So, I missed yesterday for various reasons (including a popped bike tire on the way to work and then staying an extra 45 minutes at work) but it’s time to get back on track. Today’s phrase is from the Vindolanda tablets.
For those that aren’t aware, the Vindolanda tablets were found near Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain. They are the records, it seems, of a Roman outpost there, at the edge of the empire, dating to roughly 100AD.
habeas cui des commeatum Córis Messicus rógo domine
Let’s break it down.
habeas (habeo, habere, habui, habitus) – verb; have, hold, consider, think, reason, manage, keep, spend/pass (time)
cui – pronoun; who, that, what, of which kind/degree, person/thing/time/point that, who/whatever, everyone who, all that, anything that, any, anyone/anything, any such, unspecified some
des (do, dare, dedi, datus) – verb; give, dedicate, sell, pay, grant/bestow/impart/offer/lend, allow, make, surrender/give over, send to die, ascribe/attribute, give birth/produce, utter
commeatum – noun (acc.); supplies/provisions, goods, voyage, passage, convoy/caravan, furlough/leave
Córis – proper noun
Messicus – proper noun
rógo (rogo, rogare, rogavi, rogatus) – verb; ask, ask for, invite, introduce
domine – owner, lord, the Lord, also a title
My lord I ask you to consider giving to this one Messicus furlough to Córis.
The official translation I have seen for this same section is a bit more…flowery, I guess, than mine (and probably better to be honest, since I’m still so bad at this).
I, Messicus, ask my lord that you consider me a worthy person to whom to grant leave at Coria.
This is probably due to my failure at the subjunctive, which always made me want to hurt myself a lot. Stupid subjunctive.
Translation (and the tablet fragment) is from Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier by Alan K. Bowman.
