Horizon procul in septentrionibus videtur.

The subject is horizon, and it is in the nominative singular.

A learner may hesitate because horizon does not look like a very typical Latin nominative, but in this sentence it is the thing that videtur agrees with. The verb is third person singular, so a singular subject fits perfectly.

Because it is a Greek loanword used in Latin.

Latin borrowed many learned or technical words from Greek, and they often keep forms that look less familiar to beginners. So you should not expect every Latin noun to have a neat first- or second-declension ending like -a or -us. A dictionary entry for this word will usually show something like horizon, -ontis.

Videtur is the present passive, third person singular of video.

So its basic literal meaning is is seen. In this sentence, the horizon is not doing the seeing; it is the thing being seen.

Yes. That is a very common question, because videor / videtur often does mean seem or appear in Latin.

So, in isolation, a reader might momentarily wonder whether the sentence means something like the horizon seems far away in the north. But if the meaning has already been given to the learner as a literal passive, then you should read videtur here as is seen.

In other words:

• video = I see
• videtur can be either is seen or, idiomatically, seems

Context tells you which one is meant.

Procul is an adverb. It means far away, far off, or at a distance.

It is not describing horizon like an adjective would. Instead, it modifies the verbal idea: the horizon is seen far off.

They are related, but they do different jobs.

• procul tells you distance: far away
• in septentrionibus tells you location/direction: in the north or in the northern region

So they are not redundant. One answers how far? and the other answers where?

Because in takes the ablative when it means in or on in the sense of location.

Here the idea is in the north, that is, place where, so Latin uses the ablative plural: septentrionibus.

A good basic rule is:

• in + ablative = in/on somewhere
• in + accusative = into/onto somewhere

So if there were movement into the north, you would expect a different construction.

Because septentriones is originally a plural noun.

Literally, it refers to the seven plough-oxen, an old name connected with the northern stars. From there it came to mean the north or the northern region. Since the Latin word itself is plural, the form here is plural too: septentrionibus.

This is one of those places where Latin and English organize the idea differently:

• Latin: the northern ones / northern regions / septentrions
• English: the north

Because Latin has no definite article and no indefinite article.

Latin does not have separate words for the or a/an. Whether you translate a noun as horizon, the horizon, or sometimes a horizon depends on context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the horizon, but Latin does not need to say that explicitly.

The word order is fairly natural Latin, but Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

This sentence places:

• horizon first
• then procul
• then in septentrionibus
• and videtur at the end

That final placement of the verb is very common in Latin prose. But Latin could move these elements around for emphasis without changing the basic grammar, because the endings and forms already show the relationships.

So the order helps with style and focus, not just with basic meaning.