25.10.25: Level 3; respect paid to age

Lȳsander Lacedaemonius hoc dīxisse dīcitur; "Lacedaemone optimē vīvere possunt senēs." Nusquam enim tantum tribuitur aetātī, nusquam est senectūs honōrātior. Athēnīs ōlim, lūdis īnstitūtīs, quīdam in theātrum grandis nātū vēnit, nec eī locus datus est ā suīs cīvibus, tum ad lēgātōs Lacedaemoniōs accessit; hī autem omnēs cōnsurrēxēre et sēnī locum dedērunt. Hoc factum probantibus Athēniēnsibus, ūnus ē lēgātīs dīxit, "Athēniēnsēs quidem sciunt rēcta facere, sed facere nōlunt."

Athēnae, -ārum [1/f/pl]: Athens; Athēnīs: (locative) at Athens

Athēniēnsis, -e: Athenian

Athēniēnsēs: Athenians

Lacedaemon (or with long /ō/), -is [3/f]: Lacedaemon, Sparta

Lacedaemonius, -a, -um: [i] (adj.) of / belonging to Lacedaemon or Sparta; [ii] (noun) a Spartan (man)

Lacedaemonēs: Lacedaemonians; Spartans

accēdō, -ere, accessī [3]: come forward; approach

cōnsurgō, -ere, cōnsurrēxī [3]: stand up; rise; rise together

grandis nātū: aged; quīdam … grandis nātū: a certain elderly man

nusquam: nowhere

tribuō, -ere, -uī, tribūtus [3]: grant; bestow; (here) idea of (respect) being paid

Notes:

[i] Lȳsander … hoc (2) dīxisse (1) dīcitur │ Lysander … (1) is said (2) to have said this

[ii] hī autem omnēs cōnsurrēxēre = cōnsurrexērunt; another example of a syncopated verb form [LINK] where the 3^rd plural of the perfect tense is contracted. These can be misread because they look like infinitives but the -ēre is attached to the perfect tense stem:

habitāv¦ērunt (they lived) > habitāv¦ēre

dīx¦ērunt (they said) > dīx¦ēre

[iv] Hoc factum ¦ probantibus Athēniēnsibus; ablative absolute: literally ‘with the Athenians applauding’ = As / while the Athenians were applauding this act …

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Lysander the Lacedaemonian is said to have said this: ‘Old men can live best at Lacedaemon.’ For nowhere is so much (respect) paid to age, nowhere is old age more honoured. Once upon a time at Athens, at the beginning of the public games [literally: with the games having been started], a certain old man came into the theatre, and a place was not given to him by his own citizens; then he approached the Lacedaemonian ambassadors, but all these rose together and made room for [literally: gave a place to] the old man. As the Athenians were applauding this act [literally: with the Athenians applauding], one of the ambassadors said ‘The Athenians indeed know how to do what is right [literally: to do the right things], but they are not willing to do it.”