Two years ago I wrote that I was attempting to translate ancient Roman historian Livy's account of the Rape of Lucretia from Latin into English, and indeed, I translated the first sentence here:
@hirohurl/translating-livy-s-account-of-the-rape-of-lucretia-part-1-ardeam-rutuli-habebant
Shakespeare Research and Presentation
That project was part of a plan to research and present a paper about Shakespeare's poem, The Rape of Lucrece which I had originally intended to present to a conference in Hiroshima in 2020, but COVID-19 put paid to that.
Three years later... the conference organisers at last feel brave enough to hold the conference and so I am starting to revive my interest in researching the paper in the hope of getting something presentable put together by the end of August, when the conference takes place.
The Rape of Lucretia
As I mentioned two years ago, the story of the "Rape of Lucretia" is one of the "founding myths" of the Roman republic. It goes like this:
During the Roman army's siege of Ardea, the commanders hold a party and argue about which of their wives is the most virtuous. They ride back to Rome to observe them. Only Lucretia, Collatine's wife, remains faithful and at home. Prince Sextus Tarquinius, infatuated by her, secretly visits and rapes her. The next day Lucretia summons her father and husband, urges revenge, then kills herself. Her body is displayed to the outraged Romans who overthrow the Tarquin monarchy and establish the Roman Republic.
The Story So Far (My Translation)
The Rutuli, who inhabited Ardea, was a tribe which, in those regions and in those times, was exceedingly wealthy;
and that was the cause of the war, because the king of the Romans, having exhausted his own wealth on the magnificence of his public works, sought to enrich himself and mollify the hearts of the people with booty,
for, in addition to being hostile to the tyranny of his reign, they were indignant that they had been put to work for so long by the king as labourers and slaves.
Okay, so here is the next sentence...
Chapter 1, Section 57.3
temptata res est, si primo impetu capi Ardea posset: ubi id parum processit, obsidione munitionibusque coepti premi hostes.
My first rough translation went more or less like this:
A thing was tried, if [at the] first rush Ardea [could be] captured: where it proceeded [too] slowly siege and fortification was begun to press in the enemy.
I put it to Google Translate, which gave me:
It was a matter of trying, if Ardea could be taken at the first attack: when this progressed but little, they began to press the enemy with a siege and fortifications.
Then I tested the mettle of ChatGPT, which gave me this:
The attempt was made, if Ardea could be captured by the first assault: when that proceeded insufficiently, the enemy began to be pressed by siege and fortifications.
So with that in mind, and after some further interrogation of ChatGPT, here is my final version:
An attempt was made to see if on the first assault the capture of Ardea were possible. When that made little progress, the enemy was hemmed in with a siege and fortifications.
Resources:
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita Libri http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0160%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D57
Picture source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarquinius_Collatinus
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
https://davidhurleyinjapan.com