29
votes
Accepted
A story of a king who wanted to simplify Latin grammar
It sounds like you're talking about this incident involving the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund at the Council of Constance in 1414:
…A similar anecdote is told of the German Emperor Sigismund. When ...
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15
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of this quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero?
The first part of your quotation is not from Cicero, but from the Apologeticus Adversos Gentes pro Christianis (3,2) by Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240 AD):
Laudant quae sciunt, vituperant quae ...
- 2,896
14
votes
Accepted
How to say "We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, flowers of the same garden" in Latin?
Actually, despite being "internet wisdom", this quote doesn't seem to appear in any of Seneca's works.
It is likely just inspired by his literary production*, and much resembles a quote by Bahá'u'...
- 4,438
12
votes
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A poem that works in both Latin and Italian
This page (in Italian) has three bilingual Italian-Latin poems.
"Salve Regina" by Anacleto Bendazzi (1883-1982) seems to be the Christian-themed one (though I don't know either Italian or Latin well ...
- 1,332
9
votes
Identifying a classical Latin quotation to the effect of "My affairs are a mess, but I manage others'"
Horace, Satires, II 3. 19: Aliena negotia curo, Excussus propriis
9
votes
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Is "The beginning is half of every action" truly a Greek proverb?
Yes, it was proverbial by Plato's time. He quotes the saying in the Laws (753e):
ἀρχὴ γὰρ λέγεται μὲν ἥμισυ παντὸς ἐν ταῖς παροιμίαις ἔργου
"For it is said in proverbs that the beginning is half ...
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7
votes
Finding the original Latin text of Seneca ("No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it.")
It is to be found in Seneca the Younger, De Providentia (On Providence), book 1, chapter 4, section 16
Non est arbor solida nec fortis nisi in quam frequens ventus incursat
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7
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What is the meaning of this quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero?
Laudant quae sciunt, vituperant quae ignorant
"Those who know [something] praise [it], those who don't know [it] censure [it]".
This is a quotation from Christian church father Tertullian's ...
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7
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Translation of "trumped up charges"
I agree that calumnia is a good translation for a "trumped-up charge." Here is one example from Cicero:
condemnati erant Fabricii: nec elabi alio accusatore poterat Albius nec sine ignominia ...
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5
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Where does the saying "Quod licet Jovi not licet bovi" come from?
There is a Wikipedia article on that phrase.
If it is to be trusted, the first known occurrence is in Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (1826) by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff.
The phrase can indeed ...
- 111k
5
votes
Latin words remembered from high school 50 years ago
The first comma is just phrasing in the tune; it doesn't add to the sense. It may have been
'Salve Britanniae Regina gracilis, ..floreat nobilis
(God) save you, gracious Queen of Britain; may she ...
- 8,643
5
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Latin words remembered from high school 50 years ago
Perhaps you meant
Salve Britannia, Regina nobilis, ...floreat
which can be translated as
Hail Britannia, noble Queen, ... may [she] prosper
(thanks to draconis for correcting an earlier error)....
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5
votes
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Translation of "trumped up charges"
With the little information you give, all that can be said is calumnia (pl. calumniae) is Latin (specifically, Roman law) for false accusation.
Hope it helps
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4
votes
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Cicero about paragraph marks
While this was answered on Philosophy.SE, that answer doesn't provide an English translation. So let's add one here.
This comes from Cicero's Orator (note: not his more famous De Oratore), section 228:...
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4
votes
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Is this an actual quote from Euripides?
Some time has passed without an answer to this question. I don't have a real answer, but will submit what I think may be the case.
First of all, no, I don't think Euripides wrote that, but it might ...
- 4,678
3
votes
Origin of Auspicium Melioris Aevi
I haven't been able to find Ancient or Classical quotations:
You mention "Hope of a better Age."
Spes Melioris Aevi is the Motto of Rees in heraldry from the time of Richard I 'Lionheart.' And ...
- 8,643
3
votes
Identifying alleged Sappho fragment from mishmash on otherwise generally good online resource
Campbell has been given, let me give Lobel-Page now.
Counting from the coronis in col. iii, the fragment is lurking at ll. 6-7. Apparatus Criticus:
Now let me just point out how nonsens the ...
- 3,275
3
votes
Accepted
Identifying alleged Sappho fragment from mishmash on otherwise generally good online resource
What happened to your copy of Voigt? Why not use Campbell as well?
and Campbell again:
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3
votes
Identifying corrupted Sappho fragment or mention of Sappho found in just-newly-found-online Spanish edition of Sappho
Story time continues. Hit post button. Fast forward 5ish-10ish minutes, and I think, "Maybe this gloss is in the critical notes of some fragment? Perhaps the Pandionis one [Lobel-Page 135]?". Well, ...
- 3,275
3
votes
Accepted
Latin phrase that means, dissolve and reintegrate
For the sake of completeness, this is the state of play:
Baphomet is a deity that the Knights Templar were falsely accused of
worshipping and that ... The arms bear the Latin words SOLVE
(...
- 8,643
3
votes
Translating a Latin phrase from an animated show
It seems that you can listen to the phrase here.
To me it sounds like "tesla grate muri tempi et intervalia".
It sounds like an attempt at something that sounds like Latin, but it doesn't quite make ...
- 111k
3
votes
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What papyrus is this?
This is actually LP 66(c), from a papyrus published directly in Lobel's Σαπφοῦς μελῶν. From LP's text and notes, we get his transcription as follows:
]MNĀ[
] . ΚΑΤ̣€Γ[
]Ḳ€Κ[
Where some options ...
- 3,275
2
votes
Translating a Latin phrase from an animated show
Mixing Youssef's version and Joonas's
with what I could hear, I guessed the Latin was being mixed with back-slang.
"Tes stegrat" 'spells' Targets Set!
But almost all the other Gargoyle formulae are ...
- 8,643
2
votes
Accepted
Tracing apparent book-IV colophon not found in Voigt but found in a Spanish Sappho book based on Reinach's French edition
safopoemas itself kind of answers this. The critical note says frr. 88-89 both come from P.Oxy. 1787 fr. 45. Now, fr. 88 is a mishmash of P.Oxy. 1787 fragments, so that "both" part is BS. However, ...
- 3,275
2
votes
Identifying alleged Sappho fragment from mishmash on otherwise generally good online resource
OK, I'm going to build on @alex-b's answer, having looked at Lobel-Page 90 and Campbell 90. Those more game than me can look at the original papyrus: http://163.1.169.40/gsdl/collect/POxy/index/assoc/...
- 791
2
votes
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Identifying corrupted Sappho fragment or mention of Sappho found in just-newly-found-online Spanish edition of Sappho
Hesychius ω 302.
ὦ ’ράνα χελίδων· ὀροφή
In Lobel & Page, this is fr. 135
τί με Πανδίονις, Ὤιρανα, χελίδω ...;
—based on a less corrupt transmission of the verse in Hephaestion: τί με ...
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votes
Origin of Auspicium Melioris Aevi
It is already found with this wording, but in plural, Auspicia melioris aevi, in a treaty of Dutch colonizers and the Iroquis, the Tawagonshi Treaty of 1613.
2
votes
Is this an actual quote from Euripides?
To follow up on Varro’s answer: I do not think there is any real connection between the passage in Helena and the English so-called quotation, either in wording or in content. The only link is that ...
- 17.6k
2
votes
Is "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" correctly attributed to Seneca (the younger)?
Seneca the Younger frequently contemplated the beginnings and ends of things and the larger meaning of this in multiple letters and essays.
The given sentence is closest in thought to some of the ...
- 6,536
1
vote
Accepted
"Bene docet, qui bene distinguit."
The closest to this I've been able to find is St. Thomas Aquinas, Sententia Metaphysicae lib. 3 l. 14 n. 3 [517]:
Et quamvis hoc dicere intendant, non tamen bene dearticulant, idest non bene ...
- 3,586
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