c. The hundreds above one hundred are declined like the plural of
    bonus\; as,

      ducenti:, -ae, -a
      ducento:rum, -a:rum, -o:rum
        etc. etc. etc.

330. We have already become familiar with sentences like the following: 

  Omnium avium aquila est velocissima
    Of all birds the eagle is the swiftest
  Hoc oraculum erat omnium clarissimum
    This oracle was the most famous of all

In such sentences the genitive denotes the whole, and the word it modifies denotes a part of that whole.  Such a genitive, denoting the whole of which a part is taken, is called a partitive genitive\.

331. RULE.  Partitive Genitive. Words denoting a part are often used with the genitive of the whole, known as the /partitive genitive\.

a. Words denoting a part are especially pronouns, numerals, and other adjectives.  But cardinal numbers excepting mille\ regularly take the ablative with ex\ or de\ instead of the partitive genitive.

_b._ Mille\, a thousand, in the singular is usually an indeclinable adjective (as, mille milites\, _a thousand soldiers_), but in the plural it is a declinable noun and takes the partitive genitive (as, decem milia militum\, ten thousand soldiers).

EXAMPLES: 

  Fortissimi horum sunt Germani
    The bravest of these are the Germans
  Decem milia hostium interfecta sunt
    Ten thousand (lit. thousands) of the enemy were slain
  Una ex captivis erat soror regis
    One of the captives was the king’s sister

332. EXERCISES

First learn the special vocabulary, p. 297.

I. 1.  Caesar maximam partem aedificiorum incendit. 2.  Magna pars munitionis aqua fluminis deleta est. 3.  Galli huius regionis quinque milia hominum coegerant. 4.  Duo ex meis fratribus eundem rumorem audiverunt. 5.  Quis Romanorum erat clarior Caesare? 6.  Quinque cohortes ex illa legione castra quam fortissime defendebant. 7.  Hic locus aberat aequo spatio[1] ab castris Caesaris et castris Germanorum. 8.  Caesar simul atque pervenit, plus commeatus ab sociis postulavit. 9.  Nonne mercatores magnitudinem insulae cognoverant?  Longitudinem sed non latitudinem cognoverant. 10.  Pauci hostium obtinebant collem quem exploratores nostri viderunt.

II. 1.  I have two brothers, and one of them lives at Rome. 2.  Caesar stormed that very town with three legions. 3.  In one hour he destroyed a great part of the fortification. 4.  When the enemy could no longer[2] defend the gates, they retreated to a hill which was not far distant.[3] 5.  There three thousand of them bravely resisted the Romans.[4]

    [Footnote 1:  Ablative of the measure of difference.]