Translation help: Apocolocyntosis 5.2-5.3

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quaesisse se cuius nationis esset: respondisse nescio quid perturbato sono et voce confusa; non intellegere se linguam eius: nec Graecum esse nec Romanum nec ullius gentis notae.

esse in the final clause could have two different subjects. The first is Claudius, with the clause expressing a conclusion drawn from the preceding description of the messenger’s interrogation; that is, Claudius is neither Roman, nor Greek, nor of any other known people.

Alternately, it could be taking the linguam from the previous clause as its subject, with the three possibilities raised refering back to it, emphasizing the unknown nature of Claudius with the fact that the language he is speaking is not even important enough to have an adjective in Latin.. Also note that Graecum and Romanum are in the accusative, while ullius gentis notae is in the genitive. This may be a simple possessive genitive referring back to linguam, or a case usage retained from earlier Latin to mark the inferiority of the words put into the genitive relative to those in the accusative.

tum Iuppiter Herculem, qui totum orbem terrarum pererraverat et nosse videbatur omnes nationes, iubet ire et explorare quorum hominum esset.

The use of explorare is interesting in this context, given its connection to the Roman army’s exploratores, its scouts and spies. The implication that Hercules is intended to spy on Claudius to learn about him is particularly amusing given that Hercules is explicitly stated to be a man of minime vafro in 6.1.

quorum hominum could be a possessive genitive or a genitive of description, but requires a bit of wrangling to sound natural in English. Literally “of which people he was,” it works better if translated as “who his people were” or more loosely “what country he was from” or “where he was from,” the sense of which is provided in the assertion that Hercules is being sent for his knowledge of various nations. The fact that this is the question that Hercules is sent to answer supports the interpretation of the preceding clause as addressing Claudius’ nationality rather than the language he speaks, in my opinion.

The use of homo instead of vir, which would normally be used of Roman men, is another calculated insult against Claudius.

Translation help: Nero 39.

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ignominia ad Orientem, legionibus in Armenia sub iugum missis aegreque Syria retenta.

The primary issue with this section is the phrase in the middle, legionibus in Armenia sub iugum missis. To begin with, this is an ablative absolute, describing a military disaster.

A frequent translation of this seems to be that the legions have been sent into Armena in order to subjugate the people there, taking the words effectively as legionibus missis in Armenia sub iugum; this reading does not work. First, in this case, in would have to take the accusative rather than the ablative as it actually appears. Further, mitto sub iugum is an idiom, referencing “an arrangement of two vertical and one transverse spear under which a conquered army was made to pass” [OLD iugum 5]. Taking the idiom collectively to mean “conquered,” “defeated” or “subjugated” conveys the sense of this quite effectively.

Thus in order to accurately deal with the Latin presented here, the order legionibus in Armenia missis sub iugum is better; that is, the legions in Armenia, whether recently sent there or stationed there on a permanent basis, have been subjugated. Alternately, in Armenia could simply be describing where they suffered their defeat, though that would be ignoring the positioning of the prepositional phrase between the noun and the participle modifying it, which seems ill-advised when it reads well as written.

Once the meaning of the ablative absolute has been understood, the preceding and following comments are given important context: the loss of the legions is the shame in the East, and Syria is barely held onto because the troops tasked with that have been killed or enslaved.

 

Nero 39

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accesserunt tantis ex principe malis probisque quaedam et fortuita

We discussed for a while today what the phrase tantis ex principe malis probisque was doing. Two possibilities arose:

  1. It is in the dative, and is an indirect object of accesserunt (“were added to”)
  2. It is some sort of ablative of circumstance, interpreting accesserunt as “occurred”

Although opinion in class seemed to incline toward the latter, the OLD does not give very strong support for that interpretation of accesserunt. Definition 13 (of 17!) is “(of conditions, feelings, etc.) to come on, set in, supervene, become operative”. This could perhaps allow a reading like “certain accidents also occurred, while such great evils and shameful acts (came) from the princeps”.

However, definition 15, “to be added (to elements already present)” seems to fit much better. “certain accidents were also added to such great evils…” Most examples of this sense in the OLD use “ad + noun phrase”  rather than the dative. However there appears to be an example of this syntax in Suetonius’ Life of Tiberius. At the start of section 17 we find Cui gloriae amplior adhuc ex opportunitate cumulus accessit.

Thus the correct translation appears to be “certain accidents were also added to such great evils and shameful acts from the princeps” (which is what I think Sara may have said to start with!)

Translation Help – Life of Nero 6

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“…praesagio fuit etiam Domiti patris vox…”

praesagio: neutr. dat. sing. of praesagium, –io. This use of the dative is called the dative of purpose (sometimes called the double dative since it usually takes another dative of the person or thing affected).

A&G (382) write: “The dative of an abstract noun is used to show that for which a thing serves or which is accomplishes.” Examples: rei publicae cladi sunt (they are for a disaster to the state); quibus sunt odio (to whom they are an object of hatred). The verb is usually sum.

Certain usages of the dative of purpose are called predicative datives. The natural English translation is the same for this dative as for a predicative nominative, notes Henry John Roby in a chapter on this phenomenon in his book A Grammar of the Latin Language from Plautus to Suetonius, Volume 2. If we follow that tip, the translation could be as simple as follows:

“… the words of his father Domitius were also a forewarning/presage/portent…”

Translation Help – Life of Nero 10

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SESTERCES

We saw two mentions of sesterces in this section.

sestertius, -i [<*semis-tertius] as a noun [OLD 2]:
A coin or unit of money, equivalent to 2 ½ asses or a quarter of a denarius (4 asses after 217 BCE when a denarius was divided into 16 asses); sestertius nummus, a sesterce piece.

quadringenis nummis: masc. abl. plur. of the adjective quadringeni, -ae, a, four hundred (400).  and the noun nummus, -i. Suetonius is thus referring to 400 sesterce pieces.

This gift to the public, congiarium, was originally a distribution of wine or oil made to the people by magistrates. Julius Caesar was the first to convert it into one of cash. What started out as an act of munificence became an obligation for the emperors if they wanted to maintain popular support (see K. R. Bradley’s historical commentary on Suetonius’ Life of Nero, p. 75).

sestertius, -a, -um as an adjective [OLD3]:
The adjective is used with multiples of thousands, milium–milia. The milia often undergo an ellipsis.

quingena: neutr. acc. plur. of the adjective quingeni, -ae, a, five hundred (500). “et quibusdam quingena… constituit” thus refers to 500’000 sesterces where the thousands are ellipted.

Translation Aid – Cena Trimalchionis 62.9

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qui mori timore nisi ego

The storyteller Niceros asks a rhetorical question: what sort of person could die from fright if not himself?

In this construction, a form of possum in the subjunctive appears to have undergone ellipsis.  The construction likely a relative clause of characteristic.  A relative clause in the indicative would state something as fact, whereas a relative clause of characteristic conveys a sense of potential (A&G 534)—given that Niceros’ statement is rhetorical, a subjunctive mood is more fitting than the indicative.

qui: there is no antecedent for the relative pronoun qui; where the antecedent is undefined, a relative clause with the subjunctive indicates a characteristic of the antecedent (A&G 535).

mori: the present active infinitive of the deponent verb morior; here, a complementary infinitive to the absent form of possum.

timore: ablative of cause (A&G 404a).

nisi: although often used with conditions, nisi may be used by comic poets in the sense of only when a negative is expressed or understood in the main clause (A&G 525e).  There is no main clause preceding, but there is an understood negative: Niceros implies that no one could be more afraid than he.  Translate here as “save” or “except”.

ego: Niceros emphasizes his exceptional state of fright.

Translation Aid – Cena Trimalchionis 61.3

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nisi jam dudum gaudimonio dissilio, quod te talem video

 jam dudum: Also written as jamdudum or jandudum, now after all this time. [dudum OLD 3]

gaudimonio: As noted by the commentary, the suffix –monium is simply a Vulgar enlargement of the –ium ending. It may have been derived from adjectives that used to end in –mo, -monis.

dissilio: To burst apart. [OLD 2] This verb is more commonly used in poetry (such as by Lucretius, Vergil and Ovid). It has been suggested by R. B. Steele that Petronius may be modelling some of his phraseology after Seneca. In his Dialogues, de Proventia 4.10, he uses the similar words, cruditate dissiliunt (they burst apart from excess food). Seneca wrote condemning such vices as overly excessive banquets and this may be Petronius’ way of satirizing Seneca. Especially given that he has just written in section 39.3, oportet etiam inter cenandum philologiam nosse.

te talem: Niceros is addressing Trimalchio. talis in apposition can refer to the quality/calibre of an individual or that one is an exceptionally good/bad type of character. [OLD 3b] Here possibly referring to the geniality or friendliness of Trimalchio, since in a preceding clause Niceros is delectatus affabilitate amici.

quod: Used as a conjunction.

Robert Graves and Neronian graffiti

Graffiti One Comment

The translation of Suetonius by Robert Graves is really excellent. When he came to translate the graffiti against Nero in section 39, as a poet he chose to render them in verse. Here are my favourites:

Alcmaeon, Orestes and Nero are brothers
Why? Because all of them murdered their mothers.

Aeneas the Trojan hero
Carried off his aged father;
His remote descendant Nero
Likewise carried off his mother:
Heroes worthy of each other.

(And best of all)

The Palace is spreading and swallowing Rome!
Let us all flee to Veii and make it our home.
Yet the Palace is growing so damnably fast
That it threatens to gobble up Veii at last.

Translation Aid – Cena Trimalchionis 62.7

Translation help, One Comment

ut mentiar, nullius patrimonium tanti facio

The purpose of this exaggerated statement of Niceros is to convince his fellow diners that he could not possibly be lying.

patrimonium: A patrimonium is property, including possessions, estates and money, which belongs to the paterfamilias. By extension it also means inheritance. The point of using this noun here is to refer to a large quantity of wealth.

Petronius has already used this noun with a similar sense in section 44:
plus in die nummorum accipit, quam alter patrimonium habet
(he receives more money in a day than another man has in inherited property)

facio: The verb facio can have the sense of to regard/consider/treat something (as). [OLD 18b] When used in conjunction with the genitive case it can mean to esteem or value (at). [OLD 18c]

nullius tanti: Genitives of quality which denote indefinite value.

ut mentiar: A result clause, indicated by tanti.

In English one might say the similar sentiment of, “I wouldn’t lie for all the money in the world.”

 

vota (3.6)

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Besides their vow of chastity, the Vestal virgins had a number of official duties. As John Murray writes in The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, they provided offerings to Vesta, assisted with rites at public festivals, purified the Temple of Vesta (cf. contactu suo polluit), and most importantly, maintained the everlasting fire of the city on the Temple’s altar. Unless she had the misfortune of death or persecution, each Vestal virgin served a term of thirty years.

This representation of the Vestal virgins in the Temple of Vesta is taken from Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). Where Philia lies should be the undying fire of Rome.

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