Qui cum descendere - Roma Aeterna XLII Line 315

Here you can discuss all things Latin. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Latin, and more.
Post Reply
wilhelmjohnson
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:01 pm

Qui cum descendere - Roma Aeterna XLII Line 315

Post by wilhelmjohnson »

Qui cum descendere ad animos non posset sine aliquo divino miraculo, simulat sibi cum dea Egeria nocturnos sermones esse:

I'm not sure what Qui is supposed to be doing in this sentence. Any thoughts?

Victor
Textkit Fan
Posts: 253
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:19 am

Re: Qui cum descendere - Roma Aeterna XLII Line 315

Post by Victor »

It's an example of the semi-independent relative at work.The antecedent will be apparent from the previous sentence. You can probably translate qui here as if it said "Et is...".

whsiv
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:33 pm

Re: Qui cum descendere - Roma Aeterna XLII Line 315

Post by whsiv »

Salve,

Frequently a relative pronoun will be used like this - that is, in a way that connects some piece of the previous sentence to the current sentence ("the connective relative"). In the case of the qui here, it is basically equivalent to et is, And he. Since it is nominative, it is acting as the subject of posset, and it is referring to Numa, the subject of the previous sentence.

Vale

Post Reply