The ablative absolute does not function as an adjective (it does not modify a noun.) Rather, it functions as a verbal construction, creating a truncated adverbial clause. Urbe capta does not mean "the captured city." It means "the city, having been captured,..." The complete adverbial clause may be reconstructed as "Because the city was captured,..." or "After the city had been captured,...
Glosses? edit
I'd consider adding glosses with morphological information to the examples in this article.--Imz 17:51, 13 June 2006 (UTC)