Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Seneca

This is from Antoine Ferdinand Van Vlaenderen's Epigrammata Miscellanea, published in 1666. James Ker has recently published a book, The Deaths of Seneca, all about the meanings of the death of Seneca - you can read more about that here.

Seneca
Romanus sapiens fertur posse esse beatus;
An quia pro vero mortuus ille fuit?


The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are two words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

Rōmānus, -a, -um: Roman
Seneca (Senecae, m.): Seneca, Roman philosopher

an: or
beatus -a -um: happy, blessed, prosperous, fortunate
ferō ferre tulī lātum: bear, carry
ille illa illud: that
morior morī mortuus sum: die
possum posse potuī: be able
prō: for, on behalf of, in proportion to (+abl.)
quia: because
sapiens -ntis.: wise man
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
vērus -a -um: true; vērē, truly