Unit 11 Exercises

[NightNGaleX3x]

I am having problems with some of the sentences in the Unit 11 exercises. The sentences are:

11) Bonum est velle pro amatis pati.

12) Si conans servare vitam consulis moriaris tui cives fortissimum factum laudent et ut statua ponatur in foro hortentur.

15) Fassus est se natum esse pauperibus parentibus quibus amor sui esset maximus.

For some reason I just can't seem to translate these sentences properly.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[phil96]

Salve NightNGaleX3x,

11) Bonum est velle pro amatis pati.

I thought something like "It is a good thing to be prepared to suffer on behalf of loved ones."

12) Si conans servare vitam consulis moriaris tui cives fortissimum factum laudent et ut statua ponatur in foro hortentur.

I see that my translation was fairly wooden: "If you should die while trying to save the consul's life, the citizens would praise your very brave deed and urge that your statue be placed in the forum." My main problem with this one was what to do with tuī. Is "a statue of you" the same as "your statue" in latin? For some reason I'm still uneasy about possessive pronouns.

15) Fassus est se natum esse pauperibus parentibus quibus amor sui esset maximus.

"He confessed that he was born to impoverished parents who loved him very much (whose love for him was very great)"

I'd be keen to read other people's comments too.

[modus.irrealis]

Because of where it comes in the sentence, I would take tui as modifying cives, "your (fellow) citizens".

[phil96]

Because of where it comes in the sentence, I would take tui as modifying cives, "your (fellow) citizens".

Ah. Of course! I got fixated on tui as a genitive and forgot that the nom. pl. has the same form. Back to Latin 101 for me!

[Damoetas]

12) Si conans servare vitam consulis moriaris tui cives fortissimum factum laudent et ut statua ponatur in foro hortentur.

Still, this is a strange sentence. I don't think any real Latin speaker would have put it this way.... As it is now, tui could modify either consulis or cives (statua seems less likely). It probably is supposed to go with cives, as modus.irrealis says; but all ambiguity could have been removed by placing it after cives.

So don't feel bad about being confused!

[NightNGaleX3x]

Ah, it all makes sense now! The tui threw me off, as well. Thanks!

[NightNGaleX3x]

So, I moved farther into the exercises and I got stuck again on number 38.

38) Imperatore multa locuto, milites fassi sunt se parum mortem vereri sed bene scire se omnes mori non posse; sibi opus esse mala atque pericula pati ut omnis orbis terrarum se cum gaudio laudaret dicens malum propter audaciam horum virorum e terra pulsum esse.


So far I have: With the commander having spoken many things, the soldiers confessed to fearing death very little themselves

I'm not absolutely positive if that's correct though. The reflexive pronouns and present active infinitives are throwing me off.

Thanks for any help given.

[phil96]

38) Imperatore multa locuto, milites fassi sunt se parum mortem vereri sed bene scire se omnes mori non posse; sibi opus esse mala atque pericula pati ut omnis orbis terrarum se cum gaudio laudaret dicens malum propter audaciam horum virorum e terra pulsum esse.


So far I have: With the commander having spoken many things, the soldiers confessed to fearing death very little themselves

I'm not absolutely positive if that's correct though. The reflexive pronouns and present active infinitives are throwing me off.

Well, that's pretty much what I had too. I think the reflexive pronouns are there simply to provide the subject accusative for the indirect statements, e.g., the soldiers said "we don't give a fig about death", parum mortem verēminī, (no separate subject... it's included in the verb); but when it goes into indirect statement "they confessed that they didn't fear death....", you need to supply the accusative subject sē. I had "After the general's long speech the soldiers admitted that they had little fear of death [?feared death insufficiently] but....."

P.S. On re-reading I'm not clear. Were you interested in a translation of the whole sentence, or do you want to persevere with it youself?