Corpore loto, servus in culina quiete sedet.

in

Breakdown of Corpore loto, servus in culina quiete sedet.

• sedere: to sit
• corpus: the body
• servus: the servant

Questions & Answers about Corpore loto, servus in culina quiete sedet.

Why is corpore loto set off with a comma, and what kind of construction is it?

Corpore loto is an ablative absolute: a noun/pronoun in the ablative (corpore) plus a participle in the ablative (loto) that together form a little “side clause.”
It’s typically separated by a comma because it’s grammatically independent of the main clause (servus … sedet). It gives background circumstance (time/cause/condition), e.g. “with the body washed / after washing (his) body.”

Why is it corpore and not corpus?

Because corpore loto is in the ablative case.

• corpus = nominative/accusative singular
• corpore = ablative singular
  The ablative is required by the ablative absolute pattern.

What does loto mean, and what form is it?

loto is the ablative singular of the perfect passive participle lotus, -a, -um (from lavare / luere in some traditions; commonly “to wash”).
It agrees with corpore in case (ablative), number (singular), and gender (neuter).

Is corpore loto saying the slave washed the body, or just that the body is washed?

By itself, an ablative absolute does not specify the agent. It simply states the circumstance: “the body having been washed.”Often the understood agent is the subject of the main clause (here ), so learners commonly interpret it as “after washing (his) body,” but grammatically it remains unless Latin adds an explicit agent (e.g. ).