Avaritia mercatorem caecum facit, et invidia amicitiam saepe laedit.

Because it is the direct object of facit.

In Avaritia mercatorem caecum facit, the verb facit means makes. The person being made something is put in the accusative, so mercatorem means the merchant as the object, not the subject.

• avaritia = greed / avarice, the subject
• mercatorem = the merchant, direct object
• facit = makes

So the structure is basically: Greed makes the merchant ...

Because it goes with mercatorem and describes what the merchant is being made.

With verbs like facere (to make), Latin often uses:

• an accusative object
• plus another accusative describing the result

So in mercatorem caecum facit, both words are accusative because the sentence means:

Greed makes the merchant blind.

Here:

• mercatorem = the merchant
• caecum = blind

This is often called a predicate accusative or object complement.

Because it must agree with mercatorem.

Mercatorem is:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjective describing it must also be:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

That gives caecum.

If the noun were nominative, you would expect caecus, but here the noun is accusative, so the adjective is accusative too.

Actually, avaritia does come first here, but the larger point is that Latin does not rely on word order as much as English does. It relies mainly on endings.

Avaritia is nominative singular, so it is the subject:

• avaritia = greed / avarice

Even if the sentence were rearranged, the endings would still show the grammar more clearly than the position would.

Latin word order is often more flexible than English word order.

Because it is the direct object of laedit.

In invidia amicitiam saepe laedit:

• invidia = envy, the subject
• amicitiam = friendship, the direct object
• laedit = harms / injures

So the clause means: Envy often harms friendship.

The accusative ending on amicitiam shows that it is what is being harmed.

Invidia is nominative singular, so it is the subject of laedit.

It belongs to the first declension, like avaritia. In this sentence it means envy.

Because it is nominative, it is the thing doing the action:

• invidia ... laedit = envy harms ...

A learner might notice that invidia could also look ablative in some contexts, but here the sentence structure makes it clear that it is nominative and serves as the subject.

Saepe means often. It is an adverb, so it modifies the verb laedit.

Thus:

• amicitiam saepe laedit = often harms friendship

Its position is fairly natural, but Latin adverbs can often move around more freely than in English. The meaning stays the same because the inflected endings still show the relationships between the words.

Because Latin does not have articles like English a, an, and the.

So:

• mercatorem can mean a merchant or the merchant
• amicitiam can mean friendship, a friendship, or sometimes the friendship, depending on context

The exact sense is usually understood from the context, not from a separate article.

That is a very common Latin pattern.

Latin often prefers to place the verb near the end of the clause or sentence:

• Avaritia mercatorem caecum facit
• invidia amicitiam saepe laedit

This is not a strict rule, but it is one of the most typical word orders in Latin prose. English speakers often notice this quickly because English usually wants the verb earlier.

Et means and. It connects the two clauses:

• Avaritia mercatorem caecum facit
• et invidia amicitiam saepe laedit

So the sentence joins two related ideas:

• greed makes the merchant blind
• and envy often harms friendship

It is a very common coordinating conjunction in Latin.

It can easily be understood metaphorically.

Literally, caecum means blind, but in a sentence like this it often suggests being blind in judgment, unable to see clearly, or morally blind.

That kind of figurative use is common in both Latin and English, especially in moral statements like this one.

A useful way is to split it into two clauses.

First clause:

• avaritia = subject, nominative singular
• mercatorem = direct object, accusative singular
• caecum = predicate accusative agreeing with mercatorem
• facit = verb, makes

Pattern: subject + object + object complement + verb

Second clause:

• invidia = subject, nominative singular
• amicitiam = direct object, accusative singular
• saepe = adverb, often
• laedit = verb, harms

Pattern: subject + object + adverb + verb

Seeing that structure makes the sentence much easier to understand.