Colona rogat cur auriga duo iumenta eidem vehiculo iungere velit.

Because cur auriga duo iumenta eidem vehiculo iungere velit is an indirect question after rogat.

• Direct question: Cur auriga duo iumenta eidem vehiculo iungere vult?
• Indirect question: Colona rogat cur auriga duo iumenta eidem vehiculo iungere velit.

In Latin, indirect questions normally take the subjunctive, so vult becomes velit.

Also, since rogat is present tense, Latin usually uses the present subjunctive in the subordinate clause here.

Cur means why, and here it introduces the indirect question.

So the sentence is structured like this:

• Colona rogat = the female farmer asks
• cur ... velit = why the driver wants to join ...

It is not asking the question directly to the reader; it reports the content of the question.

Because auriga is the subject of velit and of the infinitive iungere.

In other words, it is the driver who wants to join the two animals to the vehicle.

Even though auriga is inside a subordinate clause, it still stays in the nominative because it is the subject of that clause.

Because auriga is one of those Latin nouns that are first declension in form but masculine in meaning.

This is common with certain words for occupations or social roles, such as:

• agricola = farmer
• nauta = sailor
• poeta = poet
• auriga = charioteer, driver

So the -a ending does not always mean feminine.

Because iumenta is neuter plural accusative, and duo has to agree with it.

• iumentum = a draft animal, beast of burden
• plural accusative: iumenta
• neuter form of two: duo

So duo iumenta means two animals.

A form like duos would be masculine, so it would not agree with iumenta.

Iumenta is broader than horses.

It usually means draft animals, beasts of burden, or animals used for pulling. Depending on context, that could include horses, oxen, mules, and so on.

So Latin is not necessarily being specific about the species here; it is focusing on their function as animals used with a vehicle.

It is dative singular.

• vehiculo can be either dative or ablative in form
• here it is dative
• eidem agrees with vehiculo, so it is also dative singular

With iungere, Latin often uses:

• accusative for the thing being joined
• dative for the thing it is joined to

So:

• duo iumenta = the two animals being joined
• eidem vehiculo = to the same vehicle

Eidem is a form of idem, eadem, idem, meaning the same.

Here it means to the same, because it is dative and agrees with vehiculo:

• eidem vehiculo = to the same vehicle

A learner often expects a more obviously neuter-looking form, but eidem is the dative singular form used for masculine, feminine, and neuter.

Because it depends on velit.

The verb volo means want, and in Latin, just as in English, want is commonly followed by an infinitive:

• vult iungere = he wants to join
• velit iungere = he wants / would want to join

So iungere names the action that the driver wants to do.

Colona is the feminine form of a noun related to colonus.

In this sentence it means something like female farmer, female settler, or female tenant farmer, depending on context.

A learner may notice that colonus is more familiar, but colona is simply the feminine counterpart here.

The sentence does not name the person being asked.

Latin can use rogare with an indirect question even when the addressee is not stated. So here rogat just means asks, and the clause cur auriga ... velit gives the content of the question.

So the sense is:

• The female farmer asks why the driver wants ...

not necessarily

• The female farmer asks someone why ...

Not in the same way it would be in English. Latin word order is much more flexible because the endings show each word’s role.

This order is perfectly natural:

• Colona rogat
• cur auriga
• duo iumenta
• eidem vehiculo
• iungere velit

A few things are worth noticing:

• velit comes at the end, which is very common in Latin subordinate clauses.
• eidem vehiculo stays together because those words belong together.
• duo iumenta also stays together as a noun phrase.

So the order helps readability and emphasis, but the grammar is carried mainly by the endings.