> >>> "Hora Fugit Rapide Letumq.invadit inermus"
>
> Lots of interesting replies so far! Yet another idea - my local
> classicist friends, much more learned than I, have suggested
>
> a) that it might have been intended to be "inermes" i.e. a plural -
> so meaning perhaps something like "The hour flies rapidly and Death
> enters [us] defenceless"
>
> ( I do prefer the understood [us] to [me, the sundial] being
> defenceless or unprepared. )
>
> and
>
> b) that it is probably not an actual quotation from one of the usual
> Classical sources, but an assembly of words especially written. This
> might be more likely therefore to have a grammatical or typographical
> error introduced by a fallible author.
>
> I expect that someone will now cite an impeccable source!
>
> Regards
> Andrew James
>
>
>
