Seneca, Octavia, lines 430-450
Operatives, examine at the following sets of words:
| cēna | dinner | cēnula | little dinner |
| puer | boy | puerulus | little boy |
| puella | girl | puellula | little girl |
| lapis | stone | lapillus | little stone |
The words in the left hand column you should recognize as normal nouns. The words in the right hand column are what we call diminutives. Diminutives are simply words which denote a smaller version of main noun. Notice that this diminution is achieved by taking off the nominative singular ending from the main noun and adding either -ul or -lul + us, a, um. Once again, the important thing here is not so much that you will be asked to form diminutives, but that you are able to recognize them in print.
Here are some common diminutives and their main nouns:
| nāvis | ship | nāvicula | little ship |
| fābula | story | fābella | little story |
| gladius | sword | gladiōlus | little sword |
| homō | man | homunculus | little man |
| servus | slave | servulus | little slave |
| fīlia | daughter | fīliōla | little daughter |
| liber | book | libellus | little book |
| calx | stone | calculus | pebble |
| granum | grain | granulum | small grain, granule |
Well, things have taken an interesting turn, operatives. We can't quite make sense of what Salvia is getting at here. All of our internal data suggests that she was a creation of the TSTT in the internal simulation, not an independent AI, although she certainly is acting as if she is one. We suggest that you play along with her line of questioning and think about the nature of the LAPIS, especially in light of the plot against Nero, his Domus Aurea, and everything that has led up to this point. Is it possible that Nero did have possession of the LAPIS but did not understand it's true nature?
It may be worth considering what replaced the Domus Aurea after Nero's reign ended.