and some others of similar meaning.

  Thus:—­

    curis liberatus, freed from cares;

    Caesar hostes armis exuit, Caesar stripped the enemy of their arms;

    caret sensu communi, he lacks common sense;

    auxilio eget, he needs help;

    bonorum vita vacua est metu, the life of the good is free from fear.

NOTE 1.—­Yet Adjectives and libero may take the preposition ab,—­regularly so with the Ablative of persons; as,—­

    urbem a tyranno liberarunt, they freed the city from the tyrant.

NOTE 2.—­Indigeo usually takes the Genitive.  See Sec. 212, 1, a.

2.  Of Verbs signifying to keep from, to remove, to withdraw, some take the preposition, others omit it.  The same Verb often admits both constructions.  Examples:—­

    abstinere cibo, to abstain from food;

    hostes finibus prohibuerunt, they kept the enemy from their borders;

    praedones ab insula prohibuit, he kept the pirates from the island.

3.  Other Verbs of separation usually take the Ablative with a Prepositon, particularly compounds of dis- and se-; as,—­

    dissentio a te, I dissent from you;

    secernantur a nobis, let them be separated from us.

4.  The Preposition is freely omitted in poetry.

Ablative of Source.

215.  The Ablative of Source is used with the participles natus and ortus (in poetry also with editus, satus, and some others), to designate parentage or station; as,—­

    Jove natus, son of Jupiter;

    summo loco natus, high-born (lit. born from a very high place);

    nobili genere ortus, born of a noble family.

1.  Pronouns regularly (nouns rarely) take ex; as,

    ex me natus, sprung from me.

2.  To denote remoter descent, ortus ab, or oriundus (with or without ab), is used; as,—­

    ab Ulixe oriundus, descended from Ulysses.

Ablative of Agent.

216.  The Ablative accompanied by a (ab) is used with passive verbs to denote the personal agent; as,—­

    a Caesare accusatus est, he was arraigned by Caesar.

1.  Collective nouns referring to persons, and abstract nouns when personified, may be construed as the personal agent.  Thus:—­

    hostes a fortuna deserebantur, the enemy were deserted by Fortune;

    a multitudine hostium montes tenebantur, the mountains were held by a
    multitude of the enemy.

2.  Names of animals sometimes admit the same construction.  Thus:—­

    a canibus laniatus est, he was torn to pieces by dogs.

Ablative of Comparison.

217. 1.  The Ablative is often used with Comparatives in the sense of than; as,—­