Breakdown of Imperator scit: “Pax est melior quam bellum.”
Questions & Answers about Imperator scit: “Pax est melior quam bellum.”
Because imperator is the subject of scit. It is the person who knows, so it appears in the nominative singular.
- imperator = the commander / emperor
- scit = knows
So Imperator scit means The commander knows.
Scit is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of scire, meaning to know.
So:
- scio = I know
- scis = you know
- scit = he/she/it knows
Here it matches imperator, which is singular, so scit is singular too.
The colon shows that what follows is a direct statement or quotation: the thing the commander knows.
So the structure is:
- Imperator scit: = The commander knows:
- Pax est melior quam bellum. = the content of that knowledge
In many Latin texts, punctuation is added by modern editors, not by the ancient authors themselves. So the colon is mainly a reading aid.