HODIE: ante diem tertium Nonas Decembres. You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.
TODAY'S POEM: Here is today's little poem, from the Poetry Widget. This is one of the emblems of Alciato, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual:
Quod fine egregios turpi maculaveris orsus,You can find an English translation along with the emblem itself at the Alciato Web Edition online! This is the proverbial "Scyrian goat" which you can also read about in Erasmus's Adagia 1.10.20 (Skyros is an island in the Aegean, and in mythology it is where Theseus died after being thrown from a cliff by Lycomedes, the king of Skyros.)
In noxamque tuum || verteris officium;
Fecisti quod capra, sui mulctralia lactis
Cum ferit, et proprias || calce profundit opes.
TODAY'S TWITTER:
Vita Caesaris: You can see my IVLIVS CAESAR feed with a sentence from Plutarch's Life of Caesar each day in Greek, Latin and English. Today's portion describes the incredible loyalty of Caesar's soldiers in Gaul: Tanta uero beneuolentia erga eum, tantum fuit militum studium, ut qui alioquin in bello nihil reliquis praestarent, ii pro Caesaris gloria inuicti quoduis periculum adirent.
Proverbiis Pipilo: You can see my Proverbia feed of Latin proverbs which I "tweet" while I am online each day (in English, too). Here's one from today that is kind of like a riddle: Dimidio vitae nihil differunt felices at infelicibus (English: For half of their lives nothing distinguishes the lucky & the unlucky - so, just what is that "half of life" referring to? It is the time when they are asleep - when the wretched person can dream sweet dreams, and for that matter when the happy man might suffer nightmares).
TODAY'S MOTTOES & PROVERBS
You can get access to all the proverb of the day scripts (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.
2-Word Mottoes: Today's 2-word motto is: Gloria Deo (English: Glory be to God).
3-Word Mottoes: Nouns: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Deo patriaeque fidelis (English: Faithful to God and country).
3-Word Mottoes: Verbs: Today's 3-word motto with verb is Avito evehor honore (English: I am borne up by ancestral honor - notice the elegant way the ablative phrase wraps around the verb!).
2-Word Proverbs: Today's 2-word proverb is: Atreo crudelior (English: More savage than Atreus - as when he fed his twin brother Thyestes a dinner consisting of Thyestes' own sons - OUCH).
3-Word Proverbs: Nouns: Today's 3-word verb-less proverb is Optima medicina temperantia (English: Moderation is the best medicine - i.e. moderation in food, drink and all those other dangerously fun things).
3-Word Proverbs with Verbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Fortuna est rotunda (English: Fortune is shaped like a wheel - note here that rotunda does not mean fat, as we use the word in English, but rather round like a wheel, Latin rota, as in "rotate").
Audio Latin Proverb: Today's audio Latin proverb is Calidum et frigidum ex eodem ore efflat (English: He blows hot and cold from the same mouth). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.
Latin Animal Proverb: Today's animal proverb is Ubi mel, ibi apes (English: Where there is honey, there are bees - so watch out!).
Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Labitur e mente cito res bona, sed mala lente (English: A good thing slips your mind quickly, but a bad thing does so slowly - for this one, you need to read the line as if it came in three parts in order to catch the rhyme mente-lente).
Maxims of Publilius Syrus: Today's proverb from Publilius Syrus is: Ubi iudicat, qui accusat, vis, non lex valet (English: When the one who accuses is also judge, then force, not law, has prevailed).
Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Epimenidis somnum edormit (English: He's sleeping the sleep of Epimenides - that seer who famously slept in the sacred cave of Zeus on the island of Crete).
Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Esto fidelis usque ad mortem (Rev. 2:10). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.
Animal Proverb from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb from Erasmus is Quam curat testudo muscam (English: As much as a turtle worries about a fly - which is to say, not much at all, since the turtle can escape inside its shell from even the most persistently annoying insect; from Adagia 2.8.100 - for Erasmus, this turtle is a symbol of the mind, which in a protective shell of philosophy and morality has no external worries).
Proper Name Proverb from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Graviora Sambico patitur (English: He's suffering punishments more terrible than those of Sambicus; from Adagia 1.1.80 - this Sambicus was notorious for having plundered the temples of the gods, after which he was captured by the authorities and tortured - Plutarch is the source for this one).
Elizabethan Proverb Commentary: Here is today's proverb commentary, this time by Conybeare: Canis reversus ad vomitum: The dogge turneth agayne to eat that he vomited. A proverbe applied to hem which being reconciled to god, retourneth agayne to his olde condicions and vices.
Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Ἀυλὸν σάλπιγγι συγκρίνεις (English: You're comparing a trumpet to a flute - which is like mixing apples and oranges, but in musical terms!).
TODAY'S FABLES:
Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Senex et Mors, the wonderful of the fable of the old man who thinks he wants to die… but changes his mind when Death arrives.
Gaudium Mundo: Today's Latin holiday songs from the Gaudium Mundo blog are: Angeli Canunt Praecones, a Latin version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," along with Silentio noctis, a Latin version of the Polish carol, "Wśród nocnej ciszy" (even if you don't know the Polish song, I've got a YouTube video you can listen to - it's a lovely melody, easy to learn, and you can then sing the Latin lyrics to it instead of the Polish ones).
