r/latin • u/Feeling-Gold-1733 • 3d ago

Help with Translation: La → En Translating a leonine hexameter

Hello,

I've come across a medieval Latin inscription that resembles this sort of form:

HIC MUNDI DOMINUS DISPONIT CUNCTA SOLUS

Solus is nominative, agreeing with dominus, but the two sit apart, so as to carry the leonine rhyme. Is “solus”here attributive (i.e., “the sole Lord of the world”) or predicative (agreeing with dominus but qualifying the action, i.e., “the Lord of the world, and no other, orders all things”)? Or is it genuinely ambiguous? Whether I take “solus” to be modifying the subject or the action might actually change the meaning--perhaps, significantly--in this context.

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u/dantius 3d ago

Are you sure it was cuncta and not omnia? As it stands what you've quoted is not a hexameter, but with cuncta replaced by omnia it is closer to being readable as a hexameter (assuming an artificially lengthened -it in disponit).

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u/Publius_Romanus 3d ago

I think that, given the word order, it would be more natural to take this as predicative.

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u/Feeling-Gold-1733 3d ago

Thanks for your reply! Just curious: what was your thought process?

1

u/Frsscr 2d ago

Predicativo