Can I pick the brains of our Latin scholars please?

I just finished reading a highly fictionalised book about Boudica, which was enjoyable on the whole, but which had a persistently jarring note.

The Roman Legions were given either their Latin names in full, or were described as the Second Legion, or the Ninth Legion, or whatever. The problem came when the Legions were referred to using their numbers in Roman numerals. The IInd Legion? The IXth Legion?

I only know a very small smattering of Latin, but something tells me IInd, IXth, XIVth etc aren't right.

Would anyone care to comment?

Ros

School years and sports teams sometimes have roman numbers, and I have seen both lower VIth (for lower sixth) and IInd XI (for second eleven). I don't see how else you can anglicise these.

You're right Graham - I had forgotten my Molesworth! It still doesn't look right though...

If in using these terms you persist,
There's a play that you shouldn't have missed.
A Shakespearian work
About war gone berserk.
Its title is Richard the Ist.


Horrors! A sight rhyme!!! But it's meant to be pronounced "ist" and not "first" so it's OK.

And yes, yes, I know. The Shakespearian play was "Richard the Third" AKA Richard III but "IIIrd" wouldn't rhyme with "persist" and "missed."

As soon as I'm finished with the OED, I'll rewrite Shakespeare.

CJ REE

I like "Ist" and I'll wager I'm not the only one. You have no grounds for feeling defensive!

Koko sang "...I've got 'em on the list/and they'd none of 'em be missed"
so you even have precedent for the others!

[And now I'm trying to figure out why your limerick started
"If you wish in this world to advance
Your merits you're bound to enhance
You must stir it and stump it
And blow your own trumpet
Or trust me you haven't a chance"
revolving ceaselessly in my brain...must be the rhythm of the first line...
otherwise it's a long way from Titipu to Ruddigore]

OK, I'll bite. What's Molesworth?

(Why do I feel this is a set-up line?)

Nigel Molesworth, The Curse of St Custards...

Molesworth

Same here Haberdasher - going to be singing that all morning now!

Ros

quote:

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Originally posted by Ros:
Nigel Molesworth, The Curse of St Custards...

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Do our U.S. friends need to be told that a public school is in fact a private school, whereas we call our public schools state schools? (Just to avoid confusion, obviously.)

Who was it on being released from 12 years captivity in a third-world country, said that he had been well-prepared for it, as he had been educated at an English public school?

(He added that, on balance, he rather preferred the third-world prison.)

Yes, this subject has been covered at great length more than once. I'm not complaining, mind you. It's just that when either term comes up I just remember that whatever it seems to mean to me as an American is incorrect. (Not unlike my beloved country's foreign policy in general, but that's another matter entirely...)

"Public" means pertaining to the nation, state or community, so we in the U.S. must be taking the "state" meaning, while you in the U.K. must be thinking of the "community", where the community is private.

Actually, in all fairness, at least in Illinois, the public schools are fairly private. By that I mean, if you live in an affluent area where property taxes are higher, your children have much better schools than if you have the bad luck of living in an inner city.

quote:

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Originally posted by C J Strolin:
Yes, this subject has been covered at great length more than once. I'm not complaining, mind you.

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Sorry, the perils of being a latecomer!

No, no, no! That's specifically why I said "Not that I'm complaining." Better you come late than not at all. (Insert your own dirty joke here.) Especially with threads possibly no longer being closed down due to inactivity, we're depending on newcomers (snicker!) to pick up the ball (so to speak) and pump (!) new life into old subjects laying (snort!) around the archives.

(Ever have one of those days when your mind gets stuck in a rut?)

Thanks CJ, I realised you weren't complaining.