Ch 10 · Lesson 10Latin · Chapter 10 · Lesson 10 · Grammar primer
The ablative absolute: urbe capta
, once the city had been taken: two words in the ablative where English needs a clause. The shape and the perfect participle; the other shapes and translating it come next.
The short version
Two words in the ablative, standing outside the sentence
Why?Hide
A noun in the ablative plus a participle agreeing with it, with no grammatical connection to the main clause: , , once the city had been taken, the soldiers went back. The hard condition is the absolute part. The noun must have no other job in the sentence, so if it is already the subject or the object you want a plain agreeing participle instead. Caesar built his narrative out of these.
A perfect participle means it was over first
, .
Why?Hide
In , , the perfect passive participle puts the giving of the signal before the flight: when the signal had been given, the enemy fled. English after, when or once fits. This is by far the commonest kind of ablative absolute.
An ablative absolute is a noun and a participle, both in the ablative, carrying a whole clause in two words: , once the city had been taken. It stands outside the grammar of the main sentence, and English has to unfold it into a clause.
| Participle | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| perfect | , . | Once the city had been taken, the soldiers returned. |
| present | , . | As the sun was rising, they set sail. |
| none | Cicerone , . | When Cicero was , there was no war. |
The shape
A noun in the ablative, a participle in the ablative agreeing with it, and no grammatical tie to the rest. Delete and is still a whole sentence.
| Pair | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| singular | , . | When the signal had been given, the enemy fled. |
| plural | , . | Once the enemy had been beaten, they returned. |
Absolute means loosened, from , to set free: an ablative absolute is an ablative loosened from its sentence.
Absolute or ordinary participle?
The test is one question: does the noun already have a job in the main clause? If it does, the participle simply agrees with it; only a noun with no job goes absolute.
| Type | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| ordinary | . | The king saw the captured city. |
| absolute | , . | Once the city was taken, the king left. |
| ordinary | . | The defeated soldiers fled. |
| absolute | , . | Once the soldiers were beaten, the king fled. |
In the first line the city is what the king saw, so agrees with as the object. In the second, the city has no part in the king's leaving. Classical writers mostly keep to this rule; the breaches you will meet are worth noticing, not imitating.
The perfect participle: done before
By far the commonest kind. The perfect passive participle means the action was over before the main verb happened.
| Latin | English |
|---|---|
| when the signal had been given |
| after these words had been spoken |
| having learned this |
| once peace had been made |
The Vulgate's account of the crucifixion ends on one:
inclinato.And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. (John 19:30, Vulgate)
Inclinato is literally his head having been bowed. Latin has no perfect active participle for ordinary verbs, so it cannot say having bowed; the ablative absolute is the standard way round, and Caesar's war narrative runs on it.
Going further: The present participle: at the same time and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
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