07.05.24: theory and practice [1]: Julia, a Latin Reader [1]

https://www.fabulaefaciles.com/library/books/reed/julia

Below are some short passages from Julia, a Latin reader, a great little book for review purposes which has been used before for another topic and will be used again. They show you some of the words that have been discussed in previous recent posts. When you see them they’re nowhere near as scary as when they’re first being explained!

I like to use extracts from schoolbooks because the authors most often stick to the basic meanings of the words. Learning the declensions takes time (they have already been posted) but it’s best to see them in context.

[1]

Haec et alia multa Iūlia ē benignō lūdī magistrō audiēbat. Posteā, iam adolēscēns, ad longinquās terrās nāvigābat et ipsa rēs multās mīrāsque vīdebat. Vōs quoque fortasse ad Ītaliam Graeciamque ōlim ipsī nāvigābitis, et illa loca oculīs vestrīs vidēbitis, ubi poētae habitābant, dē quibus haec omnia nārrāvērunt.

[These and many other things Julia heard from the kind school teacher. Later, when she was already grown up, she used to sail to distant lands and she herself saw many wonderful things. You too, perhaps, will sail to Italy and Greece one day, and you will see with your own eyes those places where the poets lived, about which they have recounted all these things.]

[i] haec: neut. plural (nominative or accusative) often has a very general meaning of “these things” or “those things” referring to events in the past or have just happened.

In English we might say “I told you all that yesterday”, ‘all that’ referrring to more than one thing said.

“Now all that’s over, we can go out” i.e. ‘events’, ‘things that have happened’

Haec can convey the same idea, but it’s plural.

[ii] Below are two examples of phrases where this idea is used. They involve a grammatical concept which, at this stage, should be left alone but I’ll give their meanings

• hīs dictīs: [literally “these things having been said] > after these things had been said, i.e. the writer is referring to statements already made
• hōc factō: [literally: “this thing having been done”] > after this thing had been done, i.e. reference is being made to some action already compleeted

[2]

In Forō Rōmānō ruīnae sunt templī Vestae rotundī, nec procul Virginum Vestālium domus. Hae virginēs omnium Rōmānārum sacerrimae putābantur, quod ignem sacrum in templō rotundō cūrābant. Hunc ignem Aenēās, Rōmānōrum pater, Troiā dīligentissimē apportāverat. Omnium Virginum Vestālium nōtissima erat Rhēa Silvia, Rōmulī Rēmīque māter. Haec nōn Rōmae sed Albae Longae habitābat, nōndum enim Rōma aedificāta erat.

[In the Roman Forum are the ruins of the round temple of Vesta, and, not far off, the house of the Vestal Virgins. These virgins were considered the most sacred of all the Romans, because they tended the sacred fire in the round temple. Aeneas, the father of the Romans, had most diligently brought this fire to Troy. The most famous of all the Vestal Virgins was Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus. She lived not in Rome, but in Alba Longa, for Rome had not yet been built.]

Note: the use of haec here: this (woman) i.e. ‘she’