Senator statuit se de novo magistratu tacere nolle; itaque sententiam suam in curia clare profert.

Yes. Statuit can be either:

• present: he decides
• perfect: he decided

That happens because the 3rd person singular present and perfect of statuere look the same. In this sentence, learners usually take it as present because the next verb, profert, is clearly present, so the whole sentence reads smoothly as a present-time statement. But strictly speaking, statuit by itself is morphologically ambiguous.

Because Latin often uses an accusative-and-infinitive construction after verbs like statuit when reporting what someone decides, thinks, knows, says, and so on.

In that construction, the subject of the infinitive is put in the accusative. So:

• Senator statuit = the senator decides
• se ... nolle = that he does not want / himself not to want

Here se refers back to senator. English usually does not repeat the subject in exactly this way, but Latin does.

Because nolle itself takes an infinitive.

The structure is:

• statuit
• se nolle
• tacere

So the basic sense is:

• he decided
• that he did not want
• to be silent

In more natural English, that becomes something like he decided that he did not want to remain silent or simply he decided not to remain silent, depending on how you want to smooth it out.

Nolle is the infinitive of nolo, meaning to not want or to be unwilling.

It is historically related to non velle, but in normal Latin it functions as its own common verb. So nolle tacere means to not want to be silent.

This is an irregular verb, so it is worth memorizing as its own form rather than trying to build it fresh each time.

Tacere means to be silent, but it can also mean to be silent about something.

When Latin wants to say what the silence is about, it often uses:

• de
  • ablative

So:

• de novo magistratu tacere = to keep silent about the new office

That is a very natural Latin way to express the topic being avoided.

Because de takes the ablative.

So in:

• de novo magistratu

both words are in the ablative singular:

• novo = ablative singular of novus
• magistratu = ablative singular of magistratus

A learner may especially notice magistratu, because magistratus is a 4th-declension noun. Its ablative singular ends in -u, not in -o.

Magistratus can mean office, magistracy, or sometimes magistrate, depending on context.

Here, with de novo magistratu, it most naturally means the new office or the new magistracy, not the person holding it. The surrounding grammar shows that the senator is speaking about a political office or position.

Sententia has a range of meanings, including opinion, judgment, view, and in political settings even something like a formal opinion or position.

So sententiam suam profert means that he puts forward his own opinion or states his view.

In a Roman political context, sententia is a very common word for the opinion a senator gives in debate.

Because suus, -a, -um is the reflexive possessive adjective. It refers back to the subject of its own clause.

So:

• sententiam suam = his own opinion
  meaning the senator’s own opinion

If Latin used eius, that would normally mean his/her opinion belonging to someone else, not the subject of the clause itself.

This reflexive/non-reflexive distinction is very important in Latin.

Because in with the ablative usually means in or inside, showing location.

So:

• in curia = in the senate house / in the council chamber

If there were motion into the place, Latin would usually use:

• in curiam = into the senate house

This is a standard difference:

• in + ablative = location
• in + accusative = motion toward or into

Itaque means and so, therefore, or accordingly.

It connects the two parts logically:

• first, the senator decides he will not stay silent about the matter
• therefore, he speaks out and states his opinion

So itaque is not just a filler word; it marks the result of what came before.

Profert comes from proferre, literally to bring forth. In context it means to put forward, to present, or to state openly.

That works especially well with sententiam, because a Roman senator does not just casually say something; he puts forward his formal opinion.

So:

• dicit would mean simply says
• profert is more vivid and more appropriate to a political or formal setting

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin shows grammatical relationships mainly through endings, not just position.

So the sentence can arrange words for emphasis and flow:

• se de novo magistratu tacere nolle keeps the key idea together
• sententiam suam comes before profert, highlighting what he is putting forward
• clare is placed near the verb to emphasize the manner of speaking

English relies more heavily on fixed order, but Latin can move words around without causing confusion, as long as the endings are clear.