Quaestor nummos publicos numerat et dicit sibi paucos sestertios deesse.

Quaestor is a Roman public official, especially one connected with money and finances. In this sentence it is the subject of numerat and dicit.

Grammatically, quaestor is nominative singular.

Because nummos is the direct object of numerat, so it is in the accusative plural. The adjective publicos agrees with it in case, number, and gender.

So:

• nummos = coins / money
• publicos = public, state-owned

Together they mean public money or more literally public coins.

Numerat means he counts.

It comes from numerare, to count. Here it is:

• present tense
• 3rd person singular
• active voice

So Quaestor nummos publicos numerat means the quaestor is counting the public money or counts the public money.

Because Latin normally uses an indirect statement construction after verbs like dicit (says), putat (thinks), scit (knows), and so on.

In English we say:

• He says that ...

Latin usually says:

• He says ... to ...

So dicit sibi paucos sestertios deesse is literally something like he says a few sesterces to be lacking to him.

This is a standard Latin pattern: accusative + infinitive.

Because it belongs to that indirect statement after dicit.

After a verb of saying, Latin usually puts the reported statement into an infinitive clause. So instead of a finite verb like desunt, we get the infinitive deesse.

Compare:

• direct statement: pauci sestertii sibi desunt = a few sesterces are lacking to him
• indirect statement: dicit paucos sestertios sibi deesse = he says that a few sesterces are lacking to him

Sibi is the reflexive dative form, meaning to himself / to herself / to themselves depending on context.

Here it refers back to the subject of dicit, namely the quaestor. So:

• sibi = to himself = to the quaestor himself

Latin often uses the reflexive pronoun inside an indirect statement when it refers back to the subject of the main verb.

If ei were used, it would usually mean to him referring to someone else, not back to the quaestor.

Because deesse works with a dative of the person affected.

The verb desum, deesse means to be lacking, to be missing, or idiomatically to be lacking to someone / to be missing for someone.

So:

• mihi deest = it is lacking to me
• tibi desunt = they are lacking to you
• sibi deesse = to be lacking to himself

That is why sibi is dative, not accusative.

This is one of the trickiest parts of the sentence.

In a normal direct statement, the thing that is lacking would be the subject:

• pauci sestertii desunt = a few sesterces are missing

But after dicit, Latin uses indirect statement, and the subject of the infinitive goes into the accusative.

So:

• direct: pauci sestertii sibi desunt
• indirect: dicit sibi paucos sestertios deesse

So paucos sestertios is not the direct object of deesse. It is the accusative subject of the infinitive.

Deesse is the present active infinitive of desum, deesse, defui, a compound of sum with de-.

Its basic sense is:

• to be lacking
• to be absent
• to be missing

In this sentence the financial sense is important: a few sesterces are missing or he is short a few sesterces.

Because it is related to sum, some of its forms are irregular in the same way that sum is irregular.

A sestertius was a Roman unit of money. In the sentence, sestertios is the accusative plural.

So paucos sestertios means a few sesterces.

A learner should also notice that Latin often names a specific coin or money unit where English might translate more generally as a little money or a few coins.

Paucos means few or a few. It agrees with sestertios:

• masculine
• plural
• accusative

It shows that the shortage is small, not huge: only a few sesterces are missing.

It has two main parts:

1. Quaestor nummos publicos numerat

   • main clause
   • The quaestor counts the public money

2. et dicit sibi paucos sestertios deesse

   • second main verb: dicit
   • followed by an indirect statement
   • literally: and says a few sesterces to be lacking to him

So the basic structure is:

subject + verb + object + and + verb of saying + indirect statement

The grammar does not depend heavily on the word order, because the endings show the relationships. But the order still feels natural and helps the reader.

Here Latin goes from:

• the official
• the money
• the action of counting
• then what he says

Within the indirect statement, sibi comes before paucos sestertios deesse, which is a normal enough arrangement. Latin word order is flexible, but the forms still tell you the syntax:

• quaestor = subject
• nummos publicos = object of numerat
• paucos sestertios = accusative subject of deesse
• sibi = dative with deesse