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The Ablative of Description sneaks into CLC in Stage 30. At this point we have had Ablative of Means (and Cause?) for two stages, Ablative of Manner without cum as well as the beginnings of Ablative of Respect for one stage. Ablative Absolutes show up in Stage 31, and in fact there seems to be a lot of overlap between what look like Ablative Absolutes and Ablative of Description. Thus time to investigate more fully.
But first, from the grammarians…
Ablative of Quality (Descriptive Ablative). Gildersleeve and Lodge, p 257
400. The Ablative of Quality has no Preposition, and always takes an Adjective or an equivalent.
[Hannibalis] nōmen erat magnā apud omnēs glōriā, the name of Hannibal was glorious in the esteem of all the world. (āgēsilāus) statūrā fuit humilī; Agesilāus was (a man) of low stature. ista turpiculō puella nāsō, that girl of yours with the ugly nose. clāvī ferreī digitī pollicis crassitūdine, iron nails of the thickness of your thumb.
Remarks.—
1. External and transient qualities are put by preferences in the Ablative; Measure, Number, Time, and Space are put in the Genitive only; parts of the body in the Ablative only. Otherwise there is often no difference.
2. Of unnatural productions cum may be used: agnus cum suillō capite, a lamb with a swine’s head.
Descriptive Ablative, Hale & Buck, p 232
443. Kind or External Aspect may be expressed by the Ablative of a Noun accompanied by a modifier; also, in a few phrases, Situation or Mental Condition. The construction may be either appositive or predicative.
C. Valerium Procillum, summā virtūte adulēscentem, Gaius Valerius Procillus, a young man of the greatest courage.
C. Gracchus, clārissimō patre, avō, maiōribus, Gaius Gracchus, a man with a distinguished father, grandfather, and ancestors in general.
“sed quā faciēst?” “dīcam tibi: macilentō ōre, nāsō acūtō, corpore albō, oculīs nigrīs.” But of what appearance is he?” “I’ll tell you: he is a man with a spare face, a sharp nose, white skin, and black eyes.”
relīquit quōs virōs! quantō aere aliēnō! What men he left behind him! How deep in debt (in how great debt)! (Situation)
equidem cum spē sum maximā, tum maiōre etiam animō, I for my part am in a state not only of the greatest hope, but of a still greater determination. (Mental Condition)
Ablative of Quality, Bennett’s New Latin Grammar (on the SPQR ap)
224. The Ablative, modified by an adjective, is used to denote quality; as,--
puella eximiā formā, a girl of exceptional beauty; vir singulārī industriā, a man of singular industry.
1. The Ablative of Quality may also be used predicatively; as, --
est magnā prūdentiā, he is (a man) of great wisdom; bonō animā sunt, they are of good courage.
2. In place of the Adjective we sometimes find a limiting Genitive; as,--
sunt speciē et colōre taurī, they are of the appearance and color of a bull
3. In poetry the Ablative of Quality sometimes denotes material; as,--
scopulīs pendentibus antrum, a cave of arching rocks
Language Information section in CLC Unit 4
5. The ablative of description usually refers to the physical qualities of a person:
praecō erat homō malignīs oculīs. The herald was a man with spiteful eyes.
Here then are the sentences I found in the text:
· 30 Salvius pavōre paene cōnfectus clausīs oculīs ad sēdem haerēbat.
· 31 quae tamen, clāmōribus fabrōrum neglēctīs, vultū serēnō celeriter praeteriit.
· 31 aliī, scissīs togīs ruptīsque calceīs, per lutum lentē ībant.
· 31 omnēs, oculīs in iānuam dēfīxīs, patrōnī favōrem exspectābant.
· 32 Euphrosynē autem, ad iānuam triclīniī vultū serēnō prōgressa, convīvās pugnantēs ita adlocūta est…
· 33 sed priusquam ille plūra ageret, vir quīdam statūrā brevī vultūque sevērō prōgressus magnā vōce silentium poposcit.
· 33 oculīs in eum statim conversīs, spectātōrēs quis esset et quid vellet rogābant.
· 33 oculīs in eō fīxīs fābulam intentē spectābat.
· 33 Domitia contrā, quae quamquam perterrita erat in lectō manēbat vultū compositō, Olympō imperāvit ut aliquōs versūs recitāret.
· 34 tum manibus ad caelum sublātīs nōmen Salviī dētestātus est.
· 37 dum senātōrēs anxiī inter sē colloquuntur, ingressus est Domitiānus vultū ita compositō ut nēmō intellegere posset utrum īrātus an laetus esset.
· 37 Crispus diū tacēbat; superciliīs contractīs quasi rem cōgitāret, oculōs humī dēfīxit.
· 40 Salvius, iam metū cōnfectus, ad cūriam lectīcā vectus est; fīliō comitante, manibus extentīs, Domitiānō lentē ac suppliciter appropinquāvit.
· 40 quī Salvium vultū compositō excēpit; crīminibus recitātīs, pauca dē Salviō ipsō addidit:…
· 40 vōce ferōcī, vultū minantī, oculīs ardentibus, verbīs īnfestissimīs Salvium vehementer oppugnāvit.
One reason why I confess I hadn’t really noticed that we had Ablative of Description in CLC is that for the most part they show up around the time we learn Ablative Absolutes. And the vast majority of the example above are with participles. While some clearly are not Ablative Absolutes from position and usage, others may well be. There’s overlap (or is there?), which is probably no big deal at all. And it’s not like you can’t understand the Latin without knowing what you are seeing is Ablative of Description. Yet, if you leap into AP Latin in year 4, you will want to squeeze every well-demonstrated construction out of this textbook series, whether it’s discussed expressly in the book or not.
The first Ablative of Description we meet is in Stage 30 when Salvius is being raised on the crane to see the view of the city. Salvius pavōre paene cōnfectus clausīs oculīs ad sēdem haerēbat. Because we have yet to meet Ablative Absolutes, neither myself nor my students considers this participle-noun pair to be anything other than that, and since it’s in the ablative and we have learned that ablatives without a preposition can be “by” or “with,” it is very easy to arrive at “with his eyes closed.”
Now in Stage 31, where we meet the Ablative Absolute, we get three Ablatives of Description, and two of those look more like Ablative Absolutes. I am sure that I am not alone in working very hard to teach the concept of Ablative Absolute. I actually really like Ablative Absolutes and I try to convey how cool Ablative Absolutes are to my students. I am also stricter with what I allow for translations (certainly at first) than what you will find in the teacher’s guide for CLC. I start with “after X had been done” and “while X was being done,” and then start tweaking this when Ablative Absolutes with deponents are introduced, when I usually say that sometimes it just sounds better to say for fīliō comitante “with his son accompanying” than “while his son was accompanying.” If we come across phrases that don’t sound natural, I will focus on the Latin and what is going on in the Latin (that it is “absolutely on its own”), etc.
Late in the year last year I realized that the reason some sounded odd or wouldn’t fit my “after X had been done” was because these weren’t just Ablative Absolutes (or maybe not at all) but (also) Ablative of Description. Of the instances listed above, only vultū serēnō in Stage 31, statūrā brevī vultūque sevērō in Stage 33, and vōce ferōcī in Stage 40 do not have participles. Let’s look at those first. “With a calm expression” is easy and thus easily overlooked (the old “try ‘by’ or ‘with’” method), but the next one, statūrā brevī vultūque sevērō, is one of those that’s easier to understand in Latin than (for students) to put into English—“with a short stature and a severe face” can work, but I have never been described as “with a short stature” for all of my 5 feet. “Short in stature” but that will seem too loose for students. After all, they want a simple X = Y sort of thing. If I had been thinking all along that these were Ablative of Description, I could at least give students something more to grasp—to expect this especially when describing a person, particularly body parts—so they don’t think that ablatives can just do what they want wherever they want in a sentence.
The last of these, vōce ferōcī, actually comes in a string of ablatives—the very string that woke me up to what I was so poorly explaining to students: vōce ferōcī, vultū minantī, oculīs ardentibus, verbīs īnfestissimīs Salvium vehementer oppugnāvit. By Stage 40 students are fairly efficient at recognizing present participles used in Ablative Absolutes but “while his face was menacing” and “while his eyes were burning” just don’t make sense. For many years I have brushed this aside as “sometimes it just sounds better saying ‘with’—‘with a threating expression, with burning eyes’” and not given it a second thought. But this year it suddently dawned on me that we have a string of Ablative of Descriptions, describing Quintus’ attack on Salvius in court. The fourth ablative verbīs īnfestissimīs I take as an Ablative of Means. And it almost doesn’t matter—we get the picture, we see Quintus in our head as he goes after that rat bastard Salvius!
But here’s where it makes a difference to me: the book has been sneaking in Ablative of Descriptions along with Ablative Absolutes all along; being able to discern the function would help with understanding. If I armed students with the knowledge that descriptions, particularly those involving body parts, were governed by the ablative and sometimes looked like Ablative Absolutes or even were in a way Ablative Absolutes but sounded better translated as “with” or similar, it could help.
I have never liked the “eyes fixed” phrases, though I totally comprehend them. I was always trying to treat them solely as Ablative Absolutes. But let’s look at them:
omnēs, oculīs in iānuam dēfīxīs, patrōnī favōrem exspectābant. (31)
oculīs in eum statim conversīs, spectātōrēs quis esset et quid vellet rogābant. (33)
oculīs in eō fīxīs fābulam intentē spectābat. (33)
Translated as pure Ablative Absolutes (or at least how I do it), “after their eyes had been fixed onto the door” or “after their eyes had immediately turned onto him” or “after her eyes were fixed on him” all sound bizarre. (Images of eyeballs being nailed to the door…) No matter; the phrase is functioning separately from the main clause—or set apart from the main clause, as Ablative Absolutes are. But if we acknowledge that these are also functioning as Ablative of Description with a part of the body, in this case eyes, students can have a more concrete feeling of how to deal with these phrases—“with their eyes fixed onto the door” etc. Yes, of course, I could give them more variables for understanding the Ablative Absolute from the beginning, but I find that it is easier in general to start narrow and then broaden interpretations. And actually, now that I’m staring at these sentences, I don’t really feel like their eyes had to be fixed on the door first in order wait for the favor of their patron. Surely this was going on WHILE they were waiting? And surely their eyes were turned WHILE they were asking who the guy was? And surely Domitia was staring at Paris the whole time he was doing his pantomime? So then these are not Ablative Absolutes.
Another sentence that really bothered me in Stage 31 where Ablative Absolutes are introduced is this one: aliī, scissīs togīs ruptīsque calceīs, per lutum lentē ībant. Again, like the oculīs fīxīs phrases, it’s like they tore their togas before trekking through the mud as if serving a penance. This is describing their lowly status! Ablative of Description. I could go through the rest in a similar fashion and you would see what I mean about these hidden Ablative of Descriptions that seem to be disguised as Ablative Absolutes if one is just looking at it being a noun and participle in the ablative case together. Meaning of course is so important. And yes, from the context many if not most students will have understood what these phrases meant, even if they weren’t sure of why. But now I have more to offer them and it will prepare them better for those Ablative of Description that come up in AP literature.
But first, from the grammarians…
Ablative of Quality (Descriptive Ablative). Gildersleeve and Lodge, p 257
400. The Ablative of Quality has no Preposition, and always takes an Adjective or an equivalent.
[Hannibalis] nōmen erat magnā apud omnēs glōriā, the name of Hannibal was glorious in the esteem of all the world. (āgēsilāus) statūrā fuit humilī; Agesilāus was (a man) of low stature. ista turpiculō puella nāsō, that girl of yours with the ugly nose. clāvī ferreī digitī pollicis crassitūdine, iron nails of the thickness of your thumb.
Remarks.—
1. External and transient qualities are put by preferences in the Ablative; Measure, Number, Time, and Space are put in the Genitive only; parts of the body in the Ablative only. Otherwise there is often no difference.
2. Of unnatural productions cum may be used: agnus cum suillō capite, a lamb with a swine’s head.
Descriptive Ablative, Hale & Buck, p 232
443. Kind or External Aspect may be expressed by the Ablative of a Noun accompanied by a modifier; also, in a few phrases, Situation or Mental Condition. The construction may be either appositive or predicative.
C. Valerium Procillum, summā virtūte adulēscentem, Gaius Valerius Procillus, a young man of the greatest courage.
C. Gracchus, clārissimō patre, avō, maiōribus, Gaius Gracchus, a man with a distinguished father, grandfather, and ancestors in general.
“sed quā faciēst?” “dīcam tibi: macilentō ōre, nāsō acūtō, corpore albō, oculīs nigrīs.” But of what appearance is he?” “I’ll tell you: he is a man with a spare face, a sharp nose, white skin, and black eyes.”
relīquit quōs virōs! quantō aere aliēnō! What men he left behind him! How deep in debt (in how great debt)! (Situation)
equidem cum spē sum maximā, tum maiōre etiam animō, I for my part am in a state not only of the greatest hope, but of a still greater determination. (Mental Condition)
Ablative of Quality, Bennett’s New Latin Grammar (on the SPQR ap)
224. The Ablative, modified by an adjective, is used to denote quality; as,--
puella eximiā formā, a girl of exceptional beauty; vir singulārī industriā, a man of singular industry.
1. The Ablative of Quality may also be used predicatively; as, --
est magnā prūdentiā, he is (a man) of great wisdom; bonō animā sunt, they are of good courage.
2. In place of the Adjective we sometimes find a limiting Genitive; as,--
sunt speciē et colōre taurī, they are of the appearance and color of a bull
3. In poetry the Ablative of Quality sometimes denotes material; as,--
scopulīs pendentibus antrum, a cave of arching rocks
Language Information section in CLC Unit 4
5. The ablative of description usually refers to the physical qualities of a person:
praecō erat homō malignīs oculīs. The herald was a man with spiteful eyes.
Here then are the sentences I found in the text:
· 30 Salvius pavōre paene cōnfectus clausīs oculīs ad sēdem haerēbat.
· 31 quae tamen, clāmōribus fabrōrum neglēctīs, vultū serēnō celeriter praeteriit.
· 31 aliī, scissīs togīs ruptīsque calceīs, per lutum lentē ībant.
· 31 omnēs, oculīs in iānuam dēfīxīs, patrōnī favōrem exspectābant.
· 32 Euphrosynē autem, ad iānuam triclīniī vultū serēnō prōgressa, convīvās pugnantēs ita adlocūta est…
· 33 sed priusquam ille plūra ageret, vir quīdam statūrā brevī vultūque sevērō prōgressus magnā vōce silentium poposcit.
· 33 oculīs in eum statim conversīs, spectātōrēs quis esset et quid vellet rogābant.
· 33 oculīs in eō fīxīs fābulam intentē spectābat.
· 33 Domitia contrā, quae quamquam perterrita erat in lectō manēbat vultū compositō, Olympō imperāvit ut aliquōs versūs recitāret.
· 34 tum manibus ad caelum sublātīs nōmen Salviī dētestātus est.
· 37 dum senātōrēs anxiī inter sē colloquuntur, ingressus est Domitiānus vultū ita compositō ut nēmō intellegere posset utrum īrātus an laetus esset.
· 37 Crispus diū tacēbat; superciliīs contractīs quasi rem cōgitāret, oculōs humī dēfīxit.
· 40 Salvius, iam metū cōnfectus, ad cūriam lectīcā vectus est; fīliō comitante, manibus extentīs, Domitiānō lentē ac suppliciter appropinquāvit.
· 40 quī Salvium vultū compositō excēpit; crīminibus recitātīs, pauca dē Salviō ipsō addidit:…
· 40 vōce ferōcī, vultū minantī, oculīs ardentibus, verbīs īnfestissimīs Salvium vehementer oppugnāvit.
One reason why I confess I hadn’t really noticed that we had Ablative of Description in CLC is that for the most part they show up around the time we learn Ablative Absolutes. And the vast majority of the example above are with participles. While some clearly are not Ablative Absolutes from position and usage, others may well be. There’s overlap (or is there?), which is probably no big deal at all. And it’s not like you can’t understand the Latin without knowing what you are seeing is Ablative of Description. Yet, if you leap into AP Latin in year 4, you will want to squeeze every well-demonstrated construction out of this textbook series, whether it’s discussed expressly in the book or not.
The first Ablative of Description we meet is in Stage 30 when Salvius is being raised on the crane to see the view of the city. Salvius pavōre paene cōnfectus clausīs oculīs ad sēdem haerēbat. Because we have yet to meet Ablative Absolutes, neither myself nor my students considers this participle-noun pair to be anything other than that, and since it’s in the ablative and we have learned that ablatives without a preposition can be “by” or “with,” it is very easy to arrive at “with his eyes closed.”
Now in Stage 31, where we meet the Ablative Absolute, we get three Ablatives of Description, and two of those look more like Ablative Absolutes. I am sure that I am not alone in working very hard to teach the concept of Ablative Absolute. I actually really like Ablative Absolutes and I try to convey how cool Ablative Absolutes are to my students. I am also stricter with what I allow for translations (certainly at first) than what you will find in the teacher’s guide for CLC. I start with “after X had been done” and “while X was being done,” and then start tweaking this when Ablative Absolutes with deponents are introduced, when I usually say that sometimes it just sounds better to say for fīliō comitante “with his son accompanying” than “while his son was accompanying.” If we come across phrases that don’t sound natural, I will focus on the Latin and what is going on in the Latin (that it is “absolutely on its own”), etc.
Late in the year last year I realized that the reason some sounded odd or wouldn’t fit my “after X had been done” was because these weren’t just Ablative Absolutes (or maybe not at all) but (also) Ablative of Description. Of the instances listed above, only vultū serēnō in Stage 31, statūrā brevī vultūque sevērō in Stage 33, and vōce ferōcī in Stage 40 do not have participles. Let’s look at those first. “With a calm expression” is easy and thus easily overlooked (the old “try ‘by’ or ‘with’” method), but the next one, statūrā brevī vultūque sevērō, is one of those that’s easier to understand in Latin than (for students) to put into English—“with a short stature and a severe face” can work, but I have never been described as “with a short stature” for all of my 5 feet. “Short in stature” but that will seem too loose for students. After all, they want a simple X = Y sort of thing. If I had been thinking all along that these were Ablative of Description, I could at least give students something more to grasp—to expect this especially when describing a person, particularly body parts—so they don’t think that ablatives can just do what they want wherever they want in a sentence.
The last of these, vōce ferōcī, actually comes in a string of ablatives—the very string that woke me up to what I was so poorly explaining to students: vōce ferōcī, vultū minantī, oculīs ardentibus, verbīs īnfestissimīs Salvium vehementer oppugnāvit. By Stage 40 students are fairly efficient at recognizing present participles used in Ablative Absolutes but “while his face was menacing” and “while his eyes were burning” just don’t make sense. For many years I have brushed this aside as “sometimes it just sounds better saying ‘with’—‘with a threating expression, with burning eyes’” and not given it a second thought. But this year it suddently dawned on me that we have a string of Ablative of Descriptions, describing Quintus’ attack on Salvius in court. The fourth ablative verbīs īnfestissimīs I take as an Ablative of Means. And it almost doesn’t matter—we get the picture, we see Quintus in our head as he goes after that rat bastard Salvius!
But here’s where it makes a difference to me: the book has been sneaking in Ablative of Descriptions along with Ablative Absolutes all along; being able to discern the function would help with understanding. If I armed students with the knowledge that descriptions, particularly those involving body parts, were governed by the ablative and sometimes looked like Ablative Absolutes or even were in a way Ablative Absolutes but sounded better translated as “with” or similar, it could help.
I have never liked the “eyes fixed” phrases, though I totally comprehend them. I was always trying to treat them solely as Ablative Absolutes. But let’s look at them:
omnēs, oculīs in iānuam dēfīxīs, patrōnī favōrem exspectābant. (31)
oculīs in eum statim conversīs, spectātōrēs quis esset et quid vellet rogābant. (33)
oculīs in eō fīxīs fābulam intentē spectābat. (33)
Translated as pure Ablative Absolutes (or at least how I do it), “after their eyes had been fixed onto the door” or “after their eyes had immediately turned onto him” or “after her eyes were fixed on him” all sound bizarre. (Images of eyeballs being nailed to the door…) No matter; the phrase is functioning separately from the main clause—or set apart from the main clause, as Ablative Absolutes are. But if we acknowledge that these are also functioning as Ablative of Description with a part of the body, in this case eyes, students can have a more concrete feeling of how to deal with these phrases—“with their eyes fixed onto the door” etc. Yes, of course, I could give them more variables for understanding the Ablative Absolute from the beginning, but I find that it is easier in general to start narrow and then broaden interpretations. And actually, now that I’m staring at these sentences, I don’t really feel like their eyes had to be fixed on the door first in order wait for the favor of their patron. Surely this was going on WHILE they were waiting? And surely their eyes were turned WHILE they were asking who the guy was? And surely Domitia was staring at Paris the whole time he was doing his pantomime? So then these are not Ablative Absolutes.
Another sentence that really bothered me in Stage 31 where Ablative Absolutes are introduced is this one: aliī, scissīs togīs ruptīsque calceīs, per lutum lentē ībant. Again, like the oculīs fīxīs phrases, it’s like they tore their togas before trekking through the mud as if serving a penance. This is describing their lowly status! Ablative of Description. I could go through the rest in a similar fashion and you would see what I mean about these hidden Ablative of Descriptions that seem to be disguised as Ablative Absolutes if one is just looking at it being a noun and participle in the ablative case together. Meaning of course is so important. And yes, from the context many if not most students will have understood what these phrases meant, even if they weren’t sure of why. But now I have more to offer them and it will prepare them better for those Ablative of Description that come up in AP literature.
