cunda; and Horace, abandoning the usual gender, takes the liberty of saying (Serm., ii., 8, 87), membra gruis sparsi, and jecur anseris albae. (See Bentley's note.)

The following nouns are sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine, without regard to difference of sex: anguis and serpens, a serpent; dama, fallow-deer; talpa, a mole; also sus, a pig; and tigris, tiger; but sus is commonly feminine, while tigris is commonly masculine. Others are of uncertain gender, in as far as they have both a masculine and a feminine form, which, however, are used indiscriminately and without regard to sex. Thus we have the feminine forms colubra lacerta, luscinia, and simia along with the masculines coluber, lacertus, luscinius, and simius, without simia, for instance, having any reference whatever to a female monkey. In like manner, palumbus and palumba (the same as palumbes) are used indiscriminately.

[§ 43.] 6. The following are neuter. All indeclinable substantives, as gummi, pascha, sināpi, and pondo, which is used as an indeclinable noun in the sense of "pound;" the names of the letters of the alphabet, as c triste, o longum, Graecum digamma, &c., and all words and expressions which, without being substantives, are conceived and used as such, or quoted merely as words; e. g., ultimum vale, scire tuum nihil est, vivere ipsum turpe est nobis, tergeminum ooows, hoc ipsum diu mihi molestum est (Cicero), lacrimas hoc mihi paene movet (Ovid), where the words diu and paene are quoted from the sayings of another person, and it is said that the very word diu or paene is painful.

Note.-The names of the letters of the alphabet, however, are sometimes used as feminines, the word littera being understood; e. g., Quintil., i., 4, 11: Sciat etiam Ciceroni placuisse aiio Maiiamque geminata i scribere. The names of the Greek letters in a, as beta; gamma, delta, are used as feminines only by Ausonius, Technop. de Litt.

CHAPTER VII.

NUMBER, CASE, AND DECLENSION.

[§ 44.] THE Latin language distinguishes, in nouns and verbs, the singular and plural (numerus singularis and pluralis) by particular forms; it has also different forms to distinguish six different cases (casus) in the relations

and connexions of nouns. The ordinary names of these cases are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, and ablative. The different forms of these cases are seen in the terminations which are annexed to the crude form of a word. Declension is the deriving of these different forms, both in the singular and plural, from one another, the nominative forming the starting point. The nominative and vocative are called casus recti, and the others casus obliqui.

There are five declensions distinguished by the termination of the genitive singular, which ends:

1

ae

2

3

is

4

ūs

5

ei

All declensions have the following points in common: 1. In the second, third, and fourth declensions there are neuters which have three cases alike, viz., nominative, accusative, and vocative.

2. The vocative is like the nominative, except in the second declension, and some Greek words in the first and third.

3. Where no exception arises from neuters, the accusative singular ends in m.

5. The dative plural is in all declensions like the abla

tive plural.

The following table contains the terminations of all the five declensions:

es.

Nom. a (e, as, es) us, er, um a, e, o c, l, us, 26

[§ 45.] THE first declension comprises all nouns which form the genitive singular in ae. The nominative of genuine Latin words of this kind ends in ă. Greek words in a, as musa, historia, stoa, follow the example of the Latin ones, and shorten the final vowel when it is long in Greek. Some Greek words in ē, ās, and es have peculiar terminations in some of their cases. (See Chap. IX.)

SINGULAR.

Nom. vi-ă, the way.
Gen. vi-ae, of the way.
Dat. vi-ae, to the way.
Acc. vi-am, the way.
Voc, vi-ă, O way!

PLURAL.

Nom. vi-ae, the ways.
Gen. vi-arum, of the ways.
Dat. vi-is, to the ways.
Acc. vi-ās, the ways.
Voc. vi-ae, O ways!

Abl. vi-ā, from the way. Abl. vi-is, from the ways. In like manner are declined, for example, the substanives barba, causa, cura, epistola, fossa, hora, mensa, noverca, penna, porta, poena, sagitta, silva, stella, uva, victoria, and the adjectives and participles with the feminine termination a; as, longa, libera, pulchra, lata, rotunda, lecta, scripta.

Note 1.-An old form of the genitive singular in as has been retained even in the common language, in the word familia, when compounded with pater, mater, filius, and filia; so that we say paterfamilias, patresfamilias, filiosfamilias. But the regular form familiae is not uncommon; sometimes, though not often, we find familiarum in composition with the plural of those words.*

Note 2.-An obsolete poetical form of the genit. sing. is aï for the diphthong ae or ai, as in aulaï, auraï, pictaï, which three forms occur even in Virgil.

* [Consult Appendix v., on the ancient forms of declension.]-Am. Ed.

of

Note 3.-Poets form the genitive plural of patronymics in es and a, several compounds in cola and gena, and of some few names of nations, by the termination um instead of arum; as, Aeneadum, Dardanidum, coelicolum, terrigenum, Lapithum. Of a similar kind are the genitives amphorum, drachmum, which are used even in prose, instead of amphorarum, drachma rum. (Comp. § 51.)

Note 4.-Some words form the dative and ablative plural in abus instead of is-such as anima, dea, filia, liberta, nata, mula, equa, asina-for the pur pose of distinguishing them from the dative and ablative plural of the masculine forms, which would otherwise be the same. The regular termination is, however, is generally preferred, notwithstanding the possi bility of ambiguity; and it is only deabus and filiabus that can be recommended, for the former is used in a solemn invocation by Cicero: dis deabusque omnibus; and the latter by Livy (xxiv., 26), cum duabus filiabus virginibus. Libertabus frequently occurs in inscriptions. The termination abus has remained in common use for the feminine of duo and ambo: duabus, ambabus.*

CHAPTER IX.

GREEK WORDS IN ē, ās, AND ēs.

[§ 46.] 1. In the dative singular and throughout the plural, Greek words in e, as, and es do not differ from the regular declension. In the other cases of the singular they are declined in the following manner:

Words of this kind in è are: aloë, crambe, epitome, Circe, Danae, Phoenice; in as: Aeneas, Boreas, Gorgias, Midas, Messias, Satanas; in es: anagnostes, cometes, dynastes, geomètres, pyrites, satrāpes, sophistes, Anchises, and

* [This termination in abus, however, though now appearing in but few words, was originally the common ending of the dative and ablative plural of the first declension, and was merely retained afterward in a few, as a convenient mode of distinguishing between certain feminines and masculines. In the change from abus to is, Bopp thinks that there must have been an intermediate form ibus after a-bus had weakened the stem-vowel a into, and that this i was subsequently lengthened as a compensation for the removal of bu. Hence terris would arise from terri-bus, for terrã-bus, just as the verb mālo arose from măvolo. (Bopp, Vergleich. Gram., p. 282.) Besides the words given in the text, many more occur in inscriptions and ancient writers. Thus, we have Mirabus (Gruter, 92, 1); nymfabus (Id., 93, 8); and also raptabus, paucabus, puellabus, pudicabus, portabus, oleatus, &c. There is, therefore, no foundation whatever for the opinion that such forms as these were merely brought in by the ancient jurists for the sake of convenient distinction in testaments, although this is asserted bv Pliny (Apud Charis., p. 103, seq.)]—Am. Ed. D

Thersites, patronymics (i. e., names of persons derived from their parents or ancestors, see § 245); e. g., Aeneades, Alcides, Pelides, Priamides, Tydides.

Note.-Common nouns, such as epistola and poëta, which, on their adoption into the Latin language, exchanged their Greek termination 7 or ns for the Latin ă, are treated as genuine Latin words, and no longer follow the Greek declension. But a great many other common, as well as proper nouns likewise follow the Latin declension; and it must be especially remarked that the early Latin writers, including Cicero, show a tendency to Latinize the declension of those words which they have frequent occasion to use. Thus we prefer, with Cicero, grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica, musica, to grammatice, rhetorice, dialectice, musice, and we may say Creta and Penelopa just as well as Hecuba and Helena, although some writers, especially the later poets, with an affectation of erudition, preferred Crete and Penelope. But there is no fixed law in this respect. In the words in es Cicero prefers this Greek termination to the Latin ă; e. g., Philoctetes, Scythes, Perses, sophistes, to Persa, sophista, &c. In the accu sative he sometimes uses en; as, Arsinoën, Circen, Sinopen. (See my note on Cic., in Verr., iv., 18.) But although he would use the nominative Sinope for Sinopa, yet he makes the genitive Sinopae in the adverbial sense of "at Sinope," e. g., in Rull., ii., 20. As to the practice of Horace, see Bentley on Epod., xvii., 17.

2. Greek words in as commonly take the accusative an in poetry, and Virgil uniformly uses Aenean. In prose the Latin am is much more frequent, although Livy, too, has Aenean, and in Quintus Curtius we not unfrequently find the forms Amyntan, Philotan, Perdiccan, and others, along with Amyntam, Philotam, Perdiccam.

The vocative of words in és is usually ē, as in Virgil: Conjugio, Anchise, Veneris dignate superbo; but the Latin vocative in ǎ also occurs frequently, e. g., at the end of an hexameter in Horace, Serm. ii., 3, 187 : Atridă, vetas cur? and in Cicero: Aeeta, Thyesta! The vocative in a seldom occurs, as in the oracle mentioned by Cicero, De Divin., ii., 56: Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse.* Words in es form their ablative regularly in ā, e. g., in Cicero de Philocteta, de Protagora Abderita. The poets, however, sometimes use the termination ē, as in Vir gil: Uno graditur comitatus Achate.

3. Generally speaking, however, the patronymics in ns, genit. ov, are the only Greek words that follow the second declension; and the majority of proper names ending in es follow the third declension; as, Alcibiades, Miltiades, Xerxes. But many of them form the accusative singular in en (as Euphraten, Mithridaten, Phraaten), and the vocative in e, together with the forms of the third declension in em and es. (See Chap. XVI.)

* [The a is here lengthened by the arsis.]—Am. Ed.