07.03.24: painting the walls in Pompeii

In the next post we will look at colours. However, as a way of introduction, we can gain an insight into how colourful Roman life was.

If you’re planning on doing some wall painting, then you know that you can’t simply go to the store and ask for blue; the assistant will give you a withering look and ask you what kind of blue you want, and even if you do say ‘royal blue’ or ‘dark blue’ or ‘navy blue’ you’ll still be presented with a colour chart of every conceivable shade of blue.

While the Romans did not have quite as extensive a palette from which to choose, they painted their walls, and the villas in and near Pompeii are covered in frescoes with a breath-taking array of finely painted works often using expensive pigments. One image shows you actual pigmenta, used by a Roman fresco painter. The others show frescoes from villas in Pompeii, Oplontis and Stabiae.

While the Romans did have frescoes of historical scenes, there are many that tell us a great deal about their everyday lives, the places where they lived and the food they ate. Occasionally we see portraits of themselves. Particulary charming are the depictions of a basket of figs ... and a little sparrow eating them!

07.03.24: further practice with adjectives

Read the text for understanding and then focus on the words in bold; they are all 1st / 2nd declension adjectives. Identify the case and number (singular or plural) and explain why that case is being used.

[The Road to Latin (Chesnutt) 1932]

Domicilium Urbānum

Rōmae Cornēlius magnum domicilium urbānum habet. Dominus, domina, fīliī, fīliae, servī, servae, in domiciliō magnō habitant. Cornēlius est dominus benignus; itaque servī bonī Cornēlī dīligenter labōrant. Tullia est domina benigna; itaque servae bonae Tulliam amant. Magnum domicilium est dominō et dominae grātum. Rōmae sunt multa domicilia magna.

Servī et servae in domiciliō Cornēlī libenter labōrant quod dominum et dominam amant. Sextus est servus bonus. Sextus non est līber sed nōn est miser quod dominus est benignus. Sextus nōn est piger; itaque dominus Sextum saepe laudat. Cornēlius multōs et bonōs servōs habet. Servī bonī nōn sunt līberī sed nōn sunt miserī. Servī nōn sunt pigrī. Maria nōn est lībera quod est serva. Tullia est domina benigna; itaque Maria nōn est misera. Maria nōn est pigra. Tulliae servae sunt neque miserae neque pigrae.

Servī et servae nōn sunt miserī quod dominus et domina sunt benignī. Servī et servae sunt laetī quod in domiciliō pulchrō habitant. Dominī fīliī et fīliae quoque sunt laetī. Līberī laetī domicilium pulchrum amant. In domiciliō peristȳlum pulchrum est. Altae columnae peristȳlum circumstant. In peristȳlō est hortus pulcher. Līberōs peristȳlum dēlectat quod est apertum. Domicilium pulchrum Cornēlium et Tulliam et līberōs dēlectat. Domicilia pulchra dominīs Rōmānīs semper sunt grāta.

Multī incolae Italiae magna domicilia urbāna habent. Laeca domicilium pulchrum habet. Laeca est poēta clarus et multam pecūniam habet. Agricolae Rōmānī multam pecūniam nōn habent; itaque domicilia pulchra nōn habent. Multī agricolae viās urbānās timent; itaque in casīs rūsticīs habitant.

Vocabulary

urbānus, -a, -um: city

domicilium urbānum: city dwelling

grātus, -a, -um: pleasing

columna: column

circumstāre: to stand around; surround

rūsticus, -a, -um: pertaining to the country; rustic; rural

cāsa rūstica: country cottage

Notes

Magnum domicilium est dominō et dominae grātum. Dominus and domina are in the dative case because the adjective means ‘pleasing to somebody’. Similarly:

Domicilia pulchra dominīs Rōmānīs [dative plural] semper sunt grāta.

Beautiful residences are always pleasing to the Roman masters.

Explain the reasons for the following adjectives in bold being used with first declension nouns:

1. Laeca est poēta clarus.
2. Agricolae Rōmānī multam pecūniam nōn habent.
3. Multī agricolae viās urbānās timent.
4. Multī incolae Italiae

07.03.24: more on 1st / 2nd declension adjectives

1st / 2nd declension adjectives are so-called because they have the same endings as 1st / 2nd declension nouns.

Masculine: magnus (compare: 2nd declension masculine in -us)

Masculine: ruber (compare: 2nd declension masculine in -er)

Feminine: magna (compare: 1st declension nouns in -a)

Feminine: rubra (note the loss of /e/ when endings are added)*

Neuter: magnum (compare: 2nd declension nouns in -um)

Neuter: rubrum (note the loss of /e/ when endings are added)*

*Not all adjectives in -er lose the /e/ when endings are added:

līber, lībera, līberum (free)

miser, misera, miserum (wretched; unhappy)

1st / 2nd declension adjectives are listed in shorthand: magnus, -a, -um. However, they are also called ‘2-1-2’ adjectives. As soon as you see that term, you know you are dealing with this type of adjective in -us, -a, -um.

In the same way that nouns can be grouped according to topic, so too can adjectives be categorised according to the type of description that they give. For example:

[i] size

magnus: big; great

parvus: small

[ii] shape

rotundus: round; circular

[iii] length

longus: long; far

[iv] height; depth; width

altus: high; tall; deep

angustus: narrow

lātus: wide

[v] character

amīcus: friendly

benignus: kind

ignāvus: lazy; cowardly

piger: lazy; backward

[vi] mood

irātus: angry

laetus: happy

[vii] colour

albus: white

caeruleus: blue

ruber: red

cānus: grey-haired

[viii] appearance

pulcher: beautiful

[ix] age

antīquus: old; ancient

[x] material

ligneus: wooden

aureus: golden

The 1st / 2nd declension adjectives have exactly the same endings as the nouns. Posted is a table summarising those endings.

Some points to remember:

[1] first declension nouns which are male e.g.agricola (farmer), nauta (sailor) have masculine adjectives:

agricola ignāvus: a lazy farmer

nautae irātī: angry sailors

This would come as no surprise to a Russian speaker; the noun dedushka (grandfather) is grammatically feminine in Russian, but the adjective that agrees with it is masculine!

There are some 2nd declension nouns - not many - which are feminine. These, too, will have a feminine adjective agreement:

quercus (fem.) oak

> quercus rubra: red oak

[2] These 2-1-2 adjectives always have these endings. They are not simply imitating the endings of the nouns which they describe; they just happen to share them. The examples below show how the ending of the noun and the ending of the adjective function separately. To illustrate this we will use:

[i] two adjectives which mean more or less the same:

ignāvus, -a, -um (1st/2nd declension adj. in -us): lazy

piger, pigra, pigrum (1st/2nd declension adj. in -er): lazy

[ii] two nouns which mean almost the same:

puerulus (1st/2nd declension noun in -us): little boy

puer (1st/2nd declension noun in -er): boy

Now look at how the adjectives and nouns work together.

[i] Nominative singular: puer ignāvus; the adjective ending remains -us even if the noun has a different ending.

> Vocative singular: puer ignāve!; nouns ending in -er have no separate vocative case, but adjectives ending in -us do.

[ii] Nominative singular: puerulus piger; the adjective ending remains -er even if the noun has a different ending.

> Vocative singular: puerule piger!; nouns ending in -us have a separate vocative case, but adjectives ending in -er do not.

Bearing this in mind becomes increasingly important since, when you begin to study nouns of other declensions, you will see that they have a range of endings, but if first / second declension adjectives are used with them, the adjectives will retain the same endings as shown here.

Masculine: rēx magnus (a great king)

Feminine: urbs antīqua (an ancient city)

Neuter: iter longum (a long journey)

Similarly, there is a second group of adjectives (to be discussed in a later post) which decline differently from 1st / 2nd declension adjectives, and they too will retain their endings even if they are being used to describe a 1st / 2nd declension noun. Therefore, draw this conclusion: the noun will determine the case, gender and number of the adjective which modifies it, but it will not dictate what the ending of the adjective will be because that is determined by the type of adjective. The declensions of nouns and adjectives must be studied separately.

06.03.24: summary of case endings of 1st / 2nd declension nouns

You have now seen all the case endings of the 1st and 2nd declension nouns. Posted is a summary of those endings in the way they normally appear in grammar books i.e. in the form of a table.

Different grammar books may list these in a different order. However, this is the most common way that they are given, and this pattern also follows the online references given in, for example, wiktionary.

The vocative case only changes with nouns ending in –(i)us in the singular. Therefore, no vocative plural is given since the nominative and vocative plural are always the same.

Look at the colours in the boxes; they show where the same ending is used for more than one case. Also indicated are endings that are common to all nouns.

What the tables show is that there are very few ‘unique’ endings that automatically indicate a particular case. This is why it is crucial to become thoroughly familiar with the case endings and, when reading them in context, to examine sentences carefully in order to identify which case is being used.

06.03.24: more practice with the dative case

Translate these simple sentences, all of which use the dative case. The word order is that the indirect object will come before the direct object:

[i] Fīliae meae ¦ [ii] fābulam nārrō. I tell [i] my daughter ¦ [ii] a story = I tell a story ¦ to my daughter.

Magister [i] discipulō suō ¦ [ii] fābulam nārrat. The teacher tells [i] his pupil ¦ [ii] a story = The teacher tells a story ¦ to his pupil.

Although English can translate the dative in two different ways, it is a good idea, at this stage, to use the translation with to so that the dative case is always clear.

Look again at the dative case of personal pronouns discussed in an earlier post.

1. Fīliō meō fābulās nārrō.
2. Magistrī discipulīs suīs fābulās antīquās nārrant.
3. Argentārius mihi pecūniam dat.
4. Argentāriō pecūniam dō.
5. Haec magistra discipulīs pictūram pulchram dēmōnstrat.
6. Nūntius Rōmānus nōbīs litterās dat.
7. Incolīs aquam frīgidam dāmus.
8. Rēx virīs aurum argentumque dat.
9. Puellae agricolīs aquam saepe dant.
10. Nōlō vōbīs auxilium dare.
11. Lūna stēllaeque eīs viam dēmōnstrant.

auxilium: help (noun)

frīgidus, -a, -um: cold

nōlō: I do not want

06.03.24: Ora Maritima

[Ora Maritima: Sonnenschein (1902)]

8. Ex hortō patruī meī scopulōs albōs ōrae maritimae spectāmus. Scopulī sunt altī. Et ōra Francogallica nōn procul abest. Noctū ex scopulīs pharōs ōrae Francogallicae spectāmus, velut stellās clārās in ōceanō. Quam bellus es, ōceane, cum lūna undās tuās illustrat! Quantopere mē dēlectat vōs, undae caeruleae, spectāre, cum tranquillae estis et arēnam ōrae maritimae lavātis! Quantopere me dēlectātis cum turbulentae estis et sub scopulīs spūmātis et murmurātis!

Vocabulary

scopulus: cliff

ab¦est: is distant; nōn procul abest: is not far away

noctū: by night, in the night time

pharus: light house

velut: as, even as

illustrāre: to light up

tranquillus, -a, -um: calm; tranquil

lavāre: to wash

turbulentus, -a, -um: rough, turbulent (e.g. of waves)

spūmāre: to foam

murmurāre: to murmur

pharus: from Ancient Greek Φάρος (Pháros) which referred to the island of Pharos off the coast of Alexandria where the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was located.