FR 5 the Sabine Women Practice Reading Comprehension Check

FR 5 “The Sabine Women” Practice Reading Comprehension Check (handout version) 1. Describe the state of Rome according to lines 1-3 (Iam..habēbant). Be sure to indicate both a positive and a negative facdt about Rome’s current situation.  ANS: Rome was now strong/stable (firma) and on even footing with its neighbors militarily (bellō par), BUT the Roman men were without wives and they did not have the right of marriage. 2. What is the use of the subjunctive seen in the sentence Tum...peterent (lines 3-5)?  ANS: Relative (Clause of) Purpose 3. What does Romulus hope to achieve by sending senatorial envoys into the neighboring tribes (lines 3-5)?  ANS: Alliance(s), Right of Marriage (between Romans and their women) 4. How successful were these envoys in achieving Romulus’ objectives?  ANS: Not at all—they were not kindly received anywhere at all 5. What seemed to be the underlying reason for how successful they were/weren’t (lines 5-7)?  ANS: Fear of growing Roman power / Fear of so great a city (i.e. Rome) growing in their midst 6. What did the Romans decide to do as a result of these diplomatic missions (lines 7-8)?  ANS: Use (military) force/violence 7. What use of the ablative case is illustrated by the phrase lūdīs parātīs (line 9)?  ANS: Ablative absolute 8. According to the sequence of tenses, how would you have to change the rest of the sentence Multī...vidērent (lines 10-11) if the verb convēnērunt, perfect tense, were conveniunt, present tense, instead?  ANS: the subjunctive verbs spectārent and vidērent would change to present tense (i.e. spectent and videant) 9. Based on the context, which of the following is the best translation of omnis (line 11)?  a) “all men”  b) “the entire”  c) “every”  d) “from all”  ANS: b) “the entire (crowd/multitude/population of Sabines)...” 10. What word does clāmantēs (line 15) modify?  ANS: Parentēs (line 14) 11. Give the case and construction (i.e. reason, use) for Rōmānōs (line 15).  ANS: Accusative subject of (an infinitive within) indirect statement

1 FR 5 “The Sabine Women” Practice Reading Comprehension Check (handout version) 12. Explain the feelings of the virginēs relative to how their parents felt after the events of lines 12-15.  ANS: They had the same level of hope (which was not much at all) and indignation (which was significant)—“And the maidens who had been seized did not have either a better hope concerning themselves or a lesser sense of injury.” Better / lesser than whom? The previous sentence tell us that the “The parents of the maidens escaped, shouting that the Romans had violated the rules of hospitality.” 13. To what does id (line 18) refer? Hint: there is no one-word antecedent for this pronoun. The pronoun.  ANS: The kidnapping / rape of the Sabine women. 14. What is the case and construction of superbiā (line 19)?  ANS: ablative of cause (“due to the pride...”) 15. What does Romulus promise to the Sabine women in lines 19-20?  ANS: They will have all of the rights of Romans (despite the fact they were captured by force) 16. Describe the reaction of the women to Romulus’ promise.  ANS: They were comforted/reassured/mollified (“Now the minds/spirits/hearts of the seized women were much less disturbed.”) 17. What did the women’s parents do in response to Romulus’ promise?  ANS: They roused the neighboring states to arms 18. According to Roman legend, the Sabine soldiers were given access to the citadel by promising to give a greedy and treacherous woman named Tarpeia what they bore on their arms, which she thought meant their jewelry. Instead, after she let them inside, they threw their shields on her, crushing her to death, since those shields also constituted “what they bore on their arms.” Which sentence(s) of the Latin seems to allude to this well-known story?  ANS: Sabīnī...cēpērunt (lines 25-26) 19. The verb ausae sunt (line 28) is an example of a semi-deponent verb. Its principal parts are audeō, audēre, ausus sum. Based on what you know about deponent verbs and the appearance of these principal parts, explain how a semi-deponent verb differs from a fully deponent verb in the conjugation of its finite verb forms.  ANS: Fully deponent verbs use passive forms with active meanings, whereas semi-deponent verbs only do that for the perfect system (ausus sum = perfect; ausus eram = pluperfect; ausus erō = future perfect) and uses regular, active endings for the present system (audeō = present; audēbam = imperfect; audēbō = future). 20. What action did the Sabine women take in lines 28-29 and why?  ANS: They (dared to) rush in between the weapons flying (from both sides) in order to beg for peace from their fathers and husbands. 21. What do the men on each side do in response to the bold action of the Sabine women (lines 29-32)?  ANS: They unite the kingdom and make Rome the seat of their government (i.e. they make peace)

2 FR 5 “The Sabine Women” Practice Reading Comprehension Check (handout version) 22. The noun sēdem (line 32) is an example of a predicate accusative or “object complement.” What word does sēdem rename?  ANS: Rōmam (line 31) 23. What is the tense and voice of the participle found in line 32?  ANS: Perfect passive (aucta) 24. The sentence beginning with the phrase ducēs eā rē mōtī... could best be rewritten without changing its meaning in the story:  a) ducēs movērunt eam rem ut... (purpose clause)  b) ducēs sīc movērunt eam rem ut... (result clause)  c) ea rēs ducēs movērunt ut... (purpose clause)  d) ea rēs ducēs sīc movērunt ut... (result clause)  ANS: d) ea rēs ducēs sīc movērunt ut... (result clause) 25. What gesture did Romulus make in the end to commemorate the events related in this story?  ANS: He named each of the thirty curiae (a curia is political unit) after the names of the captured Sabine women.