Tag: Exercitia

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Exercitium Grammaticum Alterum

[Exerciti Responsum; notae]

 

NOTA BENE: The text below is an English translation of an actual letter. Any attempt to find the original violates the honor code, tempting though it may be! 

[To the writer’s wife]

You write that you are affected not moderately by my absence and you have one consolation when you don’t have me: that is,  that you hold my books and frequently even place them in my impression beside you.  I am happy to know that you miss me and happy too that you can erase the pain with this sort of medication.  I for my part read and reread your letters and return to them again and again as if they had just arrived. But this only fans the flames of my longing for you: if there is such pleasure in reading what you write, think what joy it is to talk with you! Do write as often as you can, even though it will torture me as much as it delights me. Farewell.

 

Feeling: use adficio, adficere, adfeci, adfectum

“when you don’t have me” = pro me

place: collocare

impression: vestigium

miss: requiro, requirere

ease the pain: adquiescere

medicine: fomentum

read and reread: use the frequentative lectitare (i.e.you don’t need to repeat it)

again and again: identidem

i.e. as if (quasi) new

‘fan the flames’ accendere (look it up, and you don’t need flames)

pleasure…joy: suavitas, -tatis (f)…dulcedo, -inis (f)

even though: licet + subjunctive

as much as: ita….ut…

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Exercitium Primum

Exercitium Grammaticum Primum

This exercise is based on Cicero’s letter to Curio (Ad Fam 9.21)

1. See Alan and Greenough on indirect commands and, in case you have forgotten, on sequence of tense.

Change to indirect command by predicating the sentence on rogat, then imperat (If you have forgotten the constructions required by rogo and impero, I suggest you check in the dictionary.)

huius generis litteras a me profecto non exspectas.

Anglice (i.e.: translate into English):
 Rogo
Impero
Rogabam
Imperabam

2. Indirect Questions: See Alan and Greenough on indirect questions.

Make these indirect questions direct:

a. utro me minus deceat uti non intellego.
[1] Anglice:
[2] Rewrite the sentence as a direct question (i.e. take out ‘non intellego‘)
[3] Rewrite the indirect question, changing intellego to past tense (and then making other necessary changes).
 

b. nullam enim apud me reliquisti dubitationem quantum me amares

[1] Anglice: 
[2] Rewrite the indirect question, changing reliquisti to present tense (and then making other necessary changes).

c. Quaerenti mihi iam diu quid ad te potissimum scriberem

[1] Anglice:
[2] Rewrite the clause as a direct question (hint: make the participle a verb)

Make these direct questions indirect (NB: deliberative subjunctive questions follow the same rules as indicative questions in o.o.):

a. iocerne tecum per litteras? (deliberative subjunctive)
Also: read about disjunctive questions here
Cicero Curionem rogat
Cicero Curionem rogavit
b. an gravius aliquid scribam?
Cicero Curionem rogat
Cicero Curionem rogavit

3. A series of examples of relative clauses of characteristic (generic relative clause) follows. These examples are here as a warm up for the questions below. You can put the composition sentences in your letter assignment.

Relative Clauses of Characteristic (generic clauses) (keep reading here )

  • quid esset quod eos scire aut nostra aut ipsorum interesset
  • civem mehercule non puto esse, qui temporibus his ridere possit
  • quid est quod possit graviter a Cicerone scribi ad Curionem nisi de re publica?
  • Nihil habebam quod scriberem
  • ut certiores faceremus absentis si quid esset quod eos scire aut nostra aut ipsorum interesset

So, how would you say (in Latin)

  • There is never anything fun to do at Davidson. 
    • ‘at Davidson’ = hic, apud nos; or hic, Davidsoniensi (locative)
    • fun: iucundus, a,um; (there are other words you could use too–just a suggestion)
  • I think there is no Davidson student who would mock people who speak Latin.
    • Davidson: Davidsoniensis, -e (adj of 2 endings)
    • mock: deridere, inridere (both transitive)
    • ‘people who speak Latin’: try using a participle agreeing with “people” instead of a relative clause 
    • speak Latin: Latine loquor, loqui, locutus sum (i.e. Latin is an adverb)
    • “I think” : Remember how to do indirect statement?  sat superque: good luck and have fun.
  • You may use print and web resources (lexica, grammars), but the only human resource permitted is the instructor (you can’t work together on this). 
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