Properly reading/pronouncing dates

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Salvete omnes!

I'm studying Latin on my own and would like to clarify the correct pronunciation of dates.
Could somebody please write out in Latin words how to say the following dates:

1) 1 January 333 BC
2) 2 February 78 AD
3) 3 March 256 AD
4) 9 April 1000 AD
5) 11 May 1111 AD
6) 18 June 1999 AD
7) 21 August 2000 AD
8) 29 September 2017 AD

I hope that's not too much hassle. (I would really like to have a sort of comprehensive set of examples for extrapolation.)

Also, should I or should I not capitalize the names of months in Latin when I use them in dates?

Lastly, when I read the dates of birth and death (for example, when reading somebody's biography on Wikipedia), does the way I say the dates change?
Could somebody please translate the following sentence into proper Latin?
Augustus (23 September 63 BC - 19 August 14 AD) was the first Roman emperor. [taken from Wikipedia]

 

[cinefactus]

This isn't a suitable subset for a comprehensive set of examples, which makes it look like homework.

Try giving it a go. The dates are counted backwards from the Kalends, Ides and Nones. The actual Kalends Ides and Nones will be in the ablative. All others will be in accusative. The day before will be pridie. The day before that ante diem tertium as the Romans used inclusive counting. The actual dates of the Ides and Nones will depend on the month, but is usually 13 and 5, or 15 and 7 for March, July October and May.

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

Your Pikachu avatar looks cute, Siegfried Zaytsev

 

[AoM]

This isn't a suitable subset for a comprehensive set of examples, which makes it look like homework.

Try giving it a go. The dates are counted backwards from the Kalends, Ides and Nones. The actual Kalends Ides and Nones will be in the ablative with the genitive of the month. All others will be in accusative. The day before will be pridie. The day before that ante diem tertium as the Romans used inclusive counting. The actual dates of the Ides and Nones will depend on the month, but is usually 13 and 5, or 15 and 7 for March, July October and May.

And the years to ab urbe condita as well.

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Your Pikachu avatar looks cute, Siegfried Zaytsev

Thank you!

This isn't a suitable subset for a comprehensive set of examples, which makes it look like homework.

Try giving it a go. The dates are counted backwards from the Kalends, Ides and Nones. The actual Kalends Ides and Nones will be in the ablative with the genitive of the month. All others will be in accusative. The day before will be pridie. The day before that ante diem tertium as the Romans used inclusive counting. The actual dates of the Ides and Nones will depend on the month, but is usually 13 and 5, or 15 and 7 for March, July October and May.

(I assure you this is no homework; I major in Economics, not in Classics. If I were majoring in Classics, I would be answering this question, not asking it.)
Now that you have mentioned Kalends, Ides and Nones, I do realize that this might be not a comprehensive set. I made it up thinking about literal translation from English into Latin and that it should cover all the bases. I didn't take into account that Romans had had their very own dating system.
Your very answer indicates that translating dates from English into Latin is not an easy task, and unless you are proficient in Latin, there is plenty of room for mistakes. That's why I would like to see a comprehensive treatment of the subject of dates in Latin. Unless it was already covered elsewhere, perhaps someone could write an article on that and sticky it (I think it's important enough).

 

[AoM]

Check out this video.

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

And the years to ab urbe condita as well.

Another factor complicating translation of dates into Latin. (Which I was not aware of.)
Perhaps you guys do not realize it because you are used to Roman dating system, but for someone who has little experience with Latin, properly translating dates into Latin is a daunting task.

 

[cinefactus]

It is not actually particularly difficult, just different. The rules I gave you above would cover all dates except for the extra day in feb in a leap year. I made a mistake above. I shouldn't have said genitive of the month, it is ablative or accusative as per the rule above. I have written a program which will put a Roman Calendar in an OSX menu bar if that helps. Go to the iTunes App Store and search LatinCalendar.

1 Dec is kalendis decembribus
30 Nov is pridie kalendas decembres
29 Nov is ante diem tertium kalendas decembres.

Why don't you try 3, 4 & 5 Dec, 11, 12 13 Dec, and 31 Dec?

You can use Anno Domini rather than AUC. A lot of classical Roman dates are given by Consular year rather than AUC anyway.

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Check out this video.

1 Dec is kalendis decembribus

In the video both words of the phrase "Kalendīs Octōbribus" are capitalized. Cinefactus does not capitalize. Wiktionary uses lower-case versions both for headwords and when giving paradigms of "kalendae", "nōnae" and "īdūs", as well as for all the names of the months (as opposed to names of humans and gods, which are always capitalized); however, in examples both capitalized and noncapitalized versions are used.
Can we shed light on this point? Is it preferable to capitalize or not? Or are you supposed to capitalize in some cases but not in others?

 

[Dantius]

It doesn't really matter, because the Romans had no concept of capitalization. I think generally the standard is to capitalize them, though. My dictionary does capitalize "Kalendae" and "October". Wiktionary isn't really very reliable for a lot of things.

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

[T]he Romans had no concept of capitalization.

They had the right idea; they were humble people.

 

[cinefactus]

humble, that is the word I was looking for

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

CAPITALS are LOUD, but Caesar instructed his modest troops to keep their voices down when they massacred the Usipetes and Tencteri.

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Why don't you try?

I'll try day and month first; I'll start with March.

1. kalendīs mārtiīs
2. ante diem sextum nōnās mārtiās
3. ante diem quīntum nōnās mārtiās
4. ante diem quārtum nōnās mārtiās
5. ante diem tertium nōnās mārtiās
6. prīdiē nōnās mārtiās
7. nōnīs mārtiīs
8. ante diem octāvum īdūs mārtiās
9. ante diem septimum īdūs mārtiās
10. ante diem sextum īdūs mārtiās
11. ante diem quīntum īdūs mārtiās
12. ante diem quārtum īdūs mārtiās
13. ante diem tertium īdūs mārtiās
14. prīdiē īdūs mārtiās
15. īdibus mārtiīs
16. ante diem septimum decimum kalendās aprīlēs
17. ante diem sextum decimum kalendās aprīlēs
18. ante diem quīntum decimum kalendās aprīlēs
19. ante diem quārtum decimum kalendās aprīlēs
20. ante diem tertium decimum kalendās aprīlēs
21. ante diem duodecimum kalendās aprīlēs
22. ante diem ūndecimum kalendās aprīlēs
23. ante diem decimum kalendās aprīlēs
24. ante diem nōnum kalendās aprīlēs
25. ante diem octāvum kalendās aprīlēs
26. ante diem septimum kalendās aprīlēs
27. ante diem sextum kalendās aprīlēs
28. ante diem quīntum kalendās aprīlēs
29. ante diem quārtum kalendās aprīlēs
30. ante diem tertium kalendās aprīlēs
31. prīdiē kalendās aprīlēs
1. kalendīs aprīlibus

Is it correct?

 

[cinefactus]

Looks right to me

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Check out this video.

The Latin tutor in the video writes "Nonās Octōbrēs" and "Nonīs Octōbribus"; however, Wiktionary and ultralingua.com spell "nōnae" with long "o".
Which version is correct or, so to speak, more correct?

 

[cinefactus]

L&S list it as long

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Looks right to me

Thank you! So, if I understood correctly, what I wrote means "on the 1st of March", etc.
What if I want to say, for example, "The first of March was a nice day"? Would I say "Kalendae mārtiae diēs grātus erat" (that is, use nominative case instead of ablative)?

 

[Iáson]

Yes, but there's no need to include diēs, since the word kalendae itself refers to the day (this would also change the agreement of grātus erat). Also, I'm not sure that grātus conveys 'nice' in the way in which in English a 'nice day' refers to fine weather; rather, it means something like 'welcome' or 'pleasant'.

 

[Siegfried Zaytsev]

Yes, but there's no need to include diēs, since the word kalendae itself refers to the day (this would also change the agreement of grātus erat).

Thank you for your response! Could you not, though, say both "The first of March was a nice day" and "The first of March was nice"? In English it is possible. So is there a rule or convention that forbids be to do the same in Latin?

Also, I'm not sure that grātus conveys 'nice' in the way in which in English a 'nice day' refers to fine weather; rather, it means something like 'welcome' or 'pleasant'.

Yeah, my Latin vocabulary is rather limited, so you can say that it was a rough translation. (Although, "a nice day" in English doesn't have to refer exclusively to good weather. If I say, "We had a nice day", it is most likely to be understood that we had a good time, not that there was no wind and rain.)

Can someone please clear up for me the phrase "ante Christum nātum"?
The article in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ante_Christum_natum) uses both "Christum" and "Christus". If "Christus" is used, then I understand "nātum" as being a participle in the accusative and there is a missing verb "esse". And with "Christum", I suspect that "nātum" is a 4th declension noun in the accusative. But these are just my conjectures.