sacris Iovis

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pmda
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sacris Iovis

Post by pmda »

Tum ad sacerdotes creandos animum advertis, quamquam ipse plurimis sacris, maxime sacris Iovis, praeerat. Sed quia in civitate bellicosa plures Romuli quam Numae similes reges fore putabat iturosque ipsos ad bella, ne rege absente sacra neglegerentur, Iovi assiduum sacerdotem creavit qui 'flamen Dialis' appellatus est.

I'm perplexed by the phrase '..maxime sacris Iovis, praeerat' '...even though he himself most of all was foremost - then 'sacris' - with sacrifices ? and then for some reason we have 'Iovis' genitive? I can't work out why it's in this case.

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bedwere
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Re: sacris Iovis

Post by bedwere »

Numa praeerat plurimis caerimoniis, sed praesertim Iovis caerimoniis.

Liquetne?

Qimmik
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Re: sacris Iovis

Post by Qimmik »

praeerat + dative = "presided over"

sacra = "sacred rites"

pmda
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Re: sacris Iovis

Post by pmda »

Qimmik

My questions was really around why Iovis was genitive...I think I have figured this out...

...quamquam ipse plurimis sacris, maxime sacris Iovis, praeerat.'

even though he himself was preeminent within most of the rights, mostly the rites of Juppiter.

Now that I look at it it seems simple... I even knew (but sort of forgot!) that praesum takes dative (so plurimis and sacris (twice) are all dative, right?). But I find occasionally that Latin induces a sort of dyslexia... One stares at a word and can't figure out why it's there or in that case...

Many thanks.

Qimmik
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Re: sacris Iovis

Post by Qimmik »

One correction: praeerat doesn't mean "was preeminent within"--it means "presided over."

(And it's "rites," of course not "rights," but you got it right the second time.)

pmda
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Re: sacris Iovis

Post by pmda »

Qimmik

Many thanks. Corrections noted.

Paul

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