Loci Immutati #14

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tbearzhang
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Loci Immutati #14

Post by tbearzhang »

Original Sentence:

Nec esuriens Ptolemaeus ederat, cui cum peragranti Aegyptum, comitibus non consecutis cibarius in casa panis datus esset, nihil visum est illo pane iucundius.

My translation:

And Ptolemaeus had not eaten being hungry, to whom when wandering through Egypt, ordinary (coarse) bread had been given in (a) house not to his companions (who) followed, nothing seemed more pleasant than that bread.

Question:

a. What is the case of "comitibus non consecutis"?

In my translation I translated it as Dat. pl., i.e. the bread had been given to Ptolemaeus but not to his companions who followed. I thought about it being Abl. pl., thus "comitibus non consecutis" would be the agent of the action "datus est", but in this case it would require a preposition "ab", right?

b. What does this sentence mean?

I understand the general sense of the sentence, but am puzzled by the meaning of "comitibus non consecutis". Basically Ptolemaeus, when traveling through Egypt, was given coarse unrefined bread (when he was hungry) and he thought nothing was more pleasant. But where does "comitibus non consecutis" fit into the picture?
行勝於言
FACTA NON VERBA

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bedwere
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Re: Loci Immutati #14

Post by bedwere »

comitibus non consecutis is ablative absolute and not the agent of the action datus est. If that were the case, it would not have been ablative absolute but ablative with a/ab. With this in mind, it should make sense to you.

tbearzhang
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Joined: Sat May 28, 2016 7:33 am
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Re: Loci Immutati #14

Post by tbearzhang »

bedwere wrote:comitibus non consecutis is ablative absolute and not the agent of the action datus est. If that were the case, it would not have been ablative absolute but ablative with a/ab. With this in mind, it should make sense to you.
Thank you!

Yeah, I actually thought about the ablative absolute as I was typing the post...

I'm more used to the ablative absolute separated from the main sentence with a comma, but I guess it can be used without a comma as well.
行勝於言
FACTA NON VERBA

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