A Storm
Dum Rōmānī contrā Britannōs
pugnant, lūna erat plēna atque magna erat tempestās. Itaque XVIII nāvēs
Rōmānae, quae equitēs trānsportābant, propter tempestātem ad īnsulam pervenīre
nōn poterant, sed ad Galliam iterum nāvigāverant. Interim in Britanniā
tempestās nāvēs multās Caesaris adflīctāvit*. Prīncipēs Britannōrum, ubi dē
tempestāte audīvērunt, rebelliōnem contrā Caesarem parābant. Sed Caesar, quod
impetum hostium timēbat, frūmentum comparābat atque nāvēs multās reparābat.
*adflīctō: alternative form of afflīctō, -āre, -āvī [1]
(here) damage
Note:
Dum Rōmānī contrā Britannōs pugnant [present tense], lūna erat
plēna atque magna erat tempestās. │ While the Romans were
fighting against the Britons, the moon was full and there was a
great storm.
Dum (while) regularly appears in the present tense,
even though the narrative in the past, to emphasise that these events were
happening at the same time.
Questions
- How many ships are referred to? [1]
- What were those ships doing? [1]
- Why could the ships not reach the island? [1]
- What had they done instead? [1]
- What happened to the ships in Britain? [2]
- What did the Britons decide to do? [2]
- What did Caesar fear? [1]
- What did he do? [2]
Grammar review: parsing nouns
Parsing has never been done in the group. However, if you’re
now well on your way at Level 2, it’s good to have some practice in it because
it helps to reinforce not only the meanings of words but to be precise in what
those words are actually doing in a sentence. To parse a word means to analyse
the form of the word. In Latin, when parsing a noun, there are usually three
pieces of information you need to give:
[i] case (nominative, accusative etc.) [ii] number (singular / plural) [iii] gender
(masculine / feminine / neuter); they don’t have to be in that order
Example:
puellam
[i] accusative
[ii] singular
[iii] feminine
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[iv] You may also need to give the nominative singular:
puella
All of that can be abbreviated:
puellam: acc. sg. fem. < puella
I mention the inclusion of the nominative singular because some Latin examinations ask for the nominative singular of the noun rather than
details of the parsing. Here are some examples from UK examination papers where
the candidate is expected to be able to parse to some extent i.e. to identify
the case.
(a) cum Latinis (line 1): identify the case of Latinis
and explain why this case is used here.
(c) Identify an example of the accusative case in line 2.
(e) in alia parte Italiae (line 2): identify the case
of Italiae.
[OCR GCSE 2022]
(g) e manibus (line 5): identify the case of manibus
and explain why this case is used here.
(h) e manibus Volscorum (line 5): identify the case
of Volscorum.
[OCR GCSE 2021]
State and explain the case of the following, using a
translation if you think it is helpful:
(a) aliis (line 1)
(b) Alexandriae (line 4)
(c) agentis (line 11)
(d) cui (line 11)
[OCR A Level 2023]
Note also that, in questions of this type, you are asked to
explain why the case is being used. We’ll do more practice on that in a later
post.
Images #1 and #2: Try parsing these nouns from the text; use
the image file since the line numbers match and remember that, even if a noun
has the same ending for more than one case, it is the case in context that you
need to give. Therefore, in an examination, look at the line number references
because the word may appear more than once.
The table with the answers is given at the end of the post.
While the Romans
were fighting against the Britons, the moon was full and there was a great
storm. And so the 18 Roman ships, which were transporting the horsemen, could
not reach the island because of the storm, but had sailed again to Gaul.
Meanwhile in Britain the storm damaged many of Caesar's ships. The chiefs of
the Britons, when they heard about the storm, prepared a rebellion against
Caesar. But Caesar, because he was afraid of an enemy attack, procured corn and
repaired many ships.
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