The English word “home” has a special place in grammar as well as in the heart. It often doesn't require a preposition. You can stay “home” or “at home” (place where). You can go “home,” but not “to home” (motion toward). However, if you come “from home” (place where from), you have to use the preposition “from.”

Latin is more consistent than that, which is a good thing because in Latin, “home” is not the only special place!

Cities, Towns, Small Islands …

The “special places” in Latin are exceptions to the coming, going, and staying rules you have been reading about. The list isn't very long:

• names of cities (e.g., Roma)

• names of towns (e.g., Pompē iī)

• names of small islands (e.g., Malta)

• the word domus, -ū s, f. when it means “home”

• the word humus, -ī, f. (the ground)

• the word rū s, rū ris, n. (the country, as in the countryside as opposed to the city)

On the whole, their exceptions to the rules aren't very exceptional.

• To go to them, no preposition is needed. Just put them in the accusative. (Romam — “to Rome”)

• To go from them, no preposition is needed. Just put them in the ablative. (Romā — “from Rome”)

• To simply be at them, no preposition is needed. You need to put them in the locative case….

Locative Case

Yes, the old Proto-Indo-European locative case did disappear into the ablative in Latin. However, the names of cities, towns, and small islands and the words domus, humus, and rū s held onto those antique forms.

As for those special words, they have special locative forms:

As for the names of cities, towns, and small islands, here are the locative forms:

Table 8-5 Locative Case Across the Declensions

Locative case endings really don't offer much new for you to learn. Here's a shortcut: All the locative forms are the same as the ablative. Only first and second declension singular place names (like Roma) are different.

TABLE 8-6 is a chart that summarizes everything in this section:

Table 8-6 Place Constructions

Latin-to-English Translations

Translate these sentences into English:

• Nuntius noster ad castra Romā na properā vit ubi hostēs vī dit.

• Graecī bellum multōs annōs Troiae gessē runt.

• Mā ter, nomine Livia, cum filiīs Veiōs saepius ambulā bat.

• Hominēs in illō oppidō vera nōn dicē bant.

• Drusus unā diē Veronam equō celerrimō pervē nit.

• Homō certus erat et minimē mendax.

• Pater filium suum in terrās extrē mās mī sit.

• Castra sub monte mediā nocte magnā cum dī ligentiā posuimus.

• Romā nī et Gallōs et Germā nōs post paucōs annōs vī cē runt.

• Plurimī Athenae vī cī nōs in urbem suam propter timorem diū nō n accipiē bant.

English-to-Latin Translations

Translate these sentences into Latin:

• We used to go from Capua to Brundisium by means of the Via Appia.

• The Romans were much luckier than the Germans.

• The father sailed to Greece because he was looking for his son.

• He found his son in Sparta.

• All the people in Rome loved the new emperor named Titus.