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11 votes
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Parsing a present perfect participle

Lavatum here isn't a perfect passive participle, but a supine. When it's accusative (ends in -um) and is coupled with a verb of motion (here eunt, "they go"), it expresses purpose. Here's a ...
cmw's user avatar
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10 votes
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Where to put the enclitic -ne?

Your idea is correct. Lewis-Short is not terribly clear: added in a direct question, as an interrogation mark, to the first or principal word of the clause but, if you know German, Georges is ...
Dario's user avatar
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8 votes

Parsing a present perfect participle

In addition to cmw's answer, both of your interpretations are unworkable as the Latin text stands: Your first interpretation (“the washed Romans”) cannot be true because lavatum does not agree with ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
8 votes

How to say "as" emphatically?

I suggest that simple word order would also do the trick here: Marcus locutus est dux [or procurator or whatever].
cnread's user avatar
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7 votes
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Combining verbs with ecce or en

Both ecce and en can be used with verbs/whole clauses in addition to nouns, to draw attention to some fact rather than an object. So, both ecce [or en] leo edit and ecce [en] leo edens (or ecce [en] ...
cnread's user avatar
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7 votes
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How to say "as" emphatically?

Another option (in addition to the several excellent ones in answers so far) is to use (in) loco + gen., as in the phrase in loco parentis "as a parent, in the position of a parent". Lewis and Short (...
TKR's user avatar
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6 votes

How to say "as" emphatically?

I should like to extend @brianpck's answer by providing two further suggestions. 1. A neat way to express this is by using qua, as in these examples: — Ad hoc stipatum tribunal, atque etiam ex ...
Tom Cotton's user avatar
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6 votes

How to say "as" emphatically?

A common and classically attested way of saying "to perform the role of X" is munere X fungi, where "X" is an adjective or genitive noun. Here is an example: fungar enim iam ...
brianpck's user avatar
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6 votes
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How to swear by a god?

This answer only concerns Latin; I will leave Greek to others. Vocative is not the way to go here. It is used for addressing the god, not for such exclamations. (At least I have never seen it in such ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
5 votes
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What is the relation and history of 'si' and 'sic'?

Here is de Vaan's entry for both forms: By this account (which I think is uncontroversial), both forms come from the locative singular of the demonstrative *so- "this", with an added ...
TKR's user avatar
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5 votes

Omission of a repeated verb in second part of a μέν ... δέ

A lot of grammars describe the characteristics of sentences involving the particles μέν and δέ. A good example of that is A Greek Grammar for Colleges by Herbert Weir Smyth. In spite of a detailed ...
Expedito Bipes's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

Ne ... quidem with preposition

Ne...quidem can most definitely surround nouns in cases other than nominative: Apuleius, Metamorphoses 9.27 (genitive): non sum barbarus nec agresti morum squalore praeditus nec ad exemplum ...
cnread's user avatar
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3 votes

When does si mean "that"?

The easy part of your question is the part about Latin. “si” is simply a literal translation of εἰ. The difficult part is why the Greek original uses εἰ (“if”) when it clearly intends “that”. There ...
fdb's user avatar
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3 votes
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When does si mean "that"?

Although it could be read as whether, translations are almost1 consistent in translating these particular instances of si as that. There are a couple of meanings of si that are equivalent to quod (...
Rafael's user avatar
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2 votes

(Greek) what's a "γε causal"?

(This answer may not be satisfying, and I'm happy to have it supplanted in the future! But for now…) I've never heard of a "γε causal", nor have any of the classicists I've talked to. A Google ...
Draconis's user avatar
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2 votes

How can I intensify a phrase?

A common way to intensify a phrase in Latin is to place an intensifier on its verb. An intensifier is a prefix, often a preposition or some other adverb, placed on the verb which can intensify it. In ...
Figulus's user avatar
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2 votes

Omission of a repeated verb in second part of a μέν ... δέ

I came across this sentence in Plato (Symposium 206c): τίκτειν δὲ ἐν μὲν αἰσχρῷ οὐ δύναται, ἐν δὲ τῷ καλῷ. And it cannot beget on the ugly, but on the beautiful. This μέν...δέ sentence omits the ...
b a's user avatar
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