Postquam convīvae cēnāverunt, servae scutellās et pocula dē mēnsā tollunt.

Postquam means after. It introduces a time clause, so postquam convīvae cēnāverunt means after the guests ate / after the dinner guests had eaten.

In Latin, a postquam clause often tells you when the action of the main clause happens.

Convīvae means guests or more specifically dinner guests.

Here it is nominative plural, which means it is the subject of cēnāverunt. So convīvae cēnāverunt = the guests dined / ate dinner.

A learner might notice that convīvae ends in -ae, which often suggests a first-declension noun. That is correct in form, but convīva, convīvae is a noun that can refer to a man or a woman depending on context.

Cēnāverunt is perfect tense, third person plural, from cēnō, cēnāre = to dine / eat dinner.

So it means they dined, they ate dinner, or sometimes they have eaten, depending on context.

It is used here because the eating is a completed action that happens before the next action in the sentence.

This is a very common question.

• cēnāverunt = they ate / had eaten
• tollunt = they remove / are removing

Latin often uses the perfect in a postquam clause to show the earlier completed action, and then a present tense in the main clause if the main narrative is being told in the present.

So the sequence is:

1. the guests finished eating
2. the slave women clear the table

Even if English might prefer After the guests had eaten, the slave women remove... or After the guests ate, the slave women remove..., the Latin tense combination is normal.

Servae means slave women or female slaves.

Here it is nominative plural, so it is the subject of tollunt.

That is important because servae could also be dative singular or nominative plural in other contexts, but here the verb tollunt is plural, so servae must be the female slaves doing the action.

Tollunt is from tollō, tollere, which often means lift, take up, remove, or carry off.

Here the best sense is remove or take away, because the slave women are clearing things from the table.

So:

• servae ... tollunt = the slave women remove / take away

They are both direct objects of tollunt, but they belong to different declensions.

• scutellās = plates / small dishes, accusative plural
• pocula = cups, accusative plural

Because Latin nouns belong to different declensions, their accusative plural endings are different:

• first declension: -ās → scutellās
• second declension neuter: -a → pocula

So both words are objects, even though they do not look the same.

Because poculum is a neuter noun.

In Latin, many neuter plural nominative and accusative forms end in -a. So:

• singular: poculum = cup
• plural: pocula = cups

Since pocula is the object of tollunt, it is accusative plural, and for neuter nouns that looks the same as the nominative plural.

Dē mēnsā means from the table.

• dē = down from, from
• mēnsā = table in the ablative singular

The preposition dē takes the ablative case, so mēnsā must be ablative here.

Because Latin uses prepositions + ablative to express ideas like from, off, or down from.

The table is not the direct object of the verb. The direct objects are scutellās et pocula. The phrase dē mēnsā tells you where those things are being taken from.

So the structure is:

• servae = subject
• scutellās et pocula = objects
• dē mēnsā = prepositional phrase showing source/place

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show each word’s role.

This sentence is:

Postquam convīvae cēnāverunt, servae scutellās et pocula dē mēnsā tollunt.

A more literal English order would be:

After the guests dined, the slave women the plates and cups from the table remove.

That sounds strange in English, but in Latin it is fine because:

• servae is clearly the subject
• scutellās et pocula are clearly objects
• dē mēnsā is clearly a prepositional phrase
• tollunt is the verb

Latin often puts the verb near the end, though not always.

Yes, depending on how natural you want the English to sound.

The Latin form is perfect tense, not a special pluperfect form, but English sometimes uses had eaten to make the time relationship clearer after after.

So all of these can work:

• After the guests ate...
• After the guests had eaten...
• After the dinner guests had dined...

The best choice depends on the style of translation.

Yes. Et simply means and, joining the two direct objects:

• scutellās et pocula = plates and cups

This tells you that the slave women are removing both items from the table.

Look at the endings and the cases:

• convīvae = nominative plural → subject of cēnāverunt
• servae = nominative plural → subject of tollunt
• scutellās = accusative plural → object
• pocula = accusative plural → object
• mēnsā = ablative singular after dē

So the sentence breaks into two parts:

1. Postquam convīvae cēnāverunt
   After the guests ate

2. servae scutellās et pocula dē mēnsā tollunt
   the slave women remove the plates and cups from the table

Here are the main vocabulary items:

• postquam = after
• convīva, convīvae = guest, dinner guest
• cēnō, cēnāre, cēnāvī, cēnātum = to dine, eat dinner
• serva, servae = slave woman, maidservant
• scutella, scutellae = small dish, plate
• poculum, poculī = cup
• dē = from, down from
• mēnsa, mēnsae = table
• tollō, tollere, sustulī, sublātum = lift, remove, take away