Capitulum XII — Mīles Rōmānus

A soldier, his weapons, his camp: the setting is spectacular, but the chapter's Grammatica does four things, not two. It opens the 4th declension, it tabulates the 1st-class adjective in full for the first time, it gives the paradigm of the 3rd-declension adjective, and it installs the comparative. The real cost is none of these four taken singly: it is the contrast between the last two.

1. The 4th declension

One paradigm, the one the book unrolls in the margin and in a table:

Three traps, all in the same word:

• exercitus (short u) = nominative singular; exercitūs (long ū) = genitive singular and nominative plural and accusative plural. The macron does all the work, and context does the rest.
• The accusative exercitum looks like a 2nd-declension servum. It is the genitive, never the nominative, that gives the declension.
• The genitive plural ends in -uum, never in -ōrum.

The chapter's words: arcus, passus, equitātus, impetus, metus, versus — all masculine. The one feminine in the series is manus, manūs, met in capitulum XI before its declension. The neuter (genū) waits for capitulum XXI.

2. The adjective, tabulated at last

The book gives the word class its Latin name: adiectīvum.

• 1st class — altus, alta, altum, declined like servus / fēmina / oppidum. Sub-type -er -ra -rum with syncopated stem, listed by the book: pulcher, aeger, niger, ruber, noster, vester.
• 3rd declension, two endings — brevis, breve. The book's list: brevis, fortis, gravis, levis, tenuis, trīstis.

This second type is a full i-stem, and that is what separates it from the noun ovis:

3. The comparative — and the chapter's trap

Formation: stem + -ior (masculine and feminine), + -ius (neuter). altior/altius · brevior/brevius · fortior · gravior · levior · longior · pulchrior

One form for two genders: gladius longior just like hasta longior. Only the neuter differs: pīlum longius.

Declension — and here is where everything is decided: the comparative leaves its positive's i-stem and declines as a 3rd-declension consonant stem.

The book prints the two tables one under the other: this is the morphological contrast of the capitulum.

Comparison: comparative + quam + second term in the same case.

Gladius brevior est quam hasta. (two nominatives)

Equality and its negation with tam… quam / nōn tam… quam (cap. VI). The superlative does not exist yet — it arrives in capitulum XIII.

4. The dative that owns, and the dative that obeys

Datīvus possessīvus: dative of the person + esse. The thing possessed is the subject.

Cornēliō duo līberī sunt = Cornēlius duōs līberōs habet

Its commonest use is naming — and the name given stays nominative:

Quod nōmen est puerō? — Puerō nōmen est Titus.

Two verbs from cap. IV finally get their case: pārēre + dative, imperāre + dative.

Mīlitēs ducī pārent; dux exercituī imperat.

5. Genitives, accusatives, ablatives

• Partitive genitive: pars exercitūs, caput imperiī — and above all mīlia + genitive plural. Careful: mīlle is an indeclinable adjective (mīlle passūs), mīlia is a noun (duo mīlia hominum).
• Accusative of extent, with longus, altus, lātus: fossa trēs pedēs lāta est, castra mīlle passūs absunt. Question: Quam longus / altus / lātus est…?
• Ablative of means, with no preposition: gladiīs, pīlīs, hastīs, sagittīs, armīs, pugnīs, fossā et vāllō.
• Ablative of agent, with ā / ab + a person: castra ā mīlitibus dēfenduntur.
• Measures: I passus = V pedēs [1.48 m]; mīlle passūs = quīnque mīlia pedum.

6. The rest of the kit

• contrā + accusative — and the hostile sense of in + accusative, glossed by the book “in (+acc) = contrā”: impetum facere in hostem, pīla iacere in hostēs.
• ferre, irregular, in pieces: fert, ferunt, fertur, feruntur, infinitive ferre. The full paradigm waits for cap. XXII.
• Two mixed verbs, flagged in the margin “-it -iunt”: iacere (iacit, iaciunt, passive iacitur, infinitive iacī) and fugere (fugit, fugiunt). Careful: iacere “to throw” (short a) ≠ iacēre “to lie” (cap. IX).
• incolere + accusative: terram incolere = in terrā habitāre.
• Three plūrālia tantum: castra, arma, mīlia — the book names the category itself.
• Genitive plural of the 3rd declension: -um (mīlitum, peditum, equitum, ducum, frātrum, sorōrum, nōminum) against -ium (hostium, partium, fīnium).
• ac / atque: atque before a, e, i, o, u, h; ac (or atque) before every other letter.
• A citizen's three names: praenōmen (abbreviated A., C., D., L., M., P., Q., Sex., T.), nōmen (the gēns), cognōmen (the branch). And one precise kinship word: avunculus = frāter mātris.

Quantities to watch: pedes -itis “foot soldier” (short e) ≠ pedēs, plural of pēs (long ē) — both are in this chapter; levis (short e, never a macron); lātus (long ā) ≠ latus -eris “side”; dīvidere (long dī-, short -vi-); trīstis, mīles, fīnis, mīlia (long ī).

One line to remember: exercitus, exercitum, exercitūs, exercituī, exercitū — pl. exercitūs, exercituum, exercitibus; brevis → brevior/brevius, positive in -ī / -ium / -ia but comparative in -iōre / -iōrum / -iōra; comparative + quam + same case; puerō nōmen est Titus; pārēre and imperāre + dative; mīlia + genitive plural; hostium but mīlitum.