I was asked what “Per ardua gratione vincimus” means, but was stumped by “gratione” which I couldn’t find anywhere.
“Gration”, a giant slain by Artemis, I thought might be a possibility making it: Through effort/hardship we overcome/conquer/beat the giant/s. But not at all sure.
Any help would be much appreciated.
It’s nonsense. oratione might make sense as the motto of a highschool debating team, say. Per ardua ad astra, per ignem vincimus was the motto of a British bomber squadron in the Second World War, whose job was to destroy German cities and terrorize the civilian population.
It ultimately derives from Vergil (Aeneid + Georgics).
Thanks, mwh. That makes me feel better. Even so, a family seems to have seen fit to have their wine glasses engraved with that motto. Unfortunately the elderly gent I could have asked about this died a couple of years ago.
Hi, I wonder whether they meant gratia (abl. of means), either in a secular or in a religious sense of grace: something like, through difficulties, we prevail by means of favour/grace (etc.)… those reading the motto on the wine glasses were perhaps more focused on the vino than the morphology, and so no-one spotted the first vs third declension error (gratia vs *gratio)…
PS a quick search of Du Cange shows another (more insidious) possible reading: maybe they did mean gratio, defined as:
GRATIO, Crudelitatis voluptas
A rather wicked thing to put on a wine cup…
Cheers, Chad
Thanks Chad. Mystery solved. “gratione” (lower case) had been confirmed as correct. I now have a photo of the engraving and it does indeed say ORATIONE (capitals). Admittedly it’s an old ornate engraving and with a bit of imagination the O could be mistaken for a G.
Makes sense! Cheers, Chad
oratione was an easy guess for a papyrologist, and it’s oratifying to have it confirmed. 
Cheers!