31.03.24: 3rd declension nouns in context [4]

[1] Ominous words from Pliny:

nubēs, nubis [3/f]: cloud

mōns, montis [3/m]: mountain

Nūbēs [nominative] - incertum procul intuentibus ex quō monte [ablative]; Vesuvium fuisse posteā cognitum est - oriēbātur, (Pliny 6.16)

The cloud was rising - at such a distance we couldn't tell from which mountain - but afterwards learned that it was Vesuvius.

[The images show an original Roman fresco of Vesuvius and an illustration of the eruption in 1631]

[2] From the Venerable Bede: it’s a very good example of seeing these 3rd declension nouns in one sentence.

hostis, -is [3/m]: enemy; this noun occurs all the time in the literature since there are so many descriptions of battles and is usually in the plural hostēs.

rēx, rēgis [3/m]: king

Sed tantā vī hostis [nominative] ferrum īnfīxit, ut ¦ per corpus [accusative] ¦ mīlitis occīsī [genitive] ¦ etiam ¦ rēgem [accusative] ¦ vulnerāret.

But the enemy thrust the sword with such force, that ¦ through the body ¦ of the slain soldier ¦ he also wounded the king.

[3] And if you’ve read all the sentences about those 1949 schoolboys kicking and punching each other…

… they stop fighting, and to make up:

• Sextus canem Mārcō dat. │ Sextus gives Marcus a dog.
• Mārcus mūrem Sextō dat. │ Marcus gives Sextus a mouse.
• Ambō iterum amīcī sunt. │ Both are friends again.