Pater dicit se candidatum prudentem alteri praeferre, quia bonus magistratus salutem civitatis spectare debet.

Because Latin very often uses an accusative-and-infinitive construction instead of a that-clause after verbs like say, think, hear, and know.

So:

• Pater dicit = The father says
• se ... praeferre = that he prefers ...

In this pattern:

• the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative
• the verb of the reported statement goes into the infinitive

That is why Latin has se ... praeferre instead of something more literally like English that he prefers.

Se is the reflexive pronoun, and here it refers back to the subject of the main verb, pater.

So:

• Pater dicit se ... praeferre = The father says that he himself prefers ...

Here se refers to the father, not to some other man.

This is a very common feature of Latin indirect statement. If Latin wanted to say that the father says that someone else prefers the candidate, it would normally use a different pronoun, such as eum.

They are doing different jobs.

• se is the subject of the infinitive praeferre in the indirect statement
• candidatum prudentem is the direct object of praeferre

So the structure is:

• se = the one doing the preferring
• candidatum prudentem = the person being preferred

This is very normal in Latin indirect statement. English usually does not show this so clearly, which is why it can feel strange at first.

Prudentem agrees with candidatum.

Both are:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

So prudentem describes candidatum, giving the prudent candidate or the sensible candidate.

It does not go with se. The endings and the sense both point to candidatum prudentem as a unit.

Because praeferre commonly takes:

• the person or thing preferred in the accusative
• the person or thing someone is preferred to in the dative

So:

• candidatum prudentem = the candidate being preferred
• alteri = to the other one

This is one of those verbs whose case pattern you simply have to learn.

A good shortcut is:

• praeferre aliquem alicui = to prefer someone to someone else

Alter usually means the other or the second of two.

So alteri here most naturally means:

• to the other one
• or to the other candidate, depending on context

Its form is dative singular, because of praeferre, as explained above.

It is an infinitive because it is part of the indirect statement after dicit.

Its tense is the present infinitive, and in indirect statement that usually shows action at the same time as the main verb.

So:

• dicit ... praeferre = he says that he prefers

Not:

• he says that he preferred
• he says that he will prefer

If Latin wanted those ideas, it would use a different infinitive form.

Because it depends on debet.

• debet = ought / must / should
• spectare = complementary infinitive

So spectare debet means:

• ought to consider
• should look to
• must have regard for

This is a different use of the infinitive from praeferre, but it is also very common Latin.

Not literally. Although spectare can mean to look at, here it has a more extended sense:

• to look to
• to consider
• to have regard for
• to aim at

So salutem civitatis spectare debet means something like:

• should look to the welfare of the state
• should have the safety of the state in view

This is a good reminder that Latin verbs often have a broader range of meanings than the most basic dictionary gloss.

Because they are doing different things:

• salutem is the direct object of spectare
• civitatis is a genitive dependent on salutem

So:

• salutem = welfare / safety
• civitatis = of the state / community

Together, salutem civitatis means the welfare of the state or the safety of the state.

The syntax tells you.

• bonus is nominative singular masculine
• debet is singular
• therefore magistratus must be the subject, so it is nominative singular too

A learner often notices that magistratus can look confusing, because fourth-declension forms can resemble one another, especially when macrons are not written. But here the agreement with bonus and the singular verb debet make the function clear.

Because the accusative-and-infinitive construction is used specifically for the statement directly dependent on dicit.

That main reported statement is:

• se candidatum prudentem alteri praeferre

Then quia introduces an ordinary subordinate clause giving the reason:

• quia bonus magistratus salutem civitatis spectare debet

So only the first part is the indirect statement proper. The quia clause remains a normal finite clause.

Latin has no articles.

So a word like pater can mean:

• father
• the father
• a father

depending on context.

The same is true for:

• candidatum
• magistratus
• civitatis

English has to add the or a/an, but Latin usually leaves that to context.

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

So this sentence could be rearranged in various ways without changing the core meaning, as long as the forms stayed the same.

Still, the given order is natural:

• Pater dicit sets up the statement
• se ... praeferre gives the reported claim
• candidatum prudentem keeps noun and adjective together
• quia then adds the reason

So the order is meaningful in terms of emphasis and flow, but the grammar is carried mainly by the endings, not by position alone.