Latin expert?

[TarnishedPenny]

My Latin, such as it ever was, is as dead as the Republic. Would anyone be up to translating a very short phrase? I have a bit of a pun in mind for a title, but suspect it would be a total flop if I tried it using something like Google Translate. Knowledgeable help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Sorry. If I'd try my Latin skills, such as they were after five years, I'd get slapped for corpse molestation.

 

[Privates1stClass]

I've heard the Pope is a Latin expert, but he may be too busy to be of help.

 

[oggbashan]

Post it, and we'll see.

My Latin is sixty years out of date, but I can still read it.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

PM will be sent, Ogg. Thanks.

Thanks to all. I think I have my answer now.

 

[Rustyoznail]

The only Latin lesson I've had was from watching "Life of Brian."

 

[oggbashan]

I started Latin at 9, then again at 11 and finally got the Australian Equivalent of 'A' level - university entrance.

My wife was studying German and French at university and had to do a subsidiary on Latin for a year. My Latin is better and more extensive than hers. She can read a few lines, perhaps, on a tombstone. I can read the whole inscription...

 

[ishtat]

My wife was studying German and French at university and had to do a subsidiary on Latin for a year. My Latin is better and more extensive than hers. She can read a few lines, perhaps, on a tombstone. I can read the whole inscription...

Reading tombstones apparently, is a respectable academic speciality. A few years ago my wife and I took a short cruise around Greece and the Turkish coast. We looked in at a small local museum where one of the exhibits was a small collection of tombstones. My wife translated the Latin part second from the bottom , but wished aloud that she understood the other sections which appeared to be Greek.

A nondescript, hitherto shy little man spoke up, "I think I can help you: the first part is in the Greek of the 6th/7th century BC - dedicated to so and so, the second part is also Greek, 400 or 500 years later, this was a significantly more modern Greek for a new deceased. He then acknowledged my wife's effort, attributing the Latin to the late republic around the time of Christ." Finally he suggested that the last inscription reverted to Greek, probably the Greek of the early Eastern Empire. We were suitably humbled with this ancient re-cycling, but having discovered the Professor, we all learned a great deal from him over the next week or so.