Salvete Latinists:
In capitulum triginta sex of Ørberg's Roma Aeterna,there is a passage (lines 63-66), that is giving me some trouble. It involves Curtius, who plunged headlong into a whirlpool.
Here is the Latin:
63 Postremus siccatus est locus in medio foro
64 qui 'lacus Curtius' dicitur a nomine equitis cuiusdam
65 qui se armatum cum equo suo in voraginem ibi factam
66 praecipitavisse narratur.
Does the "se" in line 65 refer to the act of precipitating himself into the pool, or does it refer somehow to him being armed ("armatum")? It is so close to the latter and so far from the former that it confuses me.
Next is the word "factam." Ørberg glosses this in his vocabulary supplement as the adjective "wrought." Its form is accusative feminine. It seems like it should mate with "voraginem", and it looks like it has verbal force.
My provisional translation for these lines would be:
"Finally a place in the middle of the forum was drained, which is called "Lake Curtius" from the name of a certain armed knight who, it is said, plunged [himself] headlong with his horse into a whirlpool [that was wrought] there."
If "se" relates to plunging, then "he plunged himself" (and his poor horse). If not it must mean something like "self-armed." And could "factam" have something to do with causing the whirlpool to come about (by his plunging?).
Anyway, I am in a whirlpool of doubt and I am ready to join Curtius.
Valete,
Timotheus