E-Verb (2nd Conjugation) and I-Verb (3rd Conjugation)

Long I-Verb (4th Conjugation) and Mixed I-Verb (3rd Conjugation -iō)

Present Active Participle Examples

“Before the vowel and third declension ending goes the present stem of the verb. This is how you make a present active participle. Here is the present active participle for a sample verb from each conjugation. The first form shown, like vocāns, is the nominative singular (used for all 3 genders), while the second, vocant-is, is the genitive singular, just as we saw with the adjective ingēns, ingent-is:”

Present Active Participle Examples and Translation

Present Active Participles from Deponent Verbs

“Recall that deponent verbs, like precor, precārī, ‘to pray’, are generally passive in form but active in meaning. I say ‘generally’ because deponent verbs do make present active participles, the same as normal verbs. For example: precāns, precant-is, ‘praying’; sequēns, sequent-is, ‘following’.”

Drill

“Now you practice. Write the nominative singular and genitive singular forms in Latin for these five participles:”

Drill

“Now translate these phrases, and state what case(s), gender(s), and number(s) each Latin participial form could be. For example, docentium, ‘teaching’, could be the masculine, feminine, or neuter genitive plural:”

The ox started licking my neck, so we relocated to the other side of the stable, where we could watch the animals and the performers while we continued.

Ablative Absolute with a Present Active Participle

“Latin speakers can add to a sentence a verbal idea, like the time or context in which something took place, by using two ablative words in agreement. One ablative acts like a subject, and the second like a predicate: ‘(with) [ablative] (being) [ablative]’, or ‘when [ablative] is/was [ablative]’. (Use ‘was’ if the verb of the sentence is past tense, otherwise use ‘is’.) We talked about this on the day we studied Caesar: tē duce, ‘when you are/were the leader’ (more literally, ‘with you (being/as) leader’, nōbīs cōnsulibus ‘when we are/were consuls’ (more literally, ‘with us (being/as) consuls’). Such a pair of ablative words is called an ablative absolute.”

Translating an Ablative Absolute with a Present Active Participle

“A very common form of ablative absolute consists of an ablative noun or pronoun modified by an ablative present active participle in agreement. Such an ablative absolute literally means ‘(with) X (ablative noun/pronoun) verbing (ablative present active participle)’. But you can express this more idiomatically in English: ‘when X verbs’ or ‘when X was verbing’. Use the present tense to translate the participle when the main verb of the sentence is present or future tense; otherwise use the past tense. When translating, you can also infer how the verbal idea of the ablative absolute connects to the rest of the sentence: instead of ‘when’, you can also try ‘while’, ‘because’, or ‘although’.”

“Note that the ablative singular form of the present active participle will usually end with -e instead of -ī when it is used in an ablative absolute.”

Ablative Absolute with a Present Active Participle: Examples

“Now copy down these vocabulary words:”

Vocabulary

A-Verb (First Conjugation)

I-Verbs (Third Conjugation)

Vocabulary

Second Declension Noun

Second Declension Neuter Nouns

Third Declension Noun

Third Declension Neuter Nouns

Fourth Declension Noun

Vocabulary

US-A-UM Adjective (First and Second Declension Adjective)

Third Declension Adjectives

“Ah, there is your astrologer,” she said, pointing.

Manilius

The man she indicated, who was standing near the circus performers, looked to be in his fifties. He had a long pointed beard, a beautifully carved wooden staff, a broad-brimmed hat, and a vest over his cloak that was decorated with images of seven gods who represented the seven ‘planets’ the Romans knew: Lūna, or the Moon, plus Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and Sōl, the Sun.

“That is Mārcus Mānīlius. The Roman son of a Syrian immigrant, he is an astrologer and a poet. He makes his living selling astrological forecasts to clients. Today he is out trying to drum up business with free samples – little poems that forecast the personality and careers of people based on the constellations that were rising when they were born. He is currently working on a longer poem, the Astronomica, that will serve as a kind of free sample for clients that outlines his astrological system. You can still read it today.”

The circus performers were listening as he gave them a lecture on astrology. Manilius had what looked like a game board in front of him, covered in mysterious figures that were arranged in concentric circles. There were seven colored stones on it which he would move around from time to time. At one point I heard him say, Stellae orbēs per haec duodecim signa faciunt, ‘The stars make circles through these twelve signs.’ That clue allowed me to figure out what some of the mysterious figures were:

The Zodiac

At the end of his speech, he asked them, Quis carmen dēsīderat? Who wants a poem? When they nodded, Manilius furrowed his frōns and, after a short interval of deep thought, recited a poem that he scrawled on a piece of parchment and handed to them. (He had composed these poems in advance; a collection of them is included at the end of his Astronomica.) This one said that circus performers are born when the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is in the sky.

Manilius then packed up his board and left. We followed him to a tavern where a group of fishermen were enjoying their holiday and drinking wine. After repeating his lecture and getting what looked like a juicy fish wrapped in paper as a gift, he recited a poem explaining that fishermen are born when Pisces rises.

Manilius, Astronomica: The Influence of Pisces

Manilius’ next stop was an open space across from the tavern where a crowd was watching some young men throw leather balls around, along with a juggler who was the main focus of attention. The astrologer watched him perform for a while, and then recited these verses.

The crowd clapped for him and the juggler took a bow.

I decided, however, that I had gotten a sense of the astrologer’s art, and we departed.

44. Tabula astronomica, an astrologer’s table, dating to the second century CE, from Grand, France. Sōl et lūna in mediō inscrīptī sunt, duodecim signa circa eōs, deinde decānī Aegyptiī sex et trīgintā, the sun and moon are inscribed in the center, the twelve zodiacal signs outside them, then the thirty-six Egyptian decans. Colored stones representing the planets would be placed on the board when casting horoscopes.