I have been translating a story with several ablative absolute phrases but I noticed that if I used a participle phrase the translation still seemed to work. Does this change significantly the original context of the Latin sentence?
Are you translating from Latin to english or vice versa? As ablative absolutes have no grammatical connection with the sentence they form part of it seems difficult to see how you can simply replace them with “participle phrases”. It is possible to rephrase latin so that you dont use ablative absolutes, you would need a conjunction and a dependent clause.
Regibus exactis consules creati sunt.
becomes
Cum reges exacti essent, consules creati sunt.
If you post an example of what you are doing it would be easier to help.
Ablatives absolute can be translated as “with…”,
Some can; others can’t. Some can be translated with an English absolutive construction. There’s no single, mechanical way to translate Latin ablative absolutes into English. You need first to understand what the Latin means, and only then try to express the idea in English.
Ablative absolutes are participial phrases. They can be translated in a variety of ways, and “with” will not always suit. It’s advisable to register them literally first (“his sword having been drawn") and then to find the most natural translation, if you must translate.
EDIT. This crossed with Hylander and largely duplicates him, but I’ll let it stand by way of reinforcement.
My apologies! I had read the original question as “prepositional phrase” and the “with” translation was what I imagined he would be talking about, as it would make little sense otherwise.
You all clearly think this question is about how to translate the ablative absolute into english. I dont see where Hylander’s quote comes perhaps it is from a deleted post. I answered in the way i did precisely because ablative absolutes are participle phrases so the question didnt seem to make sense.
At least this thread has underlined the idea that translation is about transferring the meaning from one language to another, rather than preserving grammatical structures which may or may not work in the target language.
My apologies for stating the question so poorly. Yes, indeed an ablative absolute is a participial phrase but it was the response by Seneca which put me back on track–that is to say an ablative absolute is unconnected grammatically with the rest of the sentence. I went back and translated the story with this grammar point in mind and now everything falls into place. Thanks to all for your help.