Confused about some Latin in Fallout: New Vegas

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AzimuthFE

New Member

Hello! I am new to this forum and am just taking my first shaky steps into the Latin language. I am posting this regarding some Latin speech near the end of the Fallout: New Vegas. If you are already familiar with the game please skip the rest of this paragraph. One of the main characters is obsessed with the Roman empire (to the point of calling himself Caesar) and his army uses the bull as its symbol.

During Caesar's pep talk before the final battle he says, "In hoc signo taurus vinces". I am aware that he is modifying an ancient Greek phrase by splicing taurus in there. My question is this: Why doesn't he say, "In hoc signo tauri vinces"? Isn't taurus genitive in this sentence?
 
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Etaoin Shrdlu

Guest

I'm not familiar with the game, but if that's the only mistake they make, they're doing fairly well.
 
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Etaoin Shrdlu

Guest

You'd expect the vocative, though.

Bill Bryson says that cows make ideal pets. They don't demand attention, but are happy enough to hang around with you. And when you get bored with them, you can eat them.

Edit: Impy's edit has deprived my post of most of its point.
 
Pacifica

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis
Location:
Belgium
In hoc signo taurus vinces means "In this sign you shall conquer as a bull". Probably a mistake indeed.
 
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AzimuthFE

New Member

Given that Fallout!Caesar is an intelligent and charismatic but vain and sometimes arrogant man, splicing in the word with no knowledge of how to decline it isn't exactly out of character for him (after all, he's not the sort of person you'd argue with). If there are no other errors in the game (and the writers went to a lot of effort ensuring the characters use classical pronunciations etc.) I'd say they deserve the benefit of the doubt and his mistake was deliberate on their part.

Having said that, is my version any better? Does referring to the bull make the demonstrative unnecessary (i.e. In signo tauri vinces)?
 
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AzimuthFE

New Member

Etaoin Shrdlu dixit:
But you've just been given two others.
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When Aurifex described them as gems I didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not. I didn't want to accuse someone of being sarcastic if they weren't, so I decided to not ask. Also, I don't really know enough Latin to see what was wrong with the other two examples, sorry. No offense to Aurifex intended.
 
Aurifex

Aurifex

Aedilis

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  • Patronus
Location:
England
AzimuthFE dixit:
When Aurifex described them as gems I didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not. I didn't want to accuse someone of being sarcastic if they weren't, so I decided to not ask. Also, I don't really know enough Latin to see what was wrong with the other two examples, sorry. No offense to Aurifex intended.
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No offence taken whatsoever.
This is by no means the worst Latin we've seen put to similar purposes.
Another dodgy/doggy one I missed is "Legion (sic) aureus"
 
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