Watch Your Elbow! or The Wooden Horse Part 4 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 4. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side

Selected numbers of their soldiers hide:

With inward arms the dire machine they load,

And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.

 

in : in is a preposition. Prepositions never change their form, but you do need to learn the case of the noun that follows them. Prepositions are followed by a noun (or pronoun) in the accusative or ablative case. in is one of the rare prepositions that can be followed by either. Followed by an accusative it means ‘into’ or ‘onto’. Followed by an ablative it means ‘in’ or ‘on’.

hoc : hic is the demonstrative adjective that means ‘this’. Like all adjectives, hic can decline (change its form) to indicate its gender (masculine, feminine or neuter), number (singular or plural) and case (nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative or ablative). hoc is masculine, singular and ablative to ‘agree with’ equo.

equo : equus, as we have seen, is a masculine noun meaning ‘horse’. Here it is ablative in case to indicate that it is part of a prepositional phrase with in. It also shows that in should be read as ‘in’ (not into). Hence, the entire prepositional phrase in hoc equo means ‘in this horse’.

viri : vir is a masculine noun meaning ‘man’. Here it is nominative, to indicate that it is the subject of the verb, and plural, to indicate that there are more than one of them.

fortissimi : fortis is an adjective meaning brave. fortissimus is its superlative form, meaning ‘very brave’. Here it is masculine, plural and nominative to ‘agree with’ viri.

sese : sese is the reflexive pronoun in Latin, although it is more often written just se. Here it is accusative because it is the object of the verb. The reflexive pronoun refers back to the subject of the verb, in this case the viri fortissimi. To put it simply, it means that the ‘very brave men’ did something ‘to themselves’.

celaverunt : celare is a verb that means ‘to hide’. Here the verb is third person and plural, because we have a third person plural subject viri. It is also in the perfect tense, because it describes an action that was completed in the past.

Translation: Very brave men hid themselves in this horse.

Master Builders or The Wooden Horse Part 3 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 3. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

And by Minerva's aid a fabric rear'd,

Which like a steed of monstrous height appear'd:

The sides were plank'd with pine; they feign'd it made

For their return, and this the vow they paid.

 

deinde : deinde is an adverb, so no messing about with case, number, gender, tense or any of that nonsense. deinde can refer to time, ‘then, thereafter, afterwards’ or to space, ‘from that place’. Here it is referring to time.

equum : equus, as we have seen, is a masculine noun that means ‘horse’. Here it is in its accusative form (equum not equus) to indicate that it is the object of the verb.

ligneum : ligneus, as we have also seen, is an adjective meaning ‘made of wood’. Here it is in its masculine, singular, accusative form so that it can ‘agree with’ equum, which is the noun it is describing.

ingentis : ingens is an adjective meaning ‘monstrous’, ‘vast’, ‘enormous’. It is in its feminine, singular, genitive form so that it can ‘agree with’ magnitudinis, the noun that it is describing.

magnitudo : magnitudinis is a feminine noun meaning ‘size’ or ‘magnitude’. It is written here in the genitive case. The prime job of the genitive case is to indicate possession, a bit like an 's in English. Here, however, the genitive is doing one of its ‘lesser’ jobs; together with the adjective ingentis it is making a ‘genitive of quality or description’. Together they describe the horse and mean ‘of vast size’.

faciunt : facere is a very common verb that means ‘to make’ or ‘to do’. Here it is in the present tense, indicating that the action is happening right now. We know this isn't true, but we also know that sometimes Latin authors do this to make an action seem more immediate and exciting. This verb does not have a stated subject, but that is okay because the third person, plural ending tells us that that the subject is ‘they’, the same ‘they’ as the previous sentence. We have already seen that the object is equum.

Translation: Then they (the Greeks) made a wooden horse of vast size.

Stormtroopers! or The Wooden Horse Part 2 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 2. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

But, since you take such int'rest in our woe,

And Troy's disastrous end desire to know,

I will restrain my tears, and briefly tell

What in our last and fatal night befell.

By destiny compell'd, and in despair,

The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war.

 

Graeci : Graecus is a noun that means 'a Greek’. Here the noun is in the nominative plural form. Nominative because the Greeks are the subject of the verb, plural because there are more than one of them.

decem : decem is the number 10. It is in the masculine accusative plural ‘form’ because it is describing annos, so they have to ‘agree’. I say ‘form’, but the truth is that numbers over 10 don’t change their form, they always look the same despite of case and gender.

annos : annus is a masculine noun that means ‘year’. It is in the accusative case, because one of the jobs that the accusative case can do is express ‘duration of time’. It is also plural. So, together, decem annos means ‘for ten years’.

Troiam : Troia is a noun. It is the Latin name for the city of Troy. Troiam is in the accusative case. Here the accusative case is doing its most important job, which is indicating that the word is the ‘object of the verb’.

frustra : frustra is an adverb. Adverbs don’t have troubling things like cases and numbers. frustra means ‘in vain’.

obsederant : obsidere means ‘to besiege’. The verb is made by putting the prefix ‘ob’ (in front of) with the verb sedere (to sit). Here it is in the pluperfect tense, indicating that this had already happened when our story began. It is third person and plural in form, to match our third person plural subject, Graeci. We already know that Troiam is its object.

Translation: For ten years the Greeks had besieged Troy in vain.

Waiting for Pico or The Wooden Horse Part 1 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts. The Wooden Horse. Part 1

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

All were attentive to the godlike man,

When from his lofty couch he thus began:

‘Great queen, what you command me to relate

Renews the sad remembrance of our fate:

An empire from its old foundations rent,

And ev'ry woe the Trojans underwent.’

 

equus equus is a noun that means 'horse'. It is here written in the nominative case, because that is the case used to indicate the subject of a sentence - which is also appropriate for a title like this one.

ligneus ligneus is an adjective meaning 'made of wood'. Here it is in the masculine, singular, nominative form because that is the form needed to 'agree with' equus, the noun that it is describing.

Translation: The Wooden Horse

pars fabulae secunda perlecta est /  by Anthony Gibbins

A huge thank you to everyone who has read through the second episode of Legonium with me. I am thrilled to see the Legonium community building. There are now more than 200 members on FaceBook, and twitter is nearing 500. Last week I discovered a delightful piece of Gilbo ‘fanfiction’ created way back in 2013 (although you may not want to watch it if you have recently lost a pet). I wonder if ‘Legonium’ will ever get ‘fanfiction’… magistri?

Alas! I hope that Marcellus finds the money. Perhaps he will sell the picture. Soon I will return in order to continue. Be well!

future perfect /  by Anthony Gibbins

In English we say ‘If you open the time portal, the raptors will escape!’ Which is fine, but not really. ‘If you open the time portal…’ sounds present tense, although it obviously isn't. Latin, which is far more exact(ing?) on this matter, has the future perfect tense. ‘If you will have opened the time portal, the raptors will escape!’  Which makes far more sense, because the raptors will not escape until a point in the future, in which the action of opening the portal has already been completed. The Future Perfect.

Marcellus noster is in a similar dilemma.  Unless he will have given (dederit) one hundred dollars to the bank soon, it will be necessary for him to leave behind his home.

Unless Marcellus gives $100 to the bank soon, he will have to leave his home. Augustus, however, knows that he does not have the money.

bank statements /  by Anthony Gibbins

So, this is why Marcellus seemed anxious. He owes a lot of money, and he knows it. And now Augustus knows it too. Moreover, the bank manager seems genuinely concerned by the news. This was achieved by removing his usual head and replacing it with that of a minifigure on crutches, with a broken leg, and, well, a concerned look on his face. So far, I like Augustus. He cleans his own clock and gets upset at his clients’ financial troubles.

‘Marcellus is painting.’ is a statement. It can also be called a direct statement, to differentiate it from ‘Augustus says that Marcellus is painting.’ ‘…that Marcellus is painting.’ is an indirect statement. Indirect statements can follow verbs of reporting (e.g. The message says that Marcellus is painting.), perceiving (e.g. Can’t you see that Marcellus is painting?) or thinking (e.g. I know that Marcellus is painting).

The way that Latin handles indirect statements is very interesting indeed. For a start, there is no one word that is used to mean ‘that’. Instead, the noun is treated as though it is an object rather than a subject (Marcellum instead of Marcellus) and the verb is written in the form that means ‘to paint’, called the infinitive (pingere). And so, ‘Marcellus is painting.’, Marcellus pingit. and ‘I know that Marcellus is painting.’, scio Marcellum pingere. A literal translation ‘I know Marcellus to be painting.’ sounds odd. But no more odd than ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident.’

Marcellus multam pecuniam debet. means ‘Marcellus owes a lot of money’. nuntius refert Marcellum multam pecuniam debere. means ‘The message reports Marcellus to owe much money.’ Neat, hey!

Augustus at last reads the message. The message reports that Marcellus, a client of the bank, owes much money.

Gilbo Legonium advenit /  by Anthony Gibbins

We interrupt our scheduled broadcast to bring you this special announcement. We will return to the office of Augustus, and our ongoing series, tomorrow.

Gilbo has arrived in Legonium.

What is a Gilbo?

Not what, but who. Gilbo is the star of his own series of short Latin stories. They are set is a fantasy world of evil orcs, powerful wizards, unfortunate slaves and a painter whose artwork predicts the future. There are around 16 in the series, and they will be released over the following two months.

Who can read Gilbo?

Anyone with just the tiniest amount of Latin. Gilbo stories are a good deal easier to read than Legonium stories. In fact, they have been specifically written to use only grammar and vocabulary as it is introduced in the first four chapters of the Cambridge Latin Course. The caption under the title page will tell you when you are ready for the next Gilbo story.

Haven’t I heard of Gilbo before?

Possibly. Gilbo stories have been available on the remarkable Tar Heel Reader website for around eight years now. They will, of course, remain available there. But the new Legonium editions will have all new pictures, true to the original but with a further layer of polish.

How do you make the characters?

The characters are created on the fantastic and entirely free to use South Park Studio website http://www.sp-studio.de.  If you or your students are illustrating stories, this website can be a very powerful tool.