Latin course for the Virtual School of Languages

Lesson 3: The gladiators arrive

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Text
Marcus non ridet, sed murmurat: "Elephantus! Simia!
Ubi sunt Syrus et Barbatus? Cur tuba non sonat?"
Tum amica: "Fortasse adversarii hodie non pugnant."
Etiam populus murmurat, quod Syrus et Barbatus nondum adsunt;
subito autem tubae sonant, populus tacet,
adversarii intrant, stant, salutant.
Nunc populus gaudet et clamat, et Marcus vocat:
"Me neque elephanti neque simiae,
sed ludi et gladii et tubae delectant."
Amici et amicae rident.
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Reading vocabulary you needn't learn:
murmurat: (he) grumbles
simia: monkey

Vocabulary

Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it.
	
Grammar
In the last lesson, we unconsciously used our first noun: ludus. It appeared in the sentence "Ludus me delectat",
which literally means "The game delights me". In that case, it was the subject of the sentence (because you ask 
"who/what delights me?") and its case was Nominative Singular. All subjects have to be in the Nominative case, the case
that you'll find in dictionaries, and obviously one game is singular. In lines 8/9 of the current text, you can find a sentence 
that means almost the same: "Me [...] ludi [...] delectant.". Apart from the fact that the "me" was put at a different
position for no particular reason, you notice that the verb now has the ending -nt, which means that at least two things 
delight. In this case, Marcus talks about gladiator "games" in the plural, not just this particular game they're about to watch.
So he had to change the word "ludus"(singular) to "ludi"(plural). All masculine words of the O-declension end 
in "-us" (like masculine names) in the Nominative singular and transform that to "-i" for the Nominative plural. 
In the same sentence, you can find two more examples of such a transformation: "elephanti"(singular: elephantus) 
and "gladii"(singular: gladius). You can also find two words that don't fit into this scheme: "simiae" and "tubae". They are
feminine words, meaning they are subject to the A-declension. In the A-declension, the Nominative singular form 
ends in "-a" (like feminine names) and the Nominative plural form ends in -ae. 
Examples for this transformation: amica -> amicae, tuba -> tubae, simia -> simiae.

As you may have noticed by now, neither the singular nor the plural forms use any type of article. 
It does not exist in Latin. Whether you want to say "the elephant" or "an elephant", it is always "elephantus" in Latin. 
This part of the Latin grammar is easier in Latin than in all other Romance languages, where you have to worry about the 
right articles for every noun. Still it is important not to confuse masculine with feminine or neuter (not yet introduced) nouns,
because, as explained in this lesson, the declensions are different.


Exercise
I) Put these sentences into the plural:
  1. Amica vocat.
  2. Amicus narrat.
  3. Tuba sonat.
  And these into the singular:
  4. Amicae salutant.
  5. Adversarii intrant.
  6. Amici iam hic sunt.
  Compare your answers to the correct answers, which are displayed at the bottom of this page.
II) Fill in the particles. The translation of the particle is in brackets, so that you know, which one
     is meant. 
  1. __ (today) Gaius et Claudia in Colosseo sunt. 
  2. Ibi __ (also) Quintus et Paula sedent.
  3. __ (then) Quintus rogat: "__ (where) adversarii sunt?
  4. Cur __ (not yet) intrant?"
  5. __ (suddenly) __ (however) tubae sonant.
  6. __ (now) Marcus tacet, __ (because) adversarii adsunt. 


Information : Gladiator equipment
There were many different types of gladiators and every type carried different weapons and armour. E. g.
Samnites fought with a short sword and defended themselves with a longish shield;
Thracians carried an oval shield and a dagger;
Retiarii carried a net (rete) and a trident.

Thracian against Retiarius

Exercise answers:
I) 1. Amicae vocant.  2. Amici narrant.  3. Tubae sonant.
    4. Amica salutat.  5. Adversarius intrat.  6. Amicus iam hic est.
II) 1. hodie (today)   2. et / etiam (also)   3. tum (then), ubi (where)  
     4. nondum (not yet)  5. subito (suddenly) autem (however) .
     6. nunc (now), nam / quod (because)