"I am praised" -> "I was praised"
2) portatus sunt -> portatus erant
"They are carried" -> "They were carried"
Now, the second aspect of grammar. I'm sorry to introduce two at once, but
I couldn't find a suitable text with just one of the forms and vocabulary that isn't
too advanced. Study this lesson and practise the new grammar, using also the
extra reading, until you can recognise and translate the new forms without
difficulty.
The second aspect of grammar is the pronoun ipse, ipsa, ipsum. It basically
works like any Latin adjective, with 3 exceptions:
1) the masculine Nominative singular is ipse, but the other cases are formed as
if it was ips-us. (Remember adjectives like integer?)
2) the Genitive singular form for all genders is ipsius (Remember eius?)
3) the Dative singular form for all genders is ipsi (Remember ei?)
All other forms are the same as for adjectives.
Ipse works like "himself" (ipsa = herself, ipsum = itself, etc.) in sentences like
"Dido loves Aeneas; Aeneas himself doesn't consider marrying her.". It is used
to emphasize the person or thing it refers to.
Exercise
1) Analyse the following verbs and translate them:
eras, erras, fueras, liberavistis, liberaveratis, perturbatus eras, perturbaveratis
2) Write down all appearances of ipse and its forms from the lesson text,
determine the case and translate each one in context.
Information on Dido
Information on Aeneas
Information on Carthage
Exercise answers:
1) sg. stands for singular, pl. for plural
eras = 2nd person sg. past tense active of "esse" = you were
erras = 2nd person sg. present tense active of "errare" = you err
fueras = 2nd person sg. plusquamperfect active of "esse" = you had been
liberavistis = 2nd person pl.. perfect tense active of "liberare" = you free
liberaveratis = 2nd person pl. plusquamperfect active of "liberare" = you had freed
perturbatus eras = 2nd person sg. plusquamperfect passive of "perturbare" = you had been confused
perturbaveratis = 2nd person pl. plusquamperfect active of "perturbare" = you (pl.) had confused
2) ipsa (e patria fugata erat) = feminine Nominative singular
= she (Dido) herself had been expelled from her home country
ipsius (quoque vita) = feminine Genitive singular
= Dido's life
ipsi (insidiae paratae erant) = feminine Dative singular
= attempts were prepared against herself (Dido)
ipse (amabat et Aeneas ipse reginam) = masculine Nominative singular
= also Aeneas himself loved the queen
ipsum (id ipsum Dido valde dolebat) = neutrum Nominative singular
= this (act) itself hurt Dido a lot