38 Latin Stories, ch. 26 - Virtues of the Orator Cato

[Allemang]

Hello, all. A look at the vocabulary list informs that loquor, loqui is translated actively, despite its passive form. So when Cicero writes 'Antiquior est huius sermo et quaedam horridiora verba. Ita enim tum loquebantur,' do we translate the second sentence as 'for they spoke thus then', rather than make the 'coarser words' the subject (i.e. 'for thus were the [rather rough words] spoken')?
Gratias ago.

[Tertius Robertus]

Hello, all. A look at the vocabulary list informs that loquor, loqui is translated actively, despite its passive form.

this and many others are passive only in form but active in meaning

So when Cicero writes 'Antiquior est huius sermo et quaedam horridiora verba. Ita enim tum loquebantur,' do we translate the second sentence as 'for they spoke thus then', rather than make the 'coarser words' the subject (i.e. 'for thus were the [rather rough words] spoken')?
Gratias ago.

yes!