Capitulum IV — Dominus et servī

A master, his slaves, a purse, and coins that have gone missing: this chapter is written entirely in dialogue, laid out in numbered scaenae with a cast list of persōnae, like a comedy. To make its characters speak, Latin needs two tools that the chapter introduces together: the vocative (calling someone by name) and the imperative (giving them an order). Add to that two deceptively small words, is and eius, and the neuter relative quod.

The vocative: addressing someone

When you address someone, their name goes into the vocative. Only one family of words actually changes shape: 2nd-declension nouns (and adjectives) in -us, whose ending becomes -e:

Tacē, serve! — Be quiet, slave! Ubi est pecūnia, bone Tite? — Where is the money, my good Titus?

The chapter's greeting formula combines salvē with a vocative: Salvē, domine! (“Hello, master!”). Salvē is itself, historically, a frozen imperative (“be well”) — the circle closes.

Imperative and indicative

The imperātīvus gives an order; the indicātīvus states a fact. In the 2nd person singular, the imperative is the bare stem of the verb; compare it with the indicative in -t:

The chapter's narrative pattern never varies: the order, then its execution.

Domina imperat: «Venī, Lȳdia!» Ancilla venit: dominae pāret. — The mistress commands: “Come!” The maidservant comes: she obeys.

Note the pair imperat ↔ pāret: imperāre is to command; pārēre, to obey.

The four conjugations, first encounter

The table above matters more than it looks: it is the first presentation of the four conjugations, numbered [1]–[4] in the book's margin. The imperative vowel is their signature: long -ā, long -ē, short -e, long -ī. Start noting right away which family each new verb belongs to (numerāre [1], habēre and tacēre [2], pōnere, sūmere and discēdere [3], venīre and audīre [4]): the whole verbal system to come will hang on this frame.

is and eius — suus or eius?

Is picks up a masculine noun already mentioned: Dominus servum vocat; is venit. (“… and he comes.”) Its genitive eius names the possessor: sacculus eius = “his/her purse (the person we just mentioned).” The full paradigm of is ea id arrives in chapter VIII; for now, two forms are all you need.

The chapter's essential contrast sets eius against the reflexive possessive suus -a -um:

Tullia sacculum suum habet. — Tullia has her purse (her own: suum refers back to the subject). Titus sacculum eius sūmit. — Titus takes her purse (someone else's — Tullia's).

Golden rule: suus = belonging to the subject of the sentence; eius = belonging to someone else. English says “his/her” either way — Latin never confuses the two.

quod: the neuter relative

Chapter III gave you quī (masculine) and quae (feminine); here is the neuter quod, completing the set:

puer quī venit — puella quae cantat — baculum quod in mēnsā est

The relative clause can be embedded between the antecedent and its verb — read it in one movement, without hunting for the verb further on: Baculum, quod in mēnsā est, dominī est.

Numerī: counting to ten

The question Quot nummī in sacculō sunt? is answered by counting: In sacculō septem nummī sunt. And if there is not a single one: nūllus (= nōn ūnus) — nūllus nummus, nūlla pecūnia, nūllum baculum: it agrees just like bonus -a -um. Note also tantum (“only”): nōn decem, sed tantum novem nummī.

adest, abest: compounds of esse

Two prefixes glued onto esse: ad- (“near”) and ab- (“away”). Adest = hīc est, he is here; abest, he is away — two opposites to learn as a pair. In the plural: adsunt, absunt.

Lȳdia adest; Stichus abest.

They belong with discēdere (“to go away”) and rūrsus (“again”): comings and goings drive the whole chapter.

The grammar words

The GRAMMATICA LATINA section gives Latin names to what you have just learned: the vocātīvus (< vocat: the case for calling someone), the imperātīvus (< imperat: the mood of command), the indicātīvus (the mood of statement). The book speaks Latin even about itself — these three words will keep coming back.

One-line takeaway: vocative -us → -e (Salvē, domine!); imperative -ā/-ē/-e/-ī against indicative -at/-et/-it; suus = the subject's own, eius = someone else's; quī, quae, quod; ūnus… decem, nūllus = not one; adest ↔ abest.