ab instituto dimovere...agi

Aenesidemus

Member

More 16th century Latin:

Ego scio Regem Galliae laborare summa penuria rei pecuniariae, et habere domi satis quod agat, et puto ipsum haec facere, vel ut eo praetextu a Subditis exigat pecuniam, vel quia sperat se ea ratione posse terrere, et ab instituto dimovere eos, cum quibus putat agi de conscribendo milite in Galliam ducatur.

I am puzzled by ab instituto dimovere and agi. I can't find a meaning for this word and that phrase that makes sense to me in the context.
 

Ybytyruna

Cammarōrum Edācissimus

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Brasilia
[LAT]
Deeſt qui in fine textus tui: [...] putat agi de conſcribendo milite qui in Galliam ducatur.

Dimovere hic ſignificat idem atque dissuadere, dehortari. Agi eſt forma paſſiva infinitiva præſentis verbi agere, et hic idem eſt atque tractari (id eſt, 'argumentum' tractatur). Hanc paraphraſin ſcripſi primo obtutu; veriſimiliter melius erit exſpectare donec veniant ceteri qui tibi reſponſum vel planius dent:

Rex ſperat ſe era ratione poſſe terrere ſubditos ſuos et ab eo, quod inſtituerat, dehortari, cum quibus (ſcil. hominibus) putat tractari id quod attinet ad militem conſcribendum qui in Galliam ducatur.

[ENG]
There is a "qui" in the original that is missing in your text: [...] putat agi de conſcribendo milite qui in Galliam ducatur.

Dimovere means the same as dissuadere, dehortari. Agi is the present infinitive passive of agere, and there it means the same as tractari (i.e., when we're talking about a topic). I just wrote this paraphrase, but it would surely be better to wait for other members to come and listen to what they're going to say:

Rex ſperat ſe era ratione poſſe terrere ſubditos ſuos et ab eo, quod inſtituerat, dehortari, cum quibus (ſcil. hominibus) putat tractari id quod attinet ad militem conſcribendum qui in Galliam ducatur.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Ybytyruna is right.

Ab instituto dimovere means literally to "move" them away from their intent, that is, to make them give it up, dissuade them from it, or the like. (I'm basically repeating what Ybytyruna said with different words.)

Agi, which means essentially what Ybytyruna said, is an impersonal passive — a passive verb that has no concrete subject but just means that an action is being done. Are you familiar with this grammatical concept?
 

Aenesidemus

Member

Thanks to Ybytyruna and Pacifica. I’m ok with impersonal verbs, but I wasn’t sure what was happening with agi here. I had thought the object of terrere was eos, and that eos, cum quibus meant “those with whom” with the comma being extraneous by some standards. Was I wrong?

Also, I'm unclear what institutum the king wanted to disabuse them of; you have to look at the larger context to see what the issue is.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
inſtituerat
Also, this was presumably a typo for instituerant, which I also missed on first reading (you know how sometimes you read what you expect to be there rather than what is indeed there).
 
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