22 Case Forms, Reviewed

 

“For every noun, you should be able to recite the forms in order, and translate each form; we’ll soon add the Dative and Ablative:”

1st decl.2nd decl. 2nd decl. (-r) 4th decl. 5th decl.

Nom. viadeusvirmanusrēs Gen. viaedeīvirīmanūsreī Dat.

Acc. viamdeumvirummanumrem Abl.

 

road (s./p.)god (s./p.)man (s./p.)hand (s./p.)thing (s./p.) of the roadof the godof the manof the handof the thing

road (obj.)god (obj.)man (obj.)hand (obj.)thing (obj.)

 

“Following this model, write out the three singular forms of vīta, populus, līber, Senātus, spēs, then translate.”(13)

 

“Also, write the declension of rēs pūblica, the Republic.(14) The first word, rēs, is 5th Declension Noun, while the second word, pūblica, has 1st Declension endings. These words act as one word, of the feminine gender, and are translated as one in English, ‘Republic’, but they are two in Latin and have two different endings.”

“You’ll have a chance to practice using these words in a moment; right now it looks like the crowd has thinned out.”

The crowd was indeed gone; a small band of friends and allies stayed with Gaius to discuss politics. In the back of the house we could hear supplies being moved and the scraping sound of a sword being sharpened on a whetstone.

“This man,” she explained, “Gaius Gracchus, is the brother of the late Tiberius Gracchus. Tiberius was assassinated a decade ago after he held the office of tribune. A Roman tribune is a public advocate who raises issues of concern to the plēbs, the common people, and has veto power over proposed laws. Politicians who claim to look out for the interests of ordinary Romans often run for this office. What made Tiberius different was that he took those interests very seriously.”

“As Rome expanded its empire, it took control of enormous amounts of land in Italy and elsewhere. Powerful interests in Rome ended up owning most of it; meanwhile, tens of thousands of veterans who risked their lives in the wars that gave Rome that land were homeless. In a famous speech Tiberius observed about these veterans that ‘The wild beasts that roam over Italy have their dens, each has a place of repose and refuge. But the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy nothing but the air and light; without house or home they wander about with their wives and children.’ Tiberius proposed to sieze what was supposed to be public land and redistribute it to the veterans. His proposal was very popular, but met with fierce opposition from the Senators, many of whom were wealthy landholders. They organized and plotted against him; Tiberius was assassinated.”

“Today the Romans will be electing tribunes again. In addition to furthering Tiberius’ cause, Gaius wants to get revenge on the powerful people who plotted his brother’s murder. When we first saw him, he was greeting his supporters, his clientēs. He is now discussing plans to ensure there is a good turn out in the Campus Martius when the vote takes place.”

A messenger suddenly came in from the street, panting, bearing a letter – a small collection of wax tablets. Litterae ā matre tuā, a letter from your mother, he announced. Gaius winced, but nodded for it to be read aloud. To judge from his reaction, he was not ready for what he was about to hear. In the letter, after a short greeting, his mother, Cornelia Africana – a member of a famous and conservative Roman family, the gēns Cornēlia – announced her complete and total opposition to his candidacy:

 

 

“You will say that it is a handsome thing to take revenge on one’s enemies, inimīcōs. This is something that appears to be not very important nor very handsome to anyone, and not to me; but if it is permissible to accomplish this goal with the Republic kept safe… fine. But to the extent this is not possible, for a long time and in many quarters our enemies will not vanish and will live just as they do now – a thing preferable to our Republic, rēs pūblica, being overthrown and disappearing…”

“I would venture to swear that none of our enemies, besides those who murdered Tiberius Gracchus, has presented me with as much trouble and pain as you have over these matters; you are the one who should have taken on and taken care of the roles played by all those children I bore earlier, so that in my old age I would have as little to worry about as possible…”

“Finally, what end will there be? Will our family, familia nostra, ever stop going insane? Will the limit of this business ever be reached? Will we ever stop being in trouble, giving and receiving it? Will we ever feel shame over our disrupted and disturbed republic? But if this is completely impossible, run for tribune when I am dead. As far as I am concerned, do what you like when I feel nothing. When I am dead, you will worship me as parent and invoke me, your parent, as a god, deum. Will you not feel shame at that time praying to gods whom you abandoned and deserted while they were living and present? I hope Jupiter doesn’t allow you to persist in those things, or let such great madness come into your mind. And if you persist, I fear that, through your own fault, you will receive so much trouble your whole life through, in omnem vītam, that at no point in time will you ever be able to feel satisfied with yourself.”

In Latin the last paragraph sounded like this:

 

Dēnique quae pausa erit? Ecquandō dēsinet familia nostra īnsānīre? Ecquandō modus eī reī habērī poterit? Ecquandō dēsinēmus et habentēs et praebentēs molestiīs dēsistere? Ecquandō perpudēscet miscendā atque perturbandā rē pūblicā? Sed sī omnīnō id fierī nōn potest, ubi ego mortua erō, petītō tribūnātum; per mē facitō quod lubēbit, cum ego nōn sentiam. Ubi mortua erō, parentābis mihi et invocābis deum parentem. In eō tempore nōn pudēbit tē eōrum deōrum precēs expetere, quōs vīvōs atque praesentēs relictōs atque dēsertōs habueris? Nē ille sīrit Iuppiter tē ea persevērāre, nec tibi tantam dēmentiam venīre in animum. Et sī persevērās, vereor nē in omnem vītam tantum labōris culpā tuā recipiās, utī in nūllō tempore tūtē tibi placēre possīs.

It was, clearly, a brutal rejection of Gaius’ hopes – and of all days for the letter to arrive! As it was being read, some of his friends looked somberly at each other, while others stared at the ground. Gaius himself had gone back into the courtyard and could be heard hacking furiously at a tree with a sword.

 

Latinitas leaned in and explained things further. “Cornelia’s feelings are clear: how can you do these things to me, to risk your life running for tribune? Serving in that office had already led to Tiberius’ murder. She loves her son, of course: she taught Tiberius and Gaius how to be the brilliant public speakers that they eventually became. But she is angry, like that swallow we saw earlier, angry with a mother’s love. Meanwhile, Gaius is thinking, no, I have a duty to defend our family, to avenge Tiberius, and carry on his populist legacy; how can you do this to me right now? Mother and son both see themselves as victims of the other.”

We slipped out of the house and took a road leading out of town, the Via Ostiēnsis, heading away from the crowds streaming down to the Campus Martius to vote. One young man, sprinting ahead of everyone else with some urgency, plowed into Latinitas, knocking her into my arms.

For a moment I thought she would lash out at him; but instead she apologized, blaming her poor eyesight and calling herself worthless. It puzzled me, but she insisted we carry on and changed the subject. Shortly thereafter we sat down at a shrine to Vēnus Cytherea, Venus of Cythera, that some worshippers had decorated with seashells and garlands of spring flowers. She showed me a page with some English on it.

“Let’s see if you can translate the next passage into Latin. Do the three steps in your head, but just write out step III, the Latin:”

You are my (meus) child, young man; you are my (mea) family and the hope of my (meae) life. What do you plan? If the country is strong, it is a good thing. Do you fear the enemy? They are nothing. Do you fear the Senate? The Senate plans to preserve the country. You need to have trust. Prepare to change the republic, if it is possible, but preserve your (tuam) life. I do not ask thus, I order you. I need to hope. (15)

When I was done she looked over my work and corrected a few things. She then took out a set of wax tablets containing a copy of Cornelia’s original letter and showed me the Latin of the paragraph I just quoted. She asked me to read it out loud, then point to words whose meaning I knew or could figure out. I got about twenty, which was pretty good.

“You’re a natural,” she said, “I may have to adopt you; tē līberum Latīnitātis vocābunt, they will call you ‘the child of Latinitas’.”

She closed the wax tablets, and stood up. “It’s time to go.” Wait, I said; where did you get that copy of Cornelia’s letter?

“Cornelia dispatched a messenger with a second copy of the letter, instructing him to go to the Campus and read it aloud where the voters were gathering. You saw him, the man who ran into

 

me. But to let a mother humiliate her son like that, in front of all the voters? I couldn’t allow that.”

And with a flick of her wrist, the tablet vanished from her hand, ending up somewhere deep in the folds of her clothing, and she walked away.

“Semper animadverte: always pay attention!”

 

We spent the remainder of the day wandering through the crowds at Rome, practicing vocabulary now and then, but mostly sight-seeing and people-watching. We stayed long enough to witness the excitement that followed Gaius’ win. Sadly, though, his victory was short lived; a few years later, I read, he met the same fate as his brother, struck down by an assassin’s knife.

His murder, together with his brother’s, marked the beginning of the end, not of the Roman empire, but of the form of government called the Roman Republic.

 

 

 

 

 

• An oil-on-canvas painting, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi. Presenting her Children and Saying ‘Here are my Riches and Jewels, by Joseph-Benoît Suvée, 1795. The artist used his imagination; the interiors of Roman houses did not look much like this. The Latin word for ‘painting’ is pictūra.

 

 

 

 

 

• Cicero Denounces Catiline, by Cesare Maccari (1889). The Senātus of Rome met in buildings that were linear and square, not round. In Cicero’s day there were approximately nine-hundred men who counted as senators, of which one- or two-hundred might actually attend meetings.