Desperately trying to get the # of my posts up, I thought I’d post a bit of Minucius Felix’s Octavius, an apologetical dialogue for Christianity–not that I’m in to that sort of thing–but because in the beginning it has some of the best naturalistic descriptions I’ve read in Latin. Also a cool description of skipping sea-shells.
He speaks first of the pleasure he had seeing a friend he hadn’t seen in a while:
Igitur post unum et alterum diem, cum iam et aviditatem desiderii frequens adsiduitatis usus implesset et quae per absentiam mutuam de nobis nesciebamus, relatione alternā comperissemus, placuit Ostiam petere, amoenissimam civitatem, quod esset corpori meo siccandis umoribus de marinis lavacris(1) blanda et adposita curatio(2): sane et ad vindemiam feriae(3) iudiciariam curam relaxaverant. Nam id temporis(4) post aestivam diem in temperiem semet autumnitas dirigebat.
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Cum hoc sermone eius medium spatium civitatis emensi iam liberum litus tenebamus. Ibi harenas extimas(5), velut sterneret ambulacro(6), perfundens lenis unda tendebat: et, ut semper mare etiam positis flatibus(7) inquietum est, etsi non canis spumosisque fluctibus exibat ad terram, tamen crispis tortuosisque ibidem erroribus delectati perquam sumus, cum in ipso aequoris limine plantas tingueremus, quod vicissim nunc adpulsum nostris pedibus adluderet fluctus, nunc relabens ac vestigia(8) retrahens in sese resorberet. Sensim itaque tranquilleque progressi oram curvi molliter litoris iter fabulis(9) fallentibus legebamus. Haec fabulae erant Octavi disserentis de navigatione narratio. Sed ubi eundi spatium satis iustum cum sermone consumpsimus, eandem emensi viam rursus versis vestigiis terebamus, et cum ad id loci ventum est, ubi subductae naviculae substratis roboribus a terrena labe suspensae(10) quiescebant, pueros videmus certatim gestientes testarum(11) in mare iaculationibus ludere. Is lusus est testam teretem(12) iactatione fluctuum levigatam legere(13) de litore, eam testam plano situ(14) digitis comprehensam, inclinem ipsum atque humilem(15) quantum potest super undas inrotare, ut illud iaculum vel dorsum maris raderet enataret, dum leni impetu labitur(16), vel summis fluctibus tonsis(17) emicaret emergeret, dum adsiduo saltu sublevatur. Is se in pueris victorem ferebat(18), cuius testa et procurreret longius et frequentius exsiliret.
(1) lavācrum is a bath
curatio usually means an administrative task, but here it seems to be something like a ‘curing’
apposita like English ‘apposite’
quod + subjunctive?
[‘on the grounds that’, gives reported reason rather than factual reason]
(3) the holidays around vintage-season
(4) id temporis: colloquial phrase (Gildersleeve 336N2) ‘at that time’ or ‘during that time’
(5) _extimus_superlative from adjective exter/ = extremus ‘the furthest’
(6) ambulacrum: a paved walkway; /sterno ‘to pave’ or ‘level’
(7) pono (as frequently) in the sense ‘remove’
(8) vestigia: its own footsteps, metaphorically of the wave retracing its steps
(9) fabula: not ‘story’ but ‘informal conversation’
(10) ‘the skiffs, drawn up on an oaken framework, were lying at rest supported away from earthly destruction’
(11) gestire: to delight in
testa: shell
(12) 'smooth
(13) ‘to choose’ (a shell smoothed by the waves)
(14) ‘horizontally’
(15) ‘sloping and downwards as much as possible’
(16) ‘until it slips away with smooth force’ (?) suggestions please
(17) ‘with the waves being skimmed’
(18) ‘proclaims himself the winner’