The name means summoning i.e. the case indicates a call to the person addressed! It hardly survives except in e.g. Aenea and masculines of the second declension, and there Plautus's puere has become puer! O greatly lamented by thy dearest in thy death. . . revealed indeed unhappy in all afflictions. And thou, once glorious in triumph, mother of countless memorials of victory . . . ! Whither dost thou rush to die? Blest be thou for thy young valour, MY SON!
They keep asking why dost thou rush, O thou fated to die? But I echo back the unrestrained cry of pity, and in intensity of feeling! They reply O ill-starred! I say that ill-starred with conviction because ill-starred is proved by your afflictions. What he wants to say is boy, may you be be happy, but instead is more direct and says O happy boy, thus interrupting himself, but gaining in vividness. Sic Venias, Hodierne: Come--to-day!
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