Parum prōfectūrum and cum Locrōs classe.

[phil]

There are two bits in two consecutive sentences I don't fully understand. You will be pleased to learn that this post is 99.9% rant-free!

Pyrrhus was still fighting those pesky Romans. This is just after he'd beaten them is battle, so presumably he still thinks he has the upper hand.

Pyrrhus, cum adversus Rōmanōs parum prōfectūrum sē intellegeret, Siciliam diciōnis suae facere statuit. Inde rediēns cum Locrōs classe praeterveherētur, thesaurōs fānī Prōserpinae spoliāvit.

Pyrrhus, since/although/because he realised was about to set out too little/not enough against the Romans, decided to take Sicily by force of arms. Returning thence, while his fleet? was passing Locros, he robbed the treasure of the temple of Porserpina.

As you can see, I don't know quite how to translate parum prōfectūrum. I can't make sense of 'to be going to set out too little'. In the second sentence, I can't find Locros in any of my dictionaries, but I'm assuming it's a place? The cum goes with the subj. praetervehetetur, not the classe in abl. So why is classe ablative? Is it by means of his fleet? 'Returning thence he passed Locros by means of his fleet' doesn't really make sense to me.

Any help would be appreciated.
Phil

[Imber Ranae]

Profecturus is here the future participle of prōficio (to advance, gain ground, etc.) rather than of prŏficīscor. The two can be distinguished by the length of the o in the pro- prefix.

The cum clause cannot be concessive here. It seems to have both a temporal and a causal sense to it, but I think it is best translated simply as "when". It's also often better to translate parum as "not enough": "When he understood/perceived that he would not advance far enough/make enough progress against the Romans."

In Siciliam dicionis suae facere statuit, the genitive dicionis suae is the predicate of the verb facere, meaning literally: "he decided to make Sicily of his own dominion." It could be rendered more idiomatically in English as "to put Sicily under his thumb," or something along those lines.

Veho "to convey, carry" and its compounds are frequently used to describe the means by which one travels, here indicated by the ablative classe "by fleet". Praeterveheretur is passive with middle force to it, so literally "when he was being conveyed by fleet past Locri," but perhaps better rendered "when he sailed his fleet past Lucri." Lucri is one of those plural place names which technically refers to the tribe that inhabits the region.

[phil]

Profecturus is here the future participle of prōficio (to advance, gain ground, etc.) rather than of prŏficīscor

Arrghhh! I hate it when I think I know a word, then realise that I don't.

Thanks again.