Lectio tricesima quarta

Nihil nōvī sub sōle

Nothing new under the sun

Quousque tandem abūteris1 patientia nostra!

Up to what point, finally, will you abuse (by) our patience!

Quid tibi, optimē Cicerōnis discipule?

[What's wrong with you] (what to-you), most excellent disciple of Cicero?

Homō gravis2 nōn es, quī latīne iterum iterumque nūgārī nōn dubitās.

You are not a serious person, [since you] (who) don't hesitate to talk trifles in Latin again and again.

Quae rēs nova est? Latīnē nūgārī3 nōn licet! Nūlla est ratiō cūr istam linguam efficiāmus taediōsam.

What [revolution] (new thing) is [this]? Talking trifles in Latin is not allowed! There's no reason why we should make that language tedious.

Audācter linguā mortuā ūteris cum dē rēbus4 hodiernīs agis. Audēs enim latīne loquī dē caffēō, vel dē lūdīs quī apud Anglōs «football» et «rugby» nuncupantur5. Haec omnia rōmānī antīquī ignōrābant.

You use (by) a dead language audaciously when you [speak about] (deal with) modern things. Indeed, you dare to speak in Latin about coffee, or about the games that are called “football” and “rubgy” among the English. The ancient Romans did not know [about] all these things.

Mōrēs antīquī ā nostrīs minus quam crēdis differunt.

Ancient customs differ from ours less than you [think] (believe).

Exemplī grātia6, equī quī raedās nostrās trahunt vapōrāriī sunt, sed hominēs raedīs semper vehuntur.

For example, the horses that draw our [cars] (carriages) are steam-powered, but people always [go] (are transported) by [cars] (carriages).

Folle, nōn omnīnō sīcut hodiē nōs lūdimus, antīquī lūdēbant, sed tamen follibus ūtēbantur...

The ancients played (by) ball not entirely as we play today, but nevertheless they used balls …

Quid arbitrāris dē hāc sententia: «... exercitātiōnēs equōrum et armōrum omīsit et ad pilam folliculumque trānsiit»?

What do you think of this sentence: “… he abandoned [horse-riding and fencing] (sports of horses and of arms) and went over to [playing ball] (ball and large-inflated-ball)?”.

Aliquid simile Suētōnius7 dē Augustō Imperātōre scrīpsit.

Suetonius wrote something similar concerning the Emperor Augustus.

Vidēs prōverbium «nihil nōvī sub sōle» nōn mentīrī8; et linguam latīnam, quā hodiē ūteris, mortuam nōn esse.

You see [that] the proverb “nothing new under the sun” [does not lie] (not to lie); and [that] Latin (language), which you use today, [is not] dead (not to be).

Notes

  1. Abutor, -eris, -i, abusus sum, to abuse (ab + utor). Do you know that the 1st Catilinarian, a well-known speech by the orator Cicero directed against the conspirator Catilina, begins more or less like phrase 1? Cf. L. 86, P. 2.

    N.B.— The verbs uti and abuti are build with the ablative.

  2. Gravis, heavy (literal sense), here, serious (figurative sense). The dictionary indicates no more than “gravis, -e”. You can nontheless deduce from it that it's a third declension adjective, parisyllabic, which has also gravis in the feminine, but grave in the neuter; nominative and acc. pl. m. and f. graves; n. gravia; gen. sg. gravis; gen. pl. gravium (cf. L. 27, Notes).

  3. Nugor, -aris, -ari, to talk trifles; nuga, -ae, f., trifle, frivolity.

  4. Rebus, ablative of res, whose declension we are going to see below. Think of the English word rebus, a series of drawings that represent words by means of things.

  5. Nuncupo, -as, -are, -avi, -atum = nomen capio, to call (a thing by a name). It has a much more precise sense than voco, which means both to call something (or someone) by a certain name, and to call someone to come.

  6. Exempli gratiá, for example. Written just e.g. This abbreviation is also used in English.

  7. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, author of De Vita Caesarum (in English we call this book The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, that is to say of the first twelve Roman emperors). This historian wrote his work in the first half of the second century of the Common Era. The quote in phrase 9 is drawn from: Divus Augustus, § lxxxiii.

  8. Mentiri, to lie, cheat; present ind., mentior, mentiris, mentitur; perfect mentitus sum.

Lauriger Horatius is an international students' song from the Middle Ages by an unknown author. The Horace in question is the laurel-crowned poet (65-8 B.C.E.) and not the vanquisher of the Curiatii. The Eurus is the south-east wind.

You can find the lyrics and the music of this song either in Carmina Latina — opus citatum, i.e. the cited work (L. 13) – or in Douze Chansons latines by M. Laverenne (Magnard, Paris).

And here now is the 5th and last declension. It includes a small number of feminine nouns, the most important of which is res, and also the equally common dies, day, a word sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine. Its compound meridies, noon, is the other masculine exception to the 5th declension.

Singular: Plural:

nom. res res

acc. rem res

gen. rei rerum

dat. rei rébus

abl. ré rébus

This final declension is not really very difficult: it is enough to see that it is a sort of intermediary between the first and the third, in the same way that the fourth is intermediate between the second and the third.

Tomorrow we are going to devote our revision to a restatement that will further clarify our ideas on these matters.

And do not forget to reread from time to time one or another of the initial lessons, in particular those that may have seemed heavy going.

Isn't it true that they are now starting to seem easier to you?

How much progress already made in five weeks!

Carmen

Lauriger Horātius

Lauriger Horātius,
Quam dīxistī vērum!
Fugit Eurō citius
Tempus edāx rērum.
Ubi sunt, ō, pōcula
Dulciōra melle?
Rixae, pāx et ōscula
Rubentīs puellae?

Laurel-crowned Horace

Laurel-crowned Horace,
How [truly] (true) you spoke!
More swiftly than Eurus [flies] (flees)
Time, the eater of [all] things.
Where are, oh, the cups
Sweeter than honey?
The quarrels, peace and kisses
Of a blushing girl?