Connotations of mea

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akisame
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Connotations of mea

Post by akisame »

Hello again.

I have difficulty understanding the sentence from my textbook:
Non is sum ut mea me maxime delectent.

The literal translation is easy ("I am not such a man that is most please with my family") but unfortunately this doesn't make much sense. Does the word mea have other connotations than "my family"?

The sentence is taken from a portion of Cicero's Epistulae ad Brutum 1-15
ego autem (sed erro fortasse nec tamen is sum ut mea me maxime delectent) nihil mihi videor hoc bello sensisse prudentius.
w w w.latin.it/autore/cicerone/epistulae/ad_brutum/01/15.lat

Like my first thread, I posted the context but could not understand.

adrianus
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Re: Connotations of mea

Post by adrianus »

Salve akisame
akisame wrote:The literal translation is easy ("I am not such a man that is most please with my family") but unfortunately this doesn't make much sense. Does the word mea have other connotations than "my family"?
mea (pluralis numeri neutrius generis nominativo casu) = (plural neuter nominative) my things, my affairs, things down to me, my deeds (?)
nec tamen is sum ut mea me maxime delectent.
nor however am I such a one that my affairs should greatly please me = nor however am I such a one to be pleased by my affairs
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

akisame
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Re: Connotations of mea

Post by akisame »

Thanks. So Cicero thought it was not wise to be pleased with his affairs/business? Well, I seem to have to read the whole passage to understand what displeasure with his business would mean.

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thesaurus
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Re: Connotations of mea

Post by thesaurus »

akisame wrote:Thanks. So Cicero thought it was not wise to be pleased with his affairs/business? Well, I seem to have to read the whole passage to understand what displeasure with his business would mean.
I don't know whether it reflects Roman values, but I imagine that Cicero thought it distasteful to be too proud of oneself and self-assured. I think "maxime" is an important word, because it suggests that if you are pleased "most of all" with your own affairs, then you are probably not thinking about others' opinions of you or your effects on others. Perhaps it reflects a Roman sense of what duty a public man, a vir bonus, ought to have.

Nescio mores Romanos, sed imaginor Ciceroni superbiam vel confidentem fatuitatem non placuisse, suis rebus propriis nimis gloriari. Verbum "maxime" est momenti; si "maxime" te tua delectant, saepe accidit ut ignores alii quod probent de te, necnon quomodo alios adficias. Forsitan haec verba aliquid de officiis quae bono viri Romano pertinent nobis dicant.
Horae quidem cedunt et dies et menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest. Quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus. --Cicero, De Senectute

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