quis superavit? Capitulum X

[Deudeditus]

Quanta maxime poterat ui superauit.

quanta is abl. presumably in concordance with ui, right?

After reading about Syra and her story about Theseus, I decided to do some of M'n'F, starting where I left off. Maybe it's just the lack of context that's throwing me off, but it seems to me that superauit should be superauisse or there should be a relative pronoun or something.. and a question mark.

with how much force most greatly he could he overcame...
as you can see, I'm confused.

thanks,
Jon

[Iulianus]

I think you're forgetting about a certain function an adjective such as quantus also has. As you already pointed out, quantus can indeed be an interrogative, as in:

quanto id vendidisti? For how much did you sell that (very literal)/how much did you sell that for?

Another function is the relative function:

quanto poterat, eo vendidit. He sold it for as much as he could (literally: for as much as he could, for that much he sold it)

Now, most Romans preferred to shorten this one up a bit and usually left out the 'eo' part (same way we do in English, if you look at the non-literal translations). Thus leaving us with: quanto poterat vendidit. To this you could add maxime, making it 'for the greatest amount that he could, he sold it.

I'm hoping the sentence now makes a lot more sense to you.

Good luck,

Iulianus

P.S. Just to make sure, I looked quantus up in a dictionary of mine, and it basically told you to just memorize that whenever you see quantus + posse + superlative = as much ... as possible. Perhaps this helps you memorize it easier.

[Deudeditus]

he overcame (someone/thing probably inferred when placed in context) with as much force as he could.

I would have expected tantus.
thank you, Iuliane. I think I completely forgot about that function... how embarassing .

thank you again,

-Jon

[Iulianus]

he overcame (someone/thing probably inferred when placed in context) with as much force as he could.

I would have expected tantus.

Fuit nil negotii! If tantus were there instead of quantus, it would've have been 'he overcame with that much force as he could (which isn't really English)

I was always taught to associate the word 'as' with quantus (as much as..) and 'that' with tantus (that much...). Maybe this will help you remember, as it did me.

One more thing about your translation:

he overcame (someone/thing probably inferred when placed in context) with as much force as he could.

I think one of the reasons why this sentence troubled you so much is because you assumed superavit to be transitive - which it can be, but it can also be intransitive. In that case it would be 'he triumphed with as much force as he could.'