can Latin adjective be used as perfect passive ?

Here you can discuss all things Latin. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Latin, and more.
Post Reply
achilles005
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 12:00 pm

can Latin adjective be used as perfect passive ?

Post by achilles005 »

In Tacitus Ann. 1.3, there is a setence like this:

ut Agrippa vita concessit , Lucium Caesarem euntem ad Hispanensis exercitus, Gaium remeantemacc Armenia et vulnere invalidum mors fato propera vel novercae Liviae dolus abstulit, ...

here, for the phrase "vulnere invalidum", I don't know if the term invalidum used as adjective (acc. of invalidum), or as passive perfect participle (p.p.p. of some verb)? Some people translate the phrase as "weakened by wound", if this is correct, then it seems to me that invalidum should be seen as p.p.p., but what is the verb? I didn't find the verb in OLD.

I will be grateful if some one can give me a clue!

anphph
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 593
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:35 am

Re: can Latin adjective be used as perfect passive ?

Post by anphph »

Perfect participles have -tum, not -dum. There are cases where the confusion might arise (and it's only going to be solved in an ad hoc basis), but here it's certainly not the case. The translation that you quote is fine, but it's merely interpreting the adjective: invālidum is modelled against vālidum (but, unlike the former, which has the verb valēo, invālidum does not respond to any verb).

The broader answer is that sometimes it might be aspectual. Fenestra aperta est. can mean both "The window is open." and "The window was opened." In the first instance aperta is an adjective, in the second a participle. The trick is of course to realize that participles are a subset of adjectives, and that "The window is [now] open" is an alternative way of communicating that "The window was opened [in the past]."

achilles005
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 12:00 pm

Re: can Latin adjective be used as perfect passive ?

Post by achilles005 »

anphph wrote:Perfect participles have -tum, not -dum. There are cases where the confusion might arise (and it's only going to be solved in an ad hoc basis), but here it's certainly not the case. The translation that you quote is fine, but it's merely interpreting the adjective: invālidum is modelled against vālidum (but, unlike the former, which has the verb valēo, invālidum does not respond to any verb).

The broader answer is that sometimes it might be aspectual. Fenestra aperta est. can mean both "The window is open." and "The window was opened." In the first instance aperta is an adjective, in the second a participle. The trick is of course to realize that participles are a subset of adjectives, and that "The window is [now] open" is an alternative way of communicating that "The window was opened [in the past]."
Thanks very much for your answer!!! :D :D

Post Reply