Ludi Novi Romani/MMDCCLXVII/Certamen Latinum Augusteum

Rules of the Certamen Latinum Augusteum

1. Questions are posted daily, one question per one day. There will be 7 questions in total.

2. Answers are to be sent to <cnaeus_cornelius@yahoo.com>. If you send in your answer before the posting of the next question (questions will be posted every second day), you will earn 5 extra points as "speed points".

3. Answers may be sent in until the last day of the games: you can answer all questions (#1-7) even on the last day, but in this case, you'll get no speed points.

Question 1 (March 2nd)

I. INTRODUCTION 1 - Verbs in the Present

Verbs are words which express what happens in a sentence: action or state of being, like "to go", "to walk", "to see", "to be".

Latin indicates grammatical information by "inflection": by changing the ending of the words. When English says "I have", "we have", Latin says "habeo" and "habemus". English puts "I" and "we" before the verb, Latin adds different endings, "-o" and "-mus", to the end of the verb.

THE CONJUGATIONS

Latin verbs are grouped into 4 conjugations (verb inflection groups). To determine which conjugation group a verb belongs to, you have to look at the dictionary form of the verb. In the case of the verb “have”, you will find:

"habeo, habére, habui, habitum" (I have, to have, I had, the had one)

When we want to conjugate a verb in the PRESENT tense, we must look at the 2nd dictionary form, the infinitive:

"habére" (to have)

The infinitive, “hab-ére” (to have) shows that this verb belongs to the 2nd conjugation, because all verbs that have the infinitive ending “-ére” belong to the 2nd conjugation.

WHICH VERB WHICH CONJUGATION?

The second dictionary element, the infinitive, determines which conjugation the verb belongs to. The 4 variants of infinitive endings and the 4 conjugations determined by the different infinitive endings are:

-are = 1st conjugation (e.g. amo, amare, amavi, amatum)

-ére = 2nd conjugation (e.g. habeo, habére, habui, habitum)

-ere = 3rd conjugation (e.g. dico, dicere, dixi, dictum)

-ire = 4th conjugation (e.g. audio, audire, audivi, auditum)

Note that “–ere”, which is short vowel, is different from “–ére”, which is long vowel.

HOW TO CONJUGATE A VERB IN INDICATIVE MOOD?

For Present and Imperfect tenses, you shall use the so called "imperfect stem", obtained by cutting of the infinitive endings of the second dictionary form. Cut off the infinitive endings -are, -ére, -ere and -ire, and replace them with the personal endings shown in these tables (follow the links):

PRESENT TENSE (e.g. "I go")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Present_Tense

IMPERFECT TENSE (e.g. "I was going")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Imperfect_Tense

For Perfect and Pluperfect tenses, you shall use the so called "perfect stem", obtained by cutting of the Perfect ending of the third dictionary form. Cut off the ending -i for all classes of verbs, and replace them with the personal endings shown in these tables (follow the links):

PERFECT TENSE (e.g. "I have gone" or "I went")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Perfect_Tense

PLUPERFECT TENSE (e.g. "I had gone")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Pluperfect_Tense

II. QUESTION 1

An important verb in Augustus' life was the verb restituo, restituere, restitui, restitutum ("to restore"). He called his political system, the Principate, a mixed form of government with republican and monarchical elements, as "Restored Republic". He was proud to report in his Res Gestae that he restored 82 temples in Rome and most of the monuments of the City. His life was dedicated to the restoration of older Roman traditions, religiousness and customs. The verb restituo is really a verb of Augustus. Our first exercise will be with this verb.
- Take this verb restituo, restituere, restitui, restitutum ("to restore"), and conjugate it in the Present Tense, and in the 3 Latin past tenses, in the Imperfect, Perfect and Pluperfect tenses. Look at the example with cupio, cupere cupivi cupitum how to do it.
- Send your solution to <cnaeus_cornelius@yahoo.com>

III. AN EXAMPLE HOW TO DO IT:

- There are 4 types, which are differentiated by the infinitive ending: -are, -ére, -ere, -ire. I have to conjugate one from each type. In this example, I choose an "-ere" (short "e") type:

cupio, -ere, -ivi, -itum (wish);

- The 2nd dictionary form (infinitive) is abbreviated as "-ere", which means that its full infinitive form written out is: "cupere".
- The infinitive ending "-ere" marks the 3rd Conjugation.
- In the conjugation table of our website (following the link given above) you will find two columns for the 3rd Conjugation: I-Stem and Consonant Stem. The ending of the 1st dictionary form (cupio "I wish") determines if a 3rd Conjugation verb is of I-Stem or Consonant Stem. It's I-Stem, if the 1st dictionary form ending is "-io". It's Consonant Stem, if the 1st dictionary form ending is "-o", without a preceding "i". For "cupio", it's I-Stem as the ending "-io" shows.
- You look at the conjugation table, Present Tense personal endings in 3rd Conjugation I-Stem, and add the personal endings to "cup-". You will write the following forms:

cupio - I wish

cupis - you wish

cupit - he wishes

cupimus - we wish

cupitis - you (plural) wish

cupiunt - they wish

(6 pts)

- Next, you look at the conjugation table, Imperfect Tense personal endings in 3rd Conjugation I-Stem, and add the personal endings to "cup-". You will write the following forms:

cupiebam - I was wishing

cupiebas - you were wishing

cupiebat - he was wishing

cupiebamus - we were wishing

cupiebatis - you (plural) were wishing

cupiebant - they were wishing

(6 pts)

- Perfect and Pluperfect is formed from the "perfect stem" (the third dictionary form of the verb, by cutting off the ending "-i"), you look at the conjugation table, Perfect Tense personal endings which are the same in all conjugations, and add the personal endings to the perfect stem, "cupiv-". You will write the following forms:

cupivi - I have wished - I wished

cupivisti - you have wished - you wished

cupivit - he has wished - he wished

cupivimus - we have wished - we wished

cupivistis - you (plural) have wished - you (plural) wished

cupiverunt - they have wished - they wished

(6 pts)

- Perfect and Pluperfect is formed from the "perfect stem" (the third dictionary form of the verb, by cutting off the ending "-i"), you look at the conjugation table, Pluperfect Tense personal endings which are the same in all conjugations, and add the personal endings to the perfect stem, "cupiv-". You will write the following forms:

cupiveram - I had wished

cupiveras - you had wished

cupiverat - he had wished

cupiveramus - we had wished

cupiveratis - you (plural) had wished

cupiverant - they had wished

(6 pts)

Question 2 (March 4th)

I. INTRODUCTION 2 - Nouns and their cases

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea, like "mother", "lion", "forest", "birth".

As we saw with the verbs, Latin indicates grammatical information by "inflection": by changing the ending of the words. This is the same with nouns. When English says "The lion eats the father", and "The father eats the lion", the question of who eats whom is decided by word order. In Latin, word order is free and doesn't help to decide who eats whom, instead Latin uses features like the ending "-m" in the word "whom", where the ending "-m" shows that it's the object case (accusative). The form "who", without "-m", is subject case (nominative). English maintains the same distinction between "he" and "him" ("The lion /he/ eats the father /him/." or "The father /he/ eats the lion /him/.") and in some other cases ("I" and "me", "they" and "them" etc.).

In addition to the subject (nominative) and object (accusative) case, English has a third case, in "whose" or "his": the possessive case, called genitive in Latin grammar. Latin went just a little bit further, and added two other cases: the dative, which is the case of the recipient ("to whom") and ablative, which is the adverbial case, and expresses adverbials like "by whom", "with whom" or "from whom". Please note that modern English, although carefully observes the difference between "he" and "him", many times it neglects the difference between "who" and "whom", and people may say things like "who eats who". But in Latin this is impossible and the distinction is always kept. Latin is also more uniform than English, because while English can differentiate between "who" and "whom", or "he" and "him", it can not make difference between "The father /he/ (eats something)" and "(Something eats) the father /him/": both as a subject and as an object "father" remains the same. Well, Latin would add a different ending to the object case: the accusative ending.

Now, let's summarize the Latin cases and their meanings, using the example of "mother" and "who eats whom":

• nominative - the father (eats the lion) SUBJECT (he)
• accusative - (the lion eats) the father OBJECT (him)
• genitive - the father's (lion) / (the lion) of the father POSSESSIVE (his)
• dative - to the father RECIPIENT - INDIRECT OBJECT (to him)
• ablative - by/with/from the father - ADVERBIAL OF MEANS/MANNER/PLACE/TIME (by/with/from him)

THE DECLENSIONS

Latin nouns are grouped into 5 declensions (noun inflection groups), because not all nouns get the same case endings. English has something similar, when the plural of "kid" is "kids", but the plural of "child" is "children". In this case, we can say English has "two declensions", in one declension words get the plural "-s" ending, in the other, although very tiny declension (containing 1-2 words only) words get the plural "-en" ending. But Latin has a great variety, and there are 5 declensions where words can get different endings. To determine which declension group a noun belongs to, you have to look at the dictionary form of the noun.

In the case of nouns, for example, “friend”, you will find:

amicus, -i, m.

This is 3 pieces of information:

(1) amicus;

(2) -i;

(3) m.

(1) amicus; This means that the word “friend” in nominative (subject) case is “amicus”.

(2) -i; The abbreviated form “-i” means that the word “friend” in genitive (possessive) case is “amici” (something of friend, or friend’s something), thus the original ending “-us” changes to “-i”.

(3) m.; The “m.” means that it is a masculine noun. In Latin, all nouns have three genders, they are masculine, (abbreviated as “m”), feminine (abbreviated as “f”), and neuter (abbreviated as “n”). English has a similar phenomenon when we use “he”, “she” or “it”. The new thing in this is that Latin uses these genders for things or abstract concepts, too, like in the exemples above, “loyalty” (fides, -ei, f) is feminine in Latin, the “senate” (senatus, -ús, m) is masculine, “Rome” (Roma, -ae, f) is, again, feminine.

WHICH NOUN WHICH DECLENSION?

This is the most important point. This ending “–i” in amicus, -i, m. determines that “amicus” belongs to the “second declension”, whose identifier is the genitive “–i”. As we have mentioned, there are 5 declensions, and each one of these has a unique, declension-specific genitive ending. It’s important because the genitive ending determines the other inflections as well. The five types of genitive ending and the five declensions determined by the different genitive endings are:

-ae = 1st declension, e.g.: Roma, -ae, f (Rome)

-i = 2nd declension, e.g.: amicus, -i, m (friend)

-is = 3rd declension, e.g.: rex, regis, m (king)

-ús = 4th declension, e.g.: senatus, -ús, m (senate)

-ei = 5th declension, e.g. fides, -ei, f (loyalty)

HOW TO DECLINE A LATIN NOUN?

Cut off the declension specific genitive ending (-ae, -i, -is, -ús, -ei) and replace them with the various case endings shown in this table (follow the link):

http://novaroma.org/nr/Declension#How_to_decline_a_Latin_noun

II. QUESTION 2

Below you will find a selected vocabulary of the first 8 chapters of Augustus' autobiography, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. These all are words written by Augustus himself.
- Choose three masculine OR feminine nouns from among the words below. EACH of the three masculine or feminine nouns must be of DIFFERENT declension. (For example, you can choose a masculine or feminine noun which is of the 1st, one which is of the 3rd and one which is of the 4th declension.)
- Choose two neuter nouns from among the words below. EACH of the two neuter nouns must be of DIFFERENT declension. (For example, you can choose a neuter noun which is of the 2nd and one which is of the 3rd declension.)
- This is in total 5 nouns. Determine which declension they belong to, and decline them in all five cases both in singular and in plural. Write down their translations for each case.
- Choose three verbs, too, EACH from a DIFFERENT conjugation. Determine which conjugation they belong to, and conjugate them ONLY in the THIRD PERSON SINGULAR AND PLURAL, in the Present, Imperfect, Perfect and Pluperfect tenses. This is 4 different tenses. Write down their translations for each item.
- Send your solution to <cnaeus_cornelius@yahoo.com>

res, rei, f (thing, deed, state)

terra, -ae, f (land)

imperium, -i, n (empire, power)

annus, -i, m (year)

exercitus, -ús, m (army)

consilium, -i, n (plan, advice)

impensa, -ae, f (cost, expense)

comparo, -are, -avi, -atum (prepare, set up)

dominatio, -onis, f (domination)

libertas, -atis, f (liberty)

senatus, -ús, m (senate)

decretum, -i, n (decree)

adlego, -ere, -legi, -lectum (enroll)

sententia, -ae, f (sentence, opinion)

iubeo, -ére, iussi, iussum (order)

consul, -is, m (consul)

cado, -ere, cecidi, casurus (fall)

vir, -i, m (man)

creo, -are, -avi, -atum (elect)

interficio, -ere, -feci, -fectum (kill)

facinus, -oris, n (deed)

acies, -ei, f (front line of an army)

ager, agri, m (field, soil)

augeo, -ére, auxi, auctum (increase)

caput, -itis, n (head)

III. AN EXAMPLE HOW TO DO IT:

- There are 5 noun types, which are differentiated by the genitive ending: -ae, -í, -is, -ús, -eí. You have to choose three masculine or feminine nouns from separate declensions, and two neuter nouns from separate declensions. In this example, I will show you only one, when a neuter noun is chosen. Here you have chosen an "-i" genitive type, that is, 2nd declension noun:

auxilium, -i, n (help);

- After analyzing this dictionary form, you see that its genitive abbreviated is "-i", which means that its genitive form written out is: "auxilii". The letter "n" means it's neuter. It will be important: pay attention to the neuter rule (indicated below).
- The genitive ending "-i" marks the Second Declension. It means you have to cut off this "-i" ending of the genitive form, and the remaining "auxili-" will be the invariable stem to which you will add the case endings. Therefore you go to the website, where you notice that there is a "neuter rule" and neuters have a slightly different declension than masculine or feminine nouns. Keeping that in mind, search for the respective neuter singular and plural case endings. You will find them and you will give the following forms, with English translation added:

Determining declension for "auxilium, -i, n": a noun from the 2nd declension (1pt)

SINGULAR

nominative = auxilium - the help (comes) (1 pt)

accusative = auxilium - (gives) help (1 pt)

genitive = auxilii - of the help / help's (1 pt)

dative= auxilio - to the help (1 pt)

ablative= auxilio - by/with/from help (1 pt)

PLURAL

nominative = auxilia - the helps (come) (1 pt)

accusative = auxilia - (gives) helps (1 pt)

genitive = auxiliorum - of the helps / helps's (1 pt)

dative= auxiliis - to the helps (1 pt)

ablative= auxiliis - by/with/from helps (1 pt)

ATTENTION: "gives" and "comes" are added only to mark the difference in grammatical meaning between nominative and accusative. You must use a similar solution in your exercise.

- When you have finished with all five nouns that you had to decline, you must choose three verbs from separate conjugations. As for how to do it, you will find help in our previous Question #1 exercise, so please review the "III. AN EXAMPLE HOW TO DO IT" section of Question #1.

- Don't forget that you only have to give the third person singular and plural ("he" and "they") forms of the three verbs in the Present and three past tenses, with translations. (The determination of conjugation type and each correct verb form will earn 1 pt).