Ars Amatoria: Copia iudicium saepe morata meum est

 

cinefactus

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I am having a lot of trouble figuring out some lines from Ars Amatoria I.

Copia iudicium saepe morata meum est.
Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ispsae.

The last part is pretty clear. I am assuming iudicum means something like spectators. The best I can some up with is something like:

Copia iudicium morata veniunt, saepe meum est spectatum

The abundance of spectators whilst delaying as they come, have often been watched by me (something like, "Meum est propositum")

but I don't think this fits very well, and it breaks the meaning between two couplets. I would like to translate spectatum as game, but it doesn't seem to have this meaning, nor can I fit it in by making it agree with copia.

Any clues?
 

QMF

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Do you happen to have macrons? I'm sensing that copia might be ablative...
 

Cato

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The two lines split a pair of couplets. The full couplets will help in understanding the meaning.

Ovid first uses a simile about ants and bees reutrning to their nests, and says that women going to the theatre are similar:

Sic ruit ad celebres cultissima femina ludos:
...Copia iudicium saepe morata meum est.

The first line is easy: Sic cultissima femina ruit ad celebres ludos - "So do the most elegant ladies rush to the crowded shows" (femina is singular, but used collectively, e.g. "womankind").

The second line is a bit of an aside by Ovid giving his own personal experience. A more English order might be: Saepe, copia morata est meum iudicium. Remember morata est is deponent, copia will make more sense if you include a genitive like feminarum, and stretch iudicium here to be more like "choice, pick".

Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae:
...Ille locus casti damna pudoris habet.

For the first line of this couplet, assume an esse with spectatum, and treat as an infinitive of purpose (the implied subject is feminae). The purpose is more explicit in the second half of the line: veniunt ut ipsae spectentur.

Though you didn't ask, the second line has a bit of unusual grammar as well: casti...pudoris is genitive of the charge with damna, where habet damna is a Roman legal term.

Thinking about it, these lines could describe any singles bar today, don't you think? :)
 
 

cinefactus

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Cato dixit:
Thinking about it, these lines could describe any singles bar today, don't you think? :)
It looks like some things don't change ;)
I certainly wish that I did have a version with macrons. Putting them in by hand is very time consuming!

Cato dixit:
For the first line of this couplet, assume an esse with spectatum, and treat as an infinitive of purpose (the implied subject is feminae).
Aha, all becomes clear... Spectatum must be the supine is it?

Can I ask about another couplet I was having trouble with?

Aut ut apes saltusque suos et olentia nactae
Pascua per flores et thyma summa volant.

Aut ut apes, and per floeres et thyma volant is clear, but the rest is somewhat opaque :oops:
Luckily the following 30 lines on the rape of the Sabines is a bit easier ;)
 

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Cinefactus dixit:
Aut ut apes saltusque suos et olentia nactae
Pascua per flores et thyma summa volant.

Aut ut apes, and per floeres et thyma volant is clear, but the rest is somewhat opaque :oops:
Remember that apis, -is is feminine. Nactae is the past participle of the deponent nanciscor - "find, happen upon", so translate as "having found". Saltus and pascua are direct objects of this participle.
 
 

cinefactus

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Thanks, I figured that nactae went with the apes.

I was having trouble with translating saltus as a dance, but are you translating it as a rough pasture?
 

Cato

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Yes, saltus here is "pastures", not "dances". Etymology on this word is dubious (according to my OLD), but I'll bet it's the idea that it's an open area where one could "leap about" as opposed to the forestland that surrounds it. Theres a similar idea in the English word "spring", which can refer to an actual jumping motion or the "jump" of water from an underground source.
 
 

cinefactus

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Thanks, I think this is half of the problem I was having...

He uses the word again a bit later in the poem, but this time I was ready ;)
 
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