Secutor post retiarium currit.

Because post takes the accusative case in this sentence.

The noun is retiarius in the dictionary, but after post it becomes retiarium. So:

• retiarius = nominative singular
• retiarium = accusative singular

Even though English says after the retiarius, Latin shows that relationship with the case ending.

Not here. It is not the direct object of currit.

The verb currit means runs, and run is normally intransitive: it does not take a direct object. Instead, retiarium is the object of the preposition post.

So the structure is:

• Secutor = subject
• post retiarium = prepositional phrase
• currit = verb

Because secutor is in the nominative case, which is the normal case for the subject.

In this sentence:

• secutor = nominative singular
• retiarium = accusative singular

That tells you that the secutor is the one doing the action, and the retiarius is the one linked to post.

Here post means after in the sense of behind or in pursuit of.

So Secutor post retiarium currit means that the secutor is running after the retiarius.

Latin post can also be used with a time meaning, such as afterward or after in sequence, but in this sentence the meaning is physical movement: behind / after someone.

Currit is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from currere, meaning to run.

So currit means he runs, she runs, or it runs. In this sentence, it means the secutor runs.

Because Latin has no articles. It has no separate words that exactly match English the or a/an.

So:

• secutor can mean the secutor or a secutor
• retiarium can mean the retiarius or a retiarius, depending on context

English has to add articles, but Latin usually does not.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

A very common Latin pattern is to put the verb near the end, so Secutor post retiarium currit is perfectly normal.

English depends heavily on word order, but Latin depends much more on case endings. Because of that, Latin can move words around for style, emphasis, or rhythm.

Yes, often it could.

For example, these would still be understood as basically the same idea:

• Post retiarium secutor currit
• Currit secutor post retiarium
• Secutor currit post retiarium

The exact emphasis may shift a little, but the endings still show who is doing the running and who comes after post.

Because they belong to different declensions and have different normal forms.

• secutor is a third-declension noun
• retiarius is a second-declension noun

So they change differently:

• secutor stays secutor in the nominative singular
• retiarius becomes retiarium in the accusative singular

Latin nouns do not all follow the same pattern, so part of learning vocabulary is learning how each noun declines.

They are somewhat special: both are names of types of gladiators.

• A secutor was a gladiator type whose name means something like pursuer
• A retiarius was a gladiator who typically fought with a net and trident

So the sentence is not just any random running sentence. It fits a very Roman context: one gladiator type chasing another.

A common restored classical pronunciation would be roughly:

SEH-koo-tor post reh-tee-AH-ree-um KOOR-rit

A few useful points:

• c in Latin is always hard, like k
• r is rolled or tapped
• v is pronounced like w in classical pronunciation, though there is no v in this sentence
• currit has a doubled r, so the r is pronounced clearly

So currit is not like English current; it is closer to koor-rit.