Salvete,
I’m struggling to understand the sentence ‘Dux Romanus militibus fortioribus imperat quam dux hostium.’.
I’m thinking the above translates as ‘The Roman leader with more courageous soldiers comands than the leader of the enemys of the state.’.
My question is is this an example of the use of an ablative absolute? I’d also like to have a correct or at least more eloquent translation.
All help and support is very much appreciated. I’ve found this chapter quite tough but feel I’ve made good progress.
Pardon me as I’m simply trying to correct my typo in the first post. It is of course from ‘Capitulum Duodecimum’. Sorry.
Hi unanimus,
Although an Ablative Absolute can be made of a noun and an adjective, this is less common than noun+participle. So, when reading militibus fortioribus, Ablative Absolute is maybe not to first place to go.
More cogent is the fact that the Ablative Absolute does not depend grammatically on any other other part of the sentence (hence “absolute”, from absolvo):
pace facta constituit cohortes duas in Nantuatibus conlocare
Peace having been made, he decided to station two cohorts among the Nantuates.
If militibus fortioribus in your sentence were an Ablative Absolute, the translation would be something like: “The soldiers being braver, the Roman leader commands than the leader of the ennemy”, which doesn’t make much sense.
The sentence is meant to illustrate the use of the comparative (maybe also to remind the reader that impero takes the dative):
Milites fortes sunt > The soldiers are brave
Milites fortiores sunt > The soldiers are braver
Milites fortiores sunt quam… > The soldiers are braver than…
Dux Romanus militibus fortibus imperat > The Roman leader commands brave soldiers
Dux Romanus militibus fortioribus imperat > The Roman leader commands braver soldiers
Dux Romanus militibus fortioribus imperat quam dux hostium > The Roman leader commands braver soldiers than the leader of the ennemy [does]
Thanks, I can see this now.