Archery Commands?

[Salvianus]

I really wonder how anyone can know what 1st Century Latin sounded like.

Like much of what re-enactors deal with, I don't think we can know for certain, but there is a surprising amount of evidence which can help us make strong educated guesses, to the point of being able to differentiate between the Latin of the orator and the soldier: comparison of spellings written for everyday purposes, words used in and incorporated into other languages helps a great deal, as do puns, jokes and alliteration etc in literature.

Ecclesiastical Latin reflects some aspects of modern Italian pronunciation. Most useful for us Late Romans are the commentaries on pronunciation at the time, including complaints about sloppy students and guides to improve their spelling. As Cicero said: semper idem - Always the same thing! :lol:

[Nihonius Legio]

I'm glad I know how to pronounce it now, though it sure is a strange way to speak for me.
We should have a Latin forum on here. People type as much Latin as they know, then a translation of the words if they are nice for those of us who dont know Latin to learn some.

It was mentioned above that everyone thinks Romans had english accents. That is mostly the idea of english speaking movie makers. If a movie on Romans was done in the US, and in the english language, we would want British actors to play the parts. This is because British is an old way of speaking in the American mind. We know our accents are new. Technically British accents are also far from Roman times, but are still older than that of the US. Basically, summed up, British sounds old fashioned.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I would think it was pronounced in the way the Greeks pronounced

'Plataea' Plat-ay-ee-uh....different pronounciation was often assigned to a sequence of letters, and still is, come to think of it.

Glad-ee-ee is a bit to hard to handle.

Brutee-eye was hard enough to accommodate in my western head! :lol:

[M. Demetrius]

It was your namesake that started it, GJC.
Brutus: Ave, Caesar, here, hold my pugio.
Caesar: Et tu, Brute..YIGH!
(dont' kill me)
*************
We've strayed a long way from archery commands. It is certain, though, that they didn't say,
"Lock and Load"
"Ready, aim, fire!"

"Loose" or "send" would be more likely. Shoot, maybe, I don't know how far back that phrase goes.

[PhilusEstilius]

I wonder can anyone remember just how it went in the opening scene of Gladiator, when the fire arrows were sent over.??

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I wonder can anyone remember just how it went in the opening scene of Gladiator, when the fire arrows were sent over.??

Yes, the Romans won! :mrgreen: (but only with the assistance of Shep the dog!)

[M. Demetrius]

Shep the wardog! And some most interesting RTW flaming oil fireballs from ballistae. It's a wonder they didn't burn the darned whole forest down with those things.

It's a good thing the Romans won that final, decisive battle against the Germanic tribes, and so subjugated all the lands north of the Rhine, isn't it? Otherwise, the Empire might have become stagnant in growth, and collapsed within just a couple of centuries. :|

[PhilusEstilius]

David I think the Empire did just do that in a couple of centuries for after Marcus Aurelius things did indeed go a bit on the down turn.

[Nihonius Legio]

Philus
Sounds like in Gladiator they say. "Archers ignite." "Archers Draw." then "Loose!"
If that is what you were asking.

[PhilusEstilius]

It more or less comes out a bit like Adrian said in the first instance but with only the three word commands.

[habbs]

Thanks for the fascinating thread, everyone. The wealth of information here is impressive.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yep!