more translating problems

[antianira]

So here is my current sentence I am having problems with (from D'ooge, #428):


Hostes sciebant Romanos frumento egere et hanc rem Caesari summum periculum adlaturam esse.

The enemies knew that the Romans were in need of grain...


hanc - I assume it is a form of hic - 'this' but I don't have it in my group, I have hunc (ACC Masc) or hac (ACC Fem) or haec, but no hanc

I'm guessing hanc rem is 'this thing'


adlaturam esse - this exercise is for dative compounds- about to report?
summum periculum - at the most danger

....and were about to report this greatest danger to Ceasar. ???

I seemed to have missed something because that doesn't make sense

[Deses]

Try this, in order to understand it better:

Hostes sciebant Romanos frumento egere et sciebant hanc rem Caesari summum periculum adlaturam esse.

Translate adfero as 'produce' or 'cause'.

[runicus]

Hostes sciebant Romanos frumento egere et hanc rem Caesari summum periculum adlaturam esse.

I think I can handle it after I have checked up in the vocabulary.Here is my translation to supplement yours:

"The enemy knew that Romans were lacking of grain and that this matter would bring Caesar great danger."

The subjects of the clause of indirect statement,ie,"Romans" and "this matter" take on accusative forms thus producing "Romanos" and "hanc rem",and the verbs in the clause are infinitives:"egere",---present infinitive, and "adlaturus,-a,-um esse"---future active infinitive of "adferre",which means "bring,cause,give",etc.
NB the future infinitive should agree with their subjects in case,gender,and number,just as if it were an adjective. So "adlaturam" goes with "hanc rem"

Hope you have already got the idea

Fortunas tibi bonas

RVNICVS

[Episcopus]

When you see adfero, as with other compounds, never assume that it only has the meanings you have come across, such as "report". Just think of it more logically: 'fero' is simply 'to bring', so 'ad+fero' is 'to bring to'.
When you bring news to some one you report it. When you bring a danger to some one you cause it. It can also mean literally to bring X object to some one. The vital thing in understanding a sentence is of course the context.

~E