Breakdown of Imperium sine iustitia firmum manere non potest.
non
not
manere
to remain
posse
to be able
sine
without
Questions & Answers about Imperium sine iustitia firmum manere non potest.
Why is iustitia in the ablative case?
Because sine is a preposition that takes the ablative. So sine iustitia means without justice.
A native English speaker often expects a word-for-word match with English, but in Latin prepositions regularly control a specific case. Here:
- sine = without
- iustitia = ablative singular of iustitia, iustitiae
So the phrase is grammatically fixed as sine + ablative.
Why is firmum neuter singular?
Because it agrees with imperium.
Imperium is:
- neuter
- singular
- nominative
So the adjective describing it must also be:
- neuter
- singular
- nominative
That gives firmum.
Even though in English we might say firm without changing its form, Latin adjectives must match the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
Why is manere an infinitive instead of a normal finite verb?