Ah, sloppy of me! I agree with his hortationibus (admonitus as I wrote is even straight out grammatically wrong; I think I mixed up admoneo with hortor) or just solve it the way the answer key suggests. And the change in word order you suggested seems good. I also used a sub-clause in two instances where the answer key used participles instead… but my solutions certainly can’t be incorrect.
Answer key to exercise 31:
Illi castra munientes ab hostibus oppugnati sunt (or Hostes eos castra munientes adorti sunt).
Castra, nonnullis iam egressis, ab hostibus oppugnata sunt.
Hostes nonnullos e castris egressos agressi sunt.
Caesare in castra ingresso milites hostium impetus fortius sustinebant.
Suos ita (in hunc modum) hortatus discessit.
Urbe prodita abierunt.
Exercitu in urbem reducto obsides imperavit (poposcit).
Regibus expulsis Romani consules habebant.
Aegris in castris relictis hostem secuti sunt.
Hostem sequens occisus est.
Exercise 32
The enemy being now defeated, the general led his men back to the camp, which had been fortified by a rampart. The lieutenant having been left in the camp, had not heard about the battle. When he saw the army at a distance, he went to the top of the rampart to await them. As they approached, he went out and asked them about the fight. But they were so tired that they would tell him nothing, but threw away teyr arms and went to their tents.
Hostibus iam victis dux suos in castra vallo munita reduxit. Legatus in castris relictus de proelio non cognovit. Exercito procul viso ad vallum summum ascendit, ut expectat. Egressus appropinquantes de proelio interrogavit. Tam autem defessi erant ut ei nihil dicere vellent, sed armis abiectis ad tabernacula se conferrent.
Not sure if using autem in the last sentence is correct, but I didn’t wanna write sed …, sed because it looks ugly. Thanks in advance for any input!
Thanks for your reply, sir! This might be a dumb question, but what is the difference between ad summum vallum and ad vallum summum? expectat = expectaret of course… I think I chose the subjunctive of confero because I viewed it as part of the consecutive clause. “They were so tired, that they would tell him nothing but throw away their arms and went to their tents.” I mean, a result from the fact that they were tired, is that they throw away their weapons and went to their tents. Is my reasoning wrong here? Moving on, I definitely think you could use possent instead of vellent, but I don’t think it makes that big of a difference, does it? “…would tell him nothing…” - to my ears at least - sounds like they didn’t want to tell him anything because they were too exhausted, but they certainly could have told him something, only that they didn’t really have the energy to do so. I don’t think it’s a significant difference anyway or am I mistaken? To me it seems like both possent or vellent would work, but I’m not completely sure. Once again, thanks for your input and I’m looking forward to your next reply.
ad summum vallum → to the top of the rampart
ad vallum summum → to a rampart that was very tall
Regarding your reasoning, I suspect the author of the exercise would have written “they would go” instead of “they went” if he meant you to use the subjunctive.
Thanks for clarifying the difference between summum vallum and vallum summum! Ah, I see, you are probably correct regarding “they would go” vs. “they went”. Since my native tongue isn’t English, I might misinterpret these kind of things sometimes…
Answer key to exercise 32:
Victis iam hostibus dux suos in castra reduxit, quae vallo munita erant. Legatus in castris relictus de proelio non certior factus est; qui, ut exercitum procul visum exspectaret in summum vallum ascendit. Egressus (autem) appropinquantes de proelio interrogavit. Adeo tamen erant defessi ut nihil ei dicere vellent sed armis abiectis ad tabernacula se conferrent.
So I was pretty close this time, except for the mistake with vallum summum and my blunder of writing expectat instead of expectaret… But I have to say that the answer key’s solution to the passage when the lieutenant went to the top of the rampart in order to wait for the army was neater than my translation of that passage. The answer key also seems to have interpreted the last sentence in the same way that I did, i.e. that they went to their tents was also a part of the consecutive clause. The answer key suggested to have an autem in the second last sentence and used adeo tamen instead of Tam autem defessi… as I wrote. All these little words like tamen, quidem and the like confuses me a bit. I don’t have a sense for when I should use what. Is there any good part in a grammar book or an article that explains this a bit more thoroughly? Any recommendations?! That would be very convenient…
Exercise 33:
The bread being now all eaten, we were dying of hunger. But the general, callig us together, gave us the bread which he had kept hidden in his house; then, opening the gates, he and the soldiers escaped through the enemy’s camp. The wounded only being left [behind] in the city, we gave ourselves up to the enemy. They soon left us, taking away much gold and silver from the city.
Pane omne iam esso moriebamur fame. Sed dux nobis convocatis panem, quem domi celaverat, dedit. Deinde portis apertis is et milites per castra hostium aufugerunt. Saucis tantum in urbe relictis, nos hostibus tradidimus. Auro multo et argento ex urbe ablato, nos brevi reliquerunt.
I’d write nos ipsos hostibus tradidimus for clarity’s sake.
As for the use of particles, you get a feeling from reading Latin texts, rather than by books of rules. I always recommend the Gospels from the Vulgate of St. Jerome as very easy texts with which (most) people are familiar in translation. Not always classical Latin, but very useful.
Nos ipsos… is indeed a bit clearer. I’ll see if I can find some version of Vulgate. Do you recommend any particular edition? Lately, I’ve been reading a few pages of Cicero’s De amicitia before I go to bed, but the Gospels is perhaps even more appropriate.
Exercise 24
Seeing the enemy the Gauls crossed the river, and breaking down the bridge waited for Carsar’s arrival. Caesar did not wish to fight immediately as his men were tired. Marching therefore into the hills he pitched a camp, then came down against the enemy when they took
Hostibus visis Galli flumen transierunt, et ponte rescisso adventum Caesaris exspectaverunt. Caesar statim pugnare nolebat, quia sui defessi erant. Profectus igitur in colles castra posuit, et quo facto contra hostes, cum egressi e castris frumenta peterent, descendit. Postea vero quam hos victos, quos cepisset, vendidit; et ponte refecto in urbem recessit.
Sry, was a bit too drunk when I tried to do yesterday’s exercise. Here’s my second try! Any feedback is, as always, much appreciated.
Exercise 34
Seeing the enemy the Gauls crossed the river, and breaking down the bridge waited for Carsar’s arrival. Caesar did not wish to fight immediately as his men were tired. Marching therefore into the hills he pitched a camp, then came down against the enemy when they had gone out of the camp and were seeking corn. Having conquered them he sold those whom he had captured, and after repairing the bridge returned to the city.
Hostibus visis Galli flumen transierunt, et ponte rescisso adventum Caesaris exspectaverunt. Caesar statim pugnare nolebat, quia sui defessi erant. Profectus igitur in colles castra posuit, et deinde contra hostes e castris frumenti petendi causa egressos descendit. Ex quibus victis captos vendidit; et quidem ponte refecto in urbem rediit.
I’ve read in Lewis & Short that quidem can mean something like ‘indeed’, but it might be my (lack of) understanding of English that mislead me. In general I find that words like autem, etiam, inde, deinde, vere, quidem and other common adverbs are hard to get the right feeling for… In this case it’s probably best to just drop quidem.
Exercise 35
Returning to the top of the hill the scout saw the enemy slowly advancing across the plain. Coming to the camp he told these things to the general. Immediately our camp was moved, and we set out to the other side of the river. Having broken down the bridge, so that the enemy might not follow us, we marched the whole day through the woods, and as night approached reached the city of Spoletium. The walls and gates of the city having been made by the Romans were very strong.
Explorator, regressus ad summum collem, hostes super planities tarde procedere vidit. Cum in campum pervenisset, duci haec dixit. Statim campus noster movitus est, et trans flumen profecti sumus. Ponte diruto, ne hostes nos sequerentur, omnem diem per silvas contenderunt, et nocte appropinquante ad urbem Spoletium pervenerunt. Hic commeatus colligi et ipsi nos defendere constituimus. Urbis moenia et portae perfactae ab Romanis firmissimae sunt.
Kinda in the same condition today, but I think I did better today. I’ll post the answer key to exercise 24 and 25 tomorrow. Thanks for your input bedwere - you and everyone else has been very helpful to me! In this exercise I felt a bit unsure about super planities, whether one can use a purpose clause after an absolute ablative, if I should write ipsi nos defendere or ipsos nos defendere, and finally if it works to start the last sentence with urbis (I didn’t want to write Moenia et portae urbis perfectae…, since perfectae then might be connected with urbis). Thanks in advance!
Answer key to exercise 34 and 35:
Hostibus conspectis Galli flumen transierunt et ponte rescisso Caesaris exspectabant. Hic statim pugnare noluit cum sui defessi essent (or suis defessis). Itaque, cum in colles contendisset, castris positis, contra hostes egressos castris et frumentum petentes descendit. Quibus victis captos vendidit, et ponte refecto ad urbem rediit.
Explorator ad summum collem regressus hostes gradatim trans campum progredientes conspexit. Quod, cum ad castra venisset, imperatori nuntiavit. Castris igitur statim motis ultra flumen profecti sumus. Ponte rescisso, ne hostes nos sequerentur, totum diem iter per silvas fecimus, et nocte appropinquante (or sub noctem) ad urbem Spoletium appropinquavimus. Hic commeatu collecto nos defendere constituimus; moenia enim et portae urbis a Romanis facta validissima erant.
I was fairly close to the answer key with exercise 34. In 35 I suspect I have two expressions that are wrong: hostes super planities tarde procedere vidit and Urbis moenia et portae perfactae ab Romanis firmissimae sunt doesn’t seem as good solutions, or what do you think? I’ll soon do exercise 36, I’m really gonna focus now and try to make it as good as I can.
Just a couple of things I noticed here, things you would probably notice yourself after coming back to these.
Camp should be castra.
Anno septuagesimo means ‘in the seventieth year’. I think a construction with natus might be better to get his age across (i.e. ‘when he was/at the age of seventy’).
Perveniam.
Tribus instead of tres.
Snow is nix in the nominative.
Carthagine should be Carthagini.
I think you only need one erat in the last sentence.
You’re doing great. Just a few small additional notes to truks.
The age is indeed best said with natus (of course nata for women). For instance: Alexander mortuus est triginta tres annos natus.
You could use even the plural niues. The meaning would change slightly, something like ‘snow bank, drift’.
Carthagini may indeed be said to be more correct, but Carthagine is quite often used, as well. Cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 4,224: Dardaniumque ducem, Tyrias Karthagine qui nunc
Of course he would have needed that metri causa. Note, however, that Carthagine will also mean ‘from Carthage’. Carthagini is unambiguous.
Of the verb ire perfect ii, isti, iit, iimus, istis, ierunt/iere is more classical than that in iu-, but I daren’t say iui etc. is wrong. The stem iu- is apparently secondary. We do have some examples of iu- in Plautus, Cato, Catullus and even in Verg. Aen. 6,801: nec uero Alcides tantum telluris obiuit. (Again metri causa)
