Postquam convivae cenaverunt, servae scutellas et pocula de mensa tollunt.

Postquam is a conjunction meaning after. It introduces a subordinate clause that tells you when the action in the main clause happens.

So the structure is:

• Postquam convivae cenaverunt = after the guests dined / had eaten
• servae scutellas et pocula de mensa tollunt = the slave-women remove the bowls and cups from the table

Latin often uses a postquam clause to set the time before giving the main action.

Cenaverunt is perfect tense, third person plural, from ceno, cenare.

With postquam, Latin very often uses the perfect to describe an action that was completed before the next action happened:

• convivae cenaverunt = the guests ate / finished dining

The idea is that the dining is already completed, and only then do the slaves clear the table.

This is a very common learner question. Tollunt is grammatically present tense, but Latin often uses the historical present in narratives. That means a present tense is used to describe past events more vividly.

So although tollunt literally means they remove or they are removing, in context it can naturally be translated as:

• the slave-women remove
• or, in smoother English narrative, the slave-women removed

This is not unusual in Latin storytelling.

You know because cenaverunt is third person plural, so its subject must be plural. Convivae can be nominative plural, and that fits perfectly:

• convivae = the guests
• cenaverunt = they dined / they have dined

So convivae is the subject of the subordinate clause.

Formally, servae could have more than one grammatical value:

• nominative plural = slave-women
• genitive singular = of the slave-woman
• dative singular = to/for the slave-woman

But here the verb tollunt is third person plural, so it needs a plural subject. That tells you servae must be nominative plural here:

• servae tollunt = the slave-women remove

This is a good example of how Latin uses verb agreement to help you identify the function of a noun.

Both are accusative plural, because they are the direct objects of tollunt.

The slaves are removing what?

• scutellas = bowls / dishes
• pocula = cups

So:

• scutellas = accusative plural of scutella
• pocula = accusative plural of poculum

They are the things being removed.

Because poculum is a neuter noun of the second declension.

A very important Latin rule is:

• neuter singular nominative/accusative often ends in -um
• neuter plural nominative/accusative often ends in -a

So:

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

This ending may look singular to an English speaker at first, but for neuter nouns in Latin, -a is a normal plural ending.

Mensa is ablative singular because it is governed by the preposition de.

De commonly takes the ablative and here means from or off:

• de mensa = from the table / off the table

So the slaves are removing the bowls and cups from the table.

The basic meaning of tollo, tollere is lift up, take away, remove, or carry off, depending on context.

Here, because the objects are dishes and cups and the phrase de mensa is added, the natural sense is:

• remove from the table
• take away from the table
• clear from the table

So tollunt is not just physically lifting; it means clearing the table.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses endings to show grammatical function.

This sentence is arranged in a very natural Latin way:

1. the time clause first: Postquam convivae cenaverunt
2. then the main clause
3. with the verb at the end: servae scutellas et pocula de mensa tollunt

English depends heavily on word order to show subject and object, but Latin does not need to do that as strictly. So the endings tell you who is doing the action and what is being acted on.

Yes. Latin could have used a past tense such as an imperfect or perfect, depending on the nuance. But tollunt as a historical present is very common and gives the scene a more immediate, vivid feel.

So a learner should understand that:

• tollunt is present in form
• but in narrative context it may be translated into natural English as a past

That is one of the most common things to notice in Latin prose.

Here are the likely dictionary forms:

• postquam = conjunction, after
• conviva, convivae = guest, dinner guest
• ceno, cenare, cenavi, cenatum = dine, eat dinner
• serva, servae = female slave, maidservant
• scutella, scutellae = small dish, bowl
• et = and
• poculum, poculi = cup, drinking vessel
• de
  • ablative = from, down from, about
• mensa, mensae = table
• tollo, tollere, sustuli, sublatum = lift up, remove, take away

Knowing the dictionary forms helps you see how the sentence’s inflected forms are built.