Expert: Maria - 7/18/2011

Question
Hello! I am hoping that you can help me with a translation of a slight variation on an existing, well-known phrase.

The popular phrase is "With God as my commander, and my sword as my companion" which is usually translated as "Deo duce, ferro comitante"

I am hoping for the Latin translation of "With God as my commander, and my sword, horse, and dog as my companions."

I'd be grateful for any help.

Thanks.

Answer
Hello,

If you really want to have a variation on the Latin phrase "Deo duce, ferro comitante“, adopted as the official motto in 1862 by  the 1st Regiment Mounted Rifles. New York Volunteers Standard, here it is:

“Deo duce, ferro et equo et cane comitantibus”

Read more below.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-With God as my commander = DEO DUCE
This is an ablative absolute where DEO[ablative singular  of DEUS, 2nd.declension] means “With God" and DUCE [ablative singular of DUX, 3rd.declension] means “as my commander".

-and my sword, horse, and dog as my companions = FERRO ET EQUO ET CANE COMITANTIBUS.
This is an ablative absolute where FERRO [ablative singular of FERRUM, 2nd.declension] means “my sword”, EQUO [ablative singular of EQUUS, 2nd.declension] means “my horse”, CANE [ablative singular of CANIS, 3rd.declension] means “my dog” and COMITANTIBUS [ablative plural  of the present participle of the deponent verb COMITOR] means "as my companions".

Note that COMITANTIBUS is in the ablative plural as it  must agree with three nouns, i.e. “sword” (FERRO), “horse” (EQUO) and “dog” (CANE).

As for the conjunction ET meaning “and”, it stands for the comma in this context.