There is an anonymous poet who shows up, but it's not relevant here Porphyrion has o romani, but it seems he is talking as an outsider. Therefore, Quirites is the proper word to use here.ġ. Perhaps a reference later can be found, but in the Classical material, Livy is the only one who is even showing up searching in this way 1. It's not something that Antony would have said to fellow Romans. So to say Romani like that is to make yourself appear the outsider, the non-Roman. At 3.2, you have one of the Aequi who is addressing the Romans at 7.30, it's the Campanians at 8.23 the Samnites 21.18 the Carthaginians and so forth. This makes sense, though, because, as the myth goes, Romulus after death is deified as Quirinus, and thus the Quirites take their name after him.Įlsewhere in Livy, though, Romani comes from non-Romans who address the Romans. ![]() ![]() Our first attestation at all is in Livy, and, funny enough, is put in the mouth of Romulus. As you can see, this is how Romans have long addressed each other.ĭoing the same for Romani yields very different results. I included the commas to negate nominative and accusative forms, so the majority of these are vocatives. Searching PHI shows this usage among the earliest Roman writers, from Cato down through the ages. Moreover, when addressing Romans, other Romans used Quirites and did so far more frequently than Romani. Whereas any citizen of any oppidum or urbs or empire could be called a civis of that place, the Quirites are in particular only the citizens of Rome. I'd like to add on to these answers by showing the facts of the matter.įirst, Quirites isn't an alternative to cives. "For how long will you abuse our patience, Catiline? How much longer will your insanity mock us? To what limit will your unbridled audacity flail about?" Cicero was quite fond of this his famous Catilinian Orations, for example, open with the same rhetorical question in three different phrasings. * This one is specifically a hendiatris, expressing a single concept in three different ways to emphasize it and make it stick in listeners' minds. Ciceronian rhetorical devices are, in my opinion, a very important aspect of this particular Latin. Even apart from fidelity to Shakespeare's words, the style and tone are crucial to any translation, and as it happens we know a lot about the style and tone favored by Roman politicians of that era. You mention that "the concern is not for the drama, or the history, but for the Latin"-but remember that our (and Marcus Antonius's!) understanding of "good Latin" is heavily influenced by rhetoricians like Cicero. He may not have turned to it in a situation like this, but I don't think it's a stretch to conjecture that he would have considered amīcī, civēs, Quīritēs more elegant than simply amīcī, civēs. While Quīritēs alone would be a fine way to address a crowd, putting the three nouns next to each other is a rhetorical flourish that a politician like the historical Marcus Antonius certainly would have known about. The tricolon*, a statement with three parallel sections, was a famous and much-vaunted device in Classical rhetoric (compare Caesar's legendary vēnī, vīdī, vīcī: "I came, I saw, I conquered", but it's both alliterative and metrical in Latin). If so, then, "Romani" could be deployed: this was more political than "Quirites", which would fit the burgeoning (civil-war) crisis, wouldn't it? Giving:Īdding on to Sebastian Koppehel's answer: Isn't this another reason to preclude the use of "Quirites"? The peace of Rome was already dying, in what clearly were no longer "normal circumstances". ![]() ![]() Mark-Antony's speech was given after the assassination of Caesar. Why not just, "Amici, Cives."? This lacks the rhetorical force of the three-term substantive but the concern is not for the drama, or the history, but for the Latin. Whereas "cives" does not appear to have any limitations on its use. There is a difference: "Quirites" applies to the Romans in normal circumstances in times of peace. Quae bene simul cum ossibus sepulcro abscondi solent " Quae male homines fecerint mortuis supersunt "Amici, Cives, Quirites, commodate mihi aliquantis per aures vestras Īdsum ut efferam Caesarem, non ut laudem. The good is often interred with their bones ". I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears Mark-Antony's speech (Act III, Scene II), from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", is well-known at least, the opening lines are:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |