[APPENDIX V]
HOW TO THINK IN LATIN
Numbers in the left margin (Ia, Ib...) were added by the transcriber for use with the notes.
Flaminius atones for his rashness.[44]
|| Ia, Ib Tres ferme horas pugnatum est et ubique atrociter; circa consulem tamen acrior infestiorque pugna est. || IIa Eum et robora virorum sequebantur, et ipse, quacunque in parte premi ac laborare senserat suos, impigre ferebat opem; || IIb insignemque armis et hostes summa vi petebant et tuebantur cives, donec Insuber eques (Ducario nomen erat) facie quoque noscitans consulem, || IIc ‘En’ inquit ‘hic est’ popularibus suis, ‘qui legiones nostras cecidit agrosque et urbem est depopulatus. || III Iam ego hanc victimam manibus peremptorum foede civium dabo.’ || IVa Subditisque calcaribus equo per confertissimam hostium turbam impetum facit, obtruncatoque prius armigero, qui se infesto venienti obviam obiecerat, consulem lancea transfixit; || IVb spoliare cupientem triarii obiectis scutis arcuere.
Livy, xxii. 6.
The heading and the author will at once suggest the stirring incident in the Battle of Lake Trasimene, when Flaminius atoned for his rashness by his gallant example and death.
You have seen how Analysis helps you to arrive at the main thought of the sentence, and you are familiar with the principles that govern the order of words in Latin, and the important part played by the emphatic position of words. So you may now try to think in Latin; that is, to take the thought in the Latin order, without reference to analysis or the English order. You will do well to follow closely this advice of experienced teachers:—‘Read every word as if it were the last on the page, and you had to turn over without being able to turn back. If, however, you are obliged to turn back, begin again at the beginning of the sentence and proceed as before. Let each word of the Latin suggest some conception gradually adding to and completing the meaning of the writer. If the form of the word gives several possibilities, hold them all in your mind, so far as may be, till something occurs in the progress of the sentence to settle the doubt.’
Ia 1. Tres ferme horas = for nearly three hours. This construction (Acc. of extent of time) will be familiar to you. Notice the emphatic position of the phrase.