For example:—

Liberas aedes coniurati sumpserunt. An empty house had been occupied by the conspirators.

[(4)] Use great care in translating Latin Participles, and make clear in your translation the relation of the participial enlargements to the action of the main Verb.

For example:—

concessive: Romani, non ROGATI, auxilium offerunt. The Romans, though they were not asked, offer help.
final: Fortuna superbos interdum RUITURA levat. Fortune sometimes raises the proud, only to dash them down.
causal: S. Ahala Sp. Maelium regnum APPETENTEM interemit. S. Ahala killed Sp. Maelius for aiming at the royal power.

Notice also:—

Pontem captum incendit = He took and burned the bridge.
Nescio quem prope adstantem interrogavi. I questioned someone who was standing by.
Haec dixit moriens = He said this while dying. Nuntiata clades = The news of the disaster.

[(5)] In translating, try to bring out the exact force of the Ablative Absolute, by which a Latin writer shows the time or circumstances of the action expressed by the Predicate. The Ablative Absolute is an adverbial enlargement of the Predicate, and is not grammatically dependent on any word in the sentence. It is, therefore, called absolutus (i.e. freed from or unconnected). It should very seldom be translated literally. Your best plan will be to consider carefully what the Ablative Absolute seems to suggest about the action of the Principal Verb.

For example:—

Capta Troia, Graeci domum redierunt. The Greeks returned home after the capture of Troy.
Regnante Romulo, Roma urbs erat parva. When Romulus was reigning, Rome was a small city.
Exercitu collecto in hostes contenderunt. They collected an army and marched against the enemy.
Nondum hieme confecta in fines Nerviorum contendit. Though the winter was not yet over, he hastened to the territory of the Nervii.
Tum salutato hostium duce, ad suos conversus, subditis equo calcaribus, Germanorum ordines praetervectus est, neque expectatis legatis, nec respondente ullo. Thereupon, after saluting the enemy’s general, he turned to his companions, and setting spurs to his horse, rode past the ranks of the Germans, without either waiting for his staff, or receiving an answer from anyone.