Familia Romana CAP XXVII - Res Rusticae

Latin Learning Latin
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Familia Romana CAP XXVII - Res Rusticae

Arator duos validos boves qui aratrum trahunt prae se agit.
A ploughman drives two strong bulls before him (?) which drag the plough behind them.

. . . Saturnus, qui olim rex caeli fuit, sed a filio suo Iove e caelo pulsus in Italiam venit, ubi eam regionem que Latinum appellatur optime rexit Latinosque, homines ut tunc erant rudes ac barbaros, agros colere docuit.
. . . ignorant/unskilled and barbaric as they then were? I don’t know how else to translate “ut” in this context.

. . . nam plurimi Romani sub urbe Roma habitare volunt in villis suburbanis.
. . . for very many Romans want to live near Rome in suburban country houses.

I’d prefer . . . for many Romans living on the outskirts of Rome want to live in country houses which are not too far from Rome. Does that stick closely enough to the Latin? (Suburban country houses is surely a contradiction in terms.)

“Prohibe oves tuas ab agris nostris, pastor!” - tum pastorem mittunt atque celeriter oves in agris sparsas persequuntur.
. . . then they release the shepherd who quickly pursues the sheep which are scattered in the field.
Would “who quickly chases after the sheep scattered in the field” be preferable?

Iulius igitur, postquam paulum quievit, ambulatum exit. Is ambulatum a gerund?

What does Quid malum mean?
I’ve got the Latin translations of Winnie the Pooh (A. Lenardo) and Le Petit Prince (F. Hazan). Are these translations generally considered acceptable?

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prae se is explained in the margin: prae prp + abl = ante. Also, this is exactly what we see in the picture at the top of the page!

A villa suburbana is simply a villa that is located near the city of Rome, sub urbe. Thinking of modern (especially American) suburbs might obscure the intended meaning. We can imagine many Romans wanted to live in such a villa rustica instead of the overcrowded city itself.

persequuntur is plural, not singular! The subject is not the shepherd. Also note that the English relative pronoun “who” in your translation has no equivalent in the Latin sentence.

ambulatum is not a gerund (the gerund always contains the letters -nd-!) but a supinum (see cap. xxii).