Dear Language Enthusiast,
We invite you to the exciting new edition of our Latin newsletter. For those of you
unfamiliar with our newsletter, we hope that it helps to polish your Latin skills by
combining useful information and cultural insight.
As the cold weather begins here in New Hampshire, we are brought together for warm family
gatherings. One New England tradition is a Sunday dinner at the grandparents' house,
complete with pumpkin pie and hot cider, after a long day of apple picking or admiring the
colored leaves of the forest. However, different countries have different traditions that
bring them together. Therefore, our newsletter will focus on family roots, marriage, and
Roman traditions, as encapsulated in the legendary Abduction of the Sabine Women. We feel
it is necessary to understand the traditions of family and community in ancient Rome, in
order to better understand the way language reflects cultural values.
Also included are tips for LatinNow! users.
Our excerpt, in Latin, from Livy's account of the Abduction of the Sabine Women, is
followed by an English translation.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
Latin text of Livy's account of the Abduction of the Sabine Women:
latine:
Multi mortales convenere, studio etiam videndae novae urbis, maxime proximi quique,
Caeninenses, Crustumini, Antemnates; iam Sabinorum omnis multitudo cum liberis ac
coniugibus venit.
Ubi spectaculi tempus venit deditaeque eo mentes cum oculis erant, tum ex composito orta
vis signoque dato iuventus Romana ad rapiendas virgines discurrit.
Turbato per metum ludicro, maesti parentes virginum profugiunt, incusantes violati
hospitii foedus deumque invocantes cuius ad sollemne ludosque per fas ac fidem decepti
venissent. Nec raptis aut spes de se melior aut indignatio est minor.
Sed ipse Romulus circumibat docebatque patrum id superbia factum, qui conubium finitimis
negassent; illas tamen in matrimonio, in societate fortunarum omnium civitatisque, et quo
nihil carius humano generi sit, liberum fore; mollirent modo iras et, quibus fors corpora
dedisset, darent animos; saepe ex iniuria postmodum gratiam ortam; eoque melioribus usuras
viris, quod adnisurus pro se quisque sit ut, cum suam vicem functus officio sit, parentium
etiam patriaeque expleat desiderium.
Accedebant blanditiae virorum, factum purgantium cupiditate atque amore, quae maxime ad
muliebre ingenium efficaces preces sunt.
In English:
Many people gathered, eager to see the new city of Rome-- especially those from the
neighboring towns of Caenina, Antemnae and Crusterium. And all the Sabine men came,
bringing their children and wives.
When it came time for the Games, and the minds and eyes of the Sabines were given over to
the spectacle, then a prearranged signal was given and the young men of Rome dashed from
one spot to another, abucting the Sabine women.
As the show they had come to see was disrupted by panic, the parents of the young women
fled, cursing this wicked violation of hospitality and invoking the god to whose sacred
festival games they had come, only to be tricked under the guise of sanctity and faith.
And among the women who had been abducted there was an even greater indignation, and an
even smaller portion of hope.
But Romulus went around to them in person, instructing them that it was all due to the
overweening pride of their parents, who had refused to let their daughters marry
neighboring men. Now, however, they would live in honorable wedlock (he went on to
explain), sharing all the men's possessions, their civic rights and-- what is dearest to
the human race-- their children; they should just soften their angry feelings and give
their minds to the men to whom they had been forced to give their bodies. Goodwill often
arose in the wake of injury; and the men would treat them better on this account, that
each of them would strive, not only to discharge his lawful duties as a husband, but to
satisfy their longings for their families and native land.
This argument was strengthened by compliments and courtship on the part of the men, who
excused the deed by saying that they had been overcome by physical attraction and by
love-- the pleas that have the greatest influence on a womanly disposition.
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