I found this phrase on page 63 of Roma Aeterna by Ørberg:
Quis genus Aeneadum, quis Troiae nesciat urbem
The notes say “nescire potest” for this subjunctive, but I was just wondering what this was exactly.
One more as well: “ille habeat secum servetque sepulcro” (I think it is jussive but I want to be sure)
The first is often called “potential,” “Who could/would be ignorant of …?” The second could well be called “jussive,” “Let him …”, or “optative,” “May he …”
I had a bit of trouble with this last sentence, but I think I’ve got the sense of now. I take amores to be “love”, even though it is plural by form. At first, I thought it meant “loves” as in lovers, but I think that’s wrong. My interpretation is: “Let him [Sychaeus] have it [my love] with him and preserve it in the grave.” Am I right?
Hi Charlie
I am not sure what lines you are referring to? Am I missing something?
Sorry about that. I meant
ille habeat secum servetque sepulcro
Sorry I should have known the context. Aeneid Book IV 28-29
ille meos, primus qui me sibi iunxit, amores
abstulit; ille habeat secum servetque sepulcro
You have understood it fine.You have to remember that this is poetry so plural amores is often used for singular. It could be love or heart (as the Loeb has it).
Thank you very much.
“Plural for singular” seems to me a deplorably reductive formulation, and quite inaccurate. Here the plural is appreciably more effective than the singular would have been.
Well I wondered about that. and was going to say that perhaps we should read something into the plural as we do in" Lugete o Veneres Cupidinesque" and that amores was a way of Dido magnifying her love. I didnt pursue my thought and you rightly pulled me up on it. Austin suggests that “the plural is common, both of the affection felt and of the person for whom it was felt.”
The Catullus line is variously explained and I haven’t gone into any detail as the focus is the Virgil lines but I am happy to if anyone is interested.