Hi there, thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify this!
The passage I’m having trouble with is:
Haec enim est tyrannorum vita in qua nulla fides, nulla caritas, nulla benevolentia potest ess; omnia semper metuuntur, nullus locus est amicitiae.
My attempt has been:
This is indeed the life of the tyrants, in which there can be no faith, no affection and no kindness; it fears all things, has no place for friendship (??).
I am having particular trouble with prolific amount of plurals - fides, caritas, … and also, am working from the presumption that it = life of tyrants, but think i may be wrong.
Any help appreciated!
I’m amused, because I’d just finished L.A.5 and so L.A.6 is my next subject myself.
Careful with your typing, BTW; “ess” should be “esse”.
There aren’t any plurals here. Fidēs and cāritās are both nominative singular (fidēs can also be nominative/accusative plural, but it isn’t in this case).
it fears all things, has no place for friendship (??).
Remember that “metuō” isn’t a deponent verb, so this is the passive voice: “all things are feared”.
Thus, if I’m reading it right, the sentence means: “This is indeed the life of a tyrant, in which there can be no faith, affection, or kindness; all these things are feared [= a tyrant fears all these things] and there is no room for friendship.”
So you were pretty close! 