20.04.24: an historical weather report!

20.04.24: an historical weather report!

This is from the website nle.org. It’s in the form of a TV weather forecast but not your normal weather forecast since the presenter throws in a few historical references! Check the vocabulary and have a go at answering the questions.

[1] In which countries will it be:

(i) hot and sultry?

(ii) windy?

[2] What’s the outlook like for tomorrow?

[3] Where will it be particularly (praesertim) windy?

[4] Why does the presenter refer to Alexander the Great and Ptolemy?

[5] The presenter makes reference to a naval battle at Actium. Which two people were defeated?

[6] Who rules Egypt?

[7] Which two words describe the climate of the land of the Pyramids?

[8] The Nile flows into the Mediterranean. But what did the Romans call the Mediterranean?

[9] What famous structures are located at Alexandria?

[10] Where is the outlook bad?

Grātiās tibi agō, Favōnī. Tōtam per Ītaliam aestuōsa est hodiē, ut semper hīs temporibus annī. Auspicia autem sunt bona ad tempestātem crāstinam. Ventōsum est autem in Graeciā, praesertim hīc in Macedoniā. Alexander Magnus et prīmus Ptolemaeus in Macedoniā nātī sunt. Et ventōsum est apud Actium, ubi Caesar Octāviānus nāvālī proeliō superāvit Cleopatram Antōniumque. In Aegyptō, rēgnō Cleopatrae terrāque pȳramidum āridum est. Ecce Nīlus, fluēns in Mare Nostrum! Ecce Alexandrīa, ubi est bibliothēca clārissima et Pharōs nōtissimus. Auspicia mala sunt Aegyptō ad tempestātem futūram.

aridus, -a, -um: dry; parched; arid

auspicium, -ī [2/n]: (here) sign; indication (outlook), but can also mean ‘divination’

The word is derived from auspex, auspicis [3/m] referring to an ‘augur’, somebody who foretells events by observing, for example, the behaviour of birds, animals, or unusual phenomena. The theoretical derivation of the Latin is *avi + spex a person who examines the flight of birds. In Ancient Rome, the augur would interpret omens at official events.

Similar to the auspex was the haruspex, haruspicis [3/m], someone who examined the intestines of animals in divination; the noun is often translated as soothsayer. [image]

tempestās crāstina: tomorrow’s weather

• crāstinus, -a, -um: tomorrow(’s)

• futūrus, -a, -um: literally means “about to be”

• hīs temporibus annī [ablative of time when]: at these times of the year

tempestās futūra: future weather

tempus annī: time of the year