Aide latin-français

[interprete]

The text I’m working on today is adapted from Tacitus, and starts like this:

Mihi Galba, Otho, Vitellius nec beneficio, neque injuria cogniti. Nam Vespasiano honoribus accipiendis dignus visus sum.
= I know Galba, Otho and Vitellius neither by their service nor by their injustice [not even sure I got that part right]. Indeed, I appear... to be worthy ?... of receiving the honors + Vespasianus which I don’t know where to include in the sentence. In short I’m completely lost.
(if it can help, the next sentence is : At in scribendis rebus, omnia facere oportet ad prohibendos affectus, et facta sine odio aut studio sunt tradenda.)

I’m also stuck on the sentence that comes immediately after that:
Opus incipio abundans casibus, tam atrox proeliis quam in pace saevum : quattuor principes ferro sublati, tria bella civilia, plura in alienos populos, (...).
I don’t understand what is the subject of atrox and saevum. I can’t see anything other than opus that could match, but how can an opus be atrocious and cruel?

Thanks!

 

[Pacifica]

= I know Galba, Otho and Vitellius neither by their service nor by their injustice [not even sure I got that part right].

That is literally correct. Now the idea is that he neither received any favor nor suffered any wrong from them.

Indeed, I appear... to be worthy ?... of receiving the honors + Vespasianus which I don’t know where to include in the sentence. In short I’m completely lost.

Visus sum is perfect tense. Vespasiano is the indirect object. "I seemed to Vespasian worthy of receiving honors", "Vespasian deemed me worthy of receiving honors."

Opus incipio abundans casibus, tam atrox proeliis quam in pace saevum : quattuor principes ferro sublati, tria bella civilia, plura in alienos populos, (...).
I don’t understand what is the subject of atrox and saevum. I can’t see anything other than opus that could match, but how can an opus be atrocious and cruel?

Atrox and saevum do refer to opus. It's slightly metaphorical: the work is terrible and cruel because it relates many terrible and cruel events.

 

[Pacifica]

Nam Vespasiano honoribus accipiendis dignus visus sum.

By the way, that construction of dignus with the gerundive seemed unusual to me so I looked up the dignus entry in the OLD to see if anything similar was quoted there, and I didn't find any example. More usually, you would say dignus qui honores acciperem or dignus honores accipere—or, for that matter, simply dignus honoribus; that more concise phrase conveys the idea well enough.

 

[interprete]

By the way, that construction of dignus with the gerundive seemed unusual to me so I looked up the dignus entry in the OLD to see if anything similar was quoted there, and I didn't find any example. More usually, you would say dignus qui honores acciperem or dignus honores accipere—or, for that matter, simply dignus honoribus; that more concise phrase conveys the idea well enough.

This text came with the chapter lesson on replacing the gerund(ive?) with verbal adjectives, so I guess they kind of stretched the Latin to include as many use cases as possible.

PS. Yes, I’m clueless as to the difference between gerund and gerundive in English. My French textbook doesn’t seem to have such a distinction.

 

[Pacifica]

Gerund = gérondif
Gerundive = adjectif verbal

Tricky, right.

 

[interprete]

Gerund = gérondif
Gerundive = adjectif verbal

Tricky, right.

Thanks, I’ll remember that gerundIVE kinds of looks like adjectIF

 

[interprete]

I'm working on a speech addressing Trajan, the speaker says:
(after saying that his predecessors were disgusting): Tu autem vixisti nobiscum, nobiscum timuisti. Meministi quae optare nobiscum, quae queri sis solitus.

I know that memini comes with a genitive. Which I can't find here. I mean quae could be one, but it's a relative pronoun so I guess not... I'm confused...
Thanks!

 

[Pacifica]

I know that memini comes with a genitive.

It can come with a genitive, among other things. One of those other things is an indirect question, like here.

 

[Pacifica]

it's a relative pronoun

Here it's an interrogative one.

 

[interprete]

(after saying that his predecessors were disgusting): Tu autem vixisti nobiscum, nobiscum timuisti. Meministi quae optare nobiscum, quae queri sis solitus.

So: you remember what you used to hope with us, what you used to complain about?

 

[Pacifica]

Yes. (And "with us" is naturally still implied in the second part.)