Histrio magnum gestum facit et gesticulari incipit.

Histrio is nominative singular, so it is the subject of the sentence.

A learner might expect a subject ending like -us or -a, but histrio is a third-declension noun, so its nominative singular form is simply histrio. Since the verbs facit and incipit are both third-person singular, histrio is the natural subject for both: the actor/performer does the action.

Because magnum gestum is the direct object of facit.

The verb facit means makes / does, so the thing being made or done goes into the accusative case. Here:

• gestum = accusative singular
• magnum = accusative singular adjective agreeing with gestum

So magnum gestum means a big gesture, with both words matching in case, number, and gender.

Because gestus is the nominative singular form of the noun, but here the noun is being used as a direct object, so it must be accusative singular: gestum.

This can be confusing because -us often looks like a normal second-declension nominative ending, but gestus is actually a fourth-declension noun. In the fourth declension:

• nominative singular: gestus
• accusative singular: gestum

So the change from -us to -um is exactly what you should expect here.

Yes. This is very similar to English.

Latin often uses facere with a noun to express an action, just as English can say make a gesture, make a speech, and so on. So magnum gestum facit is a natural way to say that the actor makes or does a large gesture.

Depending on context, you might translate it more idiomatically than literally, but grammatically the construction is straightforward: facere + object.

This is the common pattern incipio + infinitive, meaning begin to ...

So:

• incipit = he/she/it begins
• gesticulari = to gesticulate

Together, incipit gesticulari means begins to gesticulate.

English also uses this pattern, so it is one of the easier Latin constructions for an English speaker to recognize.

Because gesticulor is a deponent verb.

A deponent verb has passive-looking forms but an active meaning. Its dictionary form is something like:

• gesticulor, gesticulari, gesticulatus sum

So the infinitive is gesticulari, even though the meaning is active: to gesticulate, not to be gesticulated.

This is a very common point of confusion for learners. The form looks passive, but the meaning is not passive.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show grammatical relationships.

In English, word order is doing a lot of work. In Latin, the endings already tell you that:

• histrio is the subject
• magnum gestum is the object

So the sentence could be rearranged in several ways without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Histrio facit magnum gestum et incipit gesticulari
• Magnum gestum histrio facit et gesticulari incipit

The original order may help emphasize magnum gestum before the verb.

Yes. In Latin, once the subject is clear, it does not need to be repeated.

Here, histrio is understood as the subject of both:

• facit = the actor makes
• incipit = the actor begins

This is normal and very common. Latin avoids unnecessary repetition when the subject has not changed.

Yes, they are closely related. Both involve the idea of gesture or expressive bodily movement.

The sentence first gives a specific action:

• magnum gestum facit = he makes a big gesture

Then it adds a continuing action:

• gesticulari incipit = he begins to gesticulate

So the effect is something like: first the actor makes one big gesture, then he launches into more animated gesturing. The repetition is not bad Latin; it can create a vivid, theatrical effect, which suits histrio very well.