Translate: Abydeni (citizens of Abydos) legatos ad regem de condicionibus tradendae urbis miserunt.

We are given that 'Abydeni' means 'citizens of Abydos'. This is the subject of the sentence; we now move to the verb, 'miserunt'. This is from the past tense of 'mittere', meaning 'to send'. So we know the citizens of Abydos sent something. 'legatos', 'envoys', is the object of the verb, which we know from the ending -os. Where did they send envoys? 'ad' implies the direction, 'towards', and 'regem' the destination, the king. So far, we have 'The citizens of Abydos sent envoys to the king.' The phrase 'de condicionibus tradendae urbis' is difficult: to start with, 'de', 'about', takes the ablative case, and 'condicionibus', meaning 'conditions', is the ablative here attached to it. 'tradendae urbis' is in the genitive case, so we can translate 'about the conditions of the tradendae urbis'. 'tradendae' comes from 'tradere', to hand over or surrender; the gerundive here gives the meaning 'to be surrendered'. 'urbis' means city. So we have 'about the conditions of the city to be surrendered.' A better translation might be 'regarding the terms of the city's surrender.'The whole translation would be 'The citizens of Abydos sent envoys to the king regarding the terms of the city's surrender.'

JT

Related Latin A Level answers

All answers ▸

Politics and prejudice, rather than reasoned argument, are the dominant forces in the Pro Milone.’ To what extent do you agree with this judgement?


In what ways does Virgil present Dido as an increasingly desperate individual in these lines? How does he communicate to the reader that the outcome will be disastrous for her?


I've been studying Latin for years now, but I still struggle with the unseen prose paper. What can I do?


What is a gerund and how is it used?