THE AB URBE CONDITA CONSTRUCTION IN CATO THE ELDER

Abstract

The paper examines the use of the participial clause ab urbe condita in the works of Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 BC). The main objective of the study is to collect and classify the contexts of this construction’s use in Cato’s works. The work ‘De agricultura’, as well as the surviving fragments of the historical work ‘Origines’ and other works by Cato, are analyzed. The contexts of the prepositionless use of the construction ab urbe condita after the impersonal expression ‘opus est’, as well as the cases when the participial clause is governed by prepositions, are given. In total, Cato’s prose contains 3 cases of the prepositionless use of this participial clause and 2 contexts of its use after prepositions. A comparative analysis of similar contexts of the construction’s use by authors of the Latin prose of the classical period is conducted. The given cases will be useful in studying the development and complication of the construction ab urbe condita in later authors.