Absentia

Latin-English

absentĭ|a, -ae. (abˈsen.tsi.a) fem.

1. Absence; a being absent, a not being present.

[absens.]

Cic.	100%	Class.	100%	Rom.	1%	Med.	0%	Neo.	0%

Constructions

none yet collected

Loci

Cicero

• αʹ M. Antonius, ap. Cicero, Ad Atticum 14.13a:

occupationibus est factum meis et subita tua profectione ne tecum coram de hac re agerem. quam ob causam vereor ne absentia mea levior sit apud te.

It happened that because of my business and your sudden departure that I couldn't pursue this matter with you in person, so I worry that, due to my being away, it might seem less important to you.

• βʹ Cicero, In Pisonem 16.25:

Confer nunc, Epicure noster ex hara producte non ex schola, confer, si audes, absentiam tuam cum mea.

Now compare, our little Epicurus—graduate of the pigsty, not a school—compare your absence to mine, if you dare.

• γʹ Cicero, In Pisonem 26.63:

Iam vides—quoniam quidem ita mihimet fui inimicus ut me tecum compararem—et digressum meum et absentiam et reditum ita longe tuo praestitisse ut mihi illa omnia immortalem gloriam dederint, tibi sempiternam turpitudinem inflixerint.

You see, now—since I've been such an enemy to myself as to compare myself to you—that my departure and my absence and my return so far surpass yours that for me they will all yield undying glory; for you they will inflict eternal disgrace.

Classical

• δʹ Seneca the Elder, Controversiae 10.8:

Macerio* qua violentia in absentiam Metelli strepit!

Macerio made such a violent commotion about Metellus' absence!

• εʹ Seneca the Elder, Controversiae 2.7:

cetera, quemadmodum adulescens formosus, dives, ignotus in viciniam formosae et in absentia viri nimium liberae mulieris commigraverit, quemadmodum adsidua satietate continuatae per diem noctemque libidinis exhaustis viribus perierit, interrogate rumorem.

As for the rest—how an unknown, handsome young rich man could have moved into the neighborhood of a woman who was beautiful and, in the absence of her husband, too free with herself, and how he would have wasted away, all his energy drained by constant satisfaction of his uninterrupted lusts, all day and all night—ask the rumor mill.

• στʹ Seneca the Elder, Controversiae 2.7:

Miserrimus omnis saeculi maritus: sic contempta absentia mea etiamnunc iniuriam meam nescirem, si qui fecerat tacere voluisset.

I'm the most miserable husband of all time - even now I wouldn't have known that I'd been wronged in my wretched absence if the man who had done it had wanted to keep quiet.

Roman

• ζʹ Curtius, Historia Alexandri Magni 3.8:

terribilem antea regem et absentia sua ad vanam fiduciam elatum

the king, who had been dreadful before and in his absence puffed up to an empty confidence