"If a single life holds no value, then none are of worth!"

kremsda

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  • "If a single life holds no value, then none are of worth!"
  • I intend to use this as a slogan for a "free the slaves" project and possibly a tattoo.
  • This is a quote from Spartacus: Vengeance. It is used when they are deciding if risking their lives is worth freeing a single slave.
  • The phrase refers to slaves in general, both male and female
 

Arca Defectionis

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"If a single life holds no value..." --> Si una vita est nihil(i)... (If one life is worth nothing...)

"then none are of worth!"

"ita omnes sunt" (all lives are so [worth nothing])

"ita omnes" (so with all lives)

"nullae sunt (quam) minimi" (none are worth the least value)

"nullae sunt assis" (none are worth a penny)

Obviously I'm being a bit free with the apodosis, so it would be wise to get another opinion in.
 

kremsda

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Those are actually great! I appreciate you taking the time to help and give multiple examples. Gratitude!

"If a single life holds no value..." --> Si una vita est nihil(i)... (If one life is worth nothing...)

"then none are of worth!"

"ita omnes sunt" (all lives are so [worth nothing])

"ita omnes" (so with all lives)

"nullae sunt (quam) minimi" (none are worth the least value)

"nullae sunt assis" (none are worth a penny)

Obviously I'm being a bit free with the apodosis, so it would be wise to get another opinion in.
Sorry I don't know much about Latin yet, but would you happen to know if Latin in ancient Rome would have differed in any way? Probably around 70 AD?
 

Pacifica

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I have no idea about the peculiarities of 70 AD Latin, but why not:

Si vita una in ullo pretio non est, ergo nulla est: if a single life isn't of any value, then none is. (literally: if one life is not in any price, then none is. In pretio esse (lit. to be in price) is a Latin expression meaning "to have value".)
 

Acsacal

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Nihil valet may be a simpler solution than in ullo pretio non est but it would require to change ergo nulla est into something symmetrical: si nihil una vita valet ergo aliquid nulla.
 

Pacifica

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I'm not quite sure valere can mean "to be of worth" in this sense.
 
D

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There are many ways to say this... another way

Nisi una vita refert, nihil refert.

If not one life matters, nothing matters.
 

Pacifica

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"Nothing matters" isn't quite what was asked for. It should be nulla refert, none matters.
 
D

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"Nothing matters" isn't quite what was asked for. It should be nulla refert, none matters.
:)

Si Spartacus essem, dicerem hoc: "vita servorum non mango pretio stat.
Eamus ad tabernam et bibamus pro miserumo illumo, IovesIupiter pacem det illi".

:D
 

Pacifica

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:D

If you mean "let's drink for those unhappy (slaves)", it's pro miseris illis. And you should say iuppiter pacem det illis. Illis plural for "the slaves". Ioves is nominative pl., so it would mean several Jupiters, weird...!
 
D

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:D

If you mean "let's drink for those unhappy (slaves)", it's pro miseris illis. And you should say iuppiter pacem det illis. Illis plural for "the slaves". Ioves is nominative pl., so it would mean several Jupiters, weird...!
No I mean for a single miserable slave :)

as for Ioves: Thanks! :)
 

Pacifica

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Then it should be pro misero illo. Pro is used with the ablative.

And yes, iuppiter is weird, with a nominative very different from other forms.
 

Arca Defectionis

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Nonne "pro misero illi" dicere debuisti? ;)

Ego enim pariter tibi cogitavissem, si Spartacus fuissem; cum autem eo tempore natus non essem, revera contenti esse debemus nihil agere potentes. :p

Edit: I do think it's customary to refer to pagan gods in the plural, as in "lugete, o veneres cupidinesque..."
 

Pacifica

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Rhaaa!!! Yes, pro misero illi!
 

Arca Defectionis

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Wait, I am wrong.... pro misero illo is correct, haha! If you're toasting to someone, perhaps you could just say misero illi, but with pro you need the ablative illo. Woops :D
 

Pacifica

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The hell... I was just coming back to say the same thing. What the hell have we got in mind today? Maybe our brains need some air, don't know...
 

kremsda

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Thanks again for all the help! I did a little research on Latin, spoken in and around ancient Rome, during the time of Spartacus(*I meant 70BC not AD-sorry) What I found is that they used more Vulgar Latin vs Classical. Not sure if that changes anything, but here some of the differences I could find;
  • It dropped terminal letters and syllables (or they metathesized).
  • It decreased the use of inflections, since prepositions (ad (> à) and de) came to serve in place of case endings on nouns.
  • Colorful or slang (what we think of as 'vulgar') terms replaced traditional ones -- testa meaning 'jar' replaced caput for 'head'.
  • Here's a link to one of the sites I found http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/latinlanguage/qt/vulgarlatin.htm
 

Pacifica

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Thanks fot the link. I already knew what you say about vulgar Latin (which is not specific of that period, though), but I don't really know how it would modify the sentence here. I don't know whether there was any slang words for "life" or "value"... Moreover, Vulgar Latin was usually not written.

Another possibility:

Si una vita nullius rei aestimatur, ergo nulla in pretio est.
If one life is valued to nothing, then none is of worth.
 
B

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Just a few quick points
- the genitivus pretii for "worthless" is usually nihili (taken from nihilum)
- si + ergo sounds like a really strange combination to me... it doesn't seem to make sense.
- I wonder if in a clause like that you shouldn't write something along the lines of "si ne una quidem vita something"
 
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