Helps to Latin Translation at Sight Part 3

_The +VOLSCIANS+ found that now they were severed from every other hope, there was but little in prolonging the conflict.

In addition to other disadvantages they had engaged on a spot ill-adapted for fighting and worse for flight. Cut to pieces on every side they abandoned the contest and cried for quarter.

After surrendering their commander and delivering up their arms, they pa.s.sed under the yoke, and with one garment each +WERE SENT+ to their homes covered with disgrace and defeat._

[Footnote 4: Potts, _Hints_, p. 85.]

Notice here that

(1) There is only one main idea, that of _the ignominious return of the Volscians to their homes_.

(2) The rest describes the attendant circ.u.mstances of the surrender and of the causes that led to it.

(3) In English we should translate by at least four separate sentences.

(4) The Latin contains only forty-eight words, while the English contains eighty-one.

Professor Postgate ('Sermo Latinus,' p. 45) gives the following example of the way in which a Latin +PERIOD+ may be built up:--

+BALBUS vir optimus, dux clarissimus et multis mihi beneficiis carus, rogitantibus Arvernis ut populi Romani maiestatem ostentaret suique simul imperi monumentum eis relinqueret, MURUM latericium, viginti pedes latum, s.e.xaginta alt.i.tudine et ita in immensum porr.e.c.t.u.m ut vix tuis ipse oculis crederes tantum esse, nedum aliis persuaderes, non sine adverso suo rumore ut qui princ.i.p.atum adfectaret AEDIFICAVIT.+

_+BALBUS+, an excellent man and most distinguished commander, who had endeared himself to me by numerous kindnesses, was requested by the Arverni to make a display of the power and greatness of Rome, and at the same time to leave behind him a memorial of his own government. He accordingly +BUILT+ a +WALL+ of bricks, twenty feet wide, sixty high, and extending to such a prodigious length that you could hardly trust your own eyes that it was so large, still less induce others to believe it.

But he did not escape the malign rumour that he had designs upon the imperial crown._

Here, as in the previous example,

(1) There is only one main idea,

+BALBUS MURUM AEDIFICAVIT+.

(2) The rest consists of--

(a) Enlargements of +BALBUS+--+vir optimus ... carus+; placed, therefore, directly _after_ +BALBUS+.

(b) Enlargements of +MURUM+--+latericium ... persuaderes+; placed, therefore, directly _after_ +MURUM+.

(c) Enlargements of +AEDIFICAVIT+

+rogitantibus ... relinqueret+ = the _cause_ of the building of the wall.

+(murum) non sine ... adfectaret+ = the _attendant circ.u.mstances_ of the building of the wall; placed, therefore, _before_ +AEDIFICAVIT+.

(3) In English we must translate by at least three separate sentences, and, where necessary, translate participles as finite verbs, and change dependent clauses into independent sentences.

It has been well said: 'An English sentence does not often exhibit the structure of the Period. It was imitated, sometimes with great skill and beauty, by many of the earlier writers of English prose; but its effect is better seen in poetry, as in the following pa.s.sage:--

"High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat."'

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 1-5.

+12. Help through a Knowledge of the Order of Words in Latin.+--If you study the examples already given of the Period you will see that the +Order of Words in English+ differs very much from the +Order of Words in Latin+.

Dr. Abbott writes as follows: 'The main difference between English and Latin is that in English the _meaning_ depends mainly on the _order_ of words, and the _emphasis_ mainly on the _voice_, while in Latin the _meaning_ depends almost entirely on the _inflexions_, and the _emphasis_ upon the _order_.'

Thus, if we take the English sentence, _Caesar conquered the Gauls_, we cannot invert the order of _Caesar_ and _Gauls_ without entirely changing the meaning. In Latin, however, we may write (since each Latin word has its own proper inflexion, serving almost as a label)

+Caesar vicit Gallos+: +Gallos Caesar vicit+: +Caesar Gallos vicit+, without any change of meaning except that of shifting the emphasis from one word to another.

The usual order of words in a Latin Prose Sentence may be said to be

(1) Particles, or phrases of connection (with some exceptions, _e.g._ +vero+, +autem+, +quidem+, +enim+, which stand second).

(2) Subject.

(3) Words, phrases, clauses, as enlargements of Subject.

(4) Adverbial enlargements of Predicate (though an Ablative Absolute must generally stand first).

(5) Indirect Object (if any) and its enlargements.

(6) Direct Object (if any) and its enlargements.

(7) The Princ.i.p.al Verb.

To take a simple example:--

[5]+LIVIUS, imperator fortissimus, quamquam adventus hostium non ubi oportuit nuntiatus est, PERICULUM illa sua in rebus dubiis audacia facile EVASIT.+

_+LIVIUS+, a most excellent commander, although the enemy's arrival was not reported when it should have been, easily +ESCAPED+ the +DANGER+ by his well-known daring in perilous positions._

[Footnote 5: Postgate, _Sermo Latinus_, p. 38.]

To take another example:--

[6]+Archimedis EGO quaestor ignoratum ab Syracusanis, c.u.m esse omnino negarent, saeptum undique et vest.i.tum vepribus et dumetis, INDAGAVI SEPULCRUM.+

_When I was Quaestor, +I WAS ABLE TO TRACE OUT+ the +TOMB+ of Archimedes, overgrown and hedged in with brambles and brushwood.

The Syracusans knew nothing of it, and denied its existence._

[Footnote 6: Demonstration VI. Sent. 1. p. 55.]

Notice here the following special points of order:--

(1) The two most important positions in the sentence are the beginning and the end.

(2) Special emphasis is expressed by placing a word in an unusual or prominent position.

E.g. here, the unusual position of +Archimedis+ and +sepulcrum+.

(3) In the middle of the sentence the arrangement is such that the words most closely connected in meaning stand nearest together.