sacris Iovis

Latin Learning Latin
1

Tum ad sacerdotes creandos animum advertis, quamquam ipse plurimis sacris, maxime sacris Iovis, praeerat. Sed quia in civitate bellicosa plures Romuli quam Numae similes reges fore putabat iturosque ipsos ad bella, ne rege absente sacra neglegerentur, Iovi assiduum sacerdotem creavit qui ‘flamen Dialis’ appellatus est.

I’m perplexed by the phrase ‘..maxime sacris Iovis, praeerat’ '…even though he himself most of all was foremost - then ‘sacris’ - with sacrifices ? and then for some reason we have ‘Iovis’ genitive? I can’t work out why it’s in this case.

2

Numa praeerat plurimis caerimoniis, sed praesertim Iovis caerimoniis.

Liquetne?

3

praeerat + dative = “presided over”

sacra = “sacred rites”

4

Qimmik

My questions was really around why Iovis was genitive…I think I have figured this out…

…quamquam ipse plurimis sacris, maxime sacris Iovis, praeerat.’

even though he himself was preeminent within most of the rights, mostly the rites of Juppiter.

Now that I look at it it seems simple… I even knew (but sort of forgot!) that praesum takes dative (so plurimis and sacris (twice) are all dative, right?). But I find occasionally that Latin induces a sort of dyslexia… One stares at a word and can’t figure out why it’s there or in that case…

Many thanks.

5

One correction: praeerat doesn’t mean “was preeminent within”–it means “presided over.”

(And it’s “rites,” of course not “rights,” but you got it right the second time.)

6

Qimmik

Many thanks. Corrections noted.

Paul