Expert: Maria - 3/11/2011

Question
translation into latin of the soliloquy:  "Friends, Romans,Countrymenn..." if you would be so kind.  Thank you!

Answer
Hello,

The literal translation of the famous incipit, i.e. the opening words,  of the speech by Mark Antony we read in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar  “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” would be : “Amici, Romani, Cives….”, but in classical Latin it would be better to say simply :” Romani cives…...” (literally, “Roman citizens…”), since such a beginning of a speech addressed by a Roman citizen like Mark Antony e.g.  to his fellow-countrymen /fellow-citizens implies in itself an  idea of  fellowship.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Friends = AMICI (vocative plural of AMICUS, 2nd.declension, meaning "friend")
-Romans = ROMANI (vocative masculine plural of  the adjective ROMANUS, Roman)
-Countrymen = CIVES (vocative plural of CIVIS, 3rd.declension, meaning "citizen"/"fellow-citizen")

As for “Romani cives”, ROMANI (Roman) is the adjective agreed with the vocative plural CIVES (citizens).