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Here is my sentence: I'm trying to say that "The gods seemed to favor Romulus because he saw 12 vultures, twice the number of birds that Remus saw."

Dii Romulō favere visi sunt quia ille duodecim vultures vidit, duplicem numerum avium quem Remus viderat.

I'm not sure about the "quem" here and if that part of the sentence makes sense. Thanks!

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Remus didn't see the "number", but the "birds", so the antecedent of the relative pronoun is avium. The form should therefore be quas (acc. pl. f.).

(BTW the irregular nom. pl. of deus is more commonly spelled di, though dii apparently occurs too.)

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  • Bis quot viderat Remus?
    – Figulus
    Aug 8, 2020 at 17:29
  • @Figulus Interesting idea! I don't know if I've seen a construction like bis quot, but it may well be idiomatic Latin.
    – TKR
    Aug 8, 2020 at 17:56
  • @Figulus, Not sure about bis quot by itself, but I just came across a bit in Vitruvius (3.4.3) that uses totidem bis together with a correlative clause introduced by quot to mean 'twice as many as': sed ita columnae in peripteris conlocentur, uti, quot intercolumnia sunt in fronte, totidem bis intercolumnia fiant in lateribus, 'But let the columns on peripteral temples be so arranged that there are twice as many intercolumniations on the sides as on the front.'
    – cnread
    Sep 27, 2020 at 20:00
  • By the way, another, common way to express '2/3/etc. times as much/many' is to use bis (or altero)/*ter*/etc. tanto, sometimes with a comparative. Cicero, Verrines 2.3.102 has: sexiens tanto quam quantum satum sit ablatum esse ab aratoribus, '6 times as much corn as was sown was exacted of the farmers.' In 2.3.225, a comparative is used: reperietis quinquiens tanto, iudices, amplius istum quam quantum in cellam ei sumere licitum sit civitatibus imperasse, 'You will find, judges, that man commanded the cities to supply 5 times as much as it was lawful for him to take for the granary.'
    – cnread
    Sep 27, 2020 at 20:12

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