Gratuitous Latin / Marathon

The Marathon series contains so much Latin that we've given it its own page. A few level names are in Latin, and there are several other cases in-story. Discussions can be found here and here, though unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be such a page for Infinity. Usually, the grammar is pretty good, but a particularly notable error is the level name "Ingue ferroque", which Jason Jones has admitted is incorrect, as explained below, and there are a few other minor grammatical mistakes. A (fairly) complete list follows.

We have followed the example of the original games by not using any accents over Latin in our primary quotations, but classical Latin actually had an accent known as the apex (plural: apices), which differentiated between short and long vowels (long vowels were accompanied by apices) and is most commonly found rendered using macrons when it is included in modern renderings of Latin.^note The apex over the vowels a, e, o, and u was actually about halfway between a macron and an acute accent, looking roughly like a᷄, e᷄, o᷄, or u᷄. The vowel i, meanwhile, was simply written taller. As a result, we have also included versions of each of these words, phrases, or quotations with macrons over them (unless none of the relevant words contained apices), which can be found by clicking the phrase "With macrons" after each Latin phrase that contained them.

See UsefulNotes.Latin Pronunciation Guide for info on how to pronounce these phrases in Classical Latin. (Ecclesiastical Latin, which is actually the source of some of these examples [e.g., most of Tempus Irae's cases], would have had a somewhat different pronunciation.)

Marathon

• "Poenas dare"^{With macrons} Poenās dare, found in the map writing of "Cool Fusion", means "Pay the penalties," or simply, "Suffer."
• In the level "Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken", Durandal ends his message with:

  Vale,

  Durandal

  • Although vale^{With macrons} valē looks like an English word, in this context it actually means farewell in Latin (or stay strong, stay healthy, stay worthy, keep yourself effective, prevail... most Latin words have at least half a dozen translations to English, and valē is no exception).
• "Cupiditas praemium suum est"^{With macrons} Cupiditās praemium suum est, found on the map of "Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!", means "Cupidity is its own reward," or "Desire is its own reward." (Cupidity means extreme greed, especially for wealth; however cupiditas can also be translated as simply desire.) This is a cynical twist on a stock proverb, "Virtutis praemium suum est"^{With macrons} Virtūtis praemium suum est, meaning "Virtue is its own reward."
• The most literal translation of "Habe quiddam"^{With macrons} Habē quiddam is "Have some", though like many Latin verbs, habeō has numerous other possible translations, among them "accept some" or "endure some". It may be intended to mean "Get some" (which would be more properly expressed as tenē quiddam or similar), possibly as a Shout-Out to Full Metal Jacket (1987, dir. by Stanley Kubrick). However, holding the control key and typing "HAVESOME" (either with shift held down or caps lock enabled) granted invincibility in the Marathon beta, suggesting that "have some" is in fact the intended translation.
  • Interestingly, various official sources also use "Habete quiddam"^{With macrons} Habēte qiuddam, "Habe quidam"^{With macrons} Habē quīdam, and "Habete quidam"^{With macrons} Habēte quīdam, which all translate identically to English, all mean roughly the same thing in Latin, and are all grammatically correct.^{Grammar nerd explanation} Quīdam is masculine, while quiddam is neuter; habēte is the plural present active imperative, representing a command directed at multiple people, while habē is the singular present active imperative, representing a command directed at a single person.
• The level "Welcome to the Revolution" contains a secret terminal in which Tycho states, "Tua consilia omnia nobis clariora sunt quam lux. Tu delenda est."^{With macrons} Tua cōnsilia omnia nōbīs clāriōra sunt quam lūx. Tu dēlenda est. This means roughly, "All your plans are clearer than light to us. You are to be destroyed." However, "Tu dēlenda est" is slightly grammatically incorrect in this case, since tu in Durandal's case should be in the masculine gender. Beyond that, est should be changed to es, since the subject (tu) is in second person. "Tu dēlendus es" would be correct. More information is found on the series shout-out page, since it contains a reference to a famous phrase by the Roman politician Cato the Censor.^{Watsonian versus Doylist commentary} It's possible that Tycho intends a subtle insult to Durandal by using the feminine gender here - a terminal in "Feel the Noise" may be an oblique reference to this, and indeed may also be a possible Author's Saving Throw. It's also possible that Bungie simply felt it was worth making the reference to Cato the Censor as obvious as possible and thus left the gender intact. Or else they just overlooked it.
  • Durandal's response to the above is simply "Et tu, Tycho? [laughter]"^{With macrons} Et tū, Tycho?, meaning "And you, Tycho?", meant to indicate a sense of betrayal. Further exegesis once again found on the series shout-out page, since it is likely intended as a reference to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Then again, Durandal's laughter suggests that he may also be mocking Tycho.
• "Ingue ferroque" is intended to mean "With Fire and Sword" or "By Fire and Sword" (more literally, "With Fire and Iron"), a phrase used to describe scorched-earth tactics in warfare, but it is misspelled, by Jason Jones' own admission. The phrase is in the ablative case, which does not exist in English; either "Igni ferroque"^{With macrons} Īgnī ferrōque or "Igne ferroque"^{With macrons} Īgne ferroque would be correct (both spellings are attested). The phrases "ferrō īgnīque", "ferrō atque īgnī", "īgnī atque ferrō", "ferrō atque flammā", "ferrō flammāque", and other variants are also attested in Latin writings to describe these kinds of tactics.

Marathon 2

• "Ex cathedra"^{With macrons} Ex cathedrā probably is intended to mean "from the cathedral" or "from the bishop's chair" in this case.^{Grammar notes} "Ex" means "from" or "out of" and governs the ablative case, so "cathedrā" is technically more correct here than "cathedra", though many modern renderings of Latin omit the apices, and the classic Mac character set used for Marathon levels didn't have the macron used to render the apex in most modern renderings that include it. "Cathedra" can mean "armchair", "ceremonial chair" (of a teacher or, later, a bishop), or "office or rank of teacher or bishop".
  
  The acute accent (i.e. "Ex cathedrá") is included in the classic Mac character set and actually bears a closer resemblance to the apex than the macron does (apart from the i, which was the odd man out for how it was rendered), but Bungie chose not to use dicritical marks for any of their Latin, and in any case, "ex cathedra" without a diacritical mark is already a familiar phrase in English-language writings.
• "Fatum celer"^{With macrons} Fātum celer, seen in Durandal's first login on "Bob's Big Date" and his first login on "Eat It, Vid Boi!", means "Swift fate" or "Swift destiny".
• "Antiquus" (seen on one of the S'pht terminals on "Bob's Big Date") means "antique", "ancient", "old", "bygone", "time-honoured", "simple", "venerable", "classic", "traditional", "essential"... again, many Latin words have a lot of translations.
• "Virtus incertus"^{With macrons} Virtūs incertus, seen in Durandal's second login on "Bob's Big Date", is suggested by the Marathon's Story page to mean "Uncertain virtue" or "Doubtful valour", though it may contain a minor grammatical error: virtūs is a feminine noun, whereas incertus, if it is meant to be an adjective, is the masculine form. The correct rendering would be virtūs incerta. Virtūs can mean valour, courage, excellence, character, worth, strength, gallantry, manhood, and any number of other concepts (again, many Latin words have a ridiculous number of translations to English). As an adjective, incertus can mean uncertain, unsure, unknowing, doubtful, doubting, unknown, obscure, hesitating, irresolute, undecided, and so on. In short, this epithet is a bit of a paradox. As a noun, incertus can also mean uncertainty, but if this phrase were meant to be a pair of nouns, it should be rendered as virtūs et incertus, virtūs incertusque, virtūs atque incertus, or any number of others. However, since this is just Durandal's login, it's possible that he's simply strung two nouns together for some reason.
• "Fatum iustum stultorum"^{With macrons} Fātum iūstum stultōrum means "The Just Fate of Fools".
• "Vestrum excrucibo" (seen in Durandal's first login in "Fatum iustum stultorum"): Meaning not entirely clear. Vestrum is the neuter singular of voster, meaning your. (The gender here does not refer to the gender of the person possessing the item in question, but to the gender of the item being possessed; thus, it refers to a possession that Latin uses a neuter noun to describe, not a eunuch who possesses an item.) Excrucibo is not actually a Latin word, but may be a slight misspelling of excruciābō, which means I shall torment, I shall vex, I shall afflict, I shall plague, I shall harass, I shall distress, I shall force out through torture, or similar. The sentence being formed is thus incomplete: "I shall torment your..." It should be noted that this is part of Durandal's login, and in-universe, the terminal interface may simply have truncated the login.
• Manus celer Dei^{With macrons} Manus celer Deī, the name of Durandal's ship seen in the Marathon 2 ending, means The Swift Hand of God or The Swift Power of God. (Manus may also have any of about twenty other meanings - not kidding.) This is a case of another slight grammatical mistake, as manus is usually a feminine noun ^note hence the Spanish derivative la mano, which does not follow the usual rule that most Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine, so Manus celeris Deī would be more correct. (Ships are also frequently given feminine names anyhow. However, in Bungie's defence, manus is one of a handful of feminine fourth-declension nouns in the entire Latin language; the vast majority are masculine.)
• The Xbox Live re-release by Freeverse adds another instance in the high-definition textures: the Durandal terminal texture in the lava set has the Latin text:

  "Persequar inimicos meos et
  adprehendam et non revertar
  donec consumam eos
  cadent sub pedibus meis."

  • This is a slightly truncated quote from the Vulgate of Psalms 18. Verses 18:37 and 18:38 read in full, with Durandal's text bolded:
    "Persequar inimicos meos et adprehendam, et non revertar donec consumam eos. Caedam eos, et non poterunt surgere: cadent sub pedibus meis."^{With macrons} Persequar inimīcōs meōs et adprehendam, et nōn revertar dōnec cōnsūmam eōs. Caedam eōs, et nōn poterunt surgere: cadent sub pedibus meīs.
  • The King James Version translates this as (with Durandal's text again bolded):
    "I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet."
  • The first two lines of this also appear in Durandal's sewage terminal texture; the bottom line of his sewage texture, however, contains nonsense.

Marathon Infinity

• "Ne cede malis"^{With macrons} Nē cēde mālīs means "Do not yield to misfortunes," and is a quote from Virgil's The Aeneid. Further information can be found on the series shout-out page.
• Tfear's terminal in "Aie Mak Sicur" is stamped "terminus", a Latin word meaning "boundary, limit, or end" that has been adapted into English to mean "the end or final point". (Note that the logoff screen also features the seemingly gibberish text "^^^EOf"; "EOF" is in fact an acronym for "End of file".)
• The net level "Ex justicia mortis"^{With macrons} Ex jūsticiā mortis can be translated roughly as "From the justice of death". The phrase can be implicitly read to suggest, "Death comes out of justice," or the reverse, "Justice comes through death" (i.e., everyone now living will eventually die, and thus are we all ultimately made equal), but it does not contain a verb. Then again, owing to a construction called a zero copula, it doesn't really need one. (Also, note that justicia is a medieval spelling; classical Latin would have used iustitia, and despite this being the obvious ancestor of the English word justice, it can also be translated as fairness or equity.)

We've moved the Latin from fan games to GratuitousLatin.Marathon Expanded Universe (and there's arguably even more of it).