Cohors ante portam stat, et centurio eam sine clamore regit.

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Breakdown of Cohors ante portam stat, et centurio eam sine clamore regit.

• stare: to stand
• ante: before
• sine: without

Questions & Answers about Cohors ante portam stat, et centurio eam sine clamore regit.

Why is cohors the subject, and what case is it in?

Cohors is the subject of stat because it is the thing doing the action: the cohort stands.

It is in the nominative singular.
The dictionary form is cohors, cohortis = cohort. This is a third-declension noun, so its nominative singular does not end in -a or -us the way many beginners expect.

You can also tell it is singular because the verb stat is singular: he/she/it stands.

What exactly does stat mean here?

Stat literally means stands. In a military context, it often means something like:

• stands
• is standing
• is stationed
• holds position

So this is not just physical standing upright in a casual sense; it can suggest that the cohort is positioned or posted in front of the gate.

Why is it ante portam and not ante porta?

Because ante takes the accusative case.

So:

• porta = nominative or ablative singular
• portam = accusative singular

After ante, Latin uses the accusative, so ante portam means before/in front of the gate.

Unlike some other Latin prepositions that can take different cases with different meanings, ante regularly takes the accusative.