How to translate phrases using "prospectus"

Question

I want to translate two phrases:

The view [with the meaning of "focus"] to all.

I'm thinking:

prospectus omnium

And the opposite:

The view to [only] the strong ones.

I think prospectus should be used here too, but not sure about the rest.

Is the first translation correct? And how do I translate "the strong ones" in the second phrase?

With the first expression I want to write about an ideology, where people focus on the whole community. And with the second expression only the strong in a community are in focus.

Answer 1

I think prospectus is a decent word for "view". The harder part is formulating the target of the view, "all" (omnes) or "the strong ones" (fortes). One option is to use objective genitive. With this choice, your sentences look like this:

prospectus omnium (as you suggested) and prospectus fortium

There is a problem with this choice, though. One could interpret the genitives as subjective genitives instead of objective ones, whence the first one would mean the view held by all and the second one that held by the strong ones. If you want omnes and fortes to refer to the target of the view instead of the viewer, something else should be found. If this possibility of misinterpretation does not feel fatal, I suggest using the genitive.

The second option that comes to mind is to use the preposition in with accusative. I don't know if this construction is really attested. This leads to this:

prospectus in omnes and prospectus in fortes

This sounds a little fishy to me. Perhaps someone can suggest a better alternative if these ideas don't work for you.

Answer 2

I agree with Joonas about the genitive ambiguity; "the view of [i.e. held by] the people" seems to be a fairly common classical construction.

I'm not finding much of anything attested for prōspectus in..., except for a kind of strange usage in 2 Maccabees 13.5. However, prōspectus ex... is definitely attested: from Catullus 64, summā prōspectum ex arce "the view from the highest peaks". And the verb form prōspiciō, though usually found with a direct object in the accusative, is also attested with in and per.

I'd say use ad here; prōspectus in... sounds to me like you're looking into a building through the window or something, rather than looking at a person. But there's not really enough evidence to enforce one over the other.

Source: LSJ

Answer 3

I agree with Joonas Ilmavirta's thoughts about the subjective and objective genitive about about the fishiness of in omnes/in fortes.

I'd suggest prospectus ad omnes and prospectus ad fortes. There's a flavor of purpose here—you're looking at all/the strong but you're also looking to accomplish something for or in relation to all/the strong.

However, I'm unfamiliar enough with the literature to say that you shouldn't accept this answer on faith—perhaps some others can weigh in on it or add other options with answers of their own.