Carmen Catulli 39

vir litterarum · Post by **vir litterarum** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:21 am

Line 9 reads: "quare monendum est te mihi, bone Egnati."
I do not understand how the gerundive construction can take an object. I looked up Merrill's comments, and he says that "te" is the object of the verb but does not provide a translation. Since the obligation is passive, How can it have an object?

bellum paxque · Post by **bellum paxque** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:26 am

mraig · Post by **mraig** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:11 pm

To answer the question about translation, monendum est te mihi would be something like: "I must warn you" (more literally, if a literal rendition into English is in any way possible, "there must be a warning you by me" or "it must be warned you by me").

bellum paxque · Post by **bellum paxque** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:42 pm

One suspects - and the textual evidence backs it up - that Catullus would probably have said monendus es mihi (or monenda es? I'm not sure if it's a man or woman) in normal conversation.

David