Roma Aeterna XLIII, The Horatii vs. the Curiatii, p. 120

Latin Learning Latin
1

This sentence is really giving me trouble. I found some old posts from 2014 and 2015 that touched upon it, but they made me none the wiser.

The text within the parentheses is only for context.

(Prius igitur quam alter – nec procul aberat – consequi posset, et alterum
Curiatium conficit. Iamque singuli supererant, sed nec spe nec viribus pares.)
Alterum intactum ferro corpus et geminata victoria ferocem in certamen tertium
dabat;

I understand that it basically means that one of them, uninjured by the sword and made fierce by his double victory, plunged himself into the third battle. But what is going on here grammatically? The only thing I’m sure of is that dabat is the verb, that ferro is ablative, ferocem accusative, and in certamen tertium also accusative. But I’m totally confused about what the subject is, what ferocem agrees with and… well, pretty much all the rest! Help would be appreciated.

2

I’d take intactum ferro corpus and geminata victoria as nominatives, subject of dabat, and alterum as the object.

3

So if translated literally, it would be “the body uninjured by the sword and the double victory gave one of them fierce into the third battle”?

4

Yes, that would be my take on this sentence.

5

I hope you notice that in the margin Ørberg writes dabat: faciēbat. This will help to make your translation make more sense.

OLD 25 (w. verbal nouns and sim.) To make. perform.

6

Thanks guys. This one gave me quite a headache.