Lucretius, II, lines 1077-1080; need help parsing

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hlawson38
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Lucretius, II, lines 1077-1080; need help parsing

Post by hlawson38 »

Huc accedit ut in summa res nulla sit una,
unica quae gignatur et unica solaque crescat,
quin aliquoiu' siet saecli permultaque eodem
sint genere.

So it follows that in the whole [of everything] no single thing would exist
that all alone would be born and all alone would thrive
but-instead each-thing would be of-some-kind and very many
would belong to each kind. [of each kind there would be many instances]


Questions:

1. help me with the verb "siet". What is its dictionary headword?

2. does "aliquoiu'" = "aliquoius" = "alicuius"?

3. I am guessing about the passage that starts "quin...". Please parse this for me.
Hugh Lawson

Damoetas
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Re: Lucretius, II, lines 1077-1080; need help parsing

Post by Damoetas »

1. Siet is an archaic form of sit (3sg. pres. subj. of sum). It's found frequently in inscriptions, Plautus, Cato the Elder, and similar archaizing and poetic works.

2) Likewise, quoius and quoi are archaic spellings of cuius and cui. Last I heard, linguists are not sure if they were pronounced differently.

3) Your translation of the last part looks right to me - although, what it actually means requires a knowledge of context! Quin aliquoiu' siet saecli: "but instead, each would belong to some {race/breed/generation}" (definition of saeculum in Lewis & Short).
Dic mihi, Damoeta, 'cuium pecus' anne Latinum?

hlawson38
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Re: Lucretius, II, lines 1077-1080; need help parsing

Post by hlawson38 »

Many thanks, Damoetus.
Hugh Lawson

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