Questions tagged [epistula]

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Signing your name: vocative or nominative?

When signing your name at the end of a letter, should you use the vocative case or the nominative case?
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
112 views

What does “fac posse” mean in Epistulae ad Atticum VII.22?

I am reading the following passage in the Ecce Romani series: Tradam igitur isti me? Fac posse tuto (multi enim hortantur), num etiam honeste? — Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum VII.22 It is the first ...
Stephen Perencevich's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
260 views

How is this Quote from Cicero's "ad Atticum 15.20.3" to be Translated?

While researching Q: What is the Role of "iste" in These Quotes from Cicero?, I came across this line in Cicero's "Epistulae ad Atticum 15.20.3": Pompeium Carteia receptum scribis;...
tony's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
154 views

How do the different numbering systems for Ambrose’s letters relate to each other?

Background On p. 27 of Liebeschuetz and Hill’s Ambrose of Milan : Political Letters and Speeches in the series Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 43, they note that: Latin Text: Otto Faller, ...
Canned Man's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
1k views

How do you say "How is the weather"?

Not a common saying in Classical Latin literature I imagine, but maybe could be found in letters? Or, if there are any equivalent phrases or expressions found in Neo-Latin particularly, eg Erasmus, ...
Iacobus's user avatar
  • 349
4 votes
1 answer
162 views

Clarifications regarding translation of the phrase "Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus"

I am looking for lineal translation (or rather some clarifications) of a phrase from Letter 23 of Moral letters to Lucilius: Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus (I have found the Latin original here) ...
Ignoramus Philomathum's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are there any surviving Ancient Greek letters (epistolary)?

I was wondering how the Greeks in the archaic or classical age wrote letters, if there was some sort of convention for them, thus I searched for Ancient Greek letters but found nothing. Is somebody ...
Alexandre Daubricourt's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
166 views

Latin phrases in 1787 letter from Danish bishop

This is a pretty complex mishmash of Danish, Latin, and Greek. With help from friends I have it almost fully translated, but two latin phrases have eluded me and block a full translation. The context ...
meide's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
204 views

Latin terms in (medical) clinical letters - UK

Today I came across this news article. In short, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (in the UK) is providing new guidelines to medical doctors on the writing of clinical letters to patients. Among ...
luchonacho's user avatar
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7 votes
4 answers
2k views

How to break up in classical Latin?

Are there any attested breakup letters, notes, or similar in classical Latin? A great number of relationships must have started and ended in classical antiquity, but I don't recall seeing any passages ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

How do we know that the correspondence of Seneca and St. Paul was a forgery?

There is ancient but discredited tradition that St. Paul and Seneca the Younger corresponded. Here is the Latin text along with an English translation. (Or this better side-by-side edition.) St. ...
brianpck's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
596 views

Why did Cicero switch from "abs te" to "a te" in his later works?

Lewis and Short, in their entry on ab, describe a shift in use of abs in Cicero's works that had far-reaching ramifications: The use of abs was confined almost exclusively to the combination abs te ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to say "I look forward to hearing from you" in Latin?

It is sometimes appropriate to add "I look forward to hearing from you" at the end of a letter or other similar communication. I am looking for a phrase that says more "I am happy if you react to this ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
4k views

Does the "re" in emails have an ancient origin?

The Latin ablative re has become a word in English, meaning "regarding" or "with reference to" or something along those lines. This is also used in emails as an automatically generated prefix "Re:&...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
10k views

Meaning of "S. P. D." in letters

I have been reading Cicero's letters in translation on the Perseus.uchicago.edu site, but check the Latin to improve my limited ability. Most of the letters include S. P. D. in the salutation, and I ...
TheHonRose's user avatar
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17 votes
1 answer
671 views

Did ancient Romans develop cryptography for Latin?

Did the Romans ever develop any form of cryptography, where either words were replaced with other words or letters were replaced with other letters? Do we have any remaining examples, and if so have ...
tox123's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
1k views

Where did pluralis-ut-singularis come from in Latin?

Anyone who reads Cicero's letters cannot fail to notice that he quite frequently uses nos and noster to mean ego and meus. Earlier I heard a paper where nos in Lucretius' proem was meant singularly (...
cmw's user avatar
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17 votes
2 answers
26k views

What did the Romans use to close their letters?

As anyone who's written a proper letter knows, one begins with a salutation and ends with a valediction (or, in normal English, opens with "hello" and ends with "goodbye"). Right ...
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