32. A fresco from the temple of Isis at Pompeii showing a ceremony in honor of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Īsidis sacerdōtēs capita sua radēbant; priests of Isis used to shave their heads.

Explōrātiō Quinta Decima (XV) Adventure Fifteen

Where and When Are We Today?

Long I-Verbs (Fourth Conjugation)

Vocabulary

Long I-Verb Present Tense, Active and Passive Voice Forms

Exercises 1-6

Long I-Verb Imperfect Tense, Active and Passive Voice Forms

Exercises 7-9

Long I-Verb Future Tense, Active and Passive Voice Forms

Exercises 10-12

Long I-Verb Infinitive and Imperative Forms

Long I-Verb Perfect Tense Forms

Exercises 13-16

Vocabulary

Exercises 17-23

The Possessive Adjective suus, su-a, suum

Vocabulary

Exercises 24-28

Sextus Propertius

Propertius’ Elegī: Elegy 1.1, Excerpt

Where and When Are We Today?

Campus Martius, Rōma

Mēnsis Sextīlis

Imp. Caesare Dīvī fīliō Sextō Appuleiō cōnsulibus

Campus Martius, Rome

August, 29 BCE

“Oh dear,” Latinitas said, looking up and down the wide street in Rome where we were standing. “I got the hour wrong. I tried to use this watch to time our visit instead of the sun, but like most items of human manufacture, it proved to be defective.”

I examined her timepiece. It was a fob watch with a long chain, the kind old-time millionaires used to keep in their waistcoats, though she was wearing it around her neck like a necklace. Its second hand was stationary. I think you forgot to wind it, I told her.

“Wind it? Don’t be silly – watch hands move by themselves, that’s the whole point. Anyway, I hope you will forgive me, because we missed today’s parade.”

We were somewhere near the middle of the city – the top of the theater of Pompey was a block or two away. A large crowd wound up the street as far as the eye could see. There was a mess underfoot that reminded me of parade trash: masses of wilted flower petals, fruit rinds, nut shells, broken cups, spilled wine, and piles of horse manure. Smoke was billowing from cooking fires in the shops and the smell of roasting meat made my mouth water. We may have missed the parade, but the celebration was still in full swing.

“Today is the second of a three-day festival organized by Octavian to celebrate his victories – in particular, his defeat of Cleopatra and Antony at the Battle of Actium. The highlight of the festival, which we just missed, was a long parade that the Romans call a triumphus. If we had been here, you would have seen the whole thing. First, a group of musicians and flag-bearers, followed by hundreds of captive Egyptians marched down the street in chains. Next you would have seen wagons piled with captured weapons and treasures that Octavian had looted from Egypt; a collection of exotic animals, including ostriches and tigers; and parade float with a large map depicting the area around Actium and the battle that was fought there. They were followed by the Roman Senate; nearly all of its 600 members showed up in their purple-lined togas. After the Senators came Octavian himself riding in a triumphal chariot, his head crowned with a wreath of laurel. The last and longest part of the procession consisted of Octavian’s soldiers, thousands of them in uniform but without weapons, chanting army songs as they passed by.”

“The procession started up there, at the north end of the Campus Martius, passed where we are standing now, made a turn around the Palatine Hill, then doubled back through the Forum, reaching its end on the top of the Capitoline Hill. There Octavian made an offering to Capitoline Jupiter, sacrificing two spotless white bulls raised specially for this purpose on a ranch near the Clitumnus river. As Octavian looked on, the bulls were first stunned with hammers, then decapitated and butchered. The meat was roasted on the great altar in front of the temple and distributed to the onlookers.”

I could picture what she was describing and regretted missing it. As I looked up and down the street again a crumpled piece of papyrus near my foot caught my eye; I reached down and picked it up. It looked like a note someone had dropped. It was written in Greek, so I asked Latinitas to read it to me.

“This is what it says: ‘Alexis son of Petosiris, the scribe from the port of Alexandria. Tell my mother I have been captured by the enemy and am about to go to the House of Hades and Persephone. Tell her that I was a good man.’”

We looked at each other.

“I will take care to deliver this later,” she said, tucking it into her robe. “Come this way.”

We headed along one of the narrow side streets, pressed by the crowd, until we found a place to sit down near a three-way intersection in a small area under construction. To our left was a building that Latinitas identified as a balnea, a bathhouse. There was an inscription across its entrance that described the bathhouse philosophy: Balnea vīna Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra, set vītam faciunt balnea vīna Venus: ‘Baths, wine, and Venus corrupt our bodies, but baths, wine, and Venus make life.’ In case you were wondering, ‘Venus’ is a polite way to say ‘sex’, and set is how regular Romans tended to spell sed.” We could hear people inside the bathhouse yelling and laughing and messing around.

Across the street to our right was a small but attractive temple, recently built. It was about the size of a small house, with the kind of columns that have leaves at their top, in so-called Corinthian-style. Over the columns, on the pediment, was a sculpture of a dog’s head and a star. The doors of the temple were open, and there was a crowd gathered before it, including a large number of women and some men with shaved heads. A female dancer was performing on the temple steps. She wore what looked like a fine white silk nightgown with orange hems, and a collection of bracelets that jingled as she moved. She was doing a kind of tap dance, but in ballerina shoes. Two priests were accompanying her dance with a hand-drum and a kind of rattle that made a slithery sound.

“That dancer is a famous mime-actress named Hostia. This temple is dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis. The men with shaved heads are priests of Isis, Egyptian immigrants.”

I thought Rome just went to war against Egypt?

“Octavian went to war against Antony, and Cleopatra the queen of Egypt was his ally. But most Romans did not feel particularly hostile to the country. It’s true, in his propaganda, Octavian liked to describe Egypt as an exotic, barbarous, and treacherous foreign kingdom. At the same time, Antony and his allies in Rome were portraying Egypt as the birthplace of civilization, the home of ancient and powerful gods, a land of wise priests and philosophers. All of this back and forth had the effect of making ordinary Romans very curious about Egypt, and increased the popularity of this temple, a piece of Egyptian culture right in the heart of the city. Many women worship Isis because, on the whole, and, in comparison to Roman men, Roman women tend to be more innovative and open-minded about the gods.”

Long I-Verbs (Fourth Conjugation)

“There will be a little drama for us to witness in just a bit. Before that happens, we’re going to talk about a family of Latin verbs called long I-verbs or verbs of the fourth conjugation. These verbs are similar to 3rd conjugation I-verbs; the main difference is that 4th conjugation long I-verbs have an additional –i– at the end of their stem. You can identify them in the dictionary because the first principal part of a long I-verb always ends in –iō, and the second principal part ends in –īre (with one exception below: fierī).”

Vocabulary

Long I-Verbs (4th Conjugation Verbs)

Latin Verb	English Meaning
audiō, aud-īre, audīv-ī	to hear; listen to
veniō, ven-īre, vēn-ī	to come
adveniō, adven-īre, advēn-ī	to come to; arrive at
inveniō, inven-īre, invēn-ī	to find; discover
fīō, f–ierī	to happen; become; be made “When this verb means ‘become’ or ‘be made’, it can have a nominative subject and a nominative predicate, like sum, esse, fuī does. The present infinitive form is irregular.”
sciō, sc-īre, scīv-ī	to know; know how to (with infinitive)
nesciō, nesc-īre, nescīv-ī	to not know; not know how to (with inf.)
sentiō, sent-īre, sēns-ī	to sense; feel; perceive

Long I-Verb Present Tense, Active and Passive Voice Forms

“Here are the present tense forms for long I-verbs (4th conjugation). The letter –i– appears in all of the endings; it is a long –i– in all except the first person singular active and passive, third person singular active, and third person plural active and passive forms:”

Long I-Verb Present Tense, Active Voice Forms

Ending		Verb Stem + Ending		English Translation
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-iō	-īmus	veniō	venīmus	I come	we come
-īs	-ītis	venīs	venītis	you come	you all come
-it	-iunt	venit	veniunt	he, she, it comes	they come

“The verb fīō is slightly irregular; the –ī– is also long in the first person singular and third person plural: fīō, fīunt.”

Long I-Verb Present Tense, Passive Voice Forms

Ending		Verb Stem + Ending		English Translation
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-ior	-īmur	audior	audīmur	I am heard	we are heard
-īris/-īre	-īminī	audīris/īre	audīminī	you are heard	you all are heard
-ītur	-iuntur	audītur	audiuntur	he, she, it is heard	they are heard

Exercises 1-6

1. Eane ad hunc locum venit? Nesciō.

2. Cōnsul Cicerō fit.

3. Hōc diē audiuntur iūris vōcēs.

4. Vōcēs cōnsulis auribus populī tōtīus audiuntur.

5. Epicūrus nōs docēre scit.

6. Do you hear me? I come to you a goddess, not a woman. “What case are the nouns ‘goddess’ and ‘woman’? Hint: same case as the pronoun ‘I’.”

Long I-Verb Imperfect Tense, Active and Passive Voice Forms

“The imperfect tense forms of long I-verbs (4th conjugation) are like E-verbs (2nd conjugation) and I-Verbs (3rd conjugation), except an –i– appears before the –ēbā– endings, both in the active and passive:”

Long I-Verb Imperfect Tense, Active Voice Forms

Ending		Verb Stem + Ending		English Translation
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-iēbam	-iēbāmus	veniēbam	veniēbāmus	I was coming	we were coming
-iēbās	-iēbātis	veniēbās	veniēbātis	you were coming	you all were coming
-iēbat	-iēbant	veniēbat	veniēbant	he, she, it was coming	they were coming

“The verb fīō is slightly irregular; the -ī- is long throughout in the imperfect: fīēbam, fīēbās, etc.”

I-Verb Imperfect Tense, Passive Voice Forms

Ending		Verb Stem + Ending		English Translation
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-iēbar	-iēbāmur	audiēbar	audiēbāmur	I was being heard	we were being heard
-iēbāris/iēbāre	-iēbāminī	audiēbāris/iēbāre	audiēbāminī	you were being heard	you all were being heard
-iēbātur	-iēbantur	audiēbātur	audiēbantur	he, she, it was being heard	they were being heard

Exercises 7-9

7. Ad castra multī adveniēbant.

8. Arbitrium cōnsulum audiēbāmus.

9. I was listening to Caesar. Were you all not knowing? His judgment was being perceived.

Long I-Verb Future Tense, Active and Passive Voice Forms

“In the future tense, there is an –i– before the future tense endings you learned for I-verbs (3rd conjugation), both in the active and in the passive:”

Long I-Verb Future Tense, Active Voice Forms

Ending		Verb Stem + Ending		English Translation
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-iam	-iēmus	veniam	veniēmus	I will come	we will come
-iēs	-iētis	veniēs	veniētis	you will come	you all will come
-iet	-ient	veniet	venient	he, she, it will come	they will come

“The verb fīō is slightly irregular; the -ī- is long throughout in the future: fīam, fīēs, etc.”

Long I-Verb Future Tense, Passive Voice Forms

Ending		Verb Stem + Ending		English Translation
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-iar	-iēmur	audiar	audiēmur	I will be heard	we will be heard
-iēris/iēre	-iēminī	audiēris/iēre	audiēminī	you will be heard	you all will be heard
-iētur	-ientur	audiētur	audientur	he, she, it will be heard	they will be heard

Exercises 10-12

10. Cōnsilium inveniētur.

11. Mē audiētis, sī in aurēs vestrās dīcam.

12. I will find aid, when the inconveniences of war will be felt.

Long I-Verb Infinitive and Imperative Forms

“The long I-verb present active infinitive ends in –īre; the present passive infinitive ends in –īrī:”

Present Infinitive Endings Compared: A-Verbs, E-Verbs, I-Verbs, Long I-Verbs

Verb Conj.	Active Ending	Passive Ending
A-Verb	-āre	-ārī
E-Verb	-ēre	-ērī
I-Verb	-ere	-ī
Long I-Verb	–īre	–īrī

Long I-Verb Present Infinite Example

Stem + Active Ending	Stem + Passive Ending	English Translation
audīre	audīrī	to hear	to be heard

“The verb fīō has an irregular present infinitive: fierī.”

“The imperative endings are simply –ī and –īte for the active, and –īre and –īminī for the passive. But for the verb sciō, the imperatives are usually the old-fashioned forms scītō and scītōte.”

Imperative Endings Compared: A-Verbs, E-Verbs, I-Verbs, Long I-Verbs

Verb Conj.	Singular Act.	Plural Act.	Singular Pass.	Plural Pass.
A-Verb	-ā	-āte	-āre	-āminī
E-Verb	-ē	-ēte	-ēre	-ēminī
I-Verb	-e	-ite	-ere	-iminī
Long I-Verb	-ī	–īte	–īre	–īminī

Long I-Verb Imperative Forms Example

Stem + Sg. Act. Ending	Stem + Pl. Act. Ending	Stem + Sg. Pass. Ending	Stem + Pl. Pass. Ending
Audī	Audīte	Audīre	Audīminī
Listen!	Listen, you all!	Be heard!	Be heard, you all!

Long I-Verb Perfect Tense Forms

“The perfect tense forms of long I-verbs consist of the usual perfect tense endings on the perfect stem (3rd principal part) of the verb:”

Long I-Verb Perfect Tense Forms Example: veniō, venīre, vēnī

	Perfect Tense Forms		English Translation
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st	vēn-ī	vēn-imus	I came/have come	we came/have come
2nd	vēn-istī	vēn-istis	you came/have come	you all came/have come
3rd	vēn-it	vēn-ēre/-ērunt	he/she/it came/has come	they came/have come

Long I-Verb Perfect Tense Infinitive Example: veniō, venīre, vēnī

Perfect Tense Form	English Translation
vēn-isse	to have come

Exercises 13-16

13. Venī! Scīre audīre dēbēs!

14. Vēnī. Tardī sunt pedēs meī.

15. Cōnsilium iam invēnisse spērābam.

16. If Cupid has arrived, he knows (how) to be heard.

“Here is some additional vocabulary for you to learn:”

Vocabulary

1st Declension Noun

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
unda, und-ae	f.	wave

2nd Declension Noun

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
ferrum, ferr-ī	n.	sword; iron

3rd Declension Neuter Nouns

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
iter, itiner-is	n.	journey
pectus, pector-is	n.	chest; heart “The place where you feel emotion.”

Defective Verb

Latin Verb	English Meaning
ōd-ī, ōd-isse	to hate “Like meminī, this verb has perfect tense forms with present meaning.”

I-Verbs (3rd Conjugation)

Latin Verb	English Meaning
agō, ag-ere, ēg-ī	to do; drive “This verb is often idiomatic: e.g. agere vītam means ‘to lead a life’; the imperatives (age, agite) mean ‘come on!’”
cōgō, cōg-ere, coēg-ī	to force; compel
premō, prem-ere, press-ī	to press; stand upon; oppress

US-A-UM Adjectives

Latin Adjective	English Meaning
nūllus, nūll-a, nūllum (gen. sg. nūllīus; dat. sg. nūllī)	no; not any
ūllus, ūll-a, ūllum (gen. sg. ūllīus; dat. sg. ūllī)	any

“Notice that ūllus and nūllus form a pair of opposites: ūllus is ‘any’, and nūllus (ne [not] + ūllus), is ‘not any.”

Exercises 17-23

17. Premor cupīdine dūrō, dolōre maximō.

18. Ā mē amābitur nūlla.

19. Agite, agite! Cōgite hostēs necessitātī cēdere!

20 Amorne ūllī virō aut deō cēdet?

21. This journey was hard, for I did not know the way.

22. I hate and I love with my whole heart, and I do not know why. “‘Why’ is quārē.”

23. Carry me safe to my parents through the many waves of the sea.

The Possessive Adjective suus, su–a, suum

“The third-person possessive adjective, suus, a, um has a meaning that changes depending on the subject of the sentence. This adjective says that the noun it modifies belongs to the subject of the sentence. So, if the subject of a sentence is a man, it means ‘his own’; if a woman, ‘her own’; if a thing, ‘its own’. And if the subject is plural, it means ‘their own’. Like any adjective, the case, gender, and number matches those of the noun that it modifies (the person or thing possessed).”

Vocabulary

Latin Adjective	English Meaning
suus, su-a, suum	his own; her own; its own; their own

Possessive Adjective suus, –a, –um Examples

Cōnsul urbem suam videt.	The consul sees his own city.
The girl prepares her own father.	Puella patrem suum parat.

“It may seem counterintuitive to translate suam as ‘his own’ and suum as ‘her own’ in these examples. Just remember: with suus, sua, suum, the ending matches the gender (as well as the case and number) of the noun it modifies, while the subject determines whether su– means ‘his’ or ‘her’ or ‘its’ or ‘their own’.”

Exercises 24-28

24. Hī geminī linguam suam habent.

25. Mīles ferrum suum quaesīvit.

26. Hic mīlitēs suōs exercēbit.

27. Without his own soldiers the leader will be forced to yield.

28. Caesar put his own hand into the water.

Sextus Propertius

As soon as she said that, a large group of men exited the bathhouse. They were a gang of sleek-looking youths, led by one figure who must have been a knight, since he wore a toga with a thin purple stripe. He seemed to be in his thirties and was talking excitedly to two of his companions when all of the sudden he stopped and put his hands over his head, reacting to the sight of Hostia performing across the street.

“That is Sextus Propertius,” Latinitas shouted in my ear – all of the men from the bathhouse and all of the women in the temple began making a ruckus, gesturing and yelling at the other group. “He’s a knight from Assisi everyone is talking about, because he has been having an on-again, off-again affair with Hostia. To capitalize on the publicity, he published the elegī or love poems he wrote for her in a book; it’s very popular and Propertius’ friends know much of it by heart.”

Propertius gestured with his hands for everyone to be quiet and Hostia did the same. There followed a series of speeches between the two which went by very quickly and were hard for me to understand, although there were lots of tū’s and amōrēs and something about dōna, gifts. Hostia had her arms crossed when Propertius spoke and looked at the ground, while Propertius walked in circles and gesticulated while she spoke. They were just like two actors on a stage, and a large mob of passersby gathered to hear and watch them.

At the end, Propertius grabbed a handful of plums and cherries from a street vendor and bounded across the street; getting down on his knees, he offered them to her as if she was some queen. Hostia stared at him for a second, then carefully laid her foot on his forehead and pushed him back; Propertius, over-acting, tumbled backward, and the fruit went flying. Hostia then marched into the temple with the priests and three of her friends, and the doors slammed shut behind her.

Propertius’ male friends exclaimed as if they had just seen a star football player miss a crucial free kick. He jogged back to join them, then climbed on top of a bronze statue of some old military hero, where he gave a dramatic recitation of the first poem from his collection. The woman he calls ‘Cynthia’ is, of course, Hostia.”

Propertius’ Elegī: Elegy 1.1, Excerpt

“With a partner, practice reading the Latin aloud. Then, for each Latin word in bold, try to identify how it is translated in English, and, for any Latin noun, adjective, or pronoun in bold, try to determine its grammatical case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative):”

Cynthia prīma suīs miserum mē cēpit ocellīs,

contāctum nūllīs ante cupīdinibus.

Cynthia first captured miserable me with her little eyes,

(me), touched by no desires previously.

Tum mihi cōnstantis dēiēcit lūmina fastūs

et caput impositīs pressit Amor pedibus,

dōnec mē docuit castās ōdisse puellās,

improbus, et nūllō vīvere cōnsiliō.

Then Love threw down the lights/eyes of my constant pride

and pushed down my head with feet imposed,

until he taught me to hate innocent girls,

naughty (Love), and to live with no plan.

Ei mihi, iam tōtō furor hic nōn dēficit annō,

cum tamen adversōs cōgor habēre deōs.

in mē tardus amor nōn ūllās cōgitat artēs,

nec meminit nōtās, ut prius, īre viās.

Alas for me, now this madness has not failed for a whole year,

while I am nevertheless forced to have adverse gods.

In my case, a late love does not contemplate any arts,

nor remember how to go its familiar ways, as before.

Et vōs, quī sērō lāpsum revocātis, amīcī,

quaerite nōn sānī pectoris auxilia.

Even you, friends, who call back a (man) lately fallen,

seek aid for an insane heart.

Fortiter et ferrum saevōs patiēmur et ignēs,

sit modo lībertās quae velit īra loquī.

Bravely we will endure both sword and savage fires,

only let there be freedom to speak what anger wants.

Ferte per extrēmās gentēs et ferte per undās,

quā nōn ūlla meum fēmina nōrit iter.

Carry me through distant nations and carry me over the waves,

where not any woman (will) know my path.

vōs remanēte, quibus facilī deus annuit aure,

sītis et in tūtō semper amōre pārēs.

You stay here, (you) whom the god favors with an easy ear,

and always be equals in a safe love.

nam mē nostra Venus noctēs exercet amārās,

et nūllō vacuus tempore dēfit Amor.

For my Venus trains me on bitter nights,

and at no time does Love let up, on vacation.

As he was finishing, a second, smaller group of young men slipped out of the bathhouse and headed for the fruit-seller’s stand. One of them passed the vendor a silver coin; the group then began hurling fruit at Propertius and his companions. They responded in kind, and chased them down a narrow street to take their revenge, until they were out of sight.

A group of old women was watching this whole scene play out from a nearby roof; they broke into laughter, then called for more drink: Vīnum, iō Bacche, vīnum!

33. Ancient Ruins Used as Public Baths, by Hubert Robert, 1798. Alia balnea parva, alia, ut haec, maxima erant, some bathhouses were small, others, like this, were very large.