Text
Marcus magnas divitias non possidet,
itaque neque multa neque magna dona dare potest.
Marcus non est Croesus; sed Cornelia puella est,
et "cunctae puellae diu et libenter tabernas spectant,
aurum et argentum valde amant
saepeque multa dona exspectant".
Sic Marcus cogitat, sed stultus est;
nam Cornelia neque magna neque multa dona exspectat.
Grata et contenta est,
quod Marcus amicus bonus et fidus est,
quod non solum ludos, sed etiam theatra amat.
Nam theatra Corneliam imprimis delectant:
Gaudet et ridet, cum fabulas spectat,
et cum populus clamat, clamat et Cornelia.
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Reading vocabulary you needn't learn:
dare: to give
Croesus: legendary rich king of Lydia
taberna: shop
Vocabulary
| possidet | he/she/it possesses | |
| potest | he/she/it can | potency |
| divitiae (always plural) | treasures, riches, wealth | |
| fabula | story, theatre play | fable; fabulous |
| puella | girl | |
| theatrum | theatre | theatre |
| bonus, -a, -um | good, efficient | bonus; F: bon |
| bonum | the good, possession | |
| contentus, -a, -um | content, satisfied | content |
| cunctus, -a, -um | complete, whole; Plural: all | |
| fidus, -a, -um | loyal, reliable | fidelity |
| gratus, -a, -um | grateful; comfortable, dear, welcome | grateful |
| magnus, -a, -um | big, important |
magnify; magnanimous [magnus + animus (soul, spirit)]
|
| multus, -a, -um | much, many, abundant | multitude |
| stultus, -a, -um | stupid, foolish |
stultify
|
| -que (attached to a word) | and | |
| saepe | often | |
| sic (with verbs) | so, this way | sic |
Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it. Usage of words The particle "-que"(and) will appear appear strange to you, at first. It is usually added to the word that comes after the "and" in English. For example: Marcus Corneliaque = Marcus and Cornelia, the Romans would never write this as "Marcusque Cornelia". Grammar This lesson is the first to use adjectives. You can find a lot of adjectives in the vocabulary: bonus, contentus, cunctus, fidus, gratus, magnus, multus and stultus. Guess what they all have in common? The ending -us, which should remind you of the Nominative ending of the masculine O-declension. In the text however, in the first line, you don't see "magnus" but "magnas", so -as was added to the word stem (word stem = word without its variable endings, in this case "magn"). Just like -us, you have seen -as before: It's the Accusative plural ending of the feminine A-declension. Now, how do endings from different genders get to the same word? Very simple. Adjectives always belong to the noun that they describe, e. g. "magnus"(big) alone doesn't make much sense, you have to add a noun, for example "lacrima"(tear). The adjective then has to adapt to the noun and place itself into the same gender, same number (singular or plural) and same case. Fortunately, adjectives don't have their own declensions but use the ones you already know: O-Declension for masculine and neuter words, A-Declension for feminine words. In this case, magnus has to become feminine Nominative singular, just like lacrima. So you subtract the current (masculine Nominative singular) ending, which gives you the word stem: magn. Then you add the ending for feminine Nominative singular, -a. The result is "magna lacrima" (big tear). Let's have another example: "bonus"(good) and "amici"(friends). Bonus has to become masculine Nominative plural, like friends, so the ending to add is -i. Bonus minus -us equals bon plus -i equals boni. Boni amici, good friends. This agreement between adjectives and nouns is very helpful when there is more than one adjective in a sentence, like in "Amicus fidus magnas divitias possidet." Fidus is masculine Nominative singular, like amicus, and magnas is feminine Accusative plural, like divitias, so the translation is "The loyal friend possesses big treasures." The word order isn't important, because there are no rules for it in Latin. If the writer prefers it, he can write the same sentence as "Magnas amicus possidet fidus divitias." (and Ovid is known to have placed his words even more chaotically, in longer sentences), in which case you have to depend on your knowledge of cases in order to understand that the friend is "fidus", loyal, and not "magnas", big. Exercise Add the correct endings to the adjective stems in these sentences: 1. Cornelia non solum mult__ tabernas, sed etiam theatra amat. 2. Content__ est, cum fabulas bon__ spectat. 3. Fabulae stult__ Corneliam non delectant. 4. Marcus gaudet, quod amica content__ est, cum in theatro sedet, quod non magn__ divitias amat, sed amicum fid__ .
Information: Roman shops
On the left: Roman Wine shop. On the right: Roman groceries store.
Exercise answers: 1. multas tabernas 2. Contenta (Cornelia); fabulas bonas 3. fabulae stultae 4. amica contenta; magnas divitias; amicum fidum