Lesson Thirty-Three : Interrogat et Respondet / by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Welcome to Capitulum Tertium, Scaena Secunda. Scaena, you may remember, means scene. Out of interest, scaena is also the word for a stage, and the root of the word scenery, but I mention that only in passing. You’ll notice an additional persōna (character) in this scene; Aemilia, who arrives - Aemilia venit. - at the end of Scaena Prīma.

Aemilia venit. from Lingua Latīna Per Sē Illustrāta, page 20 (detail)

We are reading 13 lines this lesson (lines 22-34), but these 13 lines contain 10 nōva vocābula. This is a lot for such a short section of text. Prepare yourself by examining the notes in the margin. I make some comments about the nōva vocābula in the next paragraph, but you may wish to skip that until after you’ve done the reading.

from Lingua Latīna Per Sē Illustrāta, page 20

You may wish to skip this paragraph until after the reading. The double arrow between interrogat and respondet tells us that they are opposites. It’s not always safe to assume that words that look like English words mean the same thing, but here it more or less is. Cur…? and quia are a question and its logical response. Try to puzzle out their meaning for yourself, but I’ll define them below. The : between eam and Iūliam tells us that they mean the same thing in this context. In short, eam is a pronoun, and here it means her (meaning Julia). Capitulum Tertium is called Puer Improbus, and refers to Mārcus. What kind of boy hits his sister? The double arrow tells us that probus is the opposite of improbus. The pronouns mē and tē are introduced without comment, as is the exclamation Fu! Can you determine their meaning for yourself?

Now, READ lines 22-34.

  • interrogat : asks

    respondet : responds

    cur? : Why?

    quia : because

    eam : she (or sometimes it - it depends)

    improbus : bad, poor, inferior, wicked, reprobate, abandoned, vile, base, impious, shameless, unjust, dishonest, bold, fierce, outrageous, impudent (just a few suggestions from my dictionary)

    probus : the opposite of improbus

    mē : me

    tē : you (when you’re the object)

    fu! : Something you say when you are annoyed or disgusted.

Satis est. See you soon.