These are a couple of other areas in Romae Viri that I can’t get quite right in my head.
After the Battle of the triplets, the surviving Roman kills his whining sister, but gets let off punishment on appeal.
Ut tamen caedes manifesta expiaretur, pater quibusdam scrificiis peractis transmisit per viam tigillum et filium capite adoperto velut sub iungum misit; quod tigillum sororium appellatum est.
But because the obvious killing had to be atoned for, his father, having completed certain sacrifices, sent sent a small log across the road??? and and sent his son with his head covered, as though under a yoke; which was called the log of the sisters.
I clearly do not understand what the father did with the log of wood, the second ‘misit’ seems superfluous. Also, I looked in A&G, and it doesn’t mention soror being i-stem (sororium).
When a legatus, or fetialis, was sent to talk to neighbouring states, he would say:
“Audi, Iuppiter, audite fines huius populi. Ego sum publicus nuntius populi Romani; verbis meis fides sit.”
“Hear me Jupiter, Listen territory of this people. I am a State Messenger of the Roman people; may trust be to my words.”
Is he really talking to the territory, or does ‘finis’ have a meaning not in my dictionary? And there must be a better translation of that last phrase, keeping the dative, because my version seems very laboured and unnatural to me.
I hope someone can help me.
Cheers
Phil.