Bloggus Sum

Now, enrolled fathers, that I might dispel and avert certain, almost justified, complaints from myself from the country - listen, I pray, closely to what I say and fix these things deeply in your hearts and minds. Indeed, if to me the country, which is to me far dearer than my life, if all Italy, the whole of the republic - thus asked:

Marcus Tullus - what are you doing? Then him, whom you know to be an enemy, whom you recognise as a future leader of war, whom you feel is expected as leader in the camp of the enemy, author of crime, first among conspirators, evoker of slavery and civil war - then he will you allow to leave, that it will seem he were not sent forth from the city away from you, but invited into the city? Do you not order him lead away in chains, snatched for death, slaughtered with the highest penalty? What thus delays you? Custom of ancestors? But often, even in private, in this republic they punished troublesome citizens by death. Or laws, which were proposed for the punishment of Roman citizens? But never in this city have those who desecrated the republic held the status of citizens. Or fear of future retribution? You give fine return indeed to the Roman People who raised you, a man known on your own merits, without recommendation of ancestors, "so quickly through all grades of office to supreme command", if on account of prejudice and fear of some other danger you neglect the safety of your citizens. But, if there is any fear of vengeance, courageous sternness ought to feear no hatred more vehemently than guilty inaction. Or, when war lays waste to Italy, storms the cities, burns roofs, then do you not think you will be destroyed by burning hatred?

Because I spent about four days juggling words and clauses (see previous post on translating Cicero), I actually get most of it right as soon as I put it on paper. I confess, I took a sneak peak at this page to untangle the bits still hurting my head, and one part I so thoroughly screwed up I had to quote directly.

Two words to learn
maiorum
I took this to mean "majority" throughout - it actually referrs to ancestors.

supplicium
Guessed correctly that this meant a request, a petition, a humble bowing down - but it comes to mean "punishment".

Technical terms in this passage

conscriptus, i (m) - enrolled, elected i.e. the Senate. patres conscripti is the formal way of addressing the Senate.

civis, is (m and f) - citizen
civitas, atis (f) - condition of being a citizen or member of the community, state

coniuratio, onis, (f) - an oath, union, alliance - but in Cicero, always a conspiracy or conspirator.

ius, iuris (n) - duty, law, justice, legal rights. Here it means "rights as a citizen". My dictionary rather nicely describes it as "that which is binding", which aptly covers all its little meanings.

rogo, are, atus, atum - in first year, "to ask", from whence it turns into "beg, implore, solicit". In public life it can mean "ask opinion", or "propose for election, nominate", and when talking about laws, it means "propose, introduce or question concerning". It can also mean "invite", and partiularly talking of military men, "bind by oath"

honorum gradus
Should have got this one without help - doh. It means the same as cursus honorum, the literal equivalent of our "career ladder" referring to the series of posts a Roman gent would hold on his way up.

This page has a brief commentary:
http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/texts/latin/classical/cicero/index.html

I've always dispised Cicero. I think the problem is the way I have always read him, i.e. in Latin unseen exams where I only have 20 minutes to deciper his chunky tangles. I read some this morning and, aided I admit by copious pencil notes from a previous owner, found myself really getting into it. I therefore offer you tips I have gleaned on the best way to make sense of and (dare I say it?) enjoy your Cicero time.

Having said all this, I still wish they wouldn't set Cicero in exams. They do it because it stretches your Latin to the limit, both in your understanding of basic constructions and technical, unusual vocabulary - but it took me several days to fully make sense of this speech, and I will never be able to read it under exam conditions.

1. Read it out loud
And, if you can, perform it. Before you try and understand what the words mean, try and grasp the swoops and lines of his argument. As you read, emphasise question words (nonne, num, an, quid), connectives (ut, et, atque), personal pronouns (tu, ego) and in particular, words he uses to build his case: si, aut, non. Once you have done this, you will find relative clauses, asides and subclauses popping out at you.

If you are self-conscious or in an exam, imagine someone reading it to you - I always find it helpful to imagine my Latin teacher, but try a favourite actor (someone with gravitas, like Brian Blessed...)

2. Circles and boxes
Like all Latin, your aim is to find a subject, object and main verb. You've just got to look harder because of his rhetorical style. Try not to resent it: Martin Luther King would have got nowhere if he boiled the "I have a dream" speech down to "racism is bad. Let's not do that. Let's be friends".

So start identifying things which definitely not S, O or V - and bracket off chunks which seem to belong together, like in hac re publica.

3. Punctuation
The Romans basically had no punctuation, and when roused to literary fury, write in uber-long sentences known as "periods". Because of this, the punctuation is built into the language, into the way clauses are structured and interelated. Grab a highlighter, and highlight all the words you emphasised before. Then start bracketing off relative clauses and conditional clauses. Try and see where he is balancing with words. For example, look at this mess:

Quid tandem te impedit? mosne maiorum? At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica perniciosos cives morte multarunt. An leges, quae de civium Romanorum supplicio rogatae sunt? At numquam in hac urbe, qui a re publica defecerunt, civium iura tenuerunt. An invidiam posteritatis times?

Cicero begins with a general question: "OK, mate, so what is preventing you?" He then shoots down all possible reasons for delay with a question-answer structure:

• Quid tandem te impedit?
  
• mosne maiorum?
• At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica perniciosos cives morte multarunt.
  
• An leges, quae de civium Romanorum supplicio rogatae sunt?
• At numquam in hac urbe, qui a re publica defecerunt, civium iura tenuerunt.
  
• An invidiam posteritatis times?

Even though I don't know what half those words mean yet, I can grasp the rhythm of his argument and can tell that - whatever it is - he is getting angry about something.

4. Before you start writing
Make sure every sentence or clause, you know exactly what the subject, object and verb is. It does bear repeating.


These few ideas occured to me this morning as really helping. Please add your own tips in the comments. And of course, they're not just handy for Cicero - he just writes in such a way that you have to pay more attention.

For Romans using the London Underground, here is the default warning sign translated into Latin:

DE USU CLAMORIS
Increpe ad raedarium trahendo ansam qui statim aut pilentum instabit si ullam partem in loci erit, aut ad proximum locum continuabit ut facilius auxilium dari posset. Poena dabit mali usu.

Well, what else do you do when you've nothing else translateable?

Glug glug, good morning all. See what you can make of this:

quod mare non novit, quae nescit Ariona tellus?
carmine currentes ille tenebat aquas.
saepe sequens agnam lupus est a voce retentus,
saepe avidum fugiens restitit agna lupum;
saepe canes leporesque umbra iacuere sub una,
et stetit in saxo proxima cerva leae,
et sine lite loquax cum Palladis alite cornix
sedit, et accipitri iuncta columba fuit.
Cynthia saepe tuis fertur, vocalis Arion,
tamquam fraternis obstipuisse modis.
nomen Arionium Siculas impleverat urbes
captaque erat lyricis Ausonis ora sonis;
inde domum repetens puppem conscendit Arion,
atque ita quaesitas arte ferebat opes.
forsitan, infelix, ventos undasque timebas:
at tibi nave tua tutius aequor erat.
namque gubernator destricto constitit ense
ceteraque armata conscia turba manu.

The challenge set by my prof was to identify the tenses of the verbs in the passage; something I sorely needed given how lazy I normally am. My answers are here:

What land did not know, what sea did not know Arion?	novit: perfect (for present sense) nescit: perfect (incorrect: present)
He would hold the flowing waters with his song.	tenebat: imperfect - repeated action.
Often the wolf following a lamb was held by his voice;	retentus est: perfect passive sequens: present participle
Often the lamb fleeing the greedy wolf halted;	restitit: perfect fugiens: present participle
Often dogs and hares lay down beneath common shades	iacuere: poetic contraction from iacueverunt
And the deer stood in the rocks near the lioness	stetit: perfect
and without strife the chattering crow sat with Pallas' bird,	sedit: perfect
and the dove was joined by the hawk.	iuncta fuit: perfect passive
Cynthia often was transported by your music, singer Arion	fertur: perfect (incorect: present)
As if she were halted by her brother's.	obstipuisse: perfect
The name of Arion had filled Sicilian cities	implereverat: pluperfect
and he captivated the Italian shore with the sound of his lyre;	capta erat: pluperfect passive
whence returning home Arion boarded a ship	repetens: present conscendit: perfect
and thus was carrying the wealth earnt by his art.	ferebat: imperfect
Perhaps, unhappy one, you had feared the winds and waves:	timebas: imperfect
but the ocean was safer for you than your ship	erat: imperfect
For the steersman stood with his sword unsheathed	constitit: perfect destricto: perfect participle
And the rest of the conspiritorial band with arms in their hands

And an easy commentary I made as I went.

Line 5
Ariona is the accusative of Arion. It looks odd because Arion is a Greek name being used in Latin poetry, and thus has special rules.

Tellus is a very lofty word for "land", and is frequently used in comparison to sea.

Far more rhetorical than what we could achieve in Latin, with the two interrogatives and two verbs to say the same thing.

Line 6
Note the vivid position of ille, surrounded by all the other words.

Line 7
Anaphora with the repeated saepe, linking to the saepe in line 13. Latin doesn't have a lot of punctuation, but the punctuation is built into it - with words like saepe here shaping a "paragraph" of sorts. Saepe would not be needed with an imperfect verb, as the imperfect implies it.

Line 9
The second animal here is lepus, oris: hare. NOT, as I originally thought, leopard...in class my prof here added "not rabbits, please. Hares. Get a sense of the tone."

iacuere is a poetic shortened version of iacuverunt

Line 11
ales, alitis is literally "winged", and is used poetically to mean "bird". The bird of Pallas Athene is, of course, an owl. I particularly like the use of lite...alite. Though the two words are not connected - lis, litis means strife - alite sounds as if it should be its negative regardless.

Line 12
Horrible line if you don't know that accipiter, tris is a hawk - at which point it becomes easy.

Line 13
Cynthia refers to Diana. I confess this line still confuses me - fertur seems to be present, which seems bizzare because everything else so far has been in the past. Perhaps it is meant to be especially vivid: "Cynthia is often transported by you, Arion"

fertur is a present verb, but it's treated as past because obstipuisse is a perfect. So it does the verbing for both of them. Note that Ovid introduces a note of doubt for what the Gods have done, but not the incredible behaviour of animals.

modis is used with both tuis and fratris.

Line 14
Another line which caused me a headache. The brother referred to is Apollo.

tamquam - "as if" - introduces a comparative clause, but these are followed by proper conjugated verblike-verbs not by infinitives; furthermore, a comparative clause is only in the indicative if the comparison is a real one. In unreal comparisons such as this, the verb should be subjunctive. So what is going on with obstipuisse?

One solution is that it should be imperfect subjunctive obstipuisset and my text is wrong. But that seems rather an extreme solution.

Line 15
Siculas: Sicilian

My prof notes that a shift to the pluperfect is often used to indicate a change in what's going on.

Line 16
Go and find the subject first before plunging in. Ausonis, idos means Ausonian a.k.a. Italian

ora's root meaning is "edge", and thus "shore"

Line 17

Puppis is the rear of a ship, and here just means ship. The front of a ship is prora.

Line 20
nave tua is in the ablative, because it is part of a comparative after tutius

Headaches

• Line 14. Is my text wrong?

And it's strike one for the revolution! This post contains:

• My three translation attempts, first unseen, then with a dictionary, then finally with another translation
• A vocab list of the trickier words
• A challenge: identify the form of verbs and comment on what the forms add to the passage.

Tres ferme horas pugnatum est et ubique atrociter; circa consulem tamen acrior infestiorque pugna est. Eum et robora uirorum sequebantur et ipse, quacumque in parte premi ac laborare senserat suos, impigre ferebat opem, insignemque armis et hostes summa ui petebant et tuebantur ciues, donec Insuber eques—Ducario nomen erat—facie quoque noscitans consulem, "En" inquit "hic est" popularibus suis, "qui legiones nostras cecidit agrosque et urbem est depopulatus; iam ego hanc uictimam manibus peremptorum foede ciuium dabo". Subditisque calcaribus equo per confertissimam hostium turbam impetum facit obtruncatoque prius armigero, qui se infesto uenienti obuiam obiecerat, consulem lancea transfixit; spoliare cupientem triarii obiectis scutis arcuere. Magnae partis fuga inde primum coepit; et iam nec lacus nec montes pauori obstabant; per omnia arta praeruptaque uelut caeci euadunt, armaque et uiri super alium alii praecipitantur.

Translation: pass 1

The fighting was terrible everywhere for about three hours; however the battle was fiercest and thickest around the consul. The citizens had followed him and his toughest men, and he himself had shamelessly taken the fight to whichever part he thought his troops were pressed and struggling, and the citizens had sought and killed the most outstanding soldiers and enemies with most strength; until an Insuban knight - his name was Ducarius - recognising the consul also by his face said to his companions "Look! Here is the man who felled our legions and laid waste to our fields and city. Now I will give this punishment with my hands for the crime of a snatched state."

After ?????????????? [after some group had stood down?], he made an attack through the extremely packed crowd of the enemy from his horse, and having first slaughtered the bodyguard who threw himself in the way of the angry approacher, skewered the consul with his lance; the surrounding men, shields thrown aside, prostrated themselves in front of those desiring to slaughter them. First from here, flight of the most part began; and now neither lake nor mountain stood in the way of fear; all men fled headfirst through all the broken devices, and weapons and over other men, as if they could escape slaughter.

Tricky Words - what I've figured out, then what the dictionary says.

impigre
Third declention noun, ablative Adverb: actively, quickly, keenly. It is also an adjective which means the same thing.

infestior
obviously not a good word - unsafe, dangerous

victimam
Accusative, feminine, maybe from victima. Guess it has something to do with sacrifice? Correct: victima, ae - sacrifice victim.

foede
I recognise this word from Virgil. It's a bad word - you do not want to be foedus - and I'm fairly sure it's an ablative, 3rd declension noun. Almost correct - foedus is an adjective meaning all things foul and loathesome, but the word here is the adverb foede - horribly, cruelly. Also, I think the word in Virgil is the homonym foedus, eris (n) - treaty, alliance.

subditis
The verb bit of an ablative absolute - a perfect participle, perhaps from subducto - drag under? Nope - it's from subdo, dere, didi, ditus: an irritating word which somehow encompasses "put under", "apply", "yield", "supply", "furnish", "substitute" and "counterfeit". I can see how all those words can come from subdo, but it's still a bastard collection to remember. What on earth can it mean in this context?!

calcaribus
No idea, except that it's a plural ablative, perhaps from calcax or something? Almost: calcar, aris (n) - spur, but also stimulus. I'm sure in an exam they would have given this to us. It also makes sense of subditis.

armigero
ablative of something like a bodyguard - the dictionary says armiger, eri (m) is a "shield-bearer"

confertissimam
From confertus; it also has another bally adverb, confertim, meaning closely or compact.

triarii
A technical term, and as I suspected, in the nom plural: the third rank of soldiers in battle, i.e. the reserve.

insuber
Not in the dictionary, which at least confirms that my suspicion that it's a proper noun of sorts.

arcuere
"to shut up, to enclose, avert, restrain, hinder, protect". I've no idea if this is etymologically close to the word arx, arcis, but it might help to remember that this verb means to "tower" someone, with all the associations that a tower has. My dictionary claims they both come from the Greek word "arego", and the word "arcanus" (secret) is also related.

spoliare
to strip, unclothe - to rob, plunder, despoil

tuebantur
I thought this was kill - but the dictionary informs me that tueor, tutus, eri actually means "look at", "guard", "care for", "support", "protect" e.t.c.

peremptorum
Genitive plural of something. PPP of perimo, kill, slay, exterminate.

Translation: pass 2

There was fighting for three hours, and everywhere fiercely; however, around the consul the fighting was more bitter and violent. The citizens had followed him and his toughest men, and he himself keenly directing the effort to whichever part he felt his men were pressed and toiling, [while] the citizens had sought and rounded up the most outstanding soldiers and enemies with most strength; until an Insuban knight - Ducarius was his name - recognising the consul also by his face said to his comrades, "look, here is the man who felled our legions and laid waste to our fields and city; now I will perform this sacrifice, with the hands of citizens cruelly annihilated!!!"

Digging in his spurs, he made attack through the tightest band of enemies on his horse, first cutting down the shield-bearer who had thrown himself in the way of the enraged oncomer, skewered the consul with his lance; the reserves restrained those who had thrown away their shields and wished to plunder him. From there first began the flight of the most part; and now neither lake nor mountain would stand in the way of fear; all ran headfirst, through all abandoned devices, weapons and over other men, as if they could evade slaughter.

Uncertainties

• pugnatum est and pugna est: impersonal verbs, apparently in the present. Does this make any difference to their sense?
• What is that quoque doing?
• I still dislike the line about the reserves.
  

After looking up an official translation: Project Gutenburg here

Serious FAIL in paragraph one:

Both the strongest of the troops, and himself too, promptly brought assistance wherever he perceived his men hard pressed and distressed. But, distinguished by his armour, the enemy attacked him with the utmost vigour, while his countrymen defended him

I seriously misconstrued sequebantur somehow. The second half makes sense, from the period. But what of the first half? I looked up the Wikipedia translation for a second opinion:

He was followed by the pick of his army, and wherever he saw his men hard pressed and in difficulties he at once went to their help. Distinguished by his armour he was the object of the enemy's fiercest attacks, which his comrades did their utmost to repel[...]

Now that actually translates sequebantur at least, but I still don't understand: isn't sequebantur deponant? Why is eum accusative? The best sense I can make is "the strongest men followed him".

Now will I offer this victim to the shades of my countrymen, miserably slain

Ouch. You didn't just see me mistake manes, ium - "dead spirits" - for manus, us - "hand". I also didn't quite get objecto correct:

first slaying his armour-bearer, who had opposed himself to his attack as he approached, ran the consul through with his lance; the triarii, opposing their shields, kept him off when seeking to despoil him.

The mistake didn't crucially change the meaning of the first word, but it did the second. I still don't know what this actually means however. Wikipedia gives:

but the triarii protected the body with their shields and prevented him from despoiling it

However, I am also far more literal than my fellow translator:

Then first the flight of a great number began; and now neither the lake nor the mountains obstructed their hurried retreat; they run through all places, confined and precipitous, as though they were blind; and arms and men are tumbled one upon another

pavori is from pavor, oris - "fear", not "retreat", though the sense is the same. My understanding of the last paragraph was scuppered by bad vocab:

cacus - "blind"
artus- close, narrow
praeruptua - abrupt, ragged

Final Translation

There was fighting for three hours, and everywhere fiercely; however, around the consul the fighting was more bitter and violent. The toughest men followed him, and he himself keenly directed the effort to whichever part he felt his men were pressed and toiling; enemies attacked him with the most force, outstanding in his armor, while his countrimen guarded him; until an Insuban knight - Ducarius was his name - recognising the consul also by his face said to his comrades, "look, here is the man who felled our legions and laid waste to our fields and city; now I will perform this sacrifice, to the shades of citizens cruelly annihilated!!!"

Digging in his spurs, he made attack through the tightest band of enemies on his horse, first cutting down the shield-bearer who had thrown himself in the way of the enraged oncomer, skewered the consul with his lance; the reserves restrained those who wished to despoil him with opposing shields. From there first began the flight of the most part; and now neither lake nor mountain would stand in the way of fear; all ran as if blind through small and broken routes, all fleeing headfirst over other arms and men.

Lesson of the day

• Look-ye up some adverbs. They're one of those little unimportant things passed over in Latin classes, precicely because they have no function beyond decoration, and are infrequently used (compared to, y'know, verbs). But see how often they tripped me up!

PART TWO: verb identification