PLEASE help with this Latin phrase!

Factual Questions
1

I have been trying to crack the following bit of Latin:

“Oderint dum metuant”

Darned subjunctive. At least I think it is subjuctive. I know the first verb is a conjugation of “hate”(subj. perf?) and the second is a form of “fear” or “dread”

The best I have been able to come up with(and please don’t laugh if I am way off base) is “Let them be hated as lon as they are feared” Am I even warm? Any help would be appreciated.

2

I don’t know latin but google tells me this:

Let them hate, as long as they fear

3

Here’s your translation…

“Oderint, dum metuant.”

“May they hate me, if only they fear me.”

(Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Caligula)

Sources: Sententiae Latinae at:

http://w1.871.telia.com/~u87112797/show-off.html#o

and Cassell’s Latin Dictionary, Marchant and Charles Revision, circa 1921

Have a good one!

4

Thanks for the replies so far!!!

5

What does that Latin phrase mean? Sodomy non sapiens.

6

My recollection (very possibly mistaken) is that this phrase was also attributed to the Emperor Tiberius, either by Suetonius or Tacitus.