Cicero, de natura deorum,2, 164-165 (Perseus)

Latin Learning Latin
1

Balbus continues to declaim that the gods are involved in the lives of human beings.

Nam si omnibus hominibus qui ubique sunt quacumque in ora ac parte terrarum ab huiusce terrae quam nos incolimus continuatione distantium deos consulere censemus ob eas causas quas ante diximus, his quoque hominibus consulunt qui has nobiscum terras ab
oriente ad occidentem colunt

My translation effort:

For in fact, if we believe that the gods look out for all human beings, wherever they are and in whatever shores and however separated by distance from us, due to those causes that we already spoke about they also look out for humans who inhabit the lands close to us, from the east to the west.

I am having trouble with this phrase: continuatione distantium.

The phrase “close to us” was a wild guess.

2

For continuātiō ~ōnis/ OLD has :

"2 An unbroken extent, continuous stretch.
► numerus .. in "-one nullus est C ic . de Orat 3.186;
quacumque in ora ac parte terrarum ab huiusce terrae quam
nos incolimus -one distantium N.D. 2.164; etc


so “quam nos incolimus continuatione distantium” is “distant from the stretch of land which we inhabit”.

Is that enough help, Hugh?

3

Yes, very helpful. Just another question. I repeat the quotation for ease of reference.

Nam si omnibus hominibus qui ubique sunt quacumque in ora ac parte terrarum ab huiusce terrae quam nos incolimus continuatione distantium deos consulere censemus ob eas causas quas ante diximus, his quoque hominibus consulunt qui has nobiscum terras ab
oriente ad occidentem colunt.

Let me pull out the phrase which is still bothering me.

ac parte terrarum ab huiusce terrae quam nos incolimus continuatione distantium

So, does distantium agree with terrarum, and modify it?

4

“So, does distantium agree with terrarum, and modify it?”

I think they are both genitive plural so
“in ora ac parte terrarum” in every coast and part of the lands"

then “distantium” far/remote

" ab huiusce terrae quam nos incolimus continuatione"

from the stretch of this land which we live in

Does this make sense?

5

Yes! Many thanks!

The kernel of my difficulty came from failing to see this possibility. Even Rackham’s translation in the LCL didn’t help, although now I see the sense of it.

6

I thought it was tricky to try and figure it all out. I tried to just follow the grammar and it dropped out. No doubt if I have it wrong someone will help us further.

7

I have to make a mistake 400 times before I can get something right. It’s like driving nails with a hammer. After about 400 nails they start going in straight.