Around line 40, there is:
Sex horae iam sunt cum cibum non sumpsi.
I have translated this as "It has been six hours since I have taken a meal," which I think is loosely correct, but I am a little baffled by the sentence.
The first part is fairly clear, "Sex horae iam sunt" -- there are six hours now." But the second trips me up: "cum cibum non sumpsi".
cum cibum = with food
non sumpsi = perf ind act of "sumo" -- to take hold of, obtain, etc. -- so, "non sumpsi" = "I did not obtain"
Can you help me make sense of the second half of the sentence? Thanks!
Lingua Latina Cap XXX Question
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Re: Lingua Latina Cap XXX Question
Recall that "cum" has multiple uses; one is the preposition "with," but this requires the noun to be in the ablative case. You'll notice that "cibum" is accusative/nominative, so it can't be that usage. Otherwise, "cum" can have a variety of adverbial meanings, in this case, temporal. Note that the verb is in the indicative; "cum" with the indicative indicates time, as in "when" or "since". Other non-temporal uses of "cum" will probably be introduced later, but they involve the verb being in the subjunctive.shcromlet wrote:Around line 40, there is:
Sex horae iam sunt cum cibum non sumpsi.
I have translated this as "It has been six hours since I have taken a meal," which I think is loosely correct, but I am a little baffled by the sentence.
The first part is fairly clear, "Sex horae iam sunt" -- there are six hours now." But the second trips me up: "cum cibum non sumpsi".
cum cibum = with food
non sumpsi = perf ind act of "sumo" -- to take hold of, obtain, etc. -- so, "non sumpsi" = "I did not obtain"
Can you help me make sense of the second half of the sentence? Thanks!
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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Re: Lingua Latina Cap XXX Question
For some reason I was blindly convinced that cum took the accusative for "with". Silly mistake.
So, if I use cum as "where", the sentence makes sense: "There are six hours now where I have not taken food."
Thank you very much for the correction.
So, if I use cum as "where", the sentence makes sense: "There are six hours now where I have not taken food."
Thank you very much for the correction.