Chp. 17 ans. key questions/thoughts

[arhineh1]

On the P&R for Chp. 17:

1. quae nos semper alunt
Key - which always nourishes us
Isn't the verb in the 3rd person plural, in which case shouldn't it read something like "which we always nourish."


6. Centum ex viris mortem diu timebant
Key - A hundred of the men feared death for a long time
viris here is in the ablative, meaning (with ex) from or maybe by men, of the men implies the genitive doesn't it? and clearly viris can't ge genitive.

10. et senectutem facilem agemus
Key - and will live old age happy
senectutem is accusative singular and modified by facilem, agemus from agere meaning to pass or spend in the sense of time, so - and we will pass(spend) an easy old age.

[benissimus]

1. quae nos semper alunt
Key - which always nourishes us
Isn't the verb in the 3rd person plural, in which case shouldn't it read something like "which we always nourish."

the verb is in the 3rd person plural, so how could "we" be the subject? "which we nourish" would be quae alimus.

6. Centum ex viris mortem diu timebant
Key - A hundred of the men feared death for a long time
viris here is in the ablative, meaning (with ex) from or maybe by men, of the men implies the genitive doesn't it? and clearly viris can't ge genitive.

Genitive is not the only thing that can be translated with "of", there are plenty of non-possessive uses of "of". Skip back to chapter 15 and review the section headed "Genitive and Ablative with Cardinal Numerals" (page 99 in my book).

10. et senectutem facilem agemus
Key - and will live old age happy
senectutem is accusative singular and modified by facilem, agemus from agere meaning to pass or spend in the sense of time, so - and we will pass(spend) an easy old age.

"live an easy old age" is better English than "pass/spend an easy old age". agere is sometimes easier to translate as "live" when the direct object is an extent of time (e.g. aetatem, vitam, senectutem, adulescentiam).

Thanks for spotting the two errors in this sentence: happy should be easy (must have mistaken facilem for felicem) and the adjective should go with "old age" (not the subject).

[arhineh1]

"which we nourish" would be quae alimus

Doh! That's right.

Genitive is not the only thing that can be translated with "of", there are plenty of non-possessive uses of "of". Skip back to chapter 15 and review the section headed "Genitive and Ablative with Cardinal Numerals"

Thank you, now it looks much better than the translation I had originally.

(page 99 in my book).

I'm afraid I don't know your book.

"live an easy old age" is better English than "pass/spend an easy old age"

Well, both mean generally the same thing, but I'm afraid I must disagree with you here. Perhaps these days we wwould say "have an easy old age."

Thank you so much for clearing up these mistakes for me. Usually I get stuck on small things that I simply overlook or forget and need to look at it from another point of view.

Aine