# Ave people, the dead one salutes you



## icyvel

Dear Users,
I've got a question concerning a variation of a Latin phrase _Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant _(whether it was really used or not is a different story ).
I would like to say:

*Ave people, the dead one salutes you*

What I came up with is:

*Ave gentis, mortuus vos salutó
*
Since I've never studied Latin, though, I have no way to check whether this is correct. I believe _gentis _should be conjugated somehow, but I don't know how to do it. Any ideas?
Thank you so much!


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## P2Grafn0l

Salve Icyvel,

"Gentis" should be in the vocative case, when a person, a thing or more than one is being addressed.
So this would be grammatically correct:
_
Ave gens..._

Source: gens - Wiktionary


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## jazyk

Salutat, not saluto/salutó.


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## Scholiast

salvete!

Unfortunately, _gens_ is not the right word here. It means 'people' in the sense of an ethnic group or nation.* I would suggest instead _o homines
_
Σ

*Edited afterthought: a famous phrase from Rome's 'national' epic poem, Virgil's _Aeneid_, refers to the Romans themselves as the _gens togata_—the 'people that wears the toga', as the latter was the quintessential national dress, unique to them.


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## P2Grafn0l

jazyk said:


> Salutat, not saluto/salutó.



Sorry, I got caught off-guard, because of Icyvel's "*salutó*".
I thought about something like this:

_Ave gens, [ego] mortuus vos saluto. _= *Hail the nation, I, the dead one, salute you. *

It is not like I do not know the difference between the first person singular present indicative and the third person singular present indicative.
And I think the word '_gens_' suits the sentence pretty well.
The reason for that is, that _the dead one_ holds the implication of being a fallen warrior of [and perhaps, originally, from] that very nation[, too].


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## P2Grafn0l

The answer to the real question:
_
O homines, mortuus vos salutat._ = *O people, the dead one salutes you.*


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## icyvel

Thank you very much for your answers. Could you, however, clarify something for me? What's the difference between:

1. gentis and homines?
2. salutó and salutat?


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## P2Grafn0l

'Gentis' = *of the nation*.
'Homines' = *Humans/people*.
'Saluto' = *I salute*.
'Salutat' = *He/she/it salutes*.
'Salutant' = *They salute*.  

saluto - Wiktionary

But you will have to learn more about the Latin case system and conjugations, to be able to form grammatically correct sentences.
And I am no expert, not yet!

I want to add to it, that '_mortuus_' basically means "dead man", and '_mortua_' basically means "dead woman".


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## P2Grafn0l

Scholiast said:


> the _gens togata_—the 'people that wears the toga'



Very informative, I must admit, though it does not say that the exclamation '_ave_' can't be followed by the noun '_gens_'. 
The thing she wants to say, isn't that idiomatic either, which is why I like Icyvel's idea very much.


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## icyvel

Your help is invaluable - thank you for taking your time to reply  I actually want to use that phrase in a piece of writing, that's why I needed such a variation. I'm not planning to study Latin soon, though (unfortunately!). Maybe one day I'll have such a chance


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