The Ablative.
149
Ablative Absolute.
227. The Ablative Absolute is grammatically independent of the rest of the sentence. In its commonest form it consists of a noun or pronoun limited by a participle; as, . urbe captfi, Aeneas fiigit, whm the city had been captured, fled (lit. the city havitzg been capt1tred~. I.
Aeneas
Instead of a participle we often find an adjective or noun; as,-
vivo Caesare res piiblica salva erat, while Caesar was alive tlte state was safe (lit. Caesar being alive) ; Tarquinio rege, Pythagoras in Italiam venit, i,z the reign of Tarqui1t Pythagoras came into Italy (lit. Tarqui« being king). Cn. Pompejd, M. Oraasfi consulibus, in the c011sulship of Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Crassus (lit. P. and C. being consuls). 2. The Ablative Absolute is generally used in Latin where in English we employ subordinate clauses. Thus the Ablative Absolute may correspond to a clause denotinga) Time, as in the foregoing examples.
b) Condition;
as,-
omnes virtiites jacent, voluprate dominante, all vi7"tues lie prostrate, if pleasure is master. e) Opposition; as,perditis omnibus r~bus, virtUs s~ sustentlre potest, thouglt everytht"ng else is lost, yet Virtu« can main tam herself d) Cause; as,nilllo adversante r~gnum obtinuit, sinc« no 011e opposed him, Ile secured the throne. e) Attendant circumstance; as,passis palmis pacem petiverunt, with Itands outstretched they sued for peace. 3. An Infinitive or clause sometimes occurs in the Ablative Absolute construction, especially in Livy and later writers; as,audito eum fiigisse, whm it was heard tltat Ite Itad fled. 4. A noun or pronoun stands in the Ablative Absolute construction only when it denotes a different person or thing from any in the clause in which it stands. Exceptions to this principle are extremely rare.