Bellum et Pax--War and Peace...

Intervention of the Sabine Women

I'm a Latin teacher at a public high school today. But ten years ago this very day, I was a government agent actively preparing for a deployment into a war zone... 






 


Bellum/War

My Latin 1 class arrived today at the neuter noun. I used, as my example, a common noun well worth knowing, bellum 'war'.

And I also jotted onto the board what I call "quotes worth knowing,"  which put this important new noun in context:

Dulce bellum inexpertis   War, sweet to those who have not experienced it   Erasmus, quoting Pindar

Bella detesta matribus   Wars, detested by mothers   Horace, Carmina 1.24-25

And as I returned to the lesson, I found myself reflecting upon how I lived these quotes in course of my journey. 


Dulce bellum inexpertis
War, sweet to those who have not experienced it

That was sure me in February, 2004. My boss pulled me aside. "Keith, there's an opportunity I'd like to recommend you for. Would you be willing to serve in Iraq?"

I was, at that time, an Arabic linguist at the National Security Agency. I had gone to work there after 9/11 precisely because I wanted a piece of the action. The answer was, an immediate Yes! I was apprehensive, of course. But eager to go.

What followed was a few months of training, including certification on the Glock 9mm and M4 Assault Rifle I would be required to wear while in country.

Me, in Iraq, Summer, 2004

I would end up serving for three months at a base in Iraq, from mid-June to mid-September. Not as long as a lot of people who served there. But longer than anyone I knew at the time. In that deployment, I experienced mortar attacks and the fear of literally running for my life. I lived with the low-grade tension of knowing that the mortar shell that kills me is probably one I never hear coming.

Again, my experience of that war was not as horrific as many others. I never drew my gun in anger and I was never in active combat. I did, by the nature of my job, process intelligence that was used by the war machine. But I had already done that before I went to Iraq. And I would do a lot more of that when I returned to the States and spend the rest of my tenure at the NSA at the Counter-Terrorism Office. I'm actually not aware of any specific case in which I know with certainty that, as a result of my intelligence efforts, someone died versus was detained. And I have no moral conflicts about the job I did. 

But all that said, war was not so sweet when I stepped out of it. It had been replaced by:

Bella, horrida bella
Wars, horrid wars... (Aeneid 6.86)

I can remember calling my late father when I was settled in my hotel room in Amman, Jordan, freshly flown from Baghdad. I told him, "I'm out of there, tell everyone I'm safe." I hung up the phone and cried my eyes out, so relieved and daring to finally relax. And I drank two bottles of wine. I dreamed that night that I was back in Iraq, a thing I had never done while in Iraq. And, strangely, something I've never done since.

One of the reasons why I felt such strong emotion over being safely out of that country was that I knew this deployment, so important to me, had been quite difficult on my mother.


Bella detesta matribus
Wars, detested by mothers

I told my mother about the deployment just one week before my departure. She was in very poor health and I didn't want to give her any more stress than was necessary. I would see her and our entire family the weekend before I left--at my twin brother's wedding.

Now, I know my mother arranged for me to prayed for, by name, at her Church. Every Sunday during my entire deployment, she heard in the prayers for the people, "And for Keith, in Iraq..."

In mid-July, while in Iraq, I learned that my mother had suffered a minor stroke. The circumstances made it impossible for me to leave to come home, nor would she have wanted me to do that. But I could not escape the thought, was this because of stress over her son being in Iraq? (Probably not. It wasn't her first stroke. But having a son in a war zone didn't help her condition any.)

I would come home. In the presence of my father and my mother I would marry just three months after my return from Iraq.

Two years later, I left government service and became a Latin teacher. Three years after that, both my parents had passed away.


Bellum et Pax--War and Peace

I can go through whole days in which I never reflect on or remember the fact that I was in Iraq ten years ago. I would not have thought that possible. But those quotes took me back, with so many memories flooding back into my consciousness. That was my journey, and it's made me who I am today.


Novels of War... and Peace

In the novels I've written, the characters experience war, but I certainly can't glorify it. They hate it as much as I did. In my novels, the protagonists kill in battle only when they have to and reflect on how much it disturbs them. I depict a band of freedom fighters who pray for their enemies immediately prior to directing fire against them.

The novel A Place of Brightness tells the story of two women. Doina is a freedom fighter struggling to liberate her native Romania from the Communists. A generation later, Aurora is an intelligence officer helping Doina's sons solve a mystery that threatens the modern and free Romania once again.
 

The novel In Saecula Saeculorum is a Time Travel Adventure set in Ancient Rome. But it also does not glorify battle. One of the chief characters, Carmen, turns to the bottle to cope with the pain of taking human life in battle. And the success of the mission will hinge on her internal war...

Persistence and Practice: the Keys to Success

I'm going to admit that I'm a bit annoyed when people find out I'm a polyglot and sometimes say, "You must have a gift for languages!" 

It annoys me because I know that every language I speak (except my native English) came from thousands of hours writing out and studying vocabulary cards, memorizing dialogues, and practicing with natives every chance I got. 

If I had a "gift" for languages, I wouldn't have needed to study a card twenty times before I finally could use that word in a conversation effectively!

But I eventually learned those words because I put in those long hours of study.

What I have a "gift" for is persistence and patience in practicing those things I want to master.

The ancients knew what we even today express through the saying "Practice Makes Perfect."

But while it is true that "Practice Makes Perfect," the key to success is making sure that the practice we do is regular and persistent.

One of the clearest ancient statements of this concept comes

from Cicero (Pro Balbo 45):

Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit.
Constant practice given to one matter often conquers both genius and art.

In other words, there probably are people with an "ingenium" for languages. I wish I were one of them! But the person who studies hard and long to learn a language could easily surpass such a talent, if that talented person does nothing with it.

Ovid expresses the same concept when he writes (Pontica 4.10.5)

Gutta cavat lapidem.
The drop (of water) excavates the stone.

One drop of water seems to do nothing when it falls on a rock. But we've all seen holes in stone carved out by drops in the million. Again, I can't personally learn a word the first time I see or hear it. And that's why I keep seeing and hearing it until I finally know it well.

As a Latin proverb also points out:

Mater studiorum repetitio est.
Repetition is the mother of learning.

And it has been my experience that effective repetition doesn't have to mean necessarily studying or practicing a skill for dozens of hours in a row. Regular practice for even a short period of time can be more helpful than sporadic attention for lengthy periods of time. 

This fact is well described by the Greek painter Apeles (quoted by Pliny, Natural History 35.36):

Nulla dies sine linea.
No day without a line.

He's saying that, as an artist, even drawing one line on a picture each day is better than nothing, and crucial to long-term growth in whatever skill or talent you wish to achieve.

There are some nice modern statements of this ancient wisdom regarding regular practice and persistence. Note, for instance, a quote attributed to Bruce Lee:

"I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once. I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times."

Another painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, wrote (Discourses, ii):

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

Similarly, the French scientist Georges Louis Buffon:

Le génie n’est autre chose qu’une grand aptitude à la patience.
Genius is nothing else than a great aptitude for patience.

So whatever we want, be it a new talent or to speak a new language, persistent practice promises us success. 

Be patient, be persistent. Practice, practice, practice...  Make it so.

Good luck, and God bless...

________________________________________________________________

If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

Acta est Fabula! Plaudite! - the Play is Over! Applaud!

Acta est fabula, plaudite!The play is over, applaud!(Reportedly, the Emperor Augustus' last words, but delivered in Greek)
Suetonius, Divus Augustus 99.1

 These "famous last words" of Caesar Augustus show perhaps a window into his psyche. He had "played a role" his whole life, on behalf of the vision for Rome's future that he and his allies supported. And at the end of his life he can take off the mask and be, like all mortals, ready to face his demise. At any rate, he played his role well.

Francois Rabelais spoke similarly from

his death bed:

Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-être; tirez le rideau, la farce est jouée.
"I am going to seek a grand perhaps. Draw the curtain, the farce is played.


To learn more about Latin, visit the Latin resources page on my website.

I have a collection of other Latin quotes there that you can explore. 

________________________________________________________________

If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

Potius Sero Quam Numquam - Better Late Than Never

Potius sero quam numquam   Better late than never,  Livy,  Ab Urbe condita 4.2

 As a lifelong procrastinator, I've always loved and, unfortunately, lived by this motto. This particular Latin quote is a nice way to lock in the key vocabulary items of quam (than) and numquam (never). Spanish nunca has preserved it quite nicely.

To learn more about Latin, visit the Latin resources page on my website.

I have a collection of other Latin quotes there that you can explore.

If you'd like to support my blog or the Latin language resources on my pages, please purchase one of my books. Click on the book cover to explore them further.

On Wisconsin: In Latin! (Porro Wisconsin)

To commemorate the Wisconsin Badgers Men's Basketball Team playing in the Final Four, I've made a Latin version of the Wisconsin State Song, On Wisconsin. 



Go Badgers!

"Strength and Honor": Adventures in Translation

Strength and Honor

Ever since I showed the movie "Gladiator" to my current Latin 1 class, some of the students use the greeting employed by Maximus and his fellow soldiers and gladiators, "Strength and Honor." I answer back with the same. It's strangely fun.

It's a glorious movie. I've seen it at least twenty times now. And I still cheer and tear up each time I watch it.

I wondered recently what the Latin antecedent of the greeting "Strength and Honor" was. A bit of internet research uncovered the background.

In an interview with "Inside the Actors Studio," Russell Crowe described how the phrase came to be in the movie. He recalls how he told writer/director Ridley Scott that he wanted some greeting that sounded more like what soldiers or gladiators might say and he proposed using something like the motto of his high school, "Strength and Honor." Ridley Scott told him "Use THAT!"

(Earlier in that interview, he quoted the motto of the Sydney Boys High School, Veritate et Virtute, and translated it as "Truth and Honor." Crowe and Scott had apparently (and correctly) determined that "Strength and Honor" had more gravitas and would make for a more memorable greeting.)

I've seen on the web numerous queries for the Latin original of "Strength and Honor," much of it so as to get a tattoo of the phrase. Since the greeting is only based on an authentic motto, there really isn't a Latin original at all. So, on one level, there could be multiple correct translations. But I'm going to explore what really is the best Latin translation, and why.

If something actually has an original antecedent, you don't translate it, you just go look it up. It would be ludicrous, for instance, to back translate "I sing of arms and the man" as "Canto arma et virum." That translation is technically correct, but all wrong at the same time, since what Vergil actually wrote was "Arma virumque cano."

Translating "Strength and Honor" into Latin 

"And"

First off, let's get "and" out of the way. There are two main options

for "and" in Latin. We can use the simple word et (as in panem et circenses, bread and circuses), or we can use the enclitic -que (as in Senatus Populusque Romanus [S.P.Q.R. the mark of the Legion in Gladiator], The Senate and Roman People). 

I'm choosing et as the most basic and straightforward way to bind two different things. Compare, for instance, such famous quotes as:

Ora et Labora, Pray and Work (Motto of the Benedictine Order)
Perfer et Obdura, Be Patient and Tough (Ovid, Amores 3.11.7)

"Strength"

If you look up "strength" in an English-Latin dictionary, you'll find a number of potential candidates there:

vīs, vīs (f., 3^rd irregular declension): strength, force 
fortitūdō, fortitūdinis : strength, courage
virtūs, virtūtis (f., 3^rd declension): strength, courage, excellence

Each one of these can be found as a proposed translation of "Strength and Honor" on the web. And technically each is a correct translation. But one is better than the rest.

First off, vīs is the word that describes mere physical force. When I hear the men in that movie say, "Strength and Honor," I am hearing and feeling "Strength" to include not just physical strength, but mental and moral strength as well. The word vīs is just not le mot juste! (Sorry to everyone with that tattooed onto your body.)

That brings us to fortitūdō. This word really does carry the deeper meaning of "Strength" that the soldiers and gladiators embody. One problem. Imagine saying "Fortitudo et Honor!" That just doesn't sing. That word simply has too many syllables to capture the energy and grace of the English phrase "Strength and Honor."

Which brings us to virtūs. This word truly conveys every aspect of what "Strength and Honor" means. Interestingly, Mr. Crowe's school translated that word as the "honor" component of "Truth and Honor." And that's not wrong. The word denotes not just bravery and strength, but also goodness, moral perfection, and high character. Indeed, it is the source of our English word virtue.

So, I'm translating "Strength" with the word virtūs.  Again, it's not that the other words are wrong. They're just not the best choice to convey this particular concept.

"Honor"

Our English word honor comes from the Latin word:

honor, honōris (m., 3^rd declension): honor

However, this word was originally:

honos, honōsis

The earliest recorded Latin tracks a sound change in which all r's between vowels turn into s's. This is known as rhotacism. As a result of this sound change, the noun in question became:

honos, honōris

The s between vowels became an r in all the oblique cases. But the final s of the nominative singular was left intact.

As should be expected, by analogy, that vestige of an s was eventually replaced by an r in the word English actually borrowed:

honor, honōris

But the form honos was still attested and used in the Golden Age of Latin Literature. So, I'm selecting honos as my best rendering for the translation in question. It would have rung on the ears of Latin speakers as the dignified and formal way to say "honor."

Strength and Honor - Virtūs et Honos

I've presented above why I believe virtūs et honos is the best translation of the English phrase "Strength and Honor." Again, when translating anything from one language to another, there can be multiple "correct" translations. But I believe what I have produced best captures the beautiful camaraderie we see in the movie Gladiator, as men say, sincerely, "Strength and Honor." 

If you'd like to continue experiencing action adventures set in ancient Rome, please check out my novel In Saecula Saeculorum. I can promise you sword fights, horse races, heartbreaks, and triumphs. Click on the cover to learn more and purchase my novel. Thank you for your consideration.



 

Panem et circenses - Bread and Circuses

Panem et circensesBread and circuses.
Juvenal, Satires 10.80-81

This Latin quote refers to the practice of the government in providing to the masses free bread rations and entertainment in the form of chariot races (a circus originally refers to the circuit around which a race happens). This practice was intended to distract the common person from dwelling too much on their horrible lot in life (which might lead them to revolt against the powers that be).

Today, the phrase "Bread and Circuses" refers to any attempt by a politician to pander to the people. (The verb "to pander" has only a chance similarity with the Latin word panis, bread.)

________________________________________________________________

If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala - From the Egg up to the Apples (From Soup to Nuts)

Ab ovo usque ad malaFrom the egg up to the apples(I.e., from start to finish, akin to “From soup to
nuts”)
Horace, Satires 1.3.6
  
This proverb is a nice way to lock in the ablative singular neuter form (following the preposition a/ab), as well as the valuable phrase "usque ad," meaning, "up to." (From which comes French jusqu'à and Spanish hasta.

To learn more about Latin, visit the Latin resources page on my website.

I have a collection of other Latin quotes there that you can explore.

If you'd like to support my blog or the Latin language resources on my pages, please purchase one of my books. Click on the book cover to explore them further.

Ab Ovo - From the Egg

Leda and her Twins

The poet Horace wrote that the Trojan War should not be recounted “nec gemino bellum  Troianum orditur ab ovo,” that is to say,  from the story of how Helen of Troy was born
from one of the twin eggs after Zeus turned her mother Leda into a goose. (Horace, Ars Poetica, 147)

From this, we get the Latin proverb "Ab Ovo" (From the Egg), meaning, one need not tell any story from some unnecessary point prior to the event or in unnecessary detail.

This proverb is a nice way to lock in the ablative singular neuter form (following the preposition a/ab).

To learn more about Latin, visit the Latin resources page on my website.

I have a collection of other Latin quotes there that you can explore.