Tibicen ante templum canit, et cives eum libenter audiunt.

Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an. So tibicen can mean the flute-player, a flute-player, or just flute-player, depending on context.

The same is true for templum and cives:

• templum = the temple or a temple
• cives = the citizens or citizens

You have to infer from context which English article sounds best.

Tibicen is a noun meaning flute-player or more literally pipe-player.

It is a third-declension noun. Its basic dictionary form would be:

• tibicen, tibicinis = flute-player

Because it ends in -en, it may not look familiar at first, but it behaves like many third-declension nouns.

In this sentence, tibicen is the subject of canit, so it is in the nominative singular.

The preposition ante takes the accusative case. So:

• templum here is accusative singular

Latin prepositions govern particular cases. For example:

• ante + accusative = before / in front of
• cum + ablative = with
• in + ablative can mean in/on
• in + accusative can mean into

So ante templum is correct because ante requires the accusative.

This is a very common beginner question. In the second declension neuter, the nominative singular and accusative singular are identical.

So:

• nominative singular: templum
• accusative singular: templum

You know it is accusative here because:

1. it follows ante
2. ante requires the accusative

This is one reason why syntax and prepositions matter so much in Latin.

Eum is the accusative singular masculine form of the pronoun is, ea, id.

A quick set of forms:

• is = he / this man / that man
• ea = she / this woman / that woman
• id = it

Accusative forms:

• eum = him
• eam = her
• id = it

In the sentence, cives eum audiunt, eum is the direct object of audiunt, so the accusative is needed.

Latin often does omit pronouns when the meaning is clear, but here eum helps make the object explicit: the citizens are listening to him, namely the flute-player.

Without eum, et cives libenter audiunt would mean something like:

• and the citizens listen gladly or
• and the citizens hear gladly

That would leave the object unstated. So eum is included to show clearly whom they are listening to.

Cives is the subject of audiunt, so it must be in the nominative. Since it refers to more than one citizen, it is plural.

The noun is:

• civis, civis = citizen

Important forms:

• singular nominative: civis
• plural nominative: cives
• plural accusative: cives

So cives can be either nominative plural or accusative plural in form, but here it is nominative plural because it is the subject of audiunt.

Latin verb endings tell you who is doing the action.

• canit = he/she/it sings/plays
• audiunt = they hear/listen

More specifically:

• -it in canit is third person singular
• -iunt / -unt in audiunt is third person plural

So even without separate subject pronouns, Latin makes the subject clear through the verb ending:

• canit tells you the subject is singular
• audiunt tells you the subject is plural

The verb cano, canere has a broader meaning than English sing. It can mean:

• sing
• sound
• play (an instrument)

With a musician such as tibicen, canit naturally means plays.

So Latin often uses one verb where English may choose different translations depending on context.

Libenter is an adverb, meaning gladly, willingly, or with pleasure.

It modifies the verb audiunt:

• cives eum libenter audiunt = the citizens gladly listen to him / hear him with pleasure

A useful thing to notice is that many Latin adverbs end in -ter, though not all do.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin relies heavily on case endings and verb endings rather than position alone.

English usually depends on order:

• The citizens hear him

Latin can move words around more easily:

• cives eum audiunt
• eum cives audiunt
• audiunt cives eum

All of these could be grammatical, though they may differ slightly in emphasis.

In your sentence:

• Tibicen ante templum canit, et cives eum libenter audiunt

the order is natural and clear:

• subject first
• place phrase next
• verb
• then a second clause

But Latin could rearrange this if it wanted to emphasize a different idea.

It can be understood as either, depending on context, but in this sentence listen to is often the more natural English translation.

The basic meaning of audio is hear. However, when the object is a person making music or speaking, English often prefers listen to:

• eum audiunt = they hear him
• more naturally in context: they listen to him

So this is a good example of how a Latin verb may need a slightly different English wording to sound idiomatic.

Usually, yes. Et most commonly means and.

In this sentence it simply joins two clauses:

• Tibicen ante templum canit
• et cives eum libenter audiunt

So it connects:

• what the flute-player is doing
• what the citizens are doing

Latin also has other ways to say and, such as -que, which is attached to the end of a word, but et is the straightforward form beginners see most often.