Expert: Maria - 2/1/2009

Question
Hi good afternoon. I am a big fan of the movie Gladiator.. as well as all movies of historic nature. Greeks, romans, etc. Can I ask what is the correct Latin translation for "Strength and Honour". I read somewhere that a good translation is "vires et honestas". Is that correct? Thank you for your help

Answer
Hello,

The best Latin translation of “Strength and honour” is the following:

-“Virtus et Honor”.

In fact VIRTUS means “strength” as “strength  of mind”, ”courage”, “valour”, “physical /moral power”, while HONOR means just “honour” in the sense of  “glory”, “dignity”, “morality”, “esteem”.

As for the sentence “vires et honestas", it is grammatically correct, but lexically inappropriate since VIRES (nominative plural of VIS, 3rd.declension) means “violence”, “brute force”, “hostile power” rather than “strength” in a positive meaning, while HONESTAS (nominative singular, 3rd.declension)  means especially  “probity “, “respectability”, “honorableness” .

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Strength= VIRTUS (nominative feminine singular, 3rd.declension)

-And = ET

-Honour = HONOR (nominative masculine singular, 3rd.declension)