The neuters in um are declined in the same way; but in the plural they have the termination a, and the nominative, accusative, and vocative are alike in the singular as well as in the plural. Nom. scamn-um, the bench. Nom. scamn-ă, the benches. Some of the words in er are likewise declined by merely adding the terminations to the nominative, as puer, puĕr-i, puĕr-ō, puĕr-um, puĕr-orum, puĕr-is, puĕr-os; others eject the short e in the oblique cases, as liber (a book), libr-i, libr‐o, libr-um, &c. Those which retain the e are not very numerous, viz. adulter, gener, puer, socer, vesper, Liber (the god Bacchus), and liberi (the children, only in the plural); the adjectives asper, lacer, liber (free), miser, prosper, and tener. To these we must add the compounds of ferre and gerere, as Lucifer, armiger, and the words presbyter, Ibēr, and Celtibēr (plural Celtiberi). The adjective dexter has both forms, dextera and dextra, dexterum and dextrum, although the elision of the e is more frequent. [§ 49.] Note 1. The genitive of nouns, both proper and common, in ius and ium, in the best age of the Latin language, was not ii, but i, as fili for filii, and in like manner Appi, ingeni, imperi, consili, negoti. So at least it was pronounced in the poets before and during the Augustan age, as in Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus. Propertius is the first who, in a few instances, has ii, which occurs frequently in Ovid; and in the later poets, who preferred regularity of formation to euphony, it is quite common. (See Bentley on Terence, Andr. ii. 1. 20.) With regard to poets, the metre must determine this point; and it was in consequence of the metre that Lucretius (v. 1004.), though one of the early poets, wrote nāvīgii, because otherwise the word would not have suited the hexameter. But the orthography of prose writers who lived before the Augustan age is doubtful, on account of the great discrepancy which, on this point as on everything connected with orthography, prevails in the MSS., even in the most ancient ones of Cicero, which have recently been discovered. It is, however, probable that, although may have been written, only one i was pronounced, as was always done in the words dii and diis. The genitive mancipi for mancipii, which occurs in many legal expressions, is a remnant of the ancient practice, and remained in use in later times. Concerning the accent of these contracted genitives, and of the vocatives of proper names in ius, of which we shall speak hereafter, see above, § 33., and Bentley, l. c. Note 2. The following nine adjectives or adjective pronouns, unus, solus, totus, ullus, uter, neuter, alter, nullus, and alius, together with their compounds uterque, utervis, uterlibet, utercunque, and alteruter, form the genitive in all their three genders in ius, and the dative in i; in addition to which uter and neuter eject the e preceding the r. The i of this genitive is long in prose, but in verse it is sometimes made short. (See § 16.) Alterius alone has the i short both in prose and in verse (with a few exceptions, as in Terence, Andr. iv. 1. 4.; see § 850.), according to the statement of Priscian, pp. 694. 958. It is true that alterius cannot be used in the dactylic hexameter without the i being short, but it is used in the same manner in a trochee by Plautus (Capt. ii. 2. 56.). There are only a few instances in which these words follow the regular declension. (See below, § 140.) [$ 50.] Note 3. The vocative of proper names in us ends in i instead of ie, e.g. Antōni, Mercuri, Terenti, Tulli, Virgili. In like manner the proper names in jus, being sometimes softened down into žus, make the vocative in a simple i, as Gaï, Pompēï. But this rule cannot be applied to proper names in ius from the Greek ɛç, as in Arius, Heraclius; nor to those names which are in reality adjectives, and are used as proper names only when filius, deus, or heros are understood, such as Laërtius, the son of Laërtes, i. e. Ulysses; Cynthius, Delius, the Cynthian or Delian god, i. e. Apollo; Tirynthius, the Tirynthian hero, i. e. Hercules. All such words retain ie in the vocative, and in like manner Pius, when used as a proper name, probably formed the vocative Pie. For all common nouns and adjectives, according to the testimony of the ancient grammarians, regularly formed their vocative in ie, as nuntie, adversarie, impie, although there are no passages in ancient writers to prove it. But filius and genius make their vocative fili, geni, and meus (though not mea or meum) makes mi. Deus in the vocative is like the nominative, as O deus! mi deus! What has here been said of deus alone is applied by poets to other words also: they not unfrequently imitate the Greeks by making the vocative like the nominative, e.g. Terent. Phorm. ii. 2. 10.: O vir fortis atque amicus! Horat. de Art. Poët. 292.: vos, O Pompilius sanguis! Carm.'i. 2. 43.: almae filius Majae. Ovid, Fast. iv. 731.: populus. In Livy too it occurs in some ancient formulæ, as viii. 9.: agedum pontifex publicus populi Rom.; and i. 24. : tu populus Albanus; but there is no reason for doubting the form popule, which occurs in other passages. [§ 51.] Note 4. The genitive plural of some words, especially those which denote money, measure, and weight, is commonly um* instead of orum, particularly nummum, sestertium, denarium, cadum, medimnum, modium, jugerum, talentum. Nummum is commonly used in this way in connection with numerals; whereas otherwise, when it merely denotes money in general, nummorum * We do not write ûm, as is done in most editions, for several reasons: 1) because it is doubtful whether this form arose from contraction; 2) because, according to the testimony of the ancient grammarians, no final syllable in m with a vowel before it is long (which would be implied in the circumflex), whence no one would be able to distinguish by his ear such a genitive as nummum from the accus. sing., as Quintilian, i. 6. 17. attests; and 3) because no accents are used in Latin. is the usual form, e. g. tantum nummorum, acervi nummorum. There are some other words in which this is the usual form in certain combinations, such as praefectus fabrum, or socium, from faber and socius; so also duumvirum, triumvirum, decemvirum. Liberi and deus have both forms, liberorum, deorum, and liberum, deum. Poets indulge in still greater licences, especially with names of nations; they say, e. g., Argivum, Danaum, Poenum, &c., instead of Argivorum, Danaorum, Poenorum, and in Livy we find Celtiberum as well as Celtiberorum. We might point out several more isolated peculiarities of this kind, as ephorum in Corn. Nepos, Agesil. 4. Respecting the genitive of numerals (cardinal, and especially distributive numerals), see below, Chap. XXIX. and XXX. Note 5. Deus has three forms in the nom. and ablat. plur., viz. dei, dii, and di, and deis, diis, and dis. The forms in i are the most usual, and in reality only one of them, since dii and diis were pronounced as monosyllables (Priscian, p. 737.), and are most frequently found thus spelled in the ancient MSS. The following words may serve as exercises of declension:Annus, year; corvus, raven; hortus, garden; lectus, bed; medicus, physician; morbus, illness; nuntius, messenger; populus, people; rivus, brook; taurus, bull; ventus, wind. Neuters in um:- Astrum, star; bellum, war; collum, neck; dolium, cask; donum, present; membrum, limb; negotium, business; ovum, egg; poculum, cup; proelium, battle; sepulcrum, sepulchre ; signum, sign; tergum, back; vinculum, fetter. Those in er, genit. eri, have been mentioned above. The following are the most common among those which reject the e before the r: Ager, field; aper, boar; arbiter, arbitrator; auster, south wind; cancer, cancer, or crab; coluber, snake; culter, knife; faber, workman; liber, book; magister, teacher; minister, servant. To these must be added the proper names in er, e. g. Alexander, gen. Alexandri. The adjectives which reject the e are aeger, ater, creber, glaber, macer, niger, piger, impiger, pulcher, ruber, · sacer, scaber, sinister, taeter, vafer. CHAP. XII. GREEK WORDS OF THE SECOND DECLENSION. [§ 52.] 1. GREEK words in os and neuters in ov, which make ou in the genitive, are commonly Latinized in the nominative by the terminations us and um, such as the common nouns taurus, antrum, theatrum, and the proper names Homerus, Pyrrhus, Corinthus. Other common nouns which are more rarely used, admit of both terminations in the nominative, as arctos and arctus, barbitos and barbitus, scorpios and scorpius; and this is still more frequently the case in proper names, so that, e. g., Paros, Delos, Isthmos, and Ilion are used along with Parus, Delus, Isthmus and Ilium. Generally speaking, however, the Greek forms belong more particularly to poets and the later prose writers. Greek names in pos with a consonant before it sometimes become Latinized by the termination er, and sometimes they change pos into rus, and make their vocative in ĕ. The former takes place in by far the greater number of cases, e. g. Alexander, Maeander, Teucer; the only instances in which the termination rus is found are Codrus, Hebrus, Locrus, Petrus. In the compounds of μérpov and a few others, both forms are used, as hexameter and hexametrus, though the latter occurs more frequently. Words ending in os in the nominative may make the accusative in on instead of um, as Delon, Bosporon, Tarson. The nominative plural sometimes ends in oe (the Greek diphthong ot), as in canephoroe, Cicero, in Verr. iv. 3. 8.; Locroe, Quintil. x. 1. 70. The genitive plural in on instead of orum occurs in the titles of books, such as Bucolicon, Georgicon. 2. Greek proper names in ovs, contracted from oos, are in Latin either resolved into ous or end in us, as Alcinõus, Aristonus, Panthus. The vocative of the latter form is u, as Panthu. 3. Some Greek proper names in ws, which in Greek follow the second Attic declension (as Athos, Ceos, Cos, Teos), in Latin either follow the Greek declension, e. g. Athōs, gen. and 'dat. Atho, accus. Atho or Athon; or they take the Latin form, as Tyndareŭs for Tyndareōs, and Cous (for Cos, Kôs), Coo, Coum, ablat. Co, e. g. in Co insula. Athos, however, is also declined as a noun of the third declension with the nominative Athon or Atho-Athonem, Athone. 4. Greek words in sus of the third Greek declension, such as Orpheus, Idomeneus, Phalereus, Prometheus, were pronounced in Latin sometimes eus as one syllable, and sometimes eus. The best way is to make them follow entirely the second Latin declension, as Orpheï, Orpheo, Orpheum, with the exception of the vocative, which (according to the Greek third declension) ends in eu. The Greek terminations, gen. eos, dat. či (contracted e), accus. eă, are chiefly found in poetry; but the accusative is frequent also with prose writers, though Cicero (ad Att. vii. 3.) does not approve of it, as Phalerea, Promethea, Tydea. The terminations ei, eo, ea are sometimes contracted by poets into a diphthong, because the metre requires it. (See above § 11.) Horace makes the genitive of Achilles and Ulixes-Achillei, Ulixeï, or contracted Achiller, Ulixer, as though the nominative still ended in ɛvs. The name Perseus is usually formed by Cicero after the first declension: nom. Perses, gen. and dat. Persae, acc. Persen, abl. Perse and Persa. Livy preferred the second declension: Perseus, Perseï, Perseo (rarely Persi, according to the third, like the Greek IIɛpoɛî), but in the accusative he has more frequently Persea than Perseum. CHAP. XIII. GENDER OF THE NOUNS OF THE SECOND DECLENSION. [§ 53.] 1. NOUNS in us, er, and ir are masculine; those in um and the Greek nouns in on are neuter. 2. Of those in us however the following are feminine: the names of plants and precious stones, as well as those of towns and islands, with a few exceptions. (See above, § 39.) It must be observed, that in many cases where the name of a tree ends in us fem., there is a form in um denoting the fruit of the tree, e. g. cerasus, cerasum; malus, malum; morus, morum; pirus, pirum; prunus, prunum; pomus, pomum; but ficus signifies both the tree and the fruit. There are only four other genuine Latin words in us which are feminine, viz. alvus, humus, vannus, and colus, which however is sometimes declined after the fourth declension, gen. ūs. Pampinus, a branch of a vine, is rarely feminine, but commonly masculine. Virus (juice or poison) and pelagus (тò πéλayos, the * In some words also eă, if the verse requires it, as Idomenea, Ilionēa: ña and εă are Ionic forms, and the Attic ea is not customary in Latin. |