# gladium educere conanti dextram moratur manum



## leisulin

Please someone help me with this.  "gladium educere conanti dextram moratur manum" is an exercise sentence on page 228 of _Latin:  An Intensive Course_ by Moreland and Fleischer, translated by a helpful key to the exercises therein as "the right hand of the man trying to draw out his sword delays".  I'm guessing the reason "dextram manum" is in the accusative is related somehow to "moratur" being a deponent verb, but I don't understand how this works.  If it were nominative, I'd be OK.  (I guess conanti is dative of possession.)  Could someone explain how this works here for me in general terms, so I can recognize this kind of construction the next time I find it?


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## fdb

moror can be intransitive ("hesitate") or transitive ("prevent, restrain"). Try it with the transitive meaning.


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## Scholiast

salvete omnes

Just to complement fdb's characteristically expert remark: to "stay [one's] hand" has exactly this sense.

Σ


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## CapnPrep

leisulin said:


> translated by a helpful key to the exercises therein as "the right hand of the man trying to draw out his sword delays"


I hope this is not indicative of the overall "helpfulness" of the answer key…

This partial sentence is taken from Caesar (_BG_ 5, 44). It may help you to have the subject of the sentence and the wider context (not to mention the many translations into English available on-line).


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## leisulin

OK...if so, then is the sense:  "he restrains the right hand of (dative of possession?) the one trying to draw out his sword (_i.e. his own hand_)"?  Or is it "he restrains the right hand for (dative of DISservice??) the one trying to draw out his sword (_i.e. the other guy's hand_)"?  _Who do we understand is restraining the hand, the man drawing his own sword or the other guy trying to prevent the one guy from drawing his sword?_

I was thinking as I fell asleep last night:  earlier in this same chapter they cover impersonal passive verbs.  Examples:  "domi pugnatur" ("it is being fought at home", i.e. there is fighting going on at home) and "ad villam curritur" ("it is being run to the country house", i.e. "people" are running to the country house).  Of course, neither of those verbs are deponents.  But I was wondering if there is some kind of impersonal construction that would explain this sentence, something literally translated like "IT delays the right hand of the man trying to draw out his sword", a fancy way to say something is making him hesitate but we aren't told what exactly.  I'm still just not quite sure how the grammar of the sentence is working.  With "conanti" in the dative, I've become unsure who is restraining the hand.


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## leisulin

Yes, that makes it all crystal clear.  Apparently moratur has an unexpressed (in my textbook) subject "hic casus", an external impediment delaying the right hand "to" (of) him trying to draw out (his OWN) sword.  I see my fantasy about it being an impersonal subject was wrong.  I guess next time I run across something fuzzy like this, involving weaponry, I should simply text search De Bello Gallico to get some CONTEXT!

Many thanks to all three responders.


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