52 Perfect Active
“Fine, no swimming for us today; instead you are going to learn how to use another verb tense. You already know three tenses, the Present, the Imperfect, and the Future. Together they form what is called the Present System.”
“The fourth tense is called the Perfect, and belongs to the Perfect System; we will study the fifth and sixth tenses another time.”
“Latin verbs in the perfect have distinctive endings, stems, and translations, which you need to learn – two translations in fact. The Latin verb amāvī, for example, which is in the Perfect tense, can be translated ‘I loved’ or ‘I have loved’. Either way, it indicates an action that took place in the past. It differs from the Imperfect, which describes an ongoing action in the past, because the action of a Perfect verb was completed. The term perfectum means ‘finished’ in Latin, while imperfectum means ‘unfinished’. Hence the names.”
“Let’s start with the Perfect Endings. All of them have the characteristic letter i, except the third-person plural, which is either –ēre or –ērunt. The endings are the same for all verb conjugations (they do not change like those for the Present tense do). They are very common and very important to learn:”
Perfect Active Endings (A)
SingularPlural
1st-ī-imusIwe
2nd-istī-istisyouyou all
3rd-it-ēre or -ērunthe she itthey
“The Perfect Stem is the Third Principal Part of the verb, minus the -ī personal ending. Notice the patterns.”
1st Conjugation (A-Verbs)
amō, amāreamāv–īI loved, I have loved cōgitō, cōgitārecōgitāv-īI thought, have thought mūtō, mūtāremūtāv-īI changed, have changed parō, parāreparāv-īI prepared, have prepared rogō, rogārerogāv-īI asked, have asked
servō, servāreservāv-īI preserved, have preserved spērō, spērārespērāv-īI hoped, have hoped
vocō, vocārevocāv-īI called, have called dō, darededīI gave, have given
“That last one deviates from the pattern.” 2nd Conjugation (E-Verbs)
dēbeō, debēredēbu–īI needed to, have needed to
doceō, docēredocu-īI taught, have taught habeō, habērehabu-īI had, have had iaceō, iacēreiacu-īI lay, have lain teneō, tenēretenu-īI held, have held timeō, timēretimu-īI feared, have feared
valeō, valērevalu-īI was strong, have been strong misceō, miscēremiscu-īI mixed, have mixed
exerceo, exercēreexercu-īI worked out, have worked out
moveō, movēremōv-īI moved, have moved videō, vidērevīd-īI saw, have seen
iubeō, iubēreiuss-īI ordered, have ordered maneō, manēremāns-īI remained, have remained
“Finally, the verb sum:” IRREGULAR
sum, essefu-īI was, I have been
“Every Perfect tense form has two different possible translations, as I was saying. The first is
Simple Past. Every English verb has a simple past form:”
Simple PastI loved, I thought, I changed, I gave, I was (B)
“The other translation is as a Perfect Present. To render in English, we add ‘have’ or ‘has’:” Perfect PresentI have loved, I have thought, I have given, I have been (C)
So how do I know which translation to use?
“It depends on context. A story set in the past will normally use the Simple Past, mixed with the Imperfect. A story set in the present, or a statement that is a general truth, will use the Perfect Present. For now, learn how to translate each Perfect form both ways.”
Sample Conjugation of misceō, miscēre, miscuī, ‘to mix’, in the Perfect Tense (D)
Perfect Stem: miscu– (miscuī minus –ī) SingularPlural
1stmiscu-īmiscu-imus
2ndmiscu-istīmiscu-istis
3rdmiscu-itmiscu-ēre/ērunt
I mixed/have mixedwe mixed/have mixed you mixed/have mixedyou all mixed/have mixed he she it mixed/has mixedthey mixed/have mixed
Conjugate dō, dare, dedī, and sum, esse, fuī, in the Perfect Tense (all six forms) and translate into English both ways. (3)
Amor mē esse sine dīgnitāte docuit; malus fuit deus. (4)
Vōbīs imperium sine fīne dedī. (5)
Egone tēcum fuī? (6)
Mē servāvistī, quisquis es. (7)
Quem timuistis, cōnsulēs? (8)
Nōnne tē virōrum bonōrum vultūs mōvēre? (9)
For in fact I have planned to prepare an army instead of peace. (10)
At night, when father saw the light of the fires, he called my mother. (11)
Through false letters we ordered him to give us part of the soldiers. (12)
“A few verbs in Latin do not have present, imperfect, or future forms (the present system), but start instead with the perfect tense. One of these is coepī, ‘I began’. This verb has regular perfect endings. Its infinitive is the Perfect Infinitive. THE PERFECT INFINITIVE IS THE PERFECT STEM PLUS -ISSE: coep-isse, to have begun.”
Deceptive Fortune began to confuse all things. (13)
Coepī ego mēcum sīc cōgitāre. (14)
“Latin says ‘think with myself’ where English says ‘think to myself’.”
- The Verb eō, īre
“It’s looks like we have a few more minutes before this is ready,” she said, stirring the pot. “Let’s talk about one more very important Latin verb: eō, īre, to go. Its forms are slightly irregular – it belongs to no regular verb family. Its stem is the letter ī – that’s it. In the present tense, in the forms eō and eunt, the ī turns to e. The imperfect and future forms are ī combined with the BA and BO endings you know already:”
eō, īre, īv-ī or i-īI went, have gone Forms of eō, īre (E)
Present Tense
eōīmusI gowe go
īsītisyou goyou all go iteunthe she it goesthey go
Imperfect Tense
ībamībāmusI was goingwe were going ībāsībātisyou were goingyou all were going ībatībanthe she it was goingthey were going
Future Tense
ībōībimusI will gowe will go
ībisībitisyou will goyou all will go
ībitībunthe she it will gothey will go
“The verb eō has two perfect stems – sometimes īv, sometimes short i by itself – and the usual perfect endings:”
īv-ī or i-īīv-imus or i-imusI wentwe went
īv-istī or i-istīīv-istis or i-istisyou wentyou all went
īv-it or i-itīv-ēre/i-ēre, īv-ērunt/i-ērunt he she it wentthey went “These are its infinitive and imperative forms:”
īreto goīsseto have gone
īGo!īteGo, you all! Go out of the city!Ī ex urbe!
You need to go to death, Catiline. (15)
We went away from the town, when he went toward it. (16)
Who was going on the road? (17)
Ad cōnsulem eunt. (18)
Sine mē, Caesar, ībis in Senātum. (19)
“This verb also has many compounds. A Compound Verb consists of a Prefix added to a base verb. Here the prefixes are red– and inter-:”
red-eō, red-īre, red-iīto return
inter-eō, inter-īre, inter-iīto die, vanish, be destroyed
“Other compounds you can figure out because the prefixes are prepositions with an obvious meaning. For example, ad-eō, ad-īre, ad-iī means ‘to go to’. The verb ex-eō, ex-īre, ex-iī means ‘to go out’. Sometimes the prefix appears again as a preposition in the sentence. When that happens, leave out one of them when you translate into English.”
Ab urbe abīte, amīcī! Go away (away) from the city, friends! Quem adībis, Lesbia? Tua fāma interiit. (20)
Cum mors ad nōs adit, anima ex membrīs exit et interīmus. (21)
After adding some vinegar, oil, dates, mint, and salt to the porridge, Latinitas served it to the men, who were drying themselves in the sun after their swim. The oldest and clearly the most
important member of their group was Sallust. He was a bald man who – unlike most Roman men at this time – sported a large curly beard that was half white. Sallust was the Roman governor, or propraetor, of this province, which was called Africa. A prōvincia, she explained, is basically a conquered nation ruled by the Romans.
Sallust was entertaining a Greek visitor from Sicily named Diodorus. The way they spoke made an interesting contrast. Sallust was very slow and deliberate, pausing after almost every word, so that I had little trouble hearing his Latin words, though their meaning often escaped me.
Diodorus spoke much more rapidly, and was completely unintelligible. Another reason I couldn’t follow him, Latinitas explained, was that he was switching back and forth between Greek and Latin. Sallust mostly stuck to Latin, but Diodorus kept slipping from Latin into his native Greek. I had to rely on Latinitas to interpret for me; she had learned Greek when she was a young girl from her cousin Hellenismos. Her translation of their conversation went like this.
“As you know,” Sallust said, “after Julius Caesar defeated the aristocratic Romans who followed Pompey in battle at Thapsus – a town not far from here, towards the midday sun – he put me in charge of this, the province Africa, because of my services for him during the war. He commanded me to defend the border against the nomads who come from the desert to harass the Punic farmers; to manage the grain trade, so the plebs in Roman will have sufficient food; and, finally, to receive veterans from Caesar’s great army and settle them in colonies in this territory.”
“Ah, I have seen their ships sailing into this harbor!” Diodorus exclaimed. “Some days a few, some days twenty or forty, coming from Italy and Hispania and elsewhere. I have also seen the men leave the ships with their wives and children and belongings, and go to the camps outside Carthage’s walls. Merchants come to sell them plows and seed and the other sort of things that new farmers require. I did not know where they were going, but now I understand. They will be led out to the abandoned fields of the Carthaginians, to cultivate them and build new houses there.”
“Part of the Punic land is abandoned,” Sallust replied, “but it is not without owners. The owners watch with sad faces as our surveyor comes to their fields with his rod and measuring chain. As is the antient custom, the surveyor first lays out two roads at a right angle, then in each quarter he defines with his measures one hundred squares of equal size; each square is the allotment for one family; those of higher rank receive more. If a Punic man is dwelling in that square, he must either become a tenant of the Roman farmer or move to the city. Some also join the nomads.”
“A man who loses everything will try anything, even the sword, to recover his property,” Diodorus responded. “There is no justice for these men; when they call upon the gods, they will be heard. It seems to me this policy lacks foresight.”
“I will tell you the truth, Diodorus. Roman soldiers now, after they have finished serving with their generals in wars, descend on the City. There they gamble, drink, and fritter their wealth away. With all their money lost, they sell their talents for a price, committing murders or arson; they rape, plunder, and steal, just as if their own city, Rome, was some barbarian kingdom. But if they go to the countryside and possess land, the same soldiers can become farmers; then the troubles cease. Caesar knows that the Punic men have lost their land, and are indignant. He plans to restore Carthage, to make it flourish again. Those pressed by poverty can put their hands to that massive task.”
Diodorus’ eyes grew wide. “Caesar wants to rebuild a city that almost toppled the might of Rome in three huge wars? This seems madness to me. Even if the people of this city will be farmers loyal to Rome, a generation from today they may not be. Is it not possible that, just as a tree that bears good fruit in its native soil tends to bear bad fruit when transplanted to a foreign land, so these Italian colonists, nourished by the nature of this place, will begin to change their way of life, until eventually they will become hostile to the Roman people?”
Sallust thought for a moment, and replied. “It is possible, what you say; but the opposite may also occur. It may happen that, in time to come, a new Carthage will rise and, by instigating a contest for virtue, will cause the character of the Roman people to move in a better direction. The ancient rivalry of Rome and Carthage once created a competition that favored good artīs, good character traits; traits that vanished from the Romans after Carthage was destroyed. Before then, the ways of the Romans were much nobler, in my view, because…:”
And here Latinitas began to feed me words, so that I could understand directly what Sallust was saying about the Romans of old. See if you can identify the Latin words that correspond to the English words in italics: (23)
Iūrgia, discordiās, simultātēs cum hostibus exercēbant, cīvēs cum cīvibus dē virtūte certābant. In suppliciīs deōrum magnificī, domī parcī, in amīcōs fidēlēs erant. Duābus hīs artibus – audāciā in bellō, et ubi pāx ēvēnerat, aequitāte – sēque remque pūblicam cūrābant.
They were working out their quarrels, disagreements, rivalries with the enemy; citizens were competing with citizens about virtue. In the worship of the gods they were generous; stingy at home; faithful toward their friends. By these two arts – by boldness in war, and when peace came to pass, by fairness – they were caring for themselves and the republic.
Sed ubi labōre atque iūstitiā rēs pūblica crēvit, ubi rēgēs magnī bellō domitī, nātiōnēs ferae et populī ingentēs vī subāctī, Carthāgō, aemula imperī Rōmānī, ab stirpe interiit, et cūncta maria terraeque patēbant, saevīre Fortūna ac miscēre omnia coepit.
But when the republic increased through struggle and justice, when great kings were tamed in war, wild nations and huge peoples subdued by force, Carthage, rival of the Roman empire, vanished down to the root, and all the seas and lands were open, Fortune began to turn savage and to confuse all things.
Namque avāritia fidem, probitātem cēterāsque artīs bonās subvortit; prō hīs superbiam, crūdēlitātem, deōs neglegere, omnia vēnālia habēre ēdocuit.
For greed subverted trust, honesty, and other good skills; instead of these, it taught pride, cruelty, neglect (of) the gods, and to hold all things for sale.
Ambitiō multōs mortālīs falsōs fierī subēgit, aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in linguā prōmptum habēre, amīcitiās inimīcitiāsque nōn ex rē, sed ex commodō aestumāre, magisque voltum quam ingenium bonum habēre.
Ambition forced many mortals to become deceptive, to have one (thing) closed in the chest, another (thing) ready on the tongue, to value friendships and dislikes not based on fact, but based on convenience, to hold the facial expression more (important) than good nature.
“Who can deny that these changes took place after the destruction of this city? And so it may be that a new Carthage will restore the Roman character. Caesar is a man of great foresight; it seems to me he understands this.”
As he was finishing, a small boat pulled up to the breakwater. A messenger hopped out before it was even tied up and came running toward us, making only a brief salute before addressing Sallust, who gestured for him to speak.
“Ātrox nūntius, praetor: Caesar occīsus est! Ā patribus cōnscrīptīs, Brūtō et Cassiō dūcentibus! Marcus Antōnius et Senātus dē imperiō iam certant. Dangerous news, praetor: Caesar has been killed! By fathers of the roll-call (senators), with Brutus and Cassius taking the lead! Marc Antony and the Senate are now competing over imperial authority.”
After the messenger fully described the situation, I could see Sallust’s gaze grow distant; he wandered away to his tent to consult with his officers, while Diodorus pressed the messenger for more details of the murder.
“A week ago, Caesar was assassinated during a meeting of the Senate,” Latinitas explained. “The meeting was held in that same chilly hall where we were studying just recently. He was killed, irony of ironies, while sitting under the statue of Pompey.”
She took the dishes down to the water’s edge to rinse them out. “For a few months Rome was governed a man who, however inhumane when waging war, was willing to forget past wrongs and saw a path forward. Now he is gone; no one knows who will replace Caesar.”
“As for Sallust,” she said, nodding to the tent where his slave attendant was helping him put his uniform on, “the next boat from Rome will contain an order for his recall. His enemies in the Senate intend to prosecute him on a made-up charge of embezzlement. In his retirement he will put down his thoughts on the causes of Rome’s decline in three histories – the Bellum Catilīnae, the Bellum Iugurthae, and the Historiae – the first two of which you can still read, if you want to learn more.”
She handed me some leftover dates. When I finished them, I was back in my bedroom. Out in the street I could hear a police car blaring through traffic. There are emergencies in the place where I live too, and just as important to the persons at the center of them, even if they don’t make the history books.
22. The Death of Julius Caesar, by Vincenzo Camuccini, 1805. Caesar occīsus est, Caesar was killed, at the foot of a statue of his rival, Pompey the Great, show here in the background. Pompey’s statue holds a sphere which represents what the Romans called the orbis terrārum, ‘the circle of the lands’, i.e. the globe of the earth.