Salvēte, sodālēs.
In today’s reading we are going to meet some words and phrases that are specific to shopping. Let’s get started. The word pretium means price. Constat/constant means costs/cost.
Quot nummīs cōnstat ānulus? How many coins costs the ring? (nummīs is ablātīvus, ānulus is nōminātīvus)
Ānulus centum nummīs constat. The ring costs 100 coins. (centum nummīs is ablātīvus, ānulus is nōminātīvus)
Pretium ānulī est centum sēstertiī. The cost of the ring is 100 sesterces. (Pretium and centum sēstertiī are both nōminātīvus, ānulī is genetīvus)
Id magnum/parvum pretium est. It is a large/small price. (Id, magnum/parvum and pretium are all nōminātīvus)
A sēstertius is a small and silver Roman coin. The plural is sēstertiī. English sources often translate sēstertius as sesterce and sēstertiī as sesterces. The sesterce below depicts the face of Agrippina.
from Handy Latin Tables Pars Secunda
An ānulus gemmātus, as the margin tells us, is an ānulus cum gemmā. The adjective tantus is an abreviated form of tam magnus. And tam magnus means so large.
Finally, octōgintā means eighty.
Now READ Capitulum Octāvum, lines 56-67.
Satis est. See you again soon.