Boni cives etiam inimicis parcunt et concordiae favent.

Because boni describes cives, which is the subject of the sentence. In Latin, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case, number, and gender.

• cives = nominative plural
• so boni must also be nominative plural

Together, boni cives means good citizens.

Cives is the nominative plural of civis, a 3rd-declension noun meaning citizen.

In this sentence it is the subject of both verbs:

• parcunt
• favent

So the basic structure is:

• boni cives = the good citizens
• parcunt = spare
• favent = favor

Because the verbs parcere and favere take the dative case, not the accusative.

This is a very common thing Latin learners have to get used to: some Latin verbs do not use a direct object the way English verbs do.

• parcere alicui = to spare someone
• favere alicui rei = to favor someone or something

So:

• inimicis is dative plural
• concordiae is dative singular

Even though in English we say spare enemies and favor harmony, Latin uses the dative after these verbs.

Inimicis is dative plural here.

Formally, inimicis could be either dative plural or ablative plural, but the verb tells you which one it must be. Since parcunt comes from parcere, and parcere takes the dative, inimicis must be dative here.

So:

• inimicus = enemy
• inimicis = to enemies / for enemies, grammatically speaking

In form, yes: concordiae can be either genitive singular or dative singular. But in this sentence it must be dative singular, because favent comes from favere, and favere takes the dative.

So here concordiae favent means they favor harmony or more literally they are favorable to harmony.

Because parcere is a 3rd-conjugation verb, and its 3rd-person plural present active form is parcunt.

The pattern is:

• parco = I spare
• parcis = you spare
• parcit = he/she/it spares
• parcimus = we spare
• parcitis = you all spare
• parcunt = they spare

Many 3rd-conjugation verbs have -unt in the 3rd-person plural present.

Because favere is a 2nd-conjugation verb.

Its present tense goes like this:

• faveo
• faves
• favet
• favemus
• favetis
• favent

So the 3rd-person plural is favent. The ending depends on the verb’s conjugation:

• 3rd conjugation often has -unt
• 2nd conjugation has -ent

That is why the sentence has parcunt but favent.

Here etiam means even.

It adds emphasis: good citizens spare even their enemies. The idea is that they do this not only to friends or allies, but also to people one would expect them to treat harshly.

In other contexts, etiam can also mean also or too, but even is the most natural sense here.

Latin often leaves out possessive words like his, her, or their when the meaning is already clear from context.

So inimicis can simply mean enemies, and depending on the broader context, English might naturally translate it as their enemies.

Latin does have words such as suus, sua, suum for his/her/their own, but it does not use them unless they are needed for clarity or emphasis.

Because Latin commonly uses one subject with multiple coordinated verbs.

Here the sentence is structured as:

• Boni cives = subject
• etiam inimicis parcunt = first statement about the subject
• et concordiae favent = second statement about the same subject

There is no new nominative noun introduced, so the natural reading is that good citizens do both actions.

Not always exactly. Favere often has the sense of:

• to support
• to be favorable to
• to show goodwill toward

So concordiae favent suggests that good citizens are well-disposed toward harmony and support it.

That is why the dative makes sense: the verb is not treating concordia as a direct object in the English way, but as something toward which favor is directed.

Yes. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

This sentence could be rearranged in various ways without changing the basic meaning, for example to emphasize a different word. The original order is natural and balanced:

• Boni cives first, to establish the subject
• etiam inimicis before parcunt, to highlight the surprising idea of sparing enemies
• et concordiae favent as the second coordinated action

So the word order is meaningful, but the endings do most of the grammatical work.

Civis can refer to a male or female citizen, so it is not inherently only masculine in meaning. However, the adjective here is boni, which is the masculine nominative plural form.

So in this sentence, the grammar presents the group as:

• masculine plural, or
• a mixed group, using the usual masculine plural form

If the group were explicitly feminine, you would expect bonae cives.