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VI. The Adverb.

(P. Gehlhardt: de Adverbiis ad notionem augendam a Plauto usurpatis, Halle, 1892: with it read Seyffert's review in Bursian's Jahresbericht, 1895, p. 294.)


The use of Adverbs with esse is a well-known feature of colloquial Latin. Notable examples are It is most frequently Impersonal, e.g. The difference of pulchre sum and pulchre est mihi may find its true parallel in the change from an Impersonal to a Personal use of a Verb, e.g. doleo for dolet mihi, lubent for lubet illis (see V. 1). Or the origin of the construction may be the identity of sense in esse and se habere; for with se habere the Adverb is appropriate, e.g. Poen. 235nam quom sedulo munditer nos habemus” (cf. I. 4). We find a combination of Adjective and Adverb in lines like Capt. 271proxumum quod sit bono quodque a malo longissime2 (compare Epid. 409,plane hercle hoc quidem est”, with Capt. 564, etc.,pol planum id quidem est”; and see above, III. 1). The same use of the Adverb is found with fio and facio, e.g.


The Adverb replaces the Adjective also in various phrases of a Greek type, but probably not Graecisms (I. 3), e.g. They may be compared with phrases like adulescens de genere summo (Rud. 1197, etc.), sine virtute argutum civem (Truc. 495). (On Bacch. 705sed nunc quantillum usust auri tibi?” see II. 56


To qualify an Adjective or another Adverb, Plautus loves to use a significant Adverb, instead of the colourless valde (Old Latin valide), multum (never with Adjective in Terence; cf. Italian molto), multo (normally with Comparative), etc., e.g. perspicue palam, scite scitus, inepte stultus. Qualifying Adverbs characteristic of the Comedians' Latin are insanum (not ‘insane’), nimium, nimio (normally with Comparative; but cf. Bacch. 770, Truc. 704, Naevius com. 13), nimis, nimis quam (e.g. Truc. 468nimis quam paucae”), etc.; characteristic of Early Latin are oppido (usually qualifying a Verb in Plautus, but not in Terence), adprime, etc.

The use of certain Pronominal Adverbs, e.g. quo, unde, inde, huc, as substitutes for Cases of the Pronouns themselves, has already been mentioned (IV. 20), e.g.


The Positive sense of the Comparative ocius is established as early as Plautus, e.g. Most. 679evocadum aliquem ocius”, but the Comparative sense appears in a line like Curc. 154nec mea gratia commovent se ocius”. Of comic Comparison we may take as example paenissume, Most. 656ita mea consilia perturbat paenissume.


On the Adverbial use of the Ablative Case, e.g. Mil. 1124quin si voluntate nolet, vi extrudam foras”, see II. 58; of the Accusative, II. 36 Partim is nothing but the older form of the Accusative of pars and is so construed in Ter. Hec. prol. 15partim sum earum exactus, partim vix steti.

The construction of abhinc has been already discussed (II. 37). Fortasse, a by-form of which is fortassis (e.g. Bacch. 671), sometimes takes Accusative and Infinitive, e.g.

The same construction with the Conjunctions scilicet and videlicet (VIII, 2), (cf. Lucr. “scilicet esse globosa tamen”) is perfectly intelligible, since they are clearly Compounds of scio and licet, video and licet; just as the Adverb ilicet takes the construction of eo in a line like Capt. 469ilicet parasiticae arti maxumam malam crucem” ‘the jester's profession may go and be hanged’ ( Cist. 685,actum est, ilicet me infelicem et scelestam”, is perhaps Accusative of Exclamation). But the etymology of fortasse (-is) has not yet been discovered.

1 Optume est, e.g. Capt. 10, is Superlative of bene est, whereas optumum est means ‘it is the best course to take,’ etc., e.g. Capt. 557concedi optumum est” ‘retreat is advisable.’

2 For examples of longe esse, see Redslob in Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift 18, 816.

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hide References (39 total)
  • Cross-references from this page (37):
    • Plautus, Cistellaria, 1.1
    • Plautus, Cistellaria, 4.2
    • Plautus, Curculio, 1.2
    • Plautus, Mostellaria, 3.1
    • Plautus, Persa, 3.1
    • Plautus, Persa, 5.2
    • Plautus, Poenulus, 1.2
    • Plautus, Poenulus, 3.4
    • Plautus, Rudens, 4.5
    • Plautus, Trinummus, 1.2
    • Terence, The Mother-in-Law, 3.1
    • Terence, The Mother-in-Law, prologue.0
    • Terence, Phormio, 3.2
    • Plautus, Asinaria, 1.1
    • Plautus, Asinaria, 1.2
    • Plautus, Aulularia, 3.5
    • Plautus, Bacchides, 4.4
    • Plautus, Bacchides, 4.6
    • Plautus, Bacchides, 5.2
    • Plautus, Captivi, 2.2
    • Plautus, Captivi, 3.1
    • Plautus, Captivi, 3.4
    • Plautus, Captivi, 3.5
    • Plautus, Captivi, 4.2
    • Plautus, Epidicus, 1.1
    • Plautus, Epidicus, 1.2
    • Plautus, Epidicus, 3.3
    • Plautus, Menaechmi, 4.2
    • Plautus, Mercator, 3.3
    • Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, 2.5
    • Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, 4.3
    • Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, 4.8
    • Plautus, Truculentus, 1.2
    • Plautus, Truculentus, 2.5
    • Plautus, Truculentus, 2.6
    • Plautus, Truculentus, 3.2
    • Plautus, Truculentus, 4.1
  • Cross-references in notes from this page (2):
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