11.05.24: Latin tutorial; future tense of 3rd, 3-iō and 4th conjugation verbs

Before moving on to the second type of future tense, you might want to take a look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FTBG0Jg6Cg

As examples he uses the verbs trahō, trahere [3]: drag; pull, and audiō, audīre [4]: hear

11.05.24: review; future tense [3]; working with different tenses; the sī clause [3]: Julia: a Latin Reader [3]

Identify the present tense verbs and the future tense verbs from this passage.

1. they will fight

2. they will have

3. they will kill

4. we have

5. we live

6. we love

7. we will be

8. And the imperative / command form: Farewell! Be well!

____________________

“in casīs Rōmānīs laetae et placidae habitāmus; līberōs cārōs habēmus et vehementer amāmus; et Sabīnōs et Rōmānōs amāmus. "Sī Rōmānī cum Sabīnīs pugnābunt, Rōmānī Sabīnōs, Sabīnī Rōmānōs necābunt. Tum Sabīnae nec virōs nec patrēs nec frātrēs habēbunt. Ō patrēs, valēte! Nōn iam Sabīnae sed Rōmānae semper erimus fīliae vestrae."

____________________

Vocabulary and notes

nec … nec: neither … nor …

nōn iam: no longer

As you go on reading Latin, features will “turn up” that, from my own experience, if you try to deal with all of it at once, it’s too much information at one time and, to be honest, of little help if you’re not seeing it in context.

This little text is a case in point:

"Sī Rōmānī cum Sabīnīs pugnābunt, Rōmānī Sabīnōs, Sabīnī Rōmānōs necābunt. │ If the Romans fight with the Sabines, the Romans will kill the Sabines and the Sabines (will kill) the Romans.

Sī (if) introduces what in grammar is known as a conditional clause.

If I have time, │I will go to the bank.

If I have time, both in English and in Latin, is called a conditional clause. That part of the sentence e.g. an action or a set of circumstances has to exist before │ the main action of the sentence can take place.

If he doesn’t do his homework (conditional clause) │I’ll be really angry (the outcome).

[i] The standard format for that construction in English is:

If it rains [present tense] tomorrow │we will not go out  [future tense].

But you also see this:

[ii] If he won’t tell [future] you the answer │then it’ll be [future] your problem and not mine.

Now look at the Latin example; in this type of conditional sentence, Latin uses the future tense in both parts of this sentence.

Sī Rōmānī cum Sabīnīs pugnābunt, │ Rōmānī Sabīnōs, Sabīnī Rōmānōs necābunt.

If the Romans (will) fight with the Sabines │ the Romans will kill the Sabines, (and) the Sabines will kill the Romans.

Step-by-step: that’s by no means the whole story. Conditional sentences in Latin are a big topic that involve a lot of focus on verbs and so simply be aware that tense usage between English and Latin does not always match.

____________________

We live, happy and peaceful, in Roman houses; we have our dear children and love them very much; we love both the Sabines and the Romans. If the Romans fight with the Sabines, the Romans will kill the Sabines, (and) the Sabines will kill the Romans. Then the Sabines will have neither husbands, nor fathers, nor brothers. O fathers, farewell! No longer Sabines but Romans, we will always be your daughters.

 

10.05.24: follow-up on the previous post

The history of Ancient Rome is massive and complex. When I started, my knowledge of Roman history was vague. But certain stories came up – again and again – in the old school textbooks. In an earlier post, an excerpt referred to Aeneas’ escape from Troy. Two posts back reference was made to Romulus.

Long before I could look at these stories in original Latin, I learned about early Roman history – and the characters who figure in them – by using books such as Julia, a Latin reader, because they tell the stories in simpler language.

In earlier posts I have used many excerpts from:

[i] Helen Chesnutt’s The Road to Latin; they give a lot of background to the lives of the Romans

[ii] Sonnenschein’s Ora Maritima; the author talks a lot about the history of Roman Britain, and you can review basic Latin while you're doing it.

https://archive.org/details/cu31924031202850

Slowly, I identified areas of Roman history that were of significance and, gradually, I began to read more detailed works, first in English and then in Latin. What were the major events – both historical and in legend? How do some of these narratives forge the Romans’ mindset? What was their ‘value system’, and who were the ‘major players’ – good and bad?

I think that Reading Latin by Jones and Sidwell [image #1] is a fabulous ‘step up’ into the world of Roman history and literature in Latin. Jones and Sidwell, starting from Plautus, choose parts of original texts – and they provide extensive notes and vocabulary. An example in the book is the trial against Gaius Verres for his gross mismanagement of Sicily. Cicero was the prosecutor. The entire trial is monumental in length, but Jones and Sidwell pick out significant parts of it in Latin, and give the historical background and some insight into how the Romans viewed provincial management.

In the way that I referred to Wiktionary as being the ‘middle man’ in terms of dictionaries, for me Jones and Sidwell are the ‘middle men’ in accessing the literature and the history in the original language.

Here is the link again to Julia – a Latin reader, the entire basic book that I’m using at the moment for these posts if you want to read more for yourself; there, among others, you'll find Romulus and Remus, the Sabines, Mars, and the Trojan horse.

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

Although not mentioned by name in the first excerpt in the previous post, the incident being described concerns Horatius on the bridge.

The second text refers to an event in the legendary history of early Rome which is known by the ugly term ‘The rape of the Sabine Women’ although it is sometimes translated as ‘abudction’ or ‘kidnapping’. Personally, I think that, in the context of that event, ‘rape’ is too provocative, whereas in relation to the rape of Lucretia – another major story in the early history / legend of Rome - the word means precisely that. The rape / abduction / kidnapping (delete as applicable) of the Sabine women was a story known to all the Romans. More information is at the link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women

More than that, they “commemorated” it on their coins [mages #2 and #3] And the coins too can be part of the ‘jigsaw’ of getting to know the Romans.

In an earlier post there was a discussion on the coin depicting Aeneas escaping from Troy, his father on his shoulder and the household god in his right hand, symbolic of Rome’s earliest history, bravery, duty to the gods and duty to the family.

Another post also looked at the Ides of March coin commemorating the murder of Julius Caesar in, for me, a blatant political manoeuvre, since it was minted on the order of Brutus, one of the men who had stabbed Caesar to death.

But why would a coin commemorating the abduction of women be minted? What was in the psyche of the Romans that a coin like that would "celebrate" such an event - whether true or legendary? I don’t know the “answer”, but I suspect that it embedded the idea that the Romans could take whatever they wanted. And, judging by the size of the Roman Empire at its height, they kept on doing it.