audito eum fugisse, _when it was heard that he had fled_.

4. A noun or pronoun stands in the Ablative Absolute construction only when
it denotes a different person or thing from any in the clause in which it
stands. Exceptions to this principle are extremely rare.

LOCATIVE USES OF THE ABLATIVE.

Ablative of Place.

_A. Place where._

228. The place where is regularly denoted by the _Ablative with a
preposition_; as,--

in urbe habitat, _he dwells in the city_.

1. But certain words stand in the Ablative without a preposition; viz.--

a) Names of towns,--except Singulars of the First and Second Declensions
(see Sec. 232, 1); as,--

Carthagini, _at Carthage_;

Athenis, _at Athens_;

Vejis, _at Veii_.

b) The general words loco, locis, parte; also many words modified by
totus or even by other Adjectives; as,--

hoc loco, _at this place_;

totis castris, _in the whole camp_.

c) The special words: foris, _out of doors_; ruri, _in the country_,
terra marique, _on land and sea_.

d) The poets freely omit the preposition with any word denoting place;
as,--

stant litore puppes, _the sterns rest on the beach_.

_B. Place from which.[50]_

229. Place from which is regularly denoted by the _Ablative with a
preposition_; as,--

ab Italia profectus est, _he set out from Italy_;

ex urbe rediit, _he returned from the city_.

1. But certain words stand in the Ablative without a preposition; viz.--

a) Names of towns and small islands; as,--

Roma profectus est, _he set out from Rome_;

Rhodo revertit, _he returned from Rhodes_.

b) domo, _from home_; rure, _from the country_.

c) Freely in poetry; as,--

Italia decessit, _he withdrew from Italy_.

2. With names of towns, ab is used to mean _from the vicinity of_, or to
denote the point _whence distance is measured;_ as,--

a Gergovia discessit, _he withdrew from the vicinity of Gergovia_;

a Roma X milia aberat, _he was ten miles distant from Rome_.

Urbe and oppido, when standing in apposition with a town name, are
accompanied by a preposition; as,--

Curibus ex oppido Sabinorum, _from Cures, a town of the Sabines_

Ablative of Time.

_A. Time at which._

230. The Ablative is used to denote the time _at which_; as,--

quarta hora mortuus est, _he died at the fourth hour_;

anno septuagesimo consul creatus, _elected consul in his seventieth
yea