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Can someone help me translate the quoted Latin? I'm a beginner. >“In primis sciendum est quod imperium romanum circumlatrantium ubique nationum perstringat ins
by creep 9y ago
Can someone help me translate the quoted Latin? I'm a beginner.
>“In primis sciendum est quod imperium romanum circumlatrantium ubique nationum perstringat insania et omne latus limitum tecta naturalibus locis appetat dolosa barbaries."
I think generally if you look at the above sentence and know some Latin vocabulary you can see what is going on, but I'm having a hard time sorting out the structure given the subjunctives, passives, and participles.
- mkempe 9y ago"The Barbarians are at the gate." Source: I took Latin for 8 years; had to read-and-translate live for three years from Virgil every other week at 8am in front of the class. Latin is usually more concise than English, except when it's medieval or kitchen Latin.
- creep 9y agoThere are only two verbs in this sentence that I can see: "appetat" which means "he/she/it attacks/grasps/strives for/approaches, and "perstringat" which is a subjunctive and means "he/she/it may graze/seize/reprove". I think perstringat refers to sciendum, but I am not what appetat refers to. There is no verb that implies a plural third person, nor is there a word for "gate" here. What I'm having trouble with is the second part. So the first part is something like, "in the beginning, the knowing may draw together what is the roman authority of the barking around, wherein the nation..." But still I'm not sure. Then in the second part we have what could be multiple nominatives and only one verb.
- mkempe 9y agoFirst it must be known that the empire is surrounded etc. etc. and each edge (of the empire) covered with natural features appeals to cunning barbarism. I.e. they're at the gate.
- mkempe 9y agoThere are more verbs in various forms. E.g. "sciendum est ..." means it should be known that ... "tecta" is from "tegere".