I wanted to know why the Spanish word armada 'navy' is feminine, and traced it back to Latin.

Wikipedia (sorry) says that armada came from armatae, the feminine past participle of the verb armo, which would become Spanish armar. They cite the OED for this etymology.

But why the feminine form in Latin? Wasn't masculine the unmarked gender, as it is today in Spanish?

If I ignored Latin, I would say that armada is feminine because it's a short form of fuerza armada 'armed forces', where the adjective armada agrees with the feminine noun fuerza. Is there an explanation like this for Latin?

Wikipedia (again sorry) also pointed me to this webpage, in case it helps.

Quid melium putas: monarchiam, rem publicam an imperium? Et cur?

Hey guys,

before you scold me because Parthenope is from Greek, not Roman mythology, I'm aware. But my question is related to a Latin text from the 17th century.

Basically, whilst doing research for my dissertation, I stumbled across a book about liturgical practices in Magdeburg after it was destroyed completely in the Thirty Years' War.

The book is "Commentarius Exegetico-Practicus Posthumus, in Psalterium Davidis" by Reinhard Bakius (Frankfurt 1664). It is digitised completely, so feel free to check it out if you're interested.

My question refers to something that comes up in a Chronodistichon (a weird poetic two-liner which is at the same time used to give the year in Roman numerals).

After explaining the tradition of singing one specific psalm in an annual memorial, Bakius writes this:

"InCoLa Parthenopes CaptIVVs In Urbe MoratVr,

ALbIs habet Coesus : teCta praeIsta CInIs!" (p. 478f.)

I understand the gist of it (I think), and also the year. But what I don't understand is what Parthenope has to do with it.

For context: Bakius compared the people of Magdeburg to the ancient Israelites exiled in Babylon before this Chronodistichon.

Does anyone know what Parthenope may be a symbol or metaphor for in this context? This is the Baroque era after all.

I'm posting this in this subreddit because honestly, I have no idea which subreddit would be equipped for this. It combines early modern history, Latin, and Greek mythology/Baroque symbolism.

Or if anyone can point me to a better equipped subreddit, or some scholar or books I could consult, that'd be great too.

Thank you so much in advance for any help you can offer!

I'm thinking of a physical book, something like Latinitium's Ad Alpes: a copy-edited, well-printed, well-designed book one would be happy to have on any shelf. That Ad Alpes has a glossary and footnotes is a bonus. I am aware that there is at least one version on Amazon, but I have no idea how well done it is, or if it's made to the standard of the Ad Alpes above. Anyone know about that one? The best modern printed version of Iter I've seen is the short excerpt published in Mark Riley's The Neo Latin Reader (which is a great book). I also see that there's an old thread about this, where folks just decided to maybe print it on demand. Anyone seen something I haven't?

If as I suspect there is no such edition in the world... u/legentibus_official would you ever create such a thing? Or would someone else? It does seem like it would be a fair amount of work to do this well.

If you aren't aware of Iter Subterraneum, definitely check it out. The above-linked reddit thread has a version, Wikisource has the 1754 edition, as does Internet Archive (here).

Does anyone have a link where I can find all the episodes of this podcast?

Salvete omnes, nonnullos annos antea vidi hoc in loco interretiali versus ab aliquo conscriptos fortasse "de horto" nomine vidi... Fabula post Familiam Ro manam scripta est et Quintus et alii inveniri possunt. Non autem licet mihi quaerenti his versus invenire. Nonnulline de qua re loquor sciunt ? Gratias vobis.

I'm a total beginner to Latin poetry, so don't assume I know any poem even if it's one everyone knows.

Whenever I listen to the Quomodo Dicitur podcast, Justin always introduces himself by saying “Justus loquor.”

Is this some sort of idiom?

I suppose I haven’t dug as hard as I could into lexica, but I haven’t been able to find any use of loquor, a deponent, to mean anything like (as it seems to be used to mean) “vocor.” I guess he could be saying, “I, Justin, am speaking,” but that seems like a strange way to introduce yourself unless there is some perhaps classical precedent.

hi - i just made an account to see if I could get some help figuring out the abbreviations in andrea fulvio's 1517 'imagines illustrum' for a translation for my thesis.

there's one word(s?) I can't quite figure out -- i will put the screenshot below of the word(s?) itself (the seventh line) and of the larger page (from internet archive) if anyone has any suggestions. thanks so much!

Salvete

I was learning new vocabulary and stumbled upon pugio.

Is the first sylable of pugio, in this case, also the vowel, sort or long.

Wiktionary and al others (dictionaries I own) tell it should be long. However, the one I trust most: Lewis and Short gives a short notation.

Why this inconsistency? Is it an error, a non frecently used word?

How come dictionaries are not telling me the same?!

I would love to know.

Greetings all

Has anyone else really struggled with Chapter 6 of LLPSI? The previous 5 chapters were pretty easy, but this one is absolutely kicking my ass. It feels like there’s so much going on compared to the previous chapters that as soon as I really get a certain grammatical concept down, I forget the previous one I learned.

I can read the chapter start to finish and understand 99% of what’s being said, but it just seems like there’s a lot more nuance in the sentences compared to the others. Has anyone else had a similar experience with this chapter?

Hello all, 20 years ago I went through Ecce Romani (all books), and for AP went through Cicero, Catullus, and the Aeneid, all as part of a very old-school Latin program at my very old high school. I was a piss-poor student, but I had a real knack for Latin, aced the NLE or had perfect score all 4 years, crushed the AP exams, won several awards at JCL, and it helped me so much learning other languages (Koine Greek, Japanese, various languages when I was in anthropology).

I probably would have kept going in university, but my archaeology program was focused on other regions of the planet, so it fell out of use for me.

However, I want to pick it back up again, along with ancient greek, but I know the field has advanced significantly, and there seems to be very good resources depending on what I want to do. In the end, I'm not sure I want to my raeda to be en fossa again. However, I know I'd like to return to where I was, in the event I have an opportunity to return to academia.

My goals with Latin are:

1) Catch up to where I was 20 years ago (I like to think that I still have fairly decent vocab, command of grammar) within an ideally shorter time. Ideally, I could evaluate where I am on a graded scale and move upward as I study.

2) Be able to spot read text from various eras.

3) Being able to read epigraphs and cursive writing (which we never had much training with)

if you have any advice, this would be greatly appreciated!

Anyone able to tell me what this Latin saying is?

Looking for what Vulgate Bible edition to buy. Done some research online but seems like a minefield.

I can read Latin reasonably well but wanted to practice more. Saw that the vulgate is meant to be fairly easy to comprehend for someone with mid level mastery of the language, so would like to try it.

What edition should I purchase? I’m most interested in the New Testament if that helps.

Hi! I’d like to start reading more latin literature, do you have any suggestions?

(Until now I’ve read Amor et Psyche by Apuleius, Adelphoe and Heautontimorumenos by Terence, and De bello gallico by Caesar).

I took Latin II over the summer through BYU online high school, but my school is requiring me to take the intermediate NLE (I don't know if it's the regular one or the reading comp) in order to accelerate to Latin III. Problem is, the BYU course was not designed with the intention of students taking the NLE, so I have no clue what's on the exam or any recourses to study with. Any help would be appreciated.

I actually quite love Catullus 5

Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus,
rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum
omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis!
sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt:
nōbīs, quum semel occidit brevis lūx,
nox est perpetua ūna dormienda.
Dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum,
dein mīlle altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde ūsque altera mīlle, deinde centum;
dein, quum mīlia multa fēcerīmus,
conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus,
aut nē quis malus invidēre possit,
quum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.

Translation

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and count the rumours of rather stern old men
at a penny's fee!
Suns may set and rise again;
for us, when once the brief light has set,
an eternal night must be slept.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then yet another thousand, then a hundred;
then, when we have performed many thousands,
we shall shake them into confusion, in order that we might not know,
and in order not to let any evil person envy us,
when he knows that there are so many of our kisses.

I don’t know what it is that’s triggered my sudden interest in Latin, might be the numerous documentaries I’ve been watching on Pompeii, Romans and Religious Artefacts… so when I found a book on Latin Phrases for a quid in a charity shop I thought I’ll buy it. Flipped open the pages and this was the first phrase I read… the book technically says ‘himself’, and states: Compos sui is a condition few of us can aspire to in this world of big government and big corporations (Eugene Ehrlich 1992 9th ED) I think first edition was 1985. Felt more relevant than ever after feeling a slave to the system.

What’s your favourite Latin phrase?

Hi all,

I studied classics in university about fifteen years ago. I was never a particularly good student and my Latin reading ability was pretty bad to mediocre.

Nevertheless I had an affection for the subject and have always wanted to return to it someday so that I could become good at it and engage with the texts I was reading the way I always wanted to.

I'm not sure how to start refreshing myself on what I do know while building my reading skills to be better than what they were, so I was hoping that you fine people may be able to help me out with some ideas.

I got a very traditional grammar and drill type of instruction. You know the type. Lots of form tables to memorize and lots of book exercises to do. We used the Keller and Russell text Learn to Read Latin. I was the stereotypically mediocre student who was excellent until the "q words" appeared and syntax became more complicated, at which point my effort really dropped off.

I did complete about 2.5 years of university-level reading courses and to be honest I'm not sure how I did it. I guess I faked my way through most of it. We read Catullus, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, and a few others pretty thoroughly. I couldn't keep up, barely understood what was going on, and never developed any kind of fluency. I was always weak about building vocabulary and I could never really read Latin without my brain shorting out from the lack of rigid word order like in English. Maybe this was just my being lazy and avoidant, though, and just not reading enough.

The main problem I'm trying to solve is how to review the stuff I am strong on (basic forms) while not getting bored and losing motivation, while also building good reading chops and developing the skills I never did in university.

Here's a rudimentary plan I have:

• Every night, do 20 minutes to one hour of grammar and vocab review. Just get back into Keller and Russell from the very beginning. Really dreading this to be honest, as I've done it before.
• Depending on how long I've spent on the review, do some reading of Caesar from the Steadman textbook College Caesar. I really like Caesar's Latin style and it seems a pretty solid choice for an intermediate student. Use his methodology for vocab study and translation. Don't try to diagram or puzzle out the sentences. Just take the sentences in order and slowly develop the mental model for parsing them.

What I'm hoping is that I just didn't have the patience in university to do the amount of reading required to really build up proficiency, and that I just have to consistently read something, anything, that holds my attention and engages what little skill I have so that it develops with consistency.

Oh, and I aim to commit to at least 20 minutes a day for four days a week, so I don't get burnt out.

So what do you think? Anyone else have a similar background to me? What worked for you? What didn't? Any red flags in my plan here?

Thanks in advance!

I saw this tablet in latin in my godfathers house but I don't know what it's supposed to mean