humo . . . rupta, ‘from the ground which far about him brake,’ Golding. Cf. Liv.v. XLI. 5, “dilapsi ad praedam vacuis occursu hominum viis” (‘through streets where no man met them’), Sall. Jug.85, § 29, “cicatrices adverso corpore possum ostentare”. The so-called ablative absolute is not to be distinguished from the general use of the case expressing accompanying circumstances, such as those of time, place, manner, means, and cause. The supposed distinction rests merely on the accident that the usages thus grouped are commonly rendered in English either by a subordinate clause, or by a participial construction without preposition. See Key, Lat. Gr. § 1013, Roby, § 1240, R. § 504.
