I am baffled by one of Ørberd’s marginal notes in Roma Aeterna. The sentence is:
Ita natum, ita creatum regem, fautorem infimi generis hominum, ex quo ipse sit, agrum primoribus ereptum sordidissimo cuique divisisse…
I think I understand it without Ørberg’s note: “Thus born and thus made king, a supporter of the lowest class of men, he took the land from the leading men and divided it among all the most sordid.” I took quisque sordidissimus to mean “each one of the vilest men.” The explanation in the margin is sordidissimus quisque = quisque ut sordidissimus est, omnes sordidi ( : indigni). I just don’t get the ut here. Why wouldn’t it be quisque qui sordidissimus est? I would be grateful if anyone can explain this to me.
I dont think you have understood the force of ipse in “ex quo ipse sit” indeed you seem to have disregarded this clause.
quisque + the superlative = “all the,” “quisque sordidissimus” is “all the most despicable people”
Ut in the marginal note is “as” which I think tripped you up before. can you figure it out from this or do you need more help?
It was mere inattention. I forgot ex quo ipse sit. I take it to mean “from which he himself came.” That is, he himself was part of that class of most vile men (or in the memorable words of an erstwhile presidential hopeful “basket of deplorables”) I think the subjunctive sit is used because this is a descriptive relative clause. I did indeed think of the possibility of ut meaning “as,” but I still couldn’t make sense of it. Could it be “each one is as the most despicable”? I wanted to interpret it as “each one is as despicable as possible (as one can imagine),” but I can’t find that meaning of ut. Or it it “each one as despicable (as the other)”? Yes, I guess I do need more help. I’m floundering.
sordidissimus quisque = quisque ut sordidissimus est, omnes sordidi ( : indigni).
I think this marginal note is trying to get from " sordidissimus quisque" to what it essentially means “omnes sordidi” via " quisque ut sordidissimus est" “each one is as base as possible”. The more I read it the more sympathy I have with you and the less helpful it looks.
The difficulty is that we are taught to make a distinction between omnis and quisque but with the superlative quisque means “all the”.
It would be helpful if someone could offer a better explanation of this marginal note if there is one. I am sorry that on further reflection I cant do better than this.
Thank you very much. Your help is most appreciated. I understood immediately that sordidissimus quisque meant omnes sordidi. I just couldn’t make sense of the quisque ut sordidimus est. I confess that I did actually post my question on another site and got the explanation “each one according to how he is most vile/how very vile he is.” I suppose that helps a bit. I would have to take the est as “he is,” which makes sense.