10.04.26: Level 3; Subjunctive [16] independent uses [3] deliberative [ii] practice

Example: Quem cōnsulat Tiberius? │ Whom should Tiberius consult? / Who is Tiberius (supposed) to consult?

1. Quō ambulem?
2. Quid scrībam?
3. Quid faciat Neptūnus?
4. Quō illa fugiat?
5. Quid dīcat eques?
6. Quem audiāmus?
7. Temptēmusne?
8. Fugiāmusne?
9. Quem illī iuvent?
10. Quō nāvigent mercātōrēs?

____________________

1. Where should I / am I (supposed) to walk?
2. What should I / am I (supposed) to write?
3. What is Neptune (supposed) to do? / What should …?
4. Where is she (supposed) to flee to?
5. What should the knight / is the knight (supposed) to say?
6. Whom should we / are we (supposed) to listen to?
7. Should we / are we (supposed) to try?
8. Should we / are we (supposed) to flee?
9. Whom should they / are they (supposed) to help?
10. Where should the merchants / are the merchants (supposed) to sail to?

10.04.26: Level 3; Subjunctive [15] independent uses [3] deliberative [i]

From deliberō, -āre [1]: consider carefully; deliberate.
When we say, “What am I (supposed) to do?” or “What should / ought I to do?”, we are deliberating — that is, we express doubt or uncertainty about the correct course of action. The speaker may be addressing him- or herself, genuinely asking for guidance, or framing a rhetorical question (e.g. “What am I supposed to do?”). In Latin this kind of deliberation is expressed by the subjunctive.

Indicative: Quid facimus? │ What are we doing?

Subjunctive: Quid faciāmus? │ What are we to do / should we do?

Quid dīcam? │ What am I to say?

Quid faciam? │ What am I to do?

Huic cēdāmus! hūius condiciōnēs audiāmus! (Cicero)│ Are we to bow to him! Are we to listen to his terms!

Quid agam, iūdicēs? Quō mē vertam? (Cicero) │ What am I to do, judges? Where am I to turn to?

Etiamne eam salūtem? (Plautus) │ Am I to greet her?

Quid hōc homine faciās? Quod supplicium dīgnum libīdinī eius inveniās? │ What are you to do with this man? What fit penalty can you devise [lit: are you to find] for his wantonness?

The negative deliberative is constructed with nōn:

Hunc ego nōn dīligam? (Cicero) │ Should I not cherish this man?

09.04.26: Describing objects [12]; glass; ivory

[i] vitrum, -ī [2/n]: glass

vitrum perlūcidum: transparent glass

ē vitrō: made of glass

vitreus, -a, -um: of glass

vasa vitrea: glass vessels

vitrea, -ōrum [2/n/pl]: glassware

Pliny the Elder’s description of an excessively desgned theatre – note his comment on glass:

īma pars scaenae ē marmore fuit, media ē vitrō, inaudītō etiam posteā genere luxuriae, summa ē tabulīs inaurātīs; columnae, ut dīximus, īmae duodequadragenum pedum. signa aerea inter columnās, ut indicāvimus, fuērunt I̅I̅I̅* numerō

the lowest part of the stage was made of marble, the middle of glass, a type of luxury unheard of even afterwards (ever since that time), and the highest of gilded (wood) tablets; the lowest columns, as we have stated (mentioned above), were 38 feet (in height). The bronze statues between the columns, as we have mentioned, were three thousand in number.

*horizontal line above the number = x 1000: I̅I̅I̅ = 3,000

medullam eius concīsam in fidēliam vitream vel novam fictilem coicitō (Columella) │ throw the chopped-up marrow into a glass vessel or a new earthen one

An vidēlicet audīrem sententiās, id est vitrea frācta et somniōrum interpretāmenta? (Petronius) │ Was I to go on listening to his views, all broken bottles (vessels) and interpretation of dreams?

[ii] ebur, eboris [3/n]: ivory

signum ex ebore factum: a figure made of ivory

eburn(e)us, -a, -um: (made of) ivory

eburātus, -a, -um: adorned / inlaid with ivory

Habuit gemmāta vehicula et aurāta contemptīs argentātīs et eburātīs et aerātīs │ He had vehicles jeweled and gilded, with no regard for those plated with silver, inlaid with ivory, or decorated with bronze

gemma, -ae [1/f]: jewel; gem

gemmātus, -a, -um: adorned with jewels / precious stones

Plautus:

argentī aurīque advēxit nimium … │ He has brought a great amount of silver and gold …

lānam purpuramque multam … │ wool and purple in plenty …

lectōs eburātōs, aurātōs│ couches, adorned with ivory and gold.

Minōribus simulācrīs signīsque innumera prope artificum multitūdō nōbilitāta est, ante omnēs tamen Phīdiās Athēniēnsis Iove Olympiō factō ex ebore quidem et aurō, sed et ex aere signa fēcit (Pliny the Elder) │ An almost countless multitude of artists became famous for their smaller images and statues; yet above them all stood Phidias of Athens, who made the Olympian Jupiter, fashioned indeed of ivory and gold, but who also made statues of bronze

Images of ivory: I loathe it – as any other right-minded person does – but we’re not talking about us, we’re talking about the Romans, and they used ivory. The ivory figure is Roman although the date is uncertain.

09.04.26: Level 2; Vincent (Latin Reader); LVIII; The Speech by Calgacus

Translate:

Calgacus, imperātor praeclārus hostium, cōpiās suās convocāvit. Hiē diēs inquit, ‘dabit lībertātem omnibus Britannīs: proelium et arma sunt tūtissima et fortibus et ignāvīs. Nisi Rōmānōs ex īnsulā expulerimus, fēminae et līberī erunt servī (1): nōs etiam erimus servī: Rōmānī sunt raptōrēs orbis. Necāre et vastāre imperium appellant (2), atque, ubi sōlitūdinem faciunt, pācem appellant. Boudicca regina castra incendit, oppida expugnāvit, hostēs paene expulit. Nōs Rōmānōs expellere facile poterimus.’

Notes:

(1) Nisi Rōmānōs ex īnsulā expulerimus, fēminae et līberī erunt servī; use of the future tense in the first clause which is present tense in English i.e. the Latin conveys the inherent idea that both events take place in the future:

Nisi …  expulerimus, fēminae et līberī erunt … │ Unless we (will) drive the Romans out of the island, our women and children will be …; nisi: unless / if … not

(2) Necāre et vastāre imperium appellant; Latin uses infinitives (necāre; vastāre), but these are best translated either as verbal nouns (killing; devastating) or as nouns (slaughter; devastation)

Calgacus

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

In the days long, long before “fact checking”, it was not uncommon for Roman historians to invent speeches designed to be appropriate to the situation rather than what, if anything, was actually said. Tacitus would not have been aware of any pre-battle speech made by the enemy commander. In the original text, Tacitus signals this convention by introducing the speech indirectly rather than claiming eyewitness accuracy.

The English translation of the original speech is available here:

https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/readings/agricola.html

____________________

Calgacus, the distinguished leader of the enemy, summoned his forces. He said, “This day will give freedom to all the Britons. Battle and weapons are the safest for both the brave and the cowardly alike. Unless we drive the Romans out of the island, our women and children will be slaves; we ourselves too will be slaves. The Romans are the robbers of the world. They call slaughter and devastation an empire, and when they make a desert, they call it peace. Queen Boudicca burned camps, captured towns, and almost drove out the enemy. We will be able easily to drive the Romans out.”

08.04.26: Level 1; Comenius (1658); Eurōpa [4]: a different type of map reading

When the UK changed its education system in the late 1980s (when I was just starting), Modern Languages underwent radical reform, and yet it’s common now. It was perfectly possible not only to enhance learning with authentic material, but also to use that as a ‘springboard’ to show a grammatical point. A simple example would be a French lesson for beginners looking at images of real street or shop signs, for example BOULANGERIE, RUE du Lyonnais i.e. the kids don’t always have their heads down in a textbook, but up at a Power Point or a video. However, it can go beyond that: VOUS N’AVEZ PAS la priorité │ You don’t have right of way i.e. an authentic sign teaches a point of grammar.

I would argue, however, that it isn’t as revolutionary as the reformers would make it out to be. After all, what is Comenius doing in 1658 except employing visual recognition of the things around the pupils?

And you can do the same with Latin. We’ll do it with a map not created for learners but for people who used Latin as a common means of communication.

[1] In the previous post there were four headings worth noting:

DĒSCRĪPTIŌ ¦ TARTARIAE │ a description ¦ of Tartary

MODERNA ¦ EUROPAE ¦ DĒSCRĪPTIŌ │ a modern description ¦ of Europe

UKRAINAE ¦ PARS (Ūcrāīnae pars) │ part ¦ of the Ukraine

RĒGNĪ ¦ BOHĒMIAE ¦ NOVA ET EXĀCTA DĒSCRĪPTIŌ │ a new and precise description ¦ of the Kingdom ¦ of Bohemia

Tartaria, Eurōpa, Ūcrāīna and Bohēmia are all first declension nouns. They are no different from any other nouns, they all end in -a, and there are thousands of them.

The titles, however, refer to a description of, or a part of …. When this happens the Latin noun goes into the genitive case, and for 1^st declension nouns it’s straightforward: -a > -ae

[2] In this post, we have an 18^th century map:

TABULA GEŌGRAPHICA: a geographic map

We focus on five regions mentioned …

WALLACHIA

MOLDAVIA

POLONIA

BESSARABIA

PODOLIA

[3] Now look what happens on the map

DESPOTATŪS ¦ WALLACHIAE atque MOLDAVIAE │ the despotates ¦ of Wallachia and (of) Moldavia

The cartographer obviously didn’t have a high opinion of either of them since despotātus refers to a principality under despotic rule, but forget the history, and focus on the grammar:

Wallachia > Wallachiae

Moldavia > Moldaviae

[4] This time, we have the word:

rēgnum, -ī [2/n]: kingdom

It is a second declension noun, and its genitive is different: -ī, and here you see them both working together

PARS ¦ REGNĪ ¦ POLŌNIAE ¦ │ part ¦ of the Kingdom ¦ of Poland

REGNĪ ¦ BULGARIAE ¦ PARS │ part ¦ of the Kingdom ¦ of Bulgaria

In other words, in one phrase, you see the genitive singular of both first and second declension nouns.

[5] But the map has more “secrets” …

Tabula Geōgraphica continēns … │ a geographical map containing …

Whatever it contains is in the accusative case which is used for the direct object i.e. the thing / person being affected by the action:

PRŌVINCIAM [accusative, the direct object of ‘containing’] ¦ BESSARABIAE [genitive] │ the province ¦ of Bessarabia

1^st declension -a > -am

prōvincia > provinciam

Itemque │ likewise (containg …)

PRŌVINCIAM POLŌNICAM [accusative]  ¦ PODOLIAE [genitive] │ the Polish province ¦ of Podolia

08.04.26: Level 1; Comenius (1658); Eurōpa [3]: see Europe from a different angle!

Moderna Eurōpae Dēscrīptiō (Sebastien Munster: 1552); this Modern Description of Europe may, at first, suggest that the cartographer didn’t have a clue what he was doing … until you turn it upside down!

Below are also some examples of the Latin nouns from various sources including maps, books, sports clubs and trains.

Thoughts:

The Romans never made it to Canada … or did they?

It was sold to Renault in 1999, but it hasn’t lost its Roman(ian) roots!