Darii et Parysatidis duo fuere filii

Latin Learning Latin
1

My audiobooking is coming along fairly well, and I can understand most of what goes on in the Gospel of Mark as I listen. The Gallic Wars and The Imitation of Christ are another story. However I’m beginning to be curious about how the grammar works, so I thought I’d start in on a Greek/Latin parallel text. In print that is, with no audio.

Darii et Parysatidis duo fuere filii; quorum natu major Artaxerxes, minor Cyrus erat. Cum autem aegrotaret Darius, et vitae finem instare suspicaretur, filium utrumque sibi adesse voluit.

Darii - masc. dat. sing.
et
Parysatidis - fem. dat. sing.
duo - masc. nom.
fuere - perfect ind act 3rd plural
filii - masc. nom. pl.

This follows the Greek, except that Darii and Parysatidis are dative instead of genitive.

quorum - masc. gen. pl.
natu - masc. abl. sg. (means something like “in age” here? I’m not used to an ablative case)
major - masc. nom. sg. comp.
Artaxerxes - masc. nom. sg.
minor - masc. nom. sg. comp.
Cyrus - masc. nom. sg.
erat. - 3rd sg imperf ind act

This follows the Greek, except for the ablative case. I imagine that I’ll figure that one out as I run into it.

Cum
autem - (is this post-positive, like the Greek?)
aegrotaret - 3rd sg imperf subj act (why subjunctive?)
Darius, - masc. nom. sg.

et
vitae - fem. gen. sg.
finem - masc./fem. acc. sg.
instare - pres inf act
suspicaretur, - 3rd sg imperf subj pass

Suspected the impending end of life. There isn’t exactly an equivalent to instare in the Greek, but that is simple enough. However, why subjunctive passive for suspicaretur? I’m suspecting some sort of historical present.

filium - sg masc acc
utrumque - The dictionary suggests that this is “which of two.” I assume that I’m looking at the wrong entry? I’d expect a meaning like “both.”
sibi - sg masc dat
adesse - pres inf act
voluit. -3rd sg perf ind act (why perfect?)

2

Hi, Joel. Glad that you’re making progress.

Darii and Parysatidis are both genitive, not dative.

Among other things, the ablative is used to indicate respect. He is older by birth.

autem is postpositive

Cum + subjunctive is a very common construction to indicate causality.

suspicor is deponent, not passive.

uterque means also both.

Maybe the translator could have used the imperfect volebat instead of voluit.

3

natu major bigger by birth i.e. older

aegrotaret, suspicaretur. Note difference between Latin and Greek. cum with indic. would be purely temporal, = ὅτε.
In primary sequence the subjunctives would be present, not impf.

It’s uter which means which (of the two). uterque means each (of the two)

Note sibi reflexive. In Attic it’s a bit tricky

Good call by bedwere. voluit would certainly be better volebat