Nigel Molesworth – the prep school hero of St Custard’s, created by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle in 1953 – had a brilliant way of getting his Latin master to waste time.
‘What is the use of latin sir?’ And the master replied,
‘er well er quite simple molesworth. latin is er classics you kno and classics are – well they are er – they are the studies of the ancient peoples... er latin gives you not only the history of Rome but er (hapy inspiration) its culture, it er tells you about interesting men like J Caesar, hannibal, livy, Romulus remus and er lars porsena of clusium.’ Wise words.
But Latin also helps you translate Roman graffiti – one of life’s great pleasures. In this lesson, we’re going to translate some graffiti from the walls of Pompeii. I hope you don’t mind that some of it is a bit saucy. First, here are a few more things to learn.
We’ve already done the basic building blocks of Latin – nouns, verbs and adjectives. Now it’s time for a few more complicated nouns and verbs: second-conjugation verbs and third-declension nouns.
Second-conjugation verbs, present tense moneo – I advise mones – You (sing.) advise monet – He, she or it advises monemus – We advise monetis – You (pl.) advise monent – They advise Third-declension nouns Singular>> Plural Nom> rex> king reges Voc rex> >reges Acc regem> >reges Gen regis > >regum Dat regi >>regibus Abl rege >>regibus
And now for the graffiti for you to translate.
- Scrawled on the wall of the basilica at Pompeii: ‘Lucilla ex corpore lucrum faciebat.’ Vocab: corpus, -oris n – body lucrum, -i n – money, profit facio, facere, feci, factum – I make or do.
- In the house of Pinarius Cerialis in Pompeii,a sad line reads: ‘Marcellus Praenestinam amat et non curatur.’ Vocab: curatur – ‘is cared for’.
- This last graffito, found in a Pompeii bar, is very difficult but too lovely to leave out. ‘Nihil durare potest tempore perpetuo; Cum bene sol nituit, redditur oceano, Decrescit Phoebe, quae modo fuit, Ventorum feritas saepe fit aura levis.’
