I am trying to translate Cicero’s Pro Archia but it is very hard, he doesn’t half ramble.
In the end of paragraph 23:
http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/cicero/arch.html#23
It says:
quod cum ipsis populis de quorum rebus scribitur, haec ampla sunt, tum eis certe, qui de vita gloriae causa dimicant, hoc maximum et periculorum incitamentum est et laborum.
I am looking at the english translation and I do not get how they were able to arrive at it without breaking grammatical rules and adding additional info:
Because, as this is always an ample reward for those people whose achievements are the subject of writings, so especially is it the greatest inducement to encounter labours and dangers to all men who fight for themselves for the sake of glory.
Could someone analyse this sentence in detail and provide a more literal translation? Because I do not get it at all. For example:
If “scribitur” refers to “quorum rebus” (whose achievements are the subject of writings), should it not be “scribiuntur” because it is plural (i.e. more than one achievement)?
Where is the word “reward” eluded to in the original Latin? It seems to just say “haec Ampla Sunt”, meaning their achievements are great, but where is the ample reward?
What does ‘tum eis certe’ actually mean translated literally? And where is it referred to in the translation?
I assume that ‘maximum incitamentum est’ must mean “it is the greatest inducement”, is that correct? If so, where is the verb “to encounter” in the original Latin? Both ‘labors’ and ‘dangers’ are in the genitive form, but genitive of what?
In the next paragraph, it says:
Sulla cum Hispanos donaret et Gallos, credo hunc petentem repudiasset: quem nos in contione vidimus
This is translated as:
Sulla, when he was giving it to the Spaniards and Gauls, would, I suppose, have refused him if he had asked for it! a man whom we ourselves saw in the public assembly
How can one know that “quem” refers to “a man”? Which man does it refer to anyway? Is it Sulla, or the poet? And would it not make more sense if “quem” refered to “petentem”, i.e. the request/petition that the poet may have made to Sulla and is now presented before the public assembly?