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I found the following translation exercise online:

To say nothing of Philip, whom he rendered an enemy to the Romans, though at a distance from him, Antiochus was the most powerful of all kings at that period; and him he so inflamed with a desire for war, that he endeavoured to bring troops against Italy even from the Red Sea.

Here's what I came up with:

De nihil dicendo Philippo, quem ipse inimicum Romanorum habebat quamquam longinquum ab eo, Antiochus rex potentissimus erat saeculi regibus omnibus illius: is cum bello cupiendo tam incensus ut conatus esset copias de mari Rubro contra Italiam trahere.

Since the exercise concerns the use of gerunds and gerundives, I'm mostly concerned with the correctness of the phrase cum bello cupiendo. This was an attempt to apply a principle which the author expressed as follows:

Latin prefers to attract the direct object into the case of the gerund, which in turns adopts the gender and number of the object.

I'd like to verify that I understood it right.

Expedito Bipes
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    When the gerundive enters the ablative case it seems to work either as a gerund or it just creates an agreement of case-endings. Here, "cum bello cupiendo tam incensus" = "so aroused with the war-desire/ blood-lust.". See Q: https://latin.stackexchange.com/a/15243/1982. – tony Feb 01 '21 at 12:23

1 Answers1

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Your “translation exercise” is a famous (I thought) fragment from Nepos’ “Hannibal” (from De exellentibus ducibus, 2.1): “Nam ut omittam Philippum, quem absens hostem reddidit Romanis, omnium iis temporibus potentissimus rex Antiochus fuit. Hunc tanta cupiditate incendit bellandi, ut usque a rubro mari arma conatus sit inferre Italiae.”

[incendit = “he fired him up”; tantā cupiditate = “with so great a desire”; bellandi = “for waging war,” gen. gerundii with tantā cupiditate]

Batavulus
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    Welcome to the site! It's great that you found the original. Your answer might be even better if you also explained tanta cupiditate incendit bellandi a bit, and how/why it is different from the translation Expedito Bipdes chose. – Cerberus Jan 31 '21 at 17:57
  • incendit = “he fired him up”; tantā cupiditate = “with so great a desire”; bellandi = “for waging war” (gen. gerundii with tanta cupiditate) – Batavulus Feb 05 '21 at 20:25
  • Great, now, if you could put that in your answer somewhere? – Cerberus Feb 05 '21 at 20:54