Reading Caesar

By Giovanni Cavino (?) (http://www.sesterzio.eu/Cavino/cavino.htm) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Below is a letter from Balbus (a Roman Spaniard or Hispano-Roman from Gades or Cadiz, Spain; he was Caesar's right-hand man in many matters; Balbus himself became a consul). The letter is to Cicero and quotes for Cicero an example of a letter written by Caesar concerning his siege of Brundisium during the civil war with Pompey. I have included my own translation "between the lines" of the letter. I then rearranged the Latin words to match the English word order in the translation, to help you see how the Latin words work together (the "syntax" of the sentence). I have also added extensive vocabulary notes at the bottom for those who want a more detailed grammatical description of the Latin.

This letter often uses two tenses: the perfect tense which is a past tense whose 3rd singular ending is "-it" and whose 1st singular ending is "-i" (see the first line below of the letter for examples).

The other tense often used is the future tense. I point out those instances in the Vocabulary Notes below.

Caesar nobis litteras perbreves misit, quarum exemplum subscripsi.

Caesar sent to us very brief letters, of which I have written below ["under"] an example.

Caesar misit nobis perbreves litteras, quarum subscripsi exemplum.

Brevitate epistulae scire poteris eum valde esse distentum, qui tanta de re tam breviter scripserit.

Because of the brevity of the letter you will be able to know that he is very busy [literally, "stretched" or distended], since he has written so briefly about such a great matter.

Brevitate [Ablative of Cause] epistulae poteris scire [that] eum esse valde distentum qui [since he] scripserit tam breviter de tanta re.

Si quid praeterea novi fuerit, statim tibi scribam.

If there will be anything besides of news, I will write immediately to you.

Si fuerit quid praeterea novi [literally, "of new"], scribam statim tibi.

[Caesar's actual letter now begins:]

"Ante diem VII Idus Martias Brundisium veni, ad murum castra posui.

"Before the 7th day of the Ides of March, I came to Brundisium, I placed my camp near the wall.

Ante diem VII Idus Martias, veni Brundisium, posui castra ad murum.

Pompeius est Brundisii: misit ad me Numerium Magium de pace; quae visa sunt, respondi.

Pompey is at Brundisium: he sent to me Numerius Magius [the name of a person] concerning peace; I answered what seemed right.

Pompeius est Brundisii: misit ad me Numerium Magium de pace; respondi quae visa sunt.

Hoc vos statim scire volui; cum in spem venero de compositione aliquid me conficere, statim vos certiores faciam."

I wished that you immediately knew this; when I will have come [better English: "I will come" or "I come"] into the hope that I should complete something concerning the agreement, immediately I will make you [plural] more certain [in crisper English: "I will inform you"].

Volui vos statim scire hoc; cum venero in spem [that] me conficere aliquid de compositione, statim faciam vos certiores.

Source: Albert Harkness, An Easy Method for Beginners in Latin (New York: American Book Co., 1890). The book is available for free at this Google Books link.

Vocabulary Notes:

litteras, letters (1st declension feminine: littera, litterae)

perbreves, very short ("per" is the "very" part)

misit, the perfect or past tense of the verb mitto (to send); 3rd person singular

quarum, of which (the genitive plural of our relative pronoun)

subscripsi, the perfect or past tense of the verb subscribo; 1st person singular

Brevitate, the ablative singular used to express cause; hence, "because of the brevity"

epistulae, the genitive singular of epistula, letter or epistle

scire, "to know" (a present infinitive)

poteris, "you will be able"; thus, a future tense, 2nd person singular (indicated by the "s" personal ending)

eum, "him"

valde, an adverb meaning "strongly" or "very"

esse, "to be"; infinitive

distentum, adjective meaning "occupied" or "stretched"

tanta, "so great"

re, the ablative singular of res, meaning "thing or matter" as in the legal phrase "in re"

breviter, adverb meaning "briefly"

scripserit, a perfect tense of the subjunctive mood used in a causal clause introduced by qui; "he/she/it has written"

praeterea, adverb meaning "besides"

fuerit, the future perfect, 3rd singular of the verb "to be" meaning "he, she, it will have been"

statim, adverb "immediately"

tibi, the dative singular of the pronoun tu; "to you"

scribam, the future first person singular of the verb scribo "to write"; hence "I will write"

ante, preposition taking the accusative case

veni, perfect or past tense, "I came"

ad, preposition taking accusative case, "to"

murum, accusative singular of murus, meaning "wall"

de, preposition taking the ablative case, "about/concerning"

castra, "camp or camps" (usually translated as singular although technically plural in Latin)

quae, a relative pronoun, "which things"

visa sunt, a past/perfect passive form of the verb video "to see"; hence, "they seemed." In this passage, I propose translating it as "seemed right" based on Caesar's documented usage and the context of this letter.

respondi, the perfect or past tense, "I responded/answered"

hoc, a pronoun, "this", accusative singular neuter

vos, a personal pronoun meaning "you" (plural)

statim, adverb, "immediately"

scire, "to know" (infinitive)

cum, here meaning "when" introducing a temporal or time clause

spem, the accusative singular of spes, meaning "hope"

venero, the future perfect of venio, come; hence, "I will have come"

compositione, ablative singular, meaning "agreement"; literally "what has been put together"

aliquid, an indefinite pronoun, "something"

me, the accusative singular of "I"; used here as the accusative subject of the infinitive conficere

conficere, infinitive, "to complete"

certiores, the comparative form ("ior") of an adjective, "more certain"

faciam, the future of facio "make"; hence, "I will make"