THE GERUND AND GERUNDIVE 173
- Cum Helvētiī bellō clārissimī essent, Caesar iter per prōvinciam dare recūsāvit.
- Lēgātus cum haec audīvisset, Caesarem certiōrem fecit.
- Cum principēs inter sē obsidēs darent, Rōmānī bellum parāvērunt.
- Caesar, cum id nūntiātum esset, mātūrat ab urbe proficīscī.
- Nē virtūte quidem Gallī erant parēs Germānis.
- Caesar neque corpore neque animō īnfīrmus erat.
- Illud bellum tum incēpit cum Caesar fuit cōnsul.
Observe in each case what mood follows cum, and try to give the reasons for its use. In the third sentence the cum clause is concessive, in the fourth and sixth causal.
II.
- That battle was fought at the time when (tum cum) I was at Rome.
- Though the horsemen were few in number, nevertheless they did not retreat.
- When the camp had been sufficiently fortified, the enemy returned home.
- Since the tribes are giving hostages to each other, we shall inform Cæsar.
- The Gauls and the Germans are very unlike in language and laws.
LESSON LXXI
VOCABULARY REVIEW • THE GERUND AND GERUNDIVE
THE PREDICATE GENITIVE
401. Review the word lists in §§ 510, 511.
402. The Gerund. Suppose we had to translate the sentence
By overcoming the Gauls Cæsar won great glory
We can see that overcoming here is a verbal noun corresponding to the English infinitive in -ing, and that the thought calls for the ablative of means. To translate this by the Latin infinitive would be impossible, because the infinitive is indeclinable and therefore has no ablative case form. Latin, however, has another verbal noun of corresponding meaning, called the gerund, declined as a neuter of the second declension in the genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative singular, and thus supplying the cases that the infinitive lacks.[1] Hence, to
- ↑ Sometimes, however, the infinitive is used as an accusative.
