23. The Amphitheater of Tusculum and the Albano Mountains, by Thomas Whittredge, 1860. The region shown here was the patria or traditional homeland of the Latin people. Classical ruins are a part of everyday Italian life down to this day, and the occasional flock of ovēs or sheep still grazes among their saxa, their stones.

 

Explōrātiō Ūndecima (XI) Adventure Eleven

Where and When Are We Today?

Vocabulary

The Demonstrative hic, haec, hoc

Vocabulary

Forms of hic, haec, hoc

Drill

Exercises 1-7

The Adjective alius, alia, aliud

Case Forms of the Adjective alius, alia, aliud

Uses of the Adjective alius, alia, aliud

Vocabulary

Exercises 8-20

Cicero’s Library

Servius Sulpicius’ Letter to Cicero on the Loss of his Daughter

Diminutives

Reading: Tiro

Where and When Are We Today?

 

Tusculum, Ītalia

Mēnsis Februārius

M. Aemiliō Lepidō L. Munātiō Plancō cōnsulibus

Tusculum, Italy

February, 42 BCE

 

Although the sun was up, the sky was low and cold that morning as we made our way along a muddy mountain road. Grey clouds in the distance framed a column of smoke rising from a villa that had been burned to the ground the previous night. Behind us lay a small walled town called Tusculum. Latinitas pointed in the direction of Rome for me, but at this distance the intervening hills made it impossible to see anything of the city. I was more struck by a line of sharp montēs, the mountains immediately to our south which seemed to form a kind of bowl. “That’s the site of Alba Longa – my birthplace and the homeland of the Latin people. The ridge you’re looking at is the rim of a long-extinct volcano.”

 

The land around us was covered in vineyards, leafless at this time of the year. In the field we were walking past a solitary plowman was steering a small wooden plow, his legs covered in mud; from his home, a hut with a thatch roof, I could hear the cry of a rooster. Further up the road lay our destination, a palatial rustic villa hidden from view by a line of cypress trees. At its entrance stood a group of men gladiīs, with swords. They eyed us warily, arms folded. Latinitas, who was dressed completely in black, told me not to worry; they were expecting us. “To be more precise: they are expecting a woman named Servilia, who lives not far from here. Last night I offered her a large cup of poppy tea to relieve her stress over the future of her son, the regicide Brutus. I’m taking her place so that she can sleep in today. The Cicero family knows we are coming. But don’t say anything as we enter.” There was certainly no risk of that happening.

 

“Caesar, you remember, was assassinated by Brutus and Cassius just before our last visit. Afterward, they and the other ‘Liberators’, as they call themselves, let the opportunity they created slip through their hands. They just assumed that once the dictator was gone, Rome would simply return to its old Republican ways – fools. Caesar’s supporters were less complacent; they took the initiative and began working together. Three men emerged as dūcēs. First, Mark Antony, Caesar’s most capable and charismatic officer, who you saw at the mime show. Second, Octavian, Caesar’s twenty-year old nephew, adopted son and heir. And third, another of Caesar’s former officers named Lepidus. Together they formed a ruling team called the Triumvirate that pressured the Senate into giving them absolute power. Once the Liberators realized how much trouble they were in, they left Italy for Greece, and began collecting legions for the civil war that everyone can now see is coming.”

 

“One of the first things the Triumvirs did after seizing power was to eliminate their enemies. They drew up a list, a proscription list, which was posted all over Italy and advertised rewards for the killing of those who were named on it. Mark Antony included Cicero’s name because he wanted revenge for the bitter attacks the orator made on him in the Senate. A little over a month ago, a group of assassins tracked down Cicero at his coastal villa, which is not far from here. They tore him from the litter in which he was traveling, cut off his head and his hands, and nailed them to the Rostra, the platform in the Roman Forum from which he had given so many speeches.”

 

“Family members of those proscribed, like Servilia, the mother of Brutus, have mostly been spared, but as you can imagine, no one feels safe. Today Cicero’s son Marcus and his ex-wife Terentia are meeting here at the family’s Tusculan villa. Young Marcus is about to sail to Greece to join the Liberators; in his absence, Terentia will be managing the family estate. They are being joined by two other men, Cicero’s freedman Tiro and his lifelong friend Atticus. Tiro is trying to collect all of Cicero’s letters, speeches, and books in one place so that he can publish them and preserve the literary legacy of his patron and former master. Atticus is here to offer whatever help he can. As an Epicurean and a diplomat, he has managed to maintain his friendship with all the big names at Rome, even those on opposite sides of this awful war. Servilia – that is, me – is joining the gathering to see what she can offer. In addition to being Brutus’s mother, she was also Caesar’s mistress. She has long been a fēmina of considerable intelligence and insight.”

 

Once we passed the guards, we could just make out the four figures inside the entrance of the villa engaged in earnest conversation. Latinitas had me sit out of the way on a bench and left me with these instructions.

 

“First I want you to learn some more vocabulary, starting with this defective verb:”

 

Vocabulary

 

Defective Verb

Latin Verb	English Meaning
meminī, memin-isse	to remember; to remember how to

 

“Like coepī, this verb has only perfect forms. But this verb’s perfect forms have present meaning: so, translate the perfect form meminit, as ‘he / she / it remembers’, as if the form were present tense.”

 

2nd Declension Noun

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
oculus, ocul-ī	m.	eye

 

3rd Declension Nouns

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
honor, honōr-is	m.	honor
aetās, aetāt-is	f.	age; lifetime
cīvitās, cīvitāt-is	f.	state; citizenship
necessitās, necessitāt-is	f.	necessity

 

US-A-UM Adjectives

Latin Adjective	English Meaning
cārus, cār-a, cārum	precious; dear
clārus, clār-a, clārum	bright; clear; distinguished

 

Irregular Adjective

Latin Adjective	English Meaning
tot	so many

 

Prepositions

Preposition + Case	English Meaning
ante + accusative	before
post + accusative	after, behind

 

Adverbs

Latin Adverb	English Meaning
ante	beforehand, previously
post	afterward
adhūc	still, so far
dextrā	on the right “This is short for manū dextrā, on the right hand.”
sinistrā	on the left
quemadmodum	just as; how

 

The Demonstrative hic, haec, hoc

 

“Hic honor, haec cīvitās, this honor, this state. The word I am using is the demonstrative hic, haec, hoc. It means ‘this’ or, when plural, ‘these’; it refers to something close by. It is like the demonstrative is, ea, id, but it is more emphatic, like you are pointing your finger.”

 

Vocabulary

 

Latin Demonstrative	English Meaning
hic, haec, hoc	this; these

 

“There are two uses of this word. When it modifies a noun in the same gender, case, and number, it is a demonstrative adjective, and the translation is ‘this’ or, when plural, ‘these’. When it stands in place of a noun, it is a demonstrative pronoun. When you translate the demonstrative pronoun, it is again ‘this’ or ‘these’, but you must also add ‘man’, ‘woman’, ‘thing’, or whatever noun it is standing in place of (which you determine based on the context).”

Forms of hic, haec, hoc

 

	Singular			Plural
	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
Nom.	hic	haec	hoc	hī	hae	haec
Gen.	huius	huius	huius	hōrum	hārum	hōrum
Dat.	huic	huic	huic	hīs	hīs	hīs
Acc.	hunc	hanc	hoc	hōs	hās	haec
Abl.	hōc	hāc	hōc	hīs	hīs	hīs

 

“Practice saying these, first the singulars, then the plurals, several times.”

 

Drill

 

“Now try using hic, haec, hoc in these demonstrative phrases. Remember that the gender of the noun determines the gender of the demonstrative.”

 

this consul (nom. sg.)
of this state (gen. sg.)
for this honor (dat. sg.)
this war (acc. sg.)
this year (abl. sg.)
these (women) (nom. pl.)
of these human beings (gen. pl.)
to these pains (dat. pl.)
these walls (acc. pl.)
with these talents (abl. pl.)

 

Exercises 1-7

 

1. Annum mortis meminī Caesaris; tūne diem meministī?

2. Hī Rōmānī ad oppidum hoc adībant.

3. Hic clārus dux tot virōs prō hāc cīvitāte exercuit.

4. Honor huius aetātis maximae nōn interībit.

5. Ante oculōs meōs hic falsa laudāre coepit.

6. Necessitās magis quam studium hās mōvit.

7. Nōnne hanc vītam cāram plus quam glōriam amās?

 

The Adjective alius, alia, aliud

 

“To say ‘other’ or ‘another’ in Latin, you use the adjective alius, alia, aliud. This adjective has US-A-UM endings, but five of its singular forms are irregular: the neuter singular nominative and accusative ending –ud, and the ending –ī in the dative singular of all genders:”

 

Case Forms of the Adjective alius, alia, aliud

 

	Singular			Plural
	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
Nom.	alius	alia	aliud	aliī	aliae	alia
Gen.	(alterīus)	(alterīus)	(alterīus)	aliōrum	aliārum	aliōrum
Dat.	aliī	aliī	aliī	aliīs	aliīs	aliīs
Acc.	alium	aliam	aliud	aliōs	aliās	alia
Abl.	aliō	aliā	aliō	aliīs	aliīs	aliīs

 

Why do the genitive singular forms all look strange, too?

 

“The adjective alius, alia, aliud does not normally have a genitive singular form. Instead, you use alterīus, which is the genitive singular of alter, altera, alterum, an adjective that means ‘the other of two’ – we will study it another time.”

 

Uses of the Adjective alius, alia, aliud

 

“As I said, this adjective can often be translated ‘other’ or ‘another’ in English:”

 

Example of alius, alia, aliud in a Sentence: Single Use

Syrus aliās virtūtēs docet.	Syrus teaches other virtues.

 

“But when a form of alius is used twice in the same sentence in the same case form, the first should be translated as ‘one’, if it is singular, and the second as ‘another’. If the forms are plural, they should be translated as ‘some’ and ‘others’. Often these forms will be substantives:”

 

Examples of alius, alia, aliud in a Sentence: Double Use, Same Case Form

Aliae spērābant, aliae timēbant.	Some (women) were hoping, others were fearing.
Ego aliud laudō; laudāsne aliud?	I praise one (thing); do you praise another?

 

“And when a form of alius is used twice in the same sentence in different case forms, translate both forms as ‘different’. Often these forms will be substantives:”

 

Example of alius, alia, aliud in a Sentence: Double Use, Different Case Forms

Aliī alia amant.	Different (men) love different (things).

 

Vocabulary

 

Latin Adjective	English Meaning
alius, ali-a, aliud	other; another; one… another; some… others; different… different
ūnus, ūn-a, ūnum (gen. sg. ūnīus; dat. sg. ūnī)	one “You know this word already. What is new are the irregular endings for the genitive and dative singular. Otherwise, it is a normal US-A-UM adjective.”

 

Exercises 8-20

 

8. Cīvēs bellum aliud timēbant.

9. Aliō diē exercitus cūnctus rediit.

10. Nōnne haec ūna vīta cāra est?

11. Eane vōbīscum aliā nocte fuit?

12. Homō semper aliud, Fortūna aliud cōgitat. “This is another of Syrus’ sayings.”

13. Aliī ducēs aliās artēs habent.

14. In hōc locō glōria ūnīus cīvis semper manēbit.

15. Ex oppidō hōc exiimus; cūrae enim maximae mentēs nostrās miscēbant.

16. Ubi hās rēs meminērunt, studium atque ingenium huius laudant.

17. I gave a hand to another (person).

18. The people will give these honors to one (man).

19. Some (men) plan, others have nothing in mind.

20. One soldier went out of this territory, another remained in the town.

 

Cicero’s Library

 

Then she left. When I was finished with my vocab notes, I looked up to see that the group of four was gone. Right then Latinitas snuck up on me from behind and shouted, Tū, venī mēcum!, “You, come with me,” which almost gave me a heart attack before I realized who it was.

 

We walked into the inner part of the villa, through a labyrinth of gorgeous rooms with colorful and elaborately painted walls – sadly, there was no time to sight-see – before emerging in a garden surrounded by porticoes. At the end of one portico lay the entrance to a room. It looked like a wine cellar on the inside, with crisscross wooden shelves forming nooks; the nooks, though, were full of papyrus scrolls. This was the house’s main bibliothēca, its library. A man with a familiar face was working inside, surrounded by several buckets of scrolls and wax-tablets; he was taking them out and filing them in their appropriate places in the bookcase. He was so intent on his work that he did not even acknowledge us.

 

“You remember the man we encountered on the night of Cicero’s Catilinarian oration? This is him, Tiro, Cicero’s secretary, iterum, once again. To atone for insulting me, he has dedicated his life to preserving everything Cicero wrote, all priceless treasures of the Latin language. These are the books and letters that he brought up last night from Cicero’s seashore villa at Astura.”

 

“At our meeting Tiro told us that, besides the professional bounty hunters, there are gangs out there in the countryside killing random family members of the proscribed to see how much the Triumvirs will give for the heads. So instead of traveling here directly, he took a boat to the swamps around Lavinium, then followed an abandoned road inland with this precious cargo of books.”

 

“When the darkness comes,” she added, “humans try to save themselves and the people close to them first. If they have any time or energy left, they try to rescue whatever precious bits of their culture they can get their hands on. Later generations continue their mission when they make the effort to curate what was rescued; and sometimes the darkness returns, making it necessary to rescue the objects from destruction or oblivion or misuse yet again. That’s one reason, a very profound one, that some people study Latin.”

 

When I finished, we took a closer look at the bibliothēca. Tiro had left, and Latinitas showed me all the different sorts of books Cicero wrote. “Cicero’s speeches are over here; his books on philosophy and oratory, over here. Their titles are on these little tags – they look like price tags, no? – attached to the knob of each scroll. In Catilīnam. What’s that?”

 

Against Catiline?

 

“Right. How about Dē Nātūrā Deōrum?”

 

About the Nature of the Gods.

 

“Very good. You’ll make a good librarian. Now let’s see: Ubi illae litterae ā Sulpiciō dē morte Tulliae? Where’s that letter from Sulpicius on the death of Tullia? A! Invēnī! Ah, found it!”

 

Servius Sulpicius’ Letter to Cicero on the Loss of his Daughter

 

“I want you to read this. It’s a letter Cicero received two years ago when his beloved daughter Tullia died in childbirth. Cicero was so devastated by this loss, so depressed, that he was unable to do anything for months. One of his friends, Servius Sulpicius, a prominent legal expert, wrote a personal letter to him trying to shake him out of his depression. It’s a long letter, but look at this part.”

 

I worked out most of what she gave me.

 

“Read the Latin aloud. Then identify the individual Latin words that correspond to the English words in bold; for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives try to identify the case; for verbs, try to identify the person, number, and tense.”

 

Cōgitā quemadmodum adhūc Fortūna nōbīscum ēgerit: ea nōbīs ērepta esse, quae hominibus nōn minus quam līberī cāra esse dēbent: patriam, honestātem, dīgnitātem, honōrēs omnēs.

 

Think how Fortune has dealt with us so far: things have been stolen from us which ought to be no less dear to human beings than (their) children: country, nobility, dignity, all honors.

 

Hōc ūnō incommodō additō, quid ad dolōrem adiungī potuit?

 

With this one inconvenience added, what could be added to our pain?

 

Aut quī nōn in illīs rēbus exercitātus animus callēre iam dēbet atque omnia minōris exīstimāre?

 

Or what mind trained in those things ought not to be callous now and to judge all things of less worth?

 

Quae rēs mihi nōn mediocrem cōnsōlātiōnem attulerit, volō tibi commemorāre, sī forte eadem rēs tibi dolōrem minuere possit.

 

A thing which brought me no moderate consolation, I want to mention to you, if by chance the same thing might be able to diminish the pain for you.

 

Ex Asiā rediēns, cum ab Aegīnā Megaram versus nāvigārem, coepī regiōnēs circumcircā prōspicere: post mē erat Aegīna, ante mē Megara, dextrā Pīraeus, sinistrā Corinthus, quae oppida quōdam tempore flōrentissima fuērunt, nunc prōstrāta et dīruta ante oculōs iacent.

 

Returning from Asia, once I was sailing from Aegina to Megara, I began to inspect the regions all around: behind me was Aegina, before me was Megara, on my right Piraeus, on my left Corinth, towns which at one time were very flourishing, and now lie before the eyes thrown down and demolished.

 

Coepī egomet mēcum sīc cōgitāre: “Hem! Nōs homunculī indīgnāmur, sī quis nostrum interiit aut occīsus est, quōrum vīta brevior esse dēbet, cum ūnō locō tot oppidūm* cadāvera prōiecta iacent?

 

*an alternative form for oppidōrum

 

I began to think thus to myself: “Hmm! We poor little humans are indignant, if one of us has died or been killed, whose life needs to be rather brief, when in one place so many cadavers of towns lie tossed out?

 

Vīsne tū tē, Servī, cohibēre et meminisse hominem tē esse nātum?”

 

“Won’t you hold yourself together, Servius, and remember you were born human?”

 

Crēde mihi, cōgitātiōne eā nōn mediocriter sum cōnfirmātus.

 

Believe me, by this thought I was strengthened not just a little.

Hoc idem, sī tibi vidētur, fac ante oculōs tibi prōpōnās: modo ūnō tempore tot virī clārissimī interiērunt, dē imperiō populī Rōmānī tanta dēminūtiō facta est, omnēs prōvinciae conquassātae sunt; in ūnīus mulierculae animulā sī iactūra facta est, tantō opere commovēris?

 

This same thing, if it seems right to you, make sure you put before your eyes: just now at one time so many very famous men have died, such a great diminishment from the power of the Roman people has taken place, all the provinces have been shaken; if a loss has occurred involving the poor little soul of one little woman, are you so strongly moved?

 

Diminutives

 

I copied it out; I already knew about half the words. Latinitas drew my attention to three odd looking nouns in it: homunculus, muliercula, and animula.

 

“These nouns are called the diminutives of the nouns homō, hominis; mulier, mulieris (a synonym of fēmina), and anima, animae. A diminutive indicates that the noun is somehow vulnerable, precious, or small; translate them as ‘poor little (noun)’ or ‘sweet little (noun)’. The diminutive form differs for each noun, but all diminutive forms have an -l- before the case ending; there may be more added letters too, like -cul- or -ul-:”

 

Diminutive Nouns: Examples

Diminutive Noun Form	Noun Gender	English Meaning
homunculus, homuncul-ī	m.	poor/sweet little human being
muliercula, muliercul-ae	f.	poor/sweet little woman
animula, animul-ae	f.	poor/sweet little soul
ocellus, ocell-ī	m.	poor/sweet little eye

 

She put the letter back in its nook and we walked back out into the garden, where Cicero’s son Marcus was together with his mother Terentia, conducting a sacrifice to the gods and asking that they would bless his departure. I could see a rooster and a knife in Marcus’ hand, and in an instant there was a trace of blood on the stone altar. “Normally they would sacrifice a calf or a lamb,” Latinitas remarked, “but they had no time to go to the market in the town; so they asked the farmer down the road for a rooster.”

 

Once the sacrifice was over, we followed mother and son out to the front of the villa. We watched Terentia and the others cover Marcus’ head in kisses and tears; he mounted his horse and set off, joined by the armed men and a small group of attendents, who I think were slaves. They were heading down to the coast, and from there they would hire a boat and begin the long voyage to Greece.

 

“The Liberators’ cause may be doomed, but Marcus at least is not. He will survive the wars and reconcile with Octavian. When he is older he will become a senator, and a priest – one called an augur, who specializes in reading omens.”

 

“As for Terentia, she, like her son, is a religious soul. The gods will reward her piety by allowing her to die peacefully in her sleep at the ripe old age of one-hundred and three.”

 

Reading: Tiro

 

Tīrō in familiā Cicerōnis nātus est. Nātus est domī avī Cicerōnis. (Avus Cicerōnis et Cicerō quoque Arpīnātēs erant; Arpīnum est oppidum in Latiō.) Pater Tīrōnis captīvus bellī erat. Pater Tīrōnis servus in familiā Cicerōnis erat. Tīrō quoque servus erat. Sed verna Tīrō erat, nam domī dominī nātus est. Servus Cicerōnis is erat. Multīs annīs post, Cicerō Tīrōnem līberāvit. Sed Tīrō domī Cicerōnis mansit. Quōcumque Cicerō ībat, Tīrō quoque ībat. Cum Cicerōne ad terrās multās adiit.

Tīrō, Tīrōnis, m. Tiro nātus est was born domī in/at the house avus, avī, m. grandfather Latium, Latiī, n. Latium captīvus, captīvī, m. captive servus, servī, m. slave verna, vernae, m./f. ‘homeborn’ slave dominus, dominī, m. owner; enslaver quōcumque wherever

Cicerōnī cārus erat Tīrō, nam multīs rēbus eum iuvābat. Litterās multās prō eō ad amīcōs multōs scrībēbat; Cicerō enim negotium et cūrās multās semper habēbat, et ōtium ad scrībendum nōn habuit. Tīrōnī igitur labor multus erat – tot cūrās habuit. Sed doctus atque callidus erat. Quod labōrem multum habuit, cito scrībēbat. Tīrō novam viam scrībendī invēnit. Hanc viam scrībendī ‘notās Tīrōniānās’ hominēs vocāvērunt; sīc eam vocāvērunt ā Tīrōne. Tīrō notās multas invēnit, et hīs notīs cito scrībēbat. ⁊ est ūna hārum notārum. Haec nota est ‘et’.

iuvō, iuvāre, iūvī to help scrībō, scrībere, scrīpsī to write negotium, negotiī, n. business ōtium, ōtiī, n. leisure ad scrībendum for writing igitur therefore doctus, -a, -um learned callidus, -a, -um clever quod because cito quickly scrībendī of writing inveniō, invenīre, invēnī to discover; to invent novus, -a, -um new nota, notae, f. note, sign

Post mortem Cicerōnis, Tīrō librōs multōs prōdidit. Litterās Cicerōnis quoque collēgit et prōdidit. Litterās hās hodiē habēmus per Tīrōnem. Scrīpsit ‘Vītam Cicerōnis’, sed hunc librum nōn habēmus. Post mortem Tīrōnis, hominēs notīs Tīrōniānīs scrībēbant plūrimōs annōs.

liber, librī, m. book prōdō, prōdere, prōdidī to produce; to publish colligō, colligere, collēgī to collect hodiē today plūrimōs annōs for very many years

 

24. A fresco wall painting from the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor, near Pompeii. The scene sinistrā, on the left, shows a view of an imaginary city (urbs) or town (oppidum). The view dextrā, on the right, depicts an enclosed outdoor space with a circular shrine.