The words exhibenda est occur in Pliny's Letter XIX from book 5: cui tanto maior humanitas exhibenda est. I'm very rusty and I'm struggling with this verb. Is it passive, subjunctive, gerund?
2 Answers
I had to look this up on Loeb's Library. (I'm not an expert in Latin.)
Exhibenda is a gerundive: an adjectival form of a verb, indicating that the action of the verb must or ought to be done. It's comparable to the English construction "to be past participle" as in "The poor are to be pitied, not blamed." The full sentence is:
Quod si essem natura asperior et durior, frangeret me tamen infirmitas liberti mei Zosimi, cui tanto maior humanitas exhibenda est, quanto nunc illa magis eget.
Exhibenda modifies humanitas: the first clause in bold literally means, "to whom as much more kindness [humanitas] must be shown [exhibenda est]". The second clause in bold literally means, "according as he now needs it [illā, ablative, referring to humanitas] more."
Literally translated, the elegant Latin becomes clumsy English. Fortunately we have Betty Radice's liberal translation into clear and graceful English:
Even if I were harsh and unfeeling by nature, my heart would be softened by the illness of my freedman Zosimus, whose claim to sympathy is all the stronger now that he needs it so much.
-
2A couple of corrections to your literal translation of the second clause: the subject of eget is 'he' = Zosimus, and illa (which refers to humanitas, not infirmitas) is ablative; so it would mean 'according as he now needs it more.'cnread– cnread2025-01-18 07:09:02 +00:00Commented Jan 18 at 7:09
-
1@cnread Thanks! I puzzled over what the subject of eget was for quite a while…and ultimately got it wrong. Corrected.Ben Kovitz– Ben Kovitz2025-01-18 07:44:53 +00:00Commented Jan 18 at 7:44
-
2Related.Sebastian Koppehel– Sebastian Koppehel2025-01-18 08:20:40 +00:00Commented Jan 18 at 8:20
Exhibenda est is a construction known as the passive periphrastic: a combination of a gerundive with a form of esse that expresses some sort of need or obligation. The usual translation is "must be shown", as in Carthago delenda est, "Carthage must be destroyed".
You choose the form of the gerundive to agree with the subject, and the form of esse based on the surrounding context. So what Cato (allegedly) actually said was ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam: "as for the rest, I think Carthage much be destroyed". This time delendam esse is used instead of delenda est because it's indirect discourse, with an accusative and infinitive.
