Certus non sum traducendo haec verba. Cur elegans aspectusque abalativo in caso sunt, et non nominativo? Quia, haec sententia describit feminam. c.f. Vulg., Liber Iudith, cp VIII,7.
Congratulations for making the effort to write in Latin.
Nominative is the case of subjects and its attributes. “Eleganti aspectu” describes a quality of this woman but it is not grammatically connected to the subject. Cfr. English “She was a woman OF elegant appearance” (rough translation). So-called quality complements are always in the ablative case. The author could have written “Erat autem elegans”: then it would have been an attribute of the subject, so in the nominative form.
I hope this helps,
Michele
I don’t think there’s any particular reason; it’s just how Latin works. A literal translation would be: “[She] was however/moreover of exceedingly fine appearance”, i.e. “She was extremely beautiful”.
It wouldn’t make sense to have “aspectus” in the nominative: “Erat aspectus” ([She] was appearance) ???
Hope this helps,
Rafael
Thanks very much, I think I see what you (both) are saying. Just one more question about this. In this kind of construction, does eleganti agree with aspectu or with the subject, Ea?
To use a different example where you could see the difference, would it be:
Erat autem bello aspectu (bello describes aspectu)
or
Erat autem bella aspectu (bella describes the subject)
?
Thanks
jagwbl
Well, of course eleganti agrees with the only other word in ablative, that is aspectu.
Bellum is a noun meaning war… Beutiful is pulcher (masc), pulchra (fem), pulchrum (neutr). I would just say erat autem pulchra.
Back to your second question. Yes, you can say “pulchra aspectu”, but that’s a different construction. “Aspectu” marks here a limitation, like in English “she was beautiful AS TO her appearance / AS FAR AS her a. is concerned”. “Erat pulchro aspectu” would also be correct, since it’s the same construction as “erat eleganti aspectu”, but there “eleganti aspectu” marks a quality.
That clears it up very well, thank you.
Incidentally, Lewis & Short has the following, in addition to “bellum” meaning war:
bellus, a, um, adj. as if for benulus, from benus = bonus, Prisc. p. 556 P…
In gen.
Of persons, pretty, handsome, charming, fine, lovely, neat, pleasant, agreeable, etc.
Bellus/a/um for pretty may be a late Roman or medieval thing (I’m only guessing here). One of the problems with Latin is that we’re talking about many centuries of language development. I’m more used to Medieval latin, so when I try to read, say, Cicero, a lot of things seem really weird.