4

While traveling with a group of around seventy people for greater security, we were captured by Arab nomad slave traders. Rather than returning home to come into my inheritance as intended, I was enslaved with a woman I did not know and carried by camel over a vast wilderness.

Dē Beroeā: CL would be ex Beroeā or ab Beroeā. CL uses a preposition with the name of a town “where both a start and an end point of a journey are given” (Gray).

Edessam: Edessa (modern Şanliurfa in Turkey, also known as Urfa) is about 200 miles NE of Beroea (modern Aleppo).

pergentibus: “for those who travel”; a substantivized participle, masc. pl. nom.; dative of reference, here used of the person “from whose point of view an opinion is stated or a situation or a direction is defined” (AG 378); also called “dative of the person judging.”

sōlitūdō: sōlitūdō -inis f.,  “wilderness”; “deserts” in ancient texts are usually wildernesses rather than the completely arid places we call deserts.

Saracēnī: Saracēnī -ōrum m. pl., “Saracens”; strictly speaking a people of the Arabian peninsula, but here a generic word for Arab nomads.

incertīs semper sēdibus: ablative absolute.

Quae suspīciō frequentiam in illīs locīs viātōrum congregat = quōrum suspīciō congregat frequentiam viātōrum in illīs locīs. < congregō (1), “to bring together”; < frequentia -ae f., “multitude.”

ut ... dēclīnētur < dēclīnō (1), “to avoid” (OLD 5c); pres. subj. in a purpose clause.

in comitātū meō < comitātus -ūs m., “group, party.”

4.2

sessōrēs < sessor -ōris m., “rider.”

Ismāēlītae < Ismāēlītēs -ae m. “descendent of Ishmael,” i.e. an Arab; here probably “Bedouin.”

crīnītīs vittātīs capitibus ac sēminūdō corpore < crīnītus -a -um, “long-haired”; < vittātus -a -um ,“headband-wearing”; ablatives of description (AG 415).

pallia et lātās galliculās trahentēs: pallia trahentēs means “dragging their cloaks” on the ground, i.e. “with long flowing robes” (see Varro, Menippean Satires fragment 128, speaking of Greek philosophers). lātās galliculās seems to refer to the Bedouins’ boots  < gallicula -ae f., “Gallic shoe, boot” (LL), but the text is uncertain.

laxōs arcūs: their bows were unstrung, because (as we will learn) they were prepared for kidnapping and enslaving, rather than combat.

ad pugnandum ... ad praedandum < praedor (1), “to take as plunder”; gerunds expressing purpose (AG 506)

4.3

Rapimur, dissipāmur, in dīversa distrahimur: a tricolon crescendo, with homoeoteleuton, forcefully expressing the drama of the situation.

longō postlīminiō hērēditārius possessor: “(intending to be) a landholder by right of inheritance after a long time away.” < postlīminium -(i)ī n., “the right of recovery”; originally the right of someone returning from beyond the border (līmes) to repossess property, but here simply a reference to the fact that Malchus had been away for a long time (TLL postliminium II.B); probably ablative of specification (respect), which can include expressions indicating that in accordance with which a thing is done, AG 418.a.

possessor: possessor -ōris m.,“a person taking occupancy” (of a property, OLD 1.c).

sērō: “late, too late” (adv.)

cum alterā mulierculā: “with a second person, a woman” (Gray).

in ūnīus erī servitūtem sortītus veniō = veniō sortītus in servitūdinem ūnīus erī. < erus (herus) -ī m., “master”; < sortior sortīrī sortītus sum, “to assign by lot.”

haerēmus potius quam sedēmus: sc. in camēlīs.

pōtus: pōtus -ī m., “drink.”