54
votes
Feminine case 3rd-person version of “Veni, vidi, vici”
"Veni vidi vici" means "I came, I saw, I conquered."
"Venit vidit vicit" means "He/she/it came, he/she/it saw, he/she/it conquered." It doesn't make any ...
21
votes
Feminine case 3rd-person version of “Veni, vidi, vici”
It's:
Vēnit, vīdit, vīcit.
whether the subject is masculine, feminine, or neuter. Latin only has grammatical gender agreement between nouns and the adjectives that modify them. Subject-verb ...
15
votes
"Et tu, Brute?"
Well, without too much knowledge of any deeper, ulterior meanings to the phrase, I can certainly provide and analyze the literal translation for you:
And you, Brutus?
et → a simple conjunction
tu →...
14
votes
"Et tu, Brute?"
Suetonius, in his work Vita Divi Iuli, reports the last words of Caesar being Greek καὶ σὺ τέκνον; which is the original source of Shakespeare's line, translated into Latin fairly literally:
the ...
12
votes
Accepted
Why are *De Bello Africo* and *Hispaniensi* not believed to have been written by Julius Caesar or Hirtius?
As you note from the Wikpedia articles, the scholarly consensus is that Caesar did not write these works.
The Loeb Classic Library edition to these works and one other (Alexandrian War. African War. ...
11
votes
How to translate the phrase "perfacile factu esse"?
Your translation "he proved to them that completing these efforts was done very easily" is good.
To express such things in Latin the supine is a good choice.
The supine ablative (like factu) is an ...
9
votes
Accepted
How to translate the phrase "perfacile factu esse"?
Perfacile factu means "easy to do." Factu is a supine, and this construction—supines coming off of certain adjectives—is pretty much where you will always see its ablative form. Other common ...
cmw♦
- 38.9k
9
votes
Translation of a Line from Caesar's De Bello Gallico
You have the vocabulary, but there's one small piece of grammar that you need.
Nactus is the perfect "passive" participle of nanciscor, meaning "get, obtain, receive." However, we need to recall that ...
7
votes
Accepted
Origin and actual quote of the proverb "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion"
Welcome, Leonardo, to the Latin Stack Exchange. The quote you asked for is found in Latin in Suetonius's Life of Julius Caesar, §74, 2:
in Publium Clodium Pompeiae uxoris suae adulterum atque eadem ...
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference in meaning between "reliquiis in locis" and "alibi"?
The difference is the same as the difference between "elsewhere" and "in other places" in English. Latin is a language, it has multiple ways to express a given concept.
Single-...
7
votes
Grammatical structure of "Obsidibus imperatis centum hos Haeduis custodiendos tradit"
Absolute means "syntactically unconnected to the rest of the sentence except as an adverbial adjunct to the praedicate". The real issue here is, I believe, not whether the ablative is ...
6
votes
Translation of a Line from Caesar's De Bello Gallico 5.29
This is part of an accusativus cum infinitivo, indirect speech depending on a previous finite verb. What makes it difficult to translate is the direct question converted into an a.c.i. Your ...
6
votes
Accepted
On Julius Caesar and salmon
The derivation from salire is probably a folk etymology, especially since it does not explain the second syllable of salmo.
Walde, Latein. Etym. Wb., says that salmo, and also salar “trout”, are ...
5
votes
Does "Ob Eam Causam" introduce an indirect question
The sentence structure is "Cotta, qui cogitasset ... atque ... non fuisset, ... deerat..." The verbs are subjunctive because the relative clause is explaining the cause of the upcoming main ...
5
votes
Grammatical structure of "Obsidibus imperatis centum hos Haeduis custodiendos tradit"
Does this sentence have an ablative absolute that connects grammatically to the rest of the sentence?
As Joonas has already pointed out, this question can be answered/interpreted in different ways. ...
5
votes
Accepted
What are some great passages from Caesar?
The opening of BG I is a good place to begin. BG V.12 has his description of the inhabitants and V.13 the geography of Britain. BG VII.6 is news of the Gallic uprising and Caesar's decision to return.
...
5
votes
Accepted
Ambiguities in De Bello Gallico 1.3.3
This sentence depends a bit on context. Nothing grammatically precludes Orgetorix from being the subject of occuparet, but if he were then the sua in ciuitate sua would have to refer to Orgeterix, too....
4
votes
Accepted
What surviving sources describe the civil war between Caesar and Pompeius?
We shouldn't trust Lucan's Pharsalia for history, as it is decidedly not so. Besides being far removed (by almost a century!), Lucan had a clear ax to grind:
Though the poem covered historical ...
cmw♦
- 38.9k
4
votes
What surviving sources describe the civil war between Caesar and Pompeius?
"Bellum Civile" by Appian.
"De Vita Caesarum" by Suetonius contains parts about Caesar (and the civil war).
4
votes
Ambiguities in De Bello Gallico 1.3.3
I would add that persuadeo often takes a dative and ut (or ne) + subjunctive. "I persuade the dative to do (or not do) the subjunctive." Since Castico is in the dative right behind persuadet and ...
4
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between emere and coemere?
Emere would indeed be possible, but the prefix co- adds a flavor which suits this situation well.
It is not intensified, but rather toned.
I might translate coemere as "to collect by buying" or "to ...
4
votes
Accepted
Is the coordinating conjunction necessary in a parallel series of terms?
As commenters have pointed out, adding an "and" between the last two elements in a list is not required in Latin.
In fact, I have been instructed that it is stylistically preferred to leave such ...
4
votes
Grammatical structure of "Obsidibus imperatis centum hos Haeduis custodiendos tradit"
Does this sentence have an ablative absolute that connects grammatically to the rest of the sentence?
I think it depends on what you mean by connecting grammatically.
It is clear that hos means ...
3
votes
Does "Ob Eam Causam" introduce an indirect question
I believe these are all causal relative clauses. "But Cotta, since he had thought that these things were able to happen on the march and since on account of that reason he had not been a promoter ...
cmw♦
- 38.9k
3
votes
"Et tu, Brute?"
It has already been pointed out that Suetonius reported the words "καὶ σύ, τέκνον" as Caesar's last, and that these are the ultimate origin of Shakespeare's "Et tu, Brute?" (though ...
3
votes
When did Caesar's works begin to be used to teach Latin to non-native speakers?
I am uncertain of the earliest, but Thomas Jefferson often wrote to younger men he mentored that it should be included in their personal reading lists (see for example a letter to Peter Carr), so ...
2
votes
Are Iulus and Iulius related?
It is quite a regular pattern that Latin given names wih a simple -us ending correspond to Latin gentile names with an -ius ending, like Marcus and gens Marcia, Aulus and gens Aulia, Gnaeus and gens ...
1
vote
When did Caesar's works begin to be used to teach Latin to non-native speakers?
I am not able to say “when” exactly Caesar’s De bello Gallico became the first book foisted onto juvenile learners of Latin, but I suspect it was not long ago. In the 19th century and the first part ...
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