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In This Issue
- Word Play - Practice Latin with excerpts from "The Aeneid,
Book 1", in Latin, followed by the English translation.
- Latin News Beat - "Voting in Ancient Rome"
- LatinNow! Product Tip - Shortcut keys speed up your
Latin learning.
Word Play
Practice Latin with excerpts from "The Aeneid, Book 1," in
Latin, followed by the English translation.
Latine:
Aeneidos Liber I
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam fato
profugus Laviniaque venit litora, multum ille et terris
iactatus et alto vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob
iram, multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem
inferretque deos Latio; genus unde Latinum Albanique
patres atque altae moenia Romae.
Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso quidve dolens
regina deum tot volvere casus insignem pietate virum, tot
adire labores impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?
Urbs antiqua fuit (Tyrii tenuere coloni) Karthago, Italiam
contra Tiberinaque longe ostia, dives opum studiisque
asperrima belli, quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus
unam posthabita coluisse Samo. Hic illius arma, hic currus
fuit; hoc regnum dea gentibus esse, si qua fata sinant,
iam tum tenditque fovetque.
Progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci audierat Tyrias
olim quae verteret arces; hinc populum late regem belloque
superbum venturum excidio Libyae; sic volvere Parcas. Id
metuens veterisque memor Saturnia belli, prima quod ad
Troiam pro caris gesserat Argis (necdum etiam causae
irarum saevique dolores exciderant animo; manet alta mente
repostum iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae et
genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores) his accensa
super, iactatos aequore toto Troas, reliquias Danaum atque
immitis Achilli, arcebat longe Latio, multosque per annos
errabant acti fatis maria omnia circum.
Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.
In English:
The Aeneid, Book 1
Arms I sing and the man who first from the coasts of Troy,
exiled by fate, came to Italy and Lavinian shores; much
buffeted on sea and land by violence from above, through
cruel Juno's unforgiving wrath, and much enduring in war
also, till he should build a city and bring his gods to
Latium; whence came the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and
the walls of lofty Rome.
Tell me, O Muse, the cause; wherein thwarted in will or
wherefore angered, did the Queen of Heaven drive a man of
goodness so wondrous, to traverse so many perils, to face
so many toils? Can resentment so fierce dwell in heavenly
breasts?
There was an ancient city, the home of Tyrian settlers,
Carthage, over against Italy and the Tiber's mouths afar,
rich in wealth and stern in war's pursuits. This, 'tis
said, Juno loved above all other lands, holding Samos
itself less dear. Here was her armour, here her chariot;
that here should be the capital of the nations, should the
fates perchance allow it, was even then the goddess's aim
and cherished hope.
Yet in truth she had heard that a race was springing from
Trojan blood, to overthrow some day the Tyrian towers;
that from it a people, kings of broad realms and proud in
war, should come forth for Libya's downfall: such was the
course ordained of Fate. The daughter of Saturn, fearful
of this and mindful of the old war which erstwhile she had
fought at Troy for her beloved Argos-- not yet, too, had
the cause of her wrath and her bitter sorrows faded from
her mind: deep in her heart lie stored the judgment of
Paris and her slighted beauty's wrong, her hatred of the
race and the honours paid to ravished Ganymede-- inflamed
hereby yet more, she tossed on the wide main the Trojan
remnant, left by the Greeks and pitiless Achilles, and
kept them far from Latium; and many a year they wandered,
driven by the fates o'er all the seas.
So vast was the struggle to found the race of Rome.
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Latin News Beat
Voting in Ancient Rome
Because of the recent elections in the United States, we
thought it a good time to glance back at the voting system
of Republican Rome in the early 2nd century B.C.
Roman citizenship gave adult males the right to vote-- but
elections were only held at Rome. As a consequence,
although citizenship was expanded to include allied and
conquered towns, suffrage was never universal. All the
voting was done by the men of Rome, or by those who were
able to travel to assemblies where elections were held.
Voting was done by groups: although each individual cast
his vote, the only vote that counted toward electing
magistrates was the vote of the group to which the
individual belonged, with each group casting a single vote
that reflected the majority vote of its members.
There were two different assemblies in the middle
Republic. One was the "comitia centuriata" or centuriate
assembly, which met in the Field of Mars outside of Rome
and elected the consuls, praetors, censors and curule
aediles. It also voted on war and peace and functioned as
a criminal court.
The centuriate assembly had 193 voting groups, divided
among five different economic classes. Not surprisingly,
the groups were gerrymandered in such a way as to give the
richest class the most political power.
The other assembly was the "comitia tributa" or tribal
assembly. Its voting groups were based on geographic
districts, not economic class, so it functioned in a more
democratic manner. The tribal assembly elected the
plebeian tribunes and plebeian aediles and quaestors, and
it functioned as a true legislature, making laws for Rome.
Sources:
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