Some Latinity

Material I’m stashing here for future reference. It’s about death and grief, approached in an elegant way, so indirectly as to be soothing in terrible times. First from Suetonius, then from Catullus. Gladiator days. From Wikipedia: Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant (‘Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you’) is a well-known Latin phrase quoted in Suetonius, De vita Caesarum (“The Life of the Caesars”, or “The Twelve Caesars”). It was reportedly used during an event in AD 52 on Lake Fucinus by naumachiarii — captives and criminals fated to die fighting during mock naval encounters — in the presence of the emperor Claudius. Suetonius reports that Claudius replied Aut nōn (‘or not’). Variant components in the exchange include Have as the first word instead of Avē, as well as the alternate wordings Avē Caesar and Moritūrī tē salūtāmus — the latter in the 1st person (‘We who are about to die salute you’) — and a response in 15th-century texts of Avete vos (‘Fare you well’).…