moenia
Meaning
- neuterpluralcity walls, town walls, defensive walls, fortifications, ramparts, bulwarks
[...] genus unde Latīnum, Albānīque patrēs, atque altae moenia Rōmae.
… from which came the Latin race, the Alban fathers, and the walls of high Rome. (The epic saga related in the opening lines of the Aeneid spans from ancient Troy to imperial Rome. Rome, built upon seven hills, was literally and figuratively “high” or “lofty,” and surrounded by defensive walls. Yet translations differ of the accusative plural “walls” [moenia] and genitive singular “of high Rome” [altae Romae], interpreted variously as “high walls” or “high Rome.” See: Latins (Italic tribe), Alban people, Servian Wall, Seven hills of Rome.)29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 1.6–7inde premēns stīvam dēsignat moenia sulcō;
From there, pressing the plow handle, he marks out the city walls with a furrow; a white cow with a snow-white bull bore the yoke. (Romulus uses a plow to mark where the defensive walls of Rome are to be built.)8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 4.825–826 - neuterpluralin general: walls, enclosure
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
mūrī urbis altī et fortēs.Choosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Murus · Paries · Mœnia · Maceria · Parietinæ · Munimenta
1. Murus (μοῖρα, μείρω,) denotes any sort of wall, merely with reference to its form, without reference to its use, like τεῖχος; paries (πείρω) especially a wall, as the side of a building, or as a partition to separate the rooms, like τοῖχος; mœnia (ἀμύνω) the walls of a city, as a defence against the enemy, like περίβολος? maceria, the wall of an enclosure, to mark the boundaries and to exclude thieves, the garden or vineyard wall, like θριγκός. Virg. Æn. vi. 549. Mœnia lata videt triplici circumdata muro. And Flor. i. 4. Vitruv. viii. 4. Tac. Ann. xv. 43. Nero instituit, ut urbis domus non communione parietum, sed propriis quæque muris ambirentur. 2. Muri, mœnia, etc., are walls in a good condition; parietinæ, walls that are falling into ruins. 3. Mœnia denote walls as a defence of a city against a first assault; munimenta, the proper fortifications of fortresses and camps, which are of themselves a bulwark against being taken by storm. (v. 350.)
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | — | moenia |
| genitive | — | moenium |
| dative | — | moenibus |
| accusative | — | moenia |
| ablative | — | moenibus |
| vocative | — | moenia |
Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book
- testudine facta moenia subire (B. G. 2. 6)
- to advance to the walls protected by a covering of shields.
uti haberent tuta oppida quod operis muniebant, moenia dicta, Varr. L. L. 5, § 141 Müll.: domicilia conjuncta, quas urbes dicimus, moenibus sepserunt, Cic. Sest. 42, 91: diligentius urbem religione quam ipsis moenibus cingitis, id. N. D. 3, 40, 94; id. Ac. 2, 44, 137; id. Rep. 1, 11, 17: altissima, Caes. B. C. 3, 80: cum paene inaedificata in muris ab exercitu nostro moenia viderentur, bulwarks, fortifications, id. ib. 2, 16: summa arcis, Enn. ap. Macr. S. 1, 4 (Ann. v. 170 Vahl.): dividimus muros, et moenia pandimus urbis, Verg. A. 2, 234.—moenia navis, Ov. M. 11, 532: angusta theatri, Lucr. 4, 82: mundi, id. 1, 73; cf. caeli, Ov. M. 2, 401.—moenia lata videt triplici circumdata muro, Verg. A. 6, 549: moenia circumdare muro, Flor. 1, 4, 2; Vitr. 8, 4. —* Ditis magni, Verg. A. 6, 541.Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
Origins
A plurale tantum, from Old Latin moene, from Proto-Indo-European *móyni, from *mey- (“to strengthen”). Cognate with mūrus (“wall”).