Per circuitum

Latin Learning Latin
1

This is from the Vulgate, Job 1:10.

Nonne tu vallasti eum ac domum eius universamque substantiam per circuitum

Haven’t you fenced him and all his household and all his wealth…

And I’ve gotten stuck on per circuitum. I know what it should mean, ‘all around’ or ‘by every way’, I’m just unsure of its literal meaning, although I think it’s ‘all along a circuit’. Any help would be appreciated.

2

Salve Nooj
According to Lewis & Short ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059 ):
circuitus = the space around a building; circuit, compass, a way around; circling, revolution
per circuitum = all along the perimeter; by a circling–in an encircling way;
vallo -are -avi -atus per circuitum --to hedge on every side (according to one translation), intrench, circumvallate – synonym for saepio --to hedge or enclose

3

Oh that makes so much sense. Our school’s library has a Lewis and Short, but I couldn’t check it until after this weekend. And I’m really quite clueless with using Perseus.

Maximas gratias tibi ago :slight_smile:

4

My pleasure, Nooj. Volup mihi est, Nooj.

5

Okay, here’s another one:

11 Sed extende paululum manum tuam et tange cuncta, quae possidet, nisi in faciem benedixerit tibi

But extend your hand just a little and touch everything which he possesses, and he will curse your face.

How does the nisi fit in here? Every other instance I’ve seen this word was ‘except, unless’. Perseus states:

6

If you look at the entry for si, section II.B., si can be used with an implicit verb. So I think that works here and you get “…he possesses, and [see] whether he will not curse you to your face.” (That seems equivalent to “…and he will surely curse you to your face” which the Greek version has, both with the odd bless means curse thing.)

7

Woops, I must have been distracted, my previous post was left hanging. :blush:

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

If I remember correctly, the editors did this so as not to impeach upon God, even though it was a character doing it.

8

It stills seem a little odd, but now at least, it’s understandably odd.

9

Praeterea cur vere rosam, frumenta calore

This is line 174 from the first book of De Rerum Natura. How do you scan this line in hexameter? I tried but I can’t get my head around it. :question:

??? – – – -uu -x

And then how to do praeterea?

10

Praeterea cur vere rosam, frumenta calore

  • u u|- - | - u u | - // - | - u u| - u |
11

Hm…doesn’t the ablative ending of vere mean the ‘e’ should be long?

12

No. The third declension consonant-stem ablative singular is short e. Kasper’s scansion is correct.