A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges

by George Martin Lane

[506]. The genitive plural of stems in -tāt- ([262]) is sometimes -ium, like that of -ī- stems: as, cīvitātium, communities; voluptātium, pleasures (Cic.); but chiefly in or after the Augustan age. mēnsis, month, has mēnsum, but often mēnsuum, sometimes mēnsium. āles, bird, has sometimes ālituum in hexameter verse. For the dative and ablative -būs, see [2505].

[507]. Other case forms are found in inscriptions, as follows:

N. MVNICIPES; -ō for -ōs ([66]): MAIO, i.e. maiōs or maior. G. -es, as early as 218 B.C.: SALVTES; -us, from 186 to 100 B.C.: NOMINVS; -u ([66]): CAESARV. D. -ei: VIRTVTEI, soon after 290 B.C.; HEREDEI, 45 B.C.; -ē, disappeared sooner than -ei except in set phrases ([501]), but is equally old: IVNONE; IOVRE. Ac. -e ([61]): APICE. Ab. -īd ([426]): CONVENTIONID, i.e. cōntiōne; -ei: VIRTVTEI; -ī: HEREDI. Plural: N. -īs: IOVDICIS. G. -om: POVMILIONOM; -ium: MVNICIPIVM. D. -ebus: TEMPESTATEBVS. Ac. -īs: MVNICIPIS.

GREEK NOUNS.

[508]. Greek appellatives of the consonant declension occasionally retain Greek case endings: as, lampas, torch, G. lampados, Ac. lampada. Plural: N. lampades, Ac. lampadas. āēr, air, has usually the accusative āera, and aethēr, upper air, always has aethera. In the plural nominative and accusative, cētus, swimming monster, melos, strain of music, and pelagus ([493]), the deep, have -ē: as, cētē. Genitive -ōn, rare: as, epigrammatōn, epigrams. Dative and ablative -matīs from words in -ma, -matis: as, poēmatīs, poems ([401]).

[509]. Greek proper names of the consonant declension are usually declined like Latin ones in old Latin and prose. From Vergil and Propertius on, Greek case endings grow more and more frequent, especially in poetry; they are best learned for every name from the dictionary; the commonest forms are:

Genitive -os: as, Pān, Pānos; -ūs, with nominative -ō: as, Mantō, Mantūs. Dative -i, rare: as, Mīnōidi. Accusative -a, common with names of persons in poetry, not in prose, more common with those of places, and even in prose: as, Acheronta; always Pāna; -ō, with feminines in -ō, -ūs: as, Dīdō. Vocative: Pallās, Pallā; in old Latin the nominative is commonly used instead of the vocative. Plural: Nominative -es: as, Arcades. Dative -sin, rare: as, Lēmniasin. Accusative -as, very common: as, Lelegas; in prose, Macedonas; also in words not Greek: as, Allobrogas (Caes.).

[510]. Names in -eus, like Orpheus, are usually declined like -o- stems ([449]). They have less frequently Greek forms: as, G. Orpheos, D. Orphei or Orphī, Ac. Orphea. Accusative rarely -ēa: as, Ī̆lonēa.

[511]. Some names in -ēs have the genitive in -is or -ī and the accusative in -em or -ēn ([401]): as, Sōcratēs, G. Sōcratis or Sōcratī, Ac. usually Sōcratem, also Sōcratēn. Achillēs and Ulixēs have in the genitive -eī, -e͡i, or -ī. Names in -clēs have rarely the accusative -clea: as, Periclea.

[512]. Some names in -is have forms either from a stem in -id-, or from one in -i-: as, Paris, G. Paridis, D. Paridī, Ac. Paridem, Parim or Parin, V. Pari.