hi again
could anyone suggest a book or other source which deals with locatives. im a bit confused. im working through nova exercitia latina (by roberto carfagni). chapter 25, ex 2 deals with locatives. lingua latina a college companion (jeanne neumann) deals with the locative but doesnt have exercises to practise.
thanks for your help.
little flower.
Hi
What exactly is the difficulty? The exercises in ch 25 of the nova exercitia seem quite good at giving you practice in the locative.
The key thing to remember is that the locative case (place where) is only used with the names of towns and small islands. There are other locatives such as domi at home humi on the ground as well some other phrases which I wouldn’t worry about at the moment.
Tusculi, Romae Lesbi (names of towns and small islands) etc but in horto in oppido in bithynia in creta (anything else) etc.
Do you have the basic exercises that accompany Lingua Latina Familia Romana? Locatives are introduced in chapter 6 and exercise 6 has 8 sentences about the locative. Some of the answers to exercise 11 also deal with the locative.
If I misunderstood what you are looking for please let me know.
thanks seneca2008
things like plural only names of places and the different declensions of places is confusing.
i will have to work at it. my tutor (javier) will need to provide me with some practise.
little flower.
Do ask your tutor but I think it is easy to over estimate the difficulty and the importance of this topic.
How many plural only place names are there? How often do you come across them? Athenae is fairly straight forward as is the locative Athenis. If you look at the notes in the margin of the exercise you re attempting you will see that all the forms you need are given. The forms Tusculi and Romae are found in the Lingua Latina text so they are not mentioned in the margin. The marginal notes suggest you use the “in creta” although I think authors differ in their usage.
If you want to read more about the Locative case you could read this entry p 35-7 From Woodcock, A new Latin Syntax. You should probably not bother with the last few paragraphs. It is the most comprehensive treatment I know.
ill. Locatival Functions of the Ablative
- The case which, in Indo-European, expressed position in space or time is called the Locative, but it survives in Greek and Latin only in isolated forms. In the first or -ā declension -i was added to the stem, which produced in Old Latin _Roma_i, etc. By a regular phonetic devel opment this had become Romae by the beginning of the second century B.C., and was then indistinguishable in form from the genitive. Similarly the locative of the second, or -o declension was -oi (cf. Greek οίκοι, ‘at home’), which became -i (e.g. Arimini, ‘at Ariminum’, domi, ‘at home’), and was again indistinguishable from the genitive. A few third declension words borrow this -i from the second declension, as ruri, ‘in the country’, tempori, ‘in time’.
Except in singular place-names of the first and second declension and a few other words such as domi, etc. the function of the locative was taken over by the ablative, which, with common nouns and pronouns, needs to be distinguished in this sense by the prepositions in, ‘in’or ‘on’, and sub, ‘under’: e.g. in urbe, ‘in the city’; in mensa, ‘on the table’; sub terra, ‘under the earth’. But the following exceptions should be noted:
(i) The preposition is regularly omitted with the locatival ablative of place-names (including names of small islands).
(ii) The bare ablative (or locative) is used of a few common words or phrases, e.g. terra marique, ‘by land and
sea’; and often of words which themselves denote a place or district, when they are qualified by an epithet: e.g. loco and locis, regione, parte and partibus, litore, etc.
(iii) The preposition is often omitted with a noun qualified by summus, imus, medius, totus, omnis, cunctus, universus.
(iv) The locatival ablative is used freely without a preposition by the poets in any circumstances.
- Examples and notes: Caes. B. G. 2, 19, 6 in silvis abditi latebant. ‘They were lying hidden in the woods. Ibid. 29, 3 saxa in muro conlocarant. ‘They had placed stones on the wall. Ibid. 3, 29, 3 exercitum in hibernis conlocavit. ‘He placed his army in winter quarters. Caes. B. C. 3, 13, 5 sub pellibus hiemare constituit. ‘He decided to pass the winter under canvas.
Notes, (i) With verbs of placing the ablative of the ‘place on or in which’ is usually preferred, though if the speaker or author has in mind the picture of something being moved into or on to a place, he will naturally use in with the accusative: Cato, R. R. oleas in solem ponito. ‘Set the olives in the sun’ (i.e. ‘put them into the sunlight’). Caes. B. G. 1, 12, 3 reliqui sese in proximas silvas abdiderunt. ‘The rest hid themselves in the nearest woods.’ Livy 41, 20, 7 Cyzici in Prytaneum vasa aurea posuit. ‘He placed golden vessels in the Council-chamber at Cyzicus.’ Sail. Jug. 61, 2 exerci tum in provinciam collocat. ‘He stationed an army in the province.’ The accusative presents a different mental picture from the ablative, but it is difficult to make the distinction in English.
(ii) The idea of ‘position’ is widely extended in a figurative sense : Cic. leg. agr. 3, 12 non parvum sub hoc verbo furtum latet. ‘No petty theft lurks beneath this word.’ Caes. B. G. 1, 31, 7 quominus sub illorum imperio essent, ‘that they might not be under their rule’. Cic. Fam. 1, 2, 4 dignitatem nostram, ut potest in tanta hominum perfidia, retinebimus. ‘We shall retain our dignity, as far as that is possible amidst such great treachery of men.’ Livy 21, 10, 11 scio meam levem esse in Hannibale auctoritatem. I know my influence is slight in the case of Hannibal.’
- Place-names: Nep. 23, 7, 4 ut Romae consules, sic Carthagine quotannis bini reges creabantur. ‘As at Rome the consuls, so at Carthage two kings used to be created every year.5 Cic. Fam. 8, 17, 1 me potius in Hispania fuisse tum quam Formiis! ‘To think of my having been in Spain at that time rather than at Formiae!’ It is to be noted that the preposition is used with the names of countries.
An adjective qualifying a name in the locative usually agrees with the locative form: Cic. Clu. 27 _alter filius Teani Apuli educabatur. ‘_The other son was being educated at Apulian Teanum.’ Livy 32, 9, 3 Suessae Auruncae natum, ‘born at Auruncan Suessa’. Similarly with domi: Cic. Fam. 4, 7, 4 nonne mavis sine periculo tuae domi esse quam cum periculo alienae? ‘Do you not prefer to be without danger at your own home rather than in danger at someone else’s?’ But if a name in the locative has another noun in apposition to it, the appositional noun has to be in
the locatival ablative, usually (not always) with the preposition: Cic. Phil. 4, 6 milites Albae constiterunt, in urbe opportuna. ‘The soldiers halted at the conveniently situated town of Alba.’ But for the omission of the preposition cf. Cic. Arch. 4 Archias poeta Antiochiae natus est, celebri quondam urbe et copiosa. ‘The poet Archias was born in the once populous and wealthy city of Antioch.’
Note. For examples of the omission of prepositions under exceptions (ii) and (iii) noted in Section 51, cf. Caes. B. C. 1, 81, 1 iniquo loco castra ponunt. ‘They pitch camp in a disadvantageous position.’Id. B. G. 4, 23, 6 aperto ac piano litore naves constituit. ‘He stationed his ships on an open and level shore.’ Cic. Rep. 6, 18 terra ima sede semper haeret. ‘The earth always clings to (stays in) the lowest position.’ Livy 1, 33, 8 carcer media urbe aedificatur. ‘A prison was built in the middle of the city.’ Caes. B. C. 1, 2, 2 delectus tota Italia habiti. ‘Levies were held in (throughout) the whole of Italy.’ Cic. Off. 3, 80 omnibus vicis statuae {erant). ‘There were statues in all the streets.’
Other examples will be found, however, in which the preposition is inserted.