29: Untitled Page 16
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ecce (interjection)
See! Behold! Look! Lo and behold!
cruento, -are, -avi, -atus
to stain with blood; to pollute with blood-guiltiness
comes, -itis, m. (f.)
companion
ligo, -are, -avi, -atum
to fasten, bind, attach
quidam, quaedam, quiddam
a certain (unspecified) person, someone
Tyrrhenus, -a, -um
Tuscan, Etruscan
gens, -tis, f.
race, nation, people; a (Roman) clan
tremendus, -a, -um
such as to cause dread, awe-inspiring
differo, -rre, distuli, dilatum
to scatter; to postpone, defer, put off
documentum, -i, n.
an example (serving as a precedent, warning, instruction)
edo, -ere, -idi, -itum
to emit; bring forth; utter; declare
to make known in words, disclose, tellmos, moris, m.
established practice, custom
frequento, -are, -avi, -atum
to populate, make crowded
to visit or attend (a person) constantly
to celebrate, observe3.582–91
ille metu vacuus ‘nomen mihi’ dixit ‘Acoetes,
patria Maeonia est, humili de plebe parentes.
non mihi quae duri colerent pater arva iuvenci,
lanigerosve greges, non ulla armenta reliquit; 585
pauper et ipse fuit linoque solebat et hamis
decipere et calamo salientis ducere pisces.
ars illi sua census erat; cum traderet artem,
‘accipe, quas habeo, studii successor et heres’,
dixit ‘opes’, moriensque mihi nihil ille reliquit 590
praeter aquas: unum hoc possum appellare paternum.
Study Questions
- What kind of ablative is metu (582)?
- Lines 584–85 jumble a main clause and a relative clause: rewrite in standard prose order.
- What is the antecedent of the relative pronoun quae (584)?
- Identify the subject and the object of colerent (584)
- What is the mood of colerent (584) and why?
- Identify the subject and the (three) accusative objects of reliquit (585).
- What is the direct object of decipere (587)?
- Parse salientis (587). What noun does it agree with?
- What kind of dative is illi (588)?
- What is the accusative object of accipe and the antecedent of quas (589)?
Stylistic Appreciation
Discuss the devices by which Acoetes manages to take nine lines to say ‘my parents were poor and I inherited nothing’. Can you detect touches of irony, more specifically formulations reminiscent of elevated epic style that are here used to express the unremarkable and the everyday?
Discussion Points
- What do you make of the presence of words such as plebs (583) and census (588) that evoke the political culture of republican and early imperial Rome?
- What might make you wonder if this sounds like Bacchus, god and metonymy of wine, talking?
Maeonia, -ae, f.
Lydia
Etruria (because the Etruscans were said to be descended from the Lydians)humilis, -is, -e
low, base, humble, obscure, poor
plebs, -bis, f.
the common people, lower class
iuvencus, -i, m.
a young bullock
laniger, -gera, -gerum
wool-bearing, fleecy
grex, gregis, m.
flock, herd; troop, band
armentum, -i, n.
cattle for ploughing
pauper, paupera, pauperum
poor
linum, -i, n.
thread, rope, cable; net
hamus, -i, m.
hook
decipio, -ere, -cepi, -ceptum
to catch, ensnare, entrap, beguile
calamus, -i, m.
reed; object made thereof, such as: fishing-rod
salio, -ire, salui
to leap, spring, bound
piscis, -is, m.
fish
census, -us, m.
a registering and rating of Roman
citizens or property
hence: wealth, riches, propertytrado, -ere, tradidi, traditum
to hand over, transmit, betray, surrender
heres, heredis
heir, heiress
ops, opis, f.
power, might; property, wealth; help
appello, -are, -avi, -atum
to drive toward, accost
to address, speak to, call upon
*to call, term, entitle, declarepaternus, -a, -um
belonging to a father, paternal
3.592–99
mox ego, ne scopulis haererem semper in isdem,
addidici regimen dextra moderante carinae
flectere et Oleniae sidus pluviale Capellae
Taygetenque Hyadasque oculis Arctonque notavi 595
ventorumque domos et portus puppibus aptos.
forte petens Delon Chiae telluris ad oras
applicor et dextris adducor litora remis
doque levis saltus udaeque inmittor harenae:
Study Questions