HUM / REL 293 - Beginning Latin
Course Notes - Week 3
"First Declension" nouns, ending in -a, are usually feminine (except for the small group such as poēta, agricola, nauta, incola, pīrāta).
The first declension includes girls' names such as Agatha, Augusta, Calpurnia, Claudia, Cleopatra, Cornelia, Drusilla, Eva, Helena, Julia, Lucia, Lucretia, Maria, Martha, Octavia, Olivia, Rosa, Victoria.
"Second Declension" nouns, ending in -us, are usually masculine.
The second declension includes boys' names such as Aemilius, Africanus, Ambrosius, Antonius, Apollonius, Artorius, Augustus, Aurelius, Britannicus, Brutus, Caecilius, Calpurnius, Claudius, Cornelius, Curtius, Decius, Gaius, Germanicus, Horatius, Josephus, Julius, Livius, Lucius, Lucretius, Marius, Marcus, Octavius, Paulus, Petrus, Pilatus, Pius, Pontius, Publius, Quintus, Rufus, Septimus, Sergius, Sextus, Tiberius, Timotheus, Titus, Valerius.
Not all the names above were in use at the time of the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. Some came into use later, but are included here so that you may choose a Latin name for yourself if you wish
By now we have met the greetings
salvē, salvēte (Hi!, Good day!, literally "be in good health") from the verb salveō -ēre, to be well, to be in good health
valē, valēte (Farewell!, literally "be strong") from the verb valeō, -ēre, -uī, -itum, to be strong, powerful, well.
Another word used for greetings is avē, avēte (Hail! Farewell!) from the verb aveō -ēre, to desire, long for.
So the phrase Ave Maria translates as "Hail, Mary".
If we look at the account in Luke's Gospel (Luke 1:28), we find that the angel says "Ave, gratia plena . .", literally "Hail, grace-filled . .". The Church text has added her name so that we know who is being addressed. "Ave, Maria, gratia plena . ."
The Latin author Suetonius (Lives of the twelve Caesars) records that the gladiators greeted the emperor Claudius with the words "Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant", (Hail, Caesar, those dying/about to die salute you.)
This week's Question Word is quālis - what kind of?
quālis is an Interrogative Adjective - it asks for more details about something or someone.
Because it is an adjective it has to agree with the noun it goes with - Masculine, Feminine, or Neuter, Singular or Plural, and be the same case as the noun.
For this week we will just use the nominative and accusative singular(masculine and feminine have the same endings for adjectives ending in -is)
quālis asks about the subject of the sentence - what kind of person or thing is it?
quālem asks about the object of the sentence
quālis femina est Metella? - Metella est femina occupāta.
What sort of woman is Metella? - Metella is a busy woman.
quālis mercātor est Syphāx? - Syphāx est vēnālīcius.
What sort of merchant is Syphax? - Syphax is a slave-dealer.
quālis canis est Cerberus? - Cerberus est canis fīdus
What sort of dog is Cerberus? - Cerberus is a faithful dog.
quālem leōnem Celer pingit? - Celer leōnem magnum pingit.
What sort of lion is Celer painting? - Celer is painting a big lion.
Note that in the last sentence, Celer is the subject - he is doing the painting.
The "lion" is the object - the thing that is being painted. So "lion", "what sort of" and "big" all take the accusative case.
The house illustrated on page 43 of the Cambridge Course was a brothel. It had an illustrated "menu" painted on the walls, showing in explicit detail what "services" customers could buy there. Graphic directions to the brothel were carved into some of the paving stones of the city streets, and a carving of a grossly exaggerated male on the wall indicated what sort of house it was.
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