IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS

1. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS SALLUST on the character of SEMPRONIA GCSE type questions Not exhaustive ~ only meant to give a flavour

2. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia sed in eis erat Sempronia, quae multa facinora virilis audaciae saepe commiserat. in eis ~ who are the people referred to here? They are the rest of the conspirators who had joined with Catiline, a Roman nobleman, to overthrow the government and take over the state. Why does Sallust describe Sempronia’s crimes are virilis audaciae? Men might be reckless and daring enough to commit crimes like these; Roman women should be more modest and retiring – “women should be seen and not heard”, so Sempronia is behaving like a man in what she did. Later in the extract what does Sallust say she had done? • She had broken her word, • she had refused to repay loans, • she had been implicated in a murder

3. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia Haec femina genere atque forma, marito atque liberis satis fortunata fuit. Comment on the arrangement of words in this sentence; what is the effect Sallust is trying to create? There are two pairs of words, each joined not by et but by the much more emphatic atque. This helps to emphasise the four ways in which Sempronia is lucky. Explain how each of the four items mentioned make her fortunate/lucky genere – family: to be from an old aristocratic family was a huge advantage in the status driven Roman society forma – beauty: presumably this would give more choice in the suitable husband stakes marito – husband: a husband of wealth, status and influence would be what every family would want for their daughters liberis – children: well mannered etc, not going off the rails, suitable for good marriages later on?

4. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia litteris Graecis et Latinis docta, potuit psallere et saltare elegantius quam necesse est feminae probae what were Sempronia’s accomplishments – four items? She was educated in Greek and Latin literature, she could play the lyre and she could dance. Translate “elegantius quam necesse est feminae probae”. More elegantly than is necessary/ required for a woman of good character. Explain in your own words what Sallust is saying in this sentence. Sempronia has a number of accomplishments which are quite unusual for a Roman woman but nevertheless are perfectly respectable until you look at her dancing which goes beyond the bounds of the sort of dancing that a respectable Roman matron should be involved with and gets into the realm of being possibly flirtatious and provocative and a bit too sexy.

5. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia (potuit).. multaque alia facere quae instrumenta luxuriae sunt. Explain in your own words what Sallust means here. She was able to do a number of other things (perhaps putting on interesting dinner parties, having troupes of actors??) which gave her the opportunity to show the extravagant side of her character. Comment on Sallust’s use of and positioning of the word luxuriae. The word luxuria is a very negative word: it implies a lack of restraint, an indulging in luxury, a lack of modesty about one’s life style – all the things that Sallust elsewhere in his book had seen as reasons why Roman society and government had become so corrupted; so for Sallust it is a very powerful word to express his feelings. It is placed very close to the end of the sentence; this helps to emphasise it and highlight its importance in Sallust’s argument about Sempronia.

6. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia sed ei semper fuerunt cariora omnia quam decus atque pudicitia. Comment on the position and the effect of ei and omnia in this sentence. ei refers to Sempronia – Sallust is stressing by putting the word in this emphatic start position that for her everything was more important than her reputation. By putting omnia at the end of its clause just before the clause that gives the contrast with decus and pudicitia Sallust emphasises that everything was more important than reputation to her. What are the qualities that Sempronia rejects as important. decus ~ modesty, reputation; for a Roman woman of class this was an important virtue – it would help to attract and keep a good husband and would enhance the reputation of the family at large – not unimportant if the family was to keep having influence. pudicitia ~ chastity; goes closely with modesty and reputation as an important virtue for a Roman matron of class, wife of a high status family; in that context sex is pre-eminently for breeding, for producing the children who will keep the family name going. Sex for fun is pretty irrelevant.

7. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia haud facile discerneres utrum pecuniae an famae minus parceret. What were the two things that she was totally reckless with? Money (pecunia) and her reputation (fama). Which of the two did Sallust probably think was more important? Why? Difficult to tell since they go together in Sallust’s mind. He certainly goes on about the growth of greed and avarice and how that has corrupted the Roman character; but greed and extravagance are also aspects of a bad character and therefore impact on one’s reputation. haud facile ~ comment on Sallust’s use of this phrase. hardly easy – a bit more than non facile: it emphasises just how difficult it was to spot the difference.

8. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia libidine sic accensa est ut saepius peteret viros quam peteretur. Comment on Sallust’s choice of and use of peteret and peteretur in this sentence. To go in search of: describes Sempronia out on the hunt for men. Sallust very cleverly uses the same word in the active and then in the passive to express how Sempronia actively goes searching for men when a proper Roman matron would have waited passively to be approached (and then only with a view to marriage – no “hanky panky”!) Comment on the meaning and position of libidine. libidine means lust, uncontrolled behaviour; here first word in the sentence so with huge emphasis to contrast Sempronia’s behaviour with how a proper Roman matron should behave, with modesty, decorum, chastity, sexual restraint; Sallust then adds even more weight to the word by saying that Sempronia was “on fire with” (accensa) lust.

9. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia sed ea saepe antehac fidem prodiderat, creditum abiuraverat, caedis conscia fuerat. Who is ea ea is Sempronia What are the three things he accuses her of having done? • She had broken her word (fidem prodiderat) • She had reneged on a debt and refused to pay back (creditum abiuraverat) • She had been party to a murder, known about it (caedis conscia) Comment on Sallust’s use of language here (hint: tricolon) He lists three things she has done – a set of three is seen as a powerful way to emphasise things; also these things do in ascending order of seriousness, keeping the worst thing till last.

10. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia ingenium tamen eius haud absurdum: potuit versus facere, iocum movere, sermone uti vel modesto vel molli vel procaci; prorsus multae facetiae multusque lepos inerat. What are the three things that show her ingenium? • She could compose verses (versus facere) • She could make jokes (iocum movere) • She could hold conversations (sermone uti) Why 3? Sallust emphasises her “talents” by using the tricolon, to prepare to knock her reputation down again, at least a little, by mentioning that her conversation could be a bit “cheeky”, “risque”. Comment on the repetition of vel. Repeated three times for emphasis and each time the sort of conversation described is worse than the previous one: modesto (modest, restrained), then molli (tender) and finally procaci (cheeky, risque, flirtatious)

11. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia ingenium tamen eius haud absurdum: potuit versus facere, iocum movere, sermone uti vel modesto vel molli vel procaci; prorsus multae facetiae multusque lepos inerat. What is the effect of the sounds modesto vel molli and the sounds procaci The repetition of the –m is soft and echoes the meaning of modesto and molli (modest, restrained and tender) The –c sound is harsher and gives a rough edge to the word and makes it less positive and likeable. Explain what facetiae and lepos are. They are both quite positive terms to describe a character and show how ambivalent Sallust is about Sempronia – he hates her for her involvement in the conspiracy and the ways in which she was far from the ideal Roman matron but on the other hand he can see that she does have all sorts of attractions in her accomplishments. facetiae means “wit” – making clever jokes and sparkling witty conversation. lepos means “charm”, “agreeableness” – both of appearance and of character.

12. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia ingenium tamen eius haud absurdum: potuit versus facere, iocum movere, sermone uti vel modesto vel molli vel procaci; prorsus multae facetiae multusque lepos inerat. What is the effect of the repetition of multae and multus? Makes it very emphatic – Sallust can see all the bad things about Sempronia but he feels he needs to emphasise just how charming and attractive she must have been.

13. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Sallust ~ The Conspiracy of Catiline The Character of Sempronia Summarise, with examples, the view Sallust presents to us of the character of Sempronia.