I’m reading Columella’s De Re Rustica and I’m stuck on a sentence:
“Et quoniam hunc sexum custodiae et diligentiae assignaverat, idcirco timidiorem reddidit quam virilem. Nam metus plurimum confert ad diligentiam custodiendi.”
And since he (a god) had assigned this sex (the female) carefulness and diligence, therefore he made it more timid than the male. For fear contributes to diligence with caring.
I have a few issues here; first of all, there’s no direct object to “reddidit”. I’m assuming “eum” is implicit?
Secondly, how about “plurimum”? It doesn’t seem to fit anywhere (at least I can’t make it fit). It could either be masculine accusative or neuter nominative or accusative, but “metus” is masculine nominative and “diligentia” feminine. Could it be an adverb of some sort?
Thirdly, I probably didn’t translate the gerund properly. Any better suggestions are welcome
An extended meaning of reddo, -ere is “to make, render, cause to be” (with double accusative); according to Cassell’s Latin Dictionary. I agree that there is an implied subject eum (=hunc sexum).
Secondly, how about “plurimum”? It doesn’t seem to fit anywhere (at least I can’t make it fit). It could either be masculine accusative or neuter nominative or accusative, but “metus” is masculine nominative and “diligentia” feminine. Could it be an adverb of some sort?
It is an adverb, and could be translated as “very much” or “a great deal”. Compare it with the adverb multum, of which it is the superlative.
Thirdly, I probably didn’t translate the gerund properly. Any better suggestions are welcome >
The gerund custodiendi is a genitive, so it doesn’t match “with caring” (which would be an ablative). You could translate it “the care of watching out”, or to smooth it out a bit… “the job of being mindful”.
Gratias multas ago. I didn’t know “multum” could be an adverb since my reader only lists “multus” as an adjective… Checked my dictionary now, and it does tell me that “multum” is indeed an adverb. I won’t trust that reader again (it also listed “hortor” as a third conjugation verb, making me think “hortatur” was subjunctive. Caused quite a bit of a headache until i checked with the dictionary). Thanks again!
