[hic] Probis imperator et vere probus situs est, ...

[bedtime]

I am reading Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and came upon this quote:

[hic] Probis [imperator]* et vere probus situs est;​

[erat] Victor omnium gentium Barbararum; [erat] victor etiam tyrannorum.​

​

and my attempt at it,

​

[this] Probis, [emperor], moreover, a good man, was truly laid down (killed/dead);​

[he was] a conqueror of all races of barbarians; [he was] a conqueror, furthermore, of tyranny.​

* omitted from Gibbons footnotes but nonetheless found in orginal text on Perseus.

Quoted material on Perseus:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0510:work=28:chapter=21&highlight=et vere probus,

Gibbons text for context:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/731/731-h/731-h.htm#link12noteref-63

The tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor, whom they had massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honorable monument, the memory of his virtues and victories.

 

[Pacifica]

"Hic Probus imperator et vere probus situs est, victor omnium gentium barbararum, victor etiam tyrannorum."

"Here lies general Probus — and truly probus* — conqueror of all barbarian nations, conqueror also of tyrants."

* = good, etc.; the worplay can't be rendered in English. The idea is that his name didn't lie; he was called Probus and also really was so, in the meaning of the adjective.

 

[Aurifex]

* = good, etc.; the worplay can't be rendered in English. The idea is that his name didn't lie; he was called Probus and also really was so, in the meaning of the adjective.

Not so successfully, no, but you could work the word "probity" in somehow.

 

[bedtime]

"Hic Probus imperator et vere probus situs est, victor omnium gentium barbararum, victor etiam tyrannorum."

"Here lies general Probus — and truly probus* — conqueror of all barbarian nations, conqueror also of tyrants."

* = good, etc.; the worplay can't be rendered in English. The idea is that his name didn't lie; he was called Probus and also really was so, in the meaning of the adjective.

(Hic) ... it's been a long day

I don't quite gather how vere can be an adjective to probus if it's in the voc case.

 

[Pacifica]

Vere is an adverb here, "truly".

 

[bedtime]

Vere is an adverb here, "truly".

So either situs is a ppp. or est is recycled and used twice then? I'm thinking the latter.

 

[Aurifex]

It perhaps ought to be "emperor Probus"/"Probus the emperor", by the way, rather than "general".

 

[Pacifica]

So either situs is a ppp. or est is recycled and used twice then? I'm thinking the latter.

Situs is a ppp., and est goes with it. Situs est = literally "is placed"; the expression hic situs est is very common in epitaphs; it's equivalent to "here lies..."

 

[bedtime]

Situs is a ppp., and est goes with it. Situs est = literally "is placed"; the expression hic situs est is very common in epitaphs; it's equivalent to "here lies..."

So is situs est a passive perfect indicaive then?

 

[Pacifica]

I guess you can call it so, though situs seems used more like an adjective here, in that the point is more the state he is in now (lying there) than an action (people laying him there) in the past.

 

[bedtime]

I guess you can call it so, though situs seems used more like an adjective here, in that the point is more the state he is in now (lying there) than an action (people laying him there) in the past.

Thank you. This makes sense now.

So it breaks down to basically:

hic Probis imperator situs (as a ppp. adj.) est, et probus vere est;
Here lies emperor Probis (Here emporer Probis is laid (having been laid)), and he is truly good (a good man.)

 

[Pacifica]

Probus, not Probis. There is no second est.