Question from Hannibal's end

Latin Learning Latin
1

Dear all,

I just translated some passages about Hannibal’s end:

[1] Carthaginiensis (dono) regis castellum habebat atque ibi se tenebat. Non ignorabat et Romanorum odium permagnum et regis perfidiam.

= The Carthaginian [namely Hannibal] was keeping stronghold of king [namely Prusias of Bythinia] (for offering)…

Dono [present, gift, offering] = ablative of cause, it means that Hannibal kept stronghold to pay for King Prusias cause Prusias has allowed him to come to his kingdom, right?

[2] Itaque cunctis in partibus castelli fores (ad effugiendum) paratas habebat

= Therefore he kept all fleeing gates of stronghold in all directions to be ready <=> he opened all the gates, that made the Roman besiege him very easy, right?

Effugiendum = future passive participle, here it was used as an accusative noun, right?

Cause all the partciple can be used as an adjective or a noun, so when using it that way, is there any rule that regulate the particular use of every type of participle? Or writers can use what they like

For example: the verb effugere will have present participle, past participle, and future participle, could we select one randomly?

Sincerely yours,

2

Hi testsuda,

[1] I understand dono regis as meaning litterally ‘by gift of the king’. Hannibal has the stronghold because the king gave it to him.

[2] Effugiendum is not a participle but a Gerund.

Itaque That’s why
cunctis in partibus castelli in all parts of the stronghold
fores ad effugiendum paratas doors ready for the fleeing
habebat he had.

Hannibal is not opening the main doors of the stronghold to the Romans, he has prepared (secret) doors for escaping if things go bad.

As for participles, their use is dictated by what you want to say, so it is not random.

3

Dear Shenoute,

Thanks so much

I made mistake cause I miss the adverb “non” in “non ignorabat”, so I guessed that Hannibal did not know about the intention of the Roman as well as the unfaithfullness of the Prusias, that leads to the mistake of the next sentence

But at the end, he still not escaped, while he had so many escape doors. Do you know why?

Sincerely yours,

4

Well, there were too much soldiers around the house and the doors he thought were known only to himself were also guarded, so he could not run away.