A dictionary gloss is not the whole answer
A learner is translating the original instructional sentence „Consilio hostium cognito, legati discesserunt.“ The vocabulary notes identify consilium as a word that can mean a plan, decision or counsel, hostis as enemy and concilium as a different noun meaning an assembly. The learner’s first draft says that an enemy assembly departed, while a second draft changes the envoys into enemies. A partner notices that the genitive plural hostium depends on consilio, but still assumes that the plan was successful or that its discovery proves the envoys were frightened. The task requires a contextual vocabulary choice, a syntactic explanation and a statement of what remains unknown. It does not provide any information about a real historical campaign, so familiar stories from military history cannot be used to fill the gaps.
1. Explain consilio hostium and give a natural translation.
Read the worked answer
Consilio belongs to the absolute construction with cognito; hostium is a genitive plural specifying whose plan it was. A natural translation is: Once the enemies’ plan had become known, the envoys departed. Legati, not hostium, supplies the main subject.
2. Which conclusions go beyond the source?
Read the worked answer
The passage does not establish that the plan succeeded, that the envoys were frightened or that an assembly departed. Those additions arise from an invented story or confusion between consilium and concilium, rather than from the supplied wording.