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- "Forte dei homines delent."
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He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
I think probably, yes, it could be.
Another way of saying "by chance" is cāsū (abl. of cāsus, -ūs, m.).
Caesar says, in a number of places, that something happened sīve cāsū sīve cōnsiliō deōrum , "either by chance, or by the plan of the gods" (thus cāsus looks to be the opposite of 'the plan' or design ).
That phrase reminded me of this painting:
"Faithful Unto Death" (Edward John Poynter)
For those who don't know what that paint is about,
"That Roman Soldier" in Pompeii during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Only discovered recently due to advances in technology, we have known for decades that during the epic eruption in which two Roman towns were annihilated, some Roman soldiers and Guards were either not relieved, or did not leave their posts for whatever reasons.
Either not being relived by their superiors or not willing to flee, we know of at least 2 skeletons in Pompeii which also had soldierly items. These skeletons were found in strategic places in the city, with spears and swords making it easy for us to assume these men were guards. While during the eruption, particles did fall from the air big enough to knock-out a person, it is unlikely that these men died in that way.
It is far more likely that they either resolved to die at their posts, or they feared that even if they survived the eruption, their superiors would have them killed for desertion. Even likelier is the idea that these men did not want to spend their last minutes scrambling for safety, confident in their assumption that the cataclysm would overtake the entire town. Therefore we find these men at their posts 2000 years later.
1297
"As private parts to the gods are we, they doth play with us for sport" - Lord Melchitt (aka Stephen Fry), Blackadder II.
242
Yes, there is a negativity about forte which, to me, makes it link to expressions like "through bad or ill fortune", "unfortunately", "as luck would have it" or even "disasterously" ("bad stars").