2

While in Maroneia in Syria as a young man I happened to meet the aged Malchus and his wife. I learned about these events from him.

Marōnīās: nom. sing., also spelled Marōneia and Marōnia; its precise location is unknown.

trīginta fēre mīlibus: mīlibus = mīlibus passuum, i.e. “miles”; ablative of degree of difference (AG 414). Thirty Roman miles are about 27.5 miles or 44.5 km.

vīculus: “hamlet, small village.”

Hic = Hic (vīculus); subject of dēvolūtus est.

post multōs vel dominōs vel patrōnōs < patrōnus -ī m., “patron”; here probably in the LL sense of “landlord, landowner.” vel is probably not disjunctive but connective: vel ... vel almost = et ... et (Gray).

dum ego adulēscentulus morārer: “while as a young man I was spending time.” In CL this would be dum + pres. indic., but in later authors dum can take a subjunctive (AG 556). The date was ca. 373, when Jerome was with Evagrius in Antioch; if Jerome was born in 347 (the date is disputed) he would have been around 25.

pāpae Evagriī < pāpa -ae m., “bishop” (LL); Evagrius would become bishop of Antioch in 388 or 389.

dēvolūtus est < dēvolor (1), “to transfer”; a legal term for the transfer of property, especially by inheritance.

idcircō: “for this reason” (adv.); anticipating ut ostenderem.

ut ostenderem: imperf. subj. in a purpose clause.

unde nōssem = unde nōvissem > noscō; pluperf. subj. in indirect question, though with noscō the pluperfect is best translated as a perfect; unde: “from which general situation” (see Gray), “which is how….”

quod scrīptūrus sum: the “First Periphrastic Conjugation,” i.e. future active participle + sum (AG 194).

2.2

Malchus, quem nōs Latīnē “Rēgem” possumus dīcere: the name Malchus is Syriac (and Hebrew), and means “king” or “royal.”

Syrus ... linguā: Malchus spoke Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic.

rē vērā: “in truth.”

Anus quoque in eius contuberniō < anus -ūs f., “old woman; < contubernium -(i)ī n., “the fact of living together, association.” Chapter 10.3 suggests that Malchus and his wife ended up living in separate communities; for possible solutions to the problem see Gray, who suggests that the two may have returned to each other afterwards, and were living together (chastely) when Jerome met them.

studiōsī ambō religiōnis: religiōnis is objective genitive.

Zacharīam et Elisabeth: Zacharias and Elizabeth were the aged parents of John the Baptist; see Luke 1:5 ff.

ut ... crēderēs: imperf. subj., in a result clause, but also a potential subjunctive (“you would believe”; AG 447.2).

nisi quod: “except that” (LS nisi C.5).

in mediō nōn erat: “was not around,” “was not there” (DMLBS medius 24, n. subst. “middle part, centre, midst”).

2.3

ab accolīs < accola -ae m./f., “neighbor.”

quaererem: imperf. subj. in a circumstantial cum clause (AG 546).

quaenam esset < quisnam quaenam quidnam, “who, tell me? what, tell me?”; esset: imperf. subj. in an indirect question. On the importance of this question to Jerome’s story see Šubrt (2014) 209-10.

mātrimōniī, sanguinis, an spīritūs: genitives of quality after copula (AG 345)

omnēs vōce cōnsonā sānctōs et deō placitōs = omnēs respondēbant vōce cōnsonā (eos) esse sānctōs et deō placitōs.

mīra nescio quae: “some amazing stories,” (mīra -ōrum n. pl.), implying that Jerome did not attribute much importance to them at the time. See LS nescio I.γ and OLD nescio 6.a. DMLBS mirus 4.

Quā cupiditāte illectus: “spurred by desire as a result” (Gray); < illiciō illicere illexī illectum, “to entice.”

adōrsus sum hominem < adorior adorīrī adortus (LL adorsus) sum, “to approach a person in order to address him, to ask something of him” (LS adorior I).

cūriōsius: comparative adverb of cūriōsus -a -um (= the neuter of the comparative adjective, cūriōsior cūriōsius).

scīscitāns < scīscitor (1) “to inquire.”

rērum fidem: “the truth of the matter” (LS fidēs II.A.1.b; see OLD fidēs 9b)