Latin - someone help me!

[Heresson]

OK. I have to translate something from latin. Easy task, it may seem, especially that I've found english translation in the net. Yet, it is awful. This lady demands 78% of good answers to pass... and this translation, I will have to "defend it" - she will ask me grammatical questions based on it. So I have to be 100% sure of everything.

Here is a sentence I am not sure of:

(...) ob quae victis Carthaginiensibus et capto Syphace, cuius in Africa magnum atque late imperium valuit , populus Romanus (...) urbis et agros (...) regi (Masinissae) dono dedit

it is translated in the english translation as "whose power in Africa was great (magnus,i) and extensive (latus,is)"
valeo means to be strong, but also to overcome.
My problem is - could "magnum" be in fact somekind of archaical (it seams Sallustius likes archaical forms, vide: maxume :vomit adverbium and be associated with valuit?
"whose imperium in Africa was strong strongly and vastly"?
It reminds me Jon Stewart's Daily Show episode about Bush's State of the Union adress...

I guess so. I figured it out now. But many questions will follow, though

[Adalbertus]

I'd probably rearrange it to

cuius imperium in Africa magnum fuit atque late valuit

... whose empire in Africa was great and had a far-reaching might ...

OTOH, I left school 20 years ago, and that's what is left from latin.

[Zkribbler]

You're in luck. I'm an expert in Mock Latin.

(...) "ob" [that's short for 'obese']; "quae" [quack, as in a duck]; victis ["victim" -- obviously, a dead duck]; Carthaginiensibus [Carthagenian]; "et capto Syphace" [literally, " a crappy sauce"]; cuius in Africa magnum [skewered with a large African bullet -- i.e. shot with an elephant gun]; atque late [pig latin for "qat tal" i.e. "quite tall"]; "imperium" [a reference to imperial margarine] "valuit" [value or valuable], populus Romanus [Romanii people is a reference to gypsies] urbis et agros [herbs & salad]; 'regi' [cash register] "(Masinissae)" [things got messy]; "dono"[don't know] dedit [debit card]

Which means:
A fat, dead, Cathagenian duck, cooked in a lousy sauce after it's been shot with an elephant gun, was eaten by a quite tall gypsy who slathered it in margarine, with herbs and a side salad, and who had things get messy when he tried to pay for it because he didn't realize he needed a debit card.

[Provost Harrison]

Decus et tutamen!

[Datajack Franit]

The ancient history student in me is going to help you for sure


































if he didn't pick Greek as curriculum ancient language instead

[Odin]

I've been wanting to learn Latin but the complexities of all the different suffixes drive me nuts.

Inflection-heavy languages:

[Last Conformist]

"whose power in Africa was great and widely strong", ie was strong over a wide area. Or that's how I'd translate it after a half-semester's worth of Latin.

[Leifmk]

Looking up the relevant verb: valeo -ere [to be strong , vigorous, in good health, well; to have force, avail, prevail, be able; to be worth]

So, a more literal translation might be "...whose great and extensive power prevailed in Africa", perhaps.

[Adalbertus]

Leifmk,

late is an adverb, and thus refers to valuit and not to imperium.

[Heresson]

Fortunately, lady told me I can deliver the translation and be examined after the break.
I also took one examination. And as usually, only when You're writing an exam, You suddenly see all the subtlenesses of the subject. My main problem was:
If there's a deponens and deponens-like parts of semideponens,
their forms (as participia, infinitiva etc), though bearing active form, are in fact to be translated as passive.
So, "hortatus" for example, though it is participium perfecti passivi, is in fact to be translated as participium perfecti activi.
But the problem is - there is no participium perfecti activi in latin. Aften a while I figured out that I should translate it as if it in fact did exist, and not as participium praesentis activi, as it may seem.
So I translated it "the one who was encouraging"
but in fact it should be "the one who has encouraged"
because it's perfecti, not imperfecti. Damn. I hope she won't mind that slight difference - there is no participium imperfecti, so the meaning of it should be covered.
I should get at least half a point.

The ironic part was that originally, I got the same questions as last time, but got to the point I shouldn't be taking advantage of it, and returned the questions and asked for another ones, which, obviously, turned out much harder.
Damn.

[Fake Boris]

Make sure to keep us updated.

[Heresson]

I got the message, sorry
I simply had too much latin in my head and had to get it out of me

[Fake Boris]

No, I'm serious. I like difficult Latin sentences... I have myself created some Latin threads in the past.

[muxec]

Lingua Latin non penis canine.