Quis ut Deus wrote:Salvete omnes!
I was wondering if somebody could help me check these translations?
"Sciō multōs scrīpsisse Themistoclen dum Xerxēs rēgnābat in Asiam trānsisse.
Sed egō potissimum Thucydidī crēdō, quod aetāte proximus dē iīs quī illōrum
temporum historiam relīquērunt, et eiusdem cīvitātis fuit. Is ait ad Artaxerxen
eum vēnisse atque hīs verbīs epistulam mīsisse: Themistoclēs vēnī ad tē, quī
plūrima mala omnium Graecōrum in domum tuam intulī quam diū mihi
necesse fuit adversum patrem tuum bellāre patriamque meam dēfendere."
" know I have written to many about Themistocles while Xerxes ruled in Asia. But, I believe Thucydides is the most powerful, because at that time near to them which of that time they abandoned the story, and it was the same city. He said to Artaxerxes that he came and also he sent these words in a letter: Themistocles I came to you, who brought a lot of evil to all the Greeks. In your house I urged you much longer than was necessary and opposite your father to wage war and defend my country."
"Scio multos scripsisse Themistoclen dum Xerxes regnabat in Asian transisse" = "I know [that] many have written that Themistocles crossed into Asia while Xerxes was ruling." Writing "to many" would need a dative of indirect object. Rather, multos is the accusative subject of the indirect statment, "I know that." Because of this confusion you probably inadvertently forgot "transisse." Better punctuation could help the Latin, for example "... (dum Xerxes regnabat in Asiam) transisse."
"Sed egō potissimum Thucydidī crēdō" = "But I especially believe Thucydides." Credo takes the dative (mihi crede!), and the author's name is dative here. "Potissimum" is here an adverb meaning "chiefly, principally, especially." (BTW I missread this sentence in the first explanation I was writing, so it happens to all of us).
"quod aetāte proximus dē iīs quī illōrum temporum historiam relīquērunt" = "Because out of all of those who left a history of those times he was closest in age [to the events in question]." The first reason why he like's Themistocles's account best. "fuit" is assumed here next to proximus, because it occurs in the next clause. "Aetate" is ablative of respect or some such thing. You had trouble because the clause is hard to make sense of if you don't catch these as points explaining his feelings about the author.
"et eiusdem cīvitātis fuit" = "and he was of/from the same city." This is the second reason given. The subject is still Themistocles.
"Is ait ad Artaxerxen eum vēnisse atque hīs verbīs epistulam mīsisse" = "He said that he had come to Artaxerses and that he sent [him] a letter with these words." It's tricky from an English perspective, but "ad" means "to" in physical terms here, as in approach. As with "scripsisse" above, you'd need a dative here. Themistocles is "eum," the subject of the indirect speech and the two verbs.
"Themistoclēs vēnī ad tē" = "I, Themistocles, came to you." Another hard point to get a hang of is that that a nominative used with a first person verb is a way of equating the speaker and that particular word. I mean that it's in apposition. It's just like saying "Ego (Themistocles) veni."
"quī plūrima mala omnium Graecōrum in domum tuam intulī" = "[I] who inflicted on your home the many evils of all the Greeks." "plurima mala omnium Graecorum" is the object of "intuli," and he's throwing it right "in domum tuam."
"quam diū mihi necesse fuit adversum patrem tuum bellāre patriamque meam dēfendere" = "As long as it was necessary for me to wage war against your country and defend my own [country]." "quam diu" is an adverb meaning "as long as." "mihi necesse fuit" is an impersonal expression for "it was necessary for me," and takes the dative. The object of this "necesse fuit" are the infinitives "bellare" and "defendere," which themselves have objects. "Bellare" is construed with an adverb "adversum," specifying against whom one is fighting. "Defendere" has a regular accusative.
Hope this helps! Don't let your frustration stop you. It's often just recognizing the pattern of the sentence and everything snaps into place. That comes with practice.
