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
- Merc. 583 “pulchre ut simus”,
- Truc. 172 “longe aliter est amicus atque amator”,
- Ter. Phorm. 529 “hic me huiusmodi scibat esse, ego hunc esse aliter credidi: iste me fefellit, ego isti nihilo sum aliter ac fui” (cf. Pers. 838 “sed ita pars libertinorum est”, Trin. 46 “si ita es ut ego te volo, sin aliter es”),
- Accius 120 “quoniam horum aequiter sententiae fuere”;
- also the common phrase frustră esse, e.g. Capt. 854 “ne frustra sis” ‘make no mistake about it,’ ‘be assured of that.’
- bene est1 (passim), Cist. 59 “male mihi est”,
- Men. 626 “quid tibi aegre est?”,
- Asin. 144 “nunc quom est melius” ‘now things are better,’
- Bacch. 1181 “i hac mecum intro, ubi tibi sit lepide victibus, vino atque unguentis.”
The Adverb replaces the Adjective also in various phrases of a Greek type, but probably not Graecisms (I. 3), e.g.
- Pers. 385 “non tu nunc hominum mores vides?”,
- Poen. 725 “rem advorsus populi saepe leges”,
- Mil. 472 “mulierem hinc ex proxumo”,
- Ennius trag. 55 V. “ubi illa paulo ante sapiens virginalis modestia?”
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. 468 “nimis 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.
- Aul. 489 “quo (= quibus) illae nubent?”,
- Most. 547 “conveni illum unde (= a quo) hasce aedes emeram”
- (cf. Epid. 80, 115).
The Positive sense of the Comparative ocius is established as early as Plautus, e.g. Most. 679 “evocadum aliquem ocius”, but the Comparative sense appears in a line like Curc. 154 “nec mea gratia commovent se ocius”. Of comic Comparison we may take as example paenissume, Most. 656 “ita mea consilia perturbat paenissume.”
On the Adverbial use of the Ablative Case, e.g. Mil. 1124 “quin 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. 15 “partim 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.
- Asin. 37 “ubi fit polenta, te fortasse dicere”,
- Truc. 680 “A. haben? B. parasitum te fortasse dicere”,
- frag. inc. 58 “fortasse ted amare suspicarier”,
- Poen. 1004 “fortasse medicos nos esse arbitrarier” ‘perhaps he thinks we are doctors,’
- Ter. Hec. 313 “fortasse unum aliquod verbum inter eas iram hanc concivisse”.