Read the original text and the translation of Letter 1 written by Cornelia, an influential matron from the 2nd century BC, and answer some questions about the degrees of the adjective. 

After the murder of her son, Tiberius Gracchus, Cornelia retires from Rome to Misenum. From there, she writes letters to her son Gaius Gracchus.

1.- Dices pulchrum esse inimicos ulcisci. id neque maius neque pulchrius cuiquam atque mihi esse videtur, sed si liceat re publica salva ea persequi. sed quatenus id fieri non potest, multo tempore multisque partibus inimici nostri non peribunt atque, uti nunc sunt, erunt potius quam res publica profligetur atque pereat.

1.- “You will say that it is a beautiful thing to take on vengeance on enemies. To no one does this seem either greater or more beautiful than it does to me, but only if it is possible to pursue these aims without harming our country. But seeing as that cannot be done, our enemies will not perish for a long time and for many reasons, and they will be as they are now rather than have our country be destroyed and perish.” 

 Vivante, Bella (ed.) Women's Roles in Ancient Civilizations. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999.  

1.- Find in the text the adjective in the positive and comparative degree, give the base form of its three degrees of comparison and decline it in the comparative degree.

2.- Analyse the morphology of the following forms of salvus, -a, -um:

3.- Keep in mind that there are irregular adjectives (many, good, bad, big, small) that use a different stem from the positive degree. Complete the following table: