Sententiae, Unit 13

  1. Ipse ad eos contendebat equitesque ante se misit.

ipse: nominative masculine singular of the intensive pronoun (ipse, ipsa, ipsum)

eos: accusative masculine plural of the third person/demonstrative pronoun (is, ea, id). So ad eos means "towards them" (where "them" = some men previously referred to).

contendebat: 3rd person singular, imperfect indicative active from the verb contendo, contendere, contendi, contentum: "to strive, struggle, contend, hasten". Here, it has the sense of "to hasten", especially because of the ad.

se: accusative, singular or plural, of the third person reflexive pronoun; it could be masculine, feminine or neuter, but we know it is masculine in this instance, because the subject of the sentence, ipse, is masculine. And we know it is singular, again because the subject (which it "reflects") is also singular. Here, se is accusative because it follows the preposition ante.

misit: 3rd person singular, perfect active indicative; from the verb mitto, mittere, misi, missum: "to send" (hence, a mission, or a missionary)

The men themselves were able to do nothing through themselves without him.

  1. Ipsi nihil per se sine eo facere potuerunt.

ipsi: nominative plural masculine of the intensive pronoun ipse, ipsa, ipsum. Here, ipsi does not accompany a noun, so it acts like a substantive, and we translate it as "the men themselves".

se: accusative, singular or plural, masculine/feminine/neuter of the 3rd person reflexive pronoun; we know that in this instance, se is plural and masculine because the subject of the sentence (which it "refelcts") is plural and masculine (se: accusative, singular or plural, masculine/feminine/neuter of the 3rd person reflexive pronoun; we know that in this instance, se is plural and masculine because the subject of the sentence (which it "refelcts") is plural and masculine (ipsi).).

eo: ablative singular, masculine or neuter, from the3rd person/demonstrative pronoun is, ea, id. The pronoun is ablative because it follows sine. We can't tell whether it is masculine or neuter without any context; i.e. it could be "without him" or "without it". A preceding sentence would indicate whether eo refers to someone/something masculine ("they can't do it without Jack/spirit"...animus), or to some neuter thing ("they can't do it without a sign"...signum).

facere: present active infinitive of facio, facere, feci, factum: "to do" or "to make". Since it follows potuerunt, facere here is a complementary infinitive.
 
potuerunt: 3rd person plural, perfect active indicative; from the irregular verb possum, posse, potui: "to be able"
 
The men themselves were able to do nothing through themselves without him.