24.03.24: Ancient voices

The term “old” Latin or “early” Latin is used to refer to the Latin language before 75BCE. However, although there are differences, the works of the Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence are regularly studied.

An interesting note on Terence is given in Wikipedia:

“His plays were heavily used to learn to speak and write in Latin during the Middle Ages and Renaissance Period, and in some instances were imitated by William Shakespeare.”

In fact, if you obtain a copy of Reading Latin by Jones and Sidwell – a book that is highly recommended – it begins with excerpts from those comic plays. Some excerpts from these works are very useful for this topic. The command forms introduced are in the singular; previous notes refer to the plural forms, which are straightforward to do.

[1] eō, īre [irr.]: go > ī: go!

• Ī …ī ad forum (Plautus) ¦ Go…go to the forum

[2]

[i] dexter, dext(e)ra, dext(e)rum: right

[ii] sinister, sinstra, sinistrum: left

• ī ad sinistram ¦ hāc rēctā platēā; ubi ad templum Diānae vēneris, ī ad dextram. (Terence) ¦
• Go to the left ¦ straight along the “broad” street; when you’ve come to the temple of Diana, go to the right.
• ī ad sinistram: go to the left
• ī ad dextram: go to the right

platēa: “The principal street in a town, suggesting the Broad Street and Broadway of modern cities” (Thurston Peck); in the UK we would most likely say “High Street”.

hāc rēctā platēā: this phrase is in the ablative, the character saying to go by means of this straight road

A small point to note that is still quite a long way off is: “Ubi ad templum Dianae veneris”; veniō, venīre [4]: come + ad (to) with accusative. However, a feature of Latin that differs from English is the use of tenses. What the character actually says is “When you will have come to the temple” i.e. “When you’ve reached…” French would create a similar construction, but English doesn’t.

As always, you don’t have to wait for a grammar explanation to be able to use it:

• Ubi ad macellum vēneris, ī ad dextram. When you get to the market, go to the right.

[3] Later writers also give us information. The poet Horace, talking about those who stray from the path in error states:

• ille sinistrōrsum, hic dextrōrsum abit ¦ one goes off to the left, another to the right

Describing a forest, Caesar says:

• hinc sē flectit sinistrōrsus ¦ from there it bends to the left

And in the works of Livy, we read:

• Sp. Furius M. Horatius dextrōrsus in maritimam oram atque Antium… pergunt. ¦ Sp. Furius and M. Horatius continue / go on to the right in the direction of Antium and the coast

[i] sinistrōrsus; sinistrōrsum [adverbs; they don’t change]: to the left

[ii] dextrōrsus; dextrōrsum [adverbs; they don’t change]: to the right

And so, there is more than one way of saying the same thing.

[5] Go back to the Caesar quotation where he says that the river bends or turns itself (sē) to the left. It’s possible to use that:

• Flecte tē sinistrōrsus / sinistrōrsum: turn (yourself) to the left
• Flecte tē dextrōrsus / dextrōrsum: turn (yourself) to the right

You will also come across verte tē which has the same meaning as ‘turn (yourself)’:

• Verte tē dextrōrsum: turn (yourself) to the right

[6] In the Livy quotation, they are continuing to the coast.

pergō, pergere [3]: continue; go on

We can say:

• Perge rēctā [rectā was in the Terence quotation]: Carry on straight ahead.
• Perge īre: keep on going

And [image] although Terence was based in Rome, we can use his instructions to take a short walk around Pompeii, with a few alternatives.