Expert: Maria - 3/5/2008

Question
Dear Maria: I will greatly appreciate if you can translate following into english. Thanks.

1)Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo (Horace)
2)Fui non sum
3)imberbis juvenis custode remoto
4)quae regio in terris
5)paribus curis vestigia figit
6)Odi te, qui bellus es, Sabelle.
7)timeo qui  nocuere deos.

Answer
Hello,

Here are the translations of these Latin quotations you have  read in “Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

1)-“Nec gemino bellum Troianum orditur ab ovo” (Horace’s The Art of Poetry, line 147 ) means:
“Nor does he [Homer] begin the Trojan war from the twin egg”.

It is a reference to the double egg of Leda from which Helen was born, according to the myth. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.
What Horace wants to point out is that Homer did not begin his Iliad from  the absolute beginning of events (i.e. “ab gemino ovo”= from the twin egg), as Homer's account starts in the middle of the story, i.e. when the Greek besieged Troy in the tenth year of the war.
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2)-“Fui, non sum” ((Latin epitaph) means:
“I was, I am not”
(in the sense that I existed/ I lived, but I do not exist anymore).

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3)-”Imberbis iuvenis, custode remoto” (Horace’s The Art of Poetry, line 161) means:
“The  beardless youth, after his guardian has been removed”.

This phrase wants to point out that this  beardless youth (imberbis iuvenis), after his guardian has been removed (custode remoto),  joys in horses, and dogs, and the verdure of a sunny place.

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4)-“Quae regio in terris” (Virgil’s Aeneid, book  I, line  460) means:
”What region of the earth”.

It is a part of a line which reads “quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ?” meaning “ What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?”.
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5)-“Paribus curis vestigia figit” (Virgil’s Aeneid, book  VI, line  158 ff.) means:
“With slow paces he follows Aeneas footprints”.

This sentence refers to the faithful friend Achates who always follows Aeneas.
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6)”Odi te, qui bellus es, Sabelle.” (Martial’s Epigrams, book 12, epigram 39) means:
”I hate you, o Sabellus, because you are a  handsome man”.

This is a quotation from an epigram against a man named Sabellus that Martial hated.
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7)-“Timeo qui  nocuere deos” (Ovid’s Tristia , book I, line 74) means:
“I am afraid of the gods who have harmed me”.

Best regards,
Maria
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-Horace, Roman lyric poet and satirist died in 8 BC, under the emperor Augustus.

-Virgil, Roman epic poet died in 19 BC, under the emperor Augustus.

-Ovid, Roman poet died in 17 AD, under the emperor Tiberius.

-Martial, Roman poet died ca. 102 AD, under the emperor Trajan.