# Cicero revealed his conspiracy to the senate.



## FranklinPN

Hello everyone,

I'm studying Latin through an old grammar book whose exercises don't have any answers so that I never know if I am right or wrong.
One of the sentences that are driving me crazy is this one:

Catilina was a wicked man; Cicero revealed his conspiracy to the senate.

My translation would be:

Catilina homo improbus fuit; Cicero senatui conjurationem ejus indicabat.

But I'm not sure if right word is ejus or that I should use eum.

The thing is that this topic of "demonstrative pronouns" is not that clear to me.


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## Cagey

Salve, Franklin, and welcome to the forum.

Your ejus is correct.  These days it would generally be written _eius_, with an _i,_ but that is just because fashions change. 

The genitive of the demonstrative (ejus) indicates that it wasn't Cicero's conspiracy but some other [fellow's].  _Eius_ = of that [fellow].   If it been Cicero's own conspiracy (belonging to the subject of the sentence), you would use the possessive adjective "_suus_", as in "_conjurationem suum_". 

Thus Latin avoids the ambiguity that exists in English sentences like:
Cicero gave Catiline his book.​Whose book was it?  Catiline's or Cicero's?   The English sentence alone doesn't tell us.  In Latin it would be "_librum eius_" if it was Catiline's, and "_librum suum_" if it was Cicero's.

I hope this is helpful.


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## brian

Just a minor note on the verb: it should probably not be imperfect but rather perfect, and I'd probably user _aperire_ instead--_aperuit.

_And just a small addition to Cagey's already exhaustive explanation: _ejus_ is not an adjective, but a pronoun, meaning (like Cagey said) "of him / of that fellow." It is genitive. _Eum_ is also a pronoun and means "him" but is accusative.

Since you were unsure of which to use, I thought perhaps you were thinking that _eum_ is an adjective and should look like / agree with _conjurationem_, but that's not the case.


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## FranklinPN

Thank you Cagey and Brian.

Brian, the question of whether I should use an adjective was my main doubt. I thought I had to use eum in accusative as in Cagey's example "librum suum".

So I kept thinking to myself: when should I use eum?
Will it appear always alone in any sentence?


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## loco44

Example:
_Quis suscitabit eum?_ (Who will wake him?)
_Senatus contra eum consulem misit._ (The Senate sent against him a consul)


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## brian

That's what I thought you were thinking  but my point was: _eum_ is *not* an adjective, but _suum_ *is*. It just so happens that they kind of look similar, but they are completely different.

*Eum* is an accusative, singular, masculine personal *pronoun*, "him." For example: _Vidi eum = _"I saw him."

*Suum* is an accusative, singular, masculine or neuter reflexive *adjective* that refers to the subject of the sentence. For example: _Vidit suum librum = _"He saw his (own) book."

*Ejus/eius* is a genetive, singular, masculine (or neuter) personal *pronoun* that refers to some person and is used to denote possession. For example: _Vidi ejus librum _= "I saw his book / I saw the book of him (of that man)."

So again, neither _ejus_ nor _eum_ are adjectives (even though _ejus _in English is the possessive adjective "his").

I hope this is clear.


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## loco44

What's wrong with _eum_ being an adjective?

Talem _librum eum_ conficere potuisse propter antiquitatum studium...
Tum forte  ego _eum librum_ ex isdem saturis ferebam...
Puer legit _eum librum_...


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## brian

_Eum _is only a pronoun ("him"). See berndf's comment below. The possessive adjectives are: _meus, tuus, *suus**, noster, vester, *suus**._

*But _suus_ can only be used when it refers to the _subject_ of the sentence, and in this sense it is _reflexive_. Here is what Allen & Greenough say, §145:



> NOTE.--*Suus* is used only as a reflexive, referring to the subject. For a reflexive pronoun of the third person not referring to the subject, the genitive of a demonstrative must be used. Thus, *patrem suum occīdit*, _he killed his _(own) _father_; but *patrem êjus occīdit*, _he killed his _(somebody else's) _father_.


The translations are identical in English--both use the possessive adjective _his_. But in Latin, the former uses the possessive adjective _suus_; the latter uses the genetive of the demonstrative _is_.


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## berndf

loco44 said:


> Puer legit _eum librum_...


This is a different use of _is, ea, id_. Here _eum_ is a demonstrative and not a personal pronoun. _Eum librum_ means _that book_ (accusative as in_ I see that book_) and not _his book_.


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## brian

Oops, I forgot to address that. Absolutely right, Bernd!


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## loco44

berndf said:


> This is a different use of _is, ea, id_. Here _eum_ is a demonstrative and not a personal pronoun. _Eum librum_ means _that book_ (accusative as in_ I see that book_) and not _his book_.



What I said:  is an adjective


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## brian

Sorry, I made things confusing: I was concentrated on showing that _eum_ is not a *possessive** adjective* and forgot to address the fact that it can be a *demonstrative** adjective*, as in your examples.

So you're right, it can be an adjective, but never possessive (never "his").


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