(a) An action before another action in past time.

Prius omnia pati decrevit quam bellum sumere, quia temptatum antea secus cesserat. (Sall. F. 20.)

Hanno cum eis, qui postremi jam profligato prœlio advenerant, vivus capitur. (L. 28. 2.)

Latrociniis magis quam justo bello in Bruttiis gerebatur res.

Ab

Romanis egressi quidam urbem Locrenses circumventi Regiumque abstracți fuerant. (L. 29. 6.)

Quartum jam diem eodem loco quietem militi dederat, cum litteras Nabarzanis, qui Dareum cum Besso interceperat, accipit, quarum sententia hæc erat. (Curt. 6. 4, § 8.)

1488

The standard of time is sometimes not given till a subsequent 1489 separate sentence.

Postera die indigna res Macedonibus videbatur, Perdiccam ad mortis periculum adductum, et Meleagri temeritatem armis ultum ire decreverant: atque ille, seditione provisa, interrogat. (Curt. 10. 8, § 5.)

Comitiis habitis consules declarantur M. Tullius et C. Antonius. Quod factum primo popularis conjurationis concusserat: neque tamen Catilinæ furor minuebatur. (Sall. C. 24.)

(b) In letters and sometimes in other writings, and in speeches, it 1490 denotes an action prior to the time of writing, c. (cf. § 1468). Nunc iter conficiebamus æstuosa et pulverulenta via. Dederam

(sc. litteras) Epheso pridie; has dedi Trallibus. (C. Att. 5.14.) Tamen, quod ante de istius abstinentia dixeram, sigillis avulsis reliquum argentum reddidit. (C. Verr. 4. 48.)

Consulibus designatis (inde namque deverteram) in provincias profecti sunt. (L. 35. 40.)

(c) A past action which produced a still continuing effect. 1491 Pluperfect of act-imperfect of resulting state.

Centum viginti lictores forum impleverant, et cum fascibus secures illigatas præferebant. (L. 3. 36.)

Arma, quæ fixa in parietibus fuerant, ea sunt humi inventa.

(C. Div. 1. 34.)

Frumenta non solum a tanta multitudine jumentorum atque hominum consumebantur, sed etiam anni tempore atque imbribus procubuerant. (Cæs. G. 6. 43.)

Eodem tempore Romani scalas ad stantia moenia inferebant, et, dum in unam partem oculos animosque hostium certamen averterat, pluribus locis scalis capitur murus, armatique in urbem transcenderunt. (L. 32. 24.)

So with post (postea) quam, ubi, ut, &c.

P. Africanus, posteaquam bis consul et censor fuerat, L. Cottam in judicium vocabat. (C. Cæcil. 21.)

Deinde, postquam nuntii instabant, et jam juga montium detexerat nebula, et in conspectu erant Macedones, Athenagoram mittit.

(L. 33. 7.) (d) Occasionally, of an action immediately consequent upon another 1492 and therefore regarded as included in it; e.g. Camillus addidit minas, si pergerent, sacramento omnes juniores adacturum. Terrorem ingentem incusserat plebi: ducibus plebi accendit magis certamine animos quam minuit. (L. 6. 38.) L. Scipio nihil accepit: quæ necessaria ad cultum erant, redempta ei a proximis cognatis sunt, verteratque Scipionum invidia in prætorem et consilium ejus et accusatores. (L. 38. fin.)

(e) Of repeated actions, with principal verbs in imperfect.

Hostes, ubi ex litore aliquos singulares ex navi egredientes conspexerant, impeditos adoriebantur. (Cæs. G. 4. 26.)

(See other examples in Chap. XXII.).

Future participle active with the verb sum.

1493

In order to denote what a person purposes, or is destined to do 1494 in future time, especially if regarded from a point in the past or future, the future participle active is used with the different tenses of the verb sum: thus,

PRIMARY.

Contemporary.

Subsequent.
Antecedent.

dicturus sum, I am about to (or mean to or am to) say. dicturus ero, I shall be about to say.

SECONDARY. dicturus eram (or, in the poets, fueram), I was at the time about to (or I meant or was to) say. dicturus fui, I was (once) about to say. dicturus fueram, I had

Facite quod vobis libet; daturus non sum amplius. (C. Verr. 2.29.) Hoc anno nec diem dici cuiquam nec in vincula duci quemquam sum passurus. (L. 3. 59.)

Me ipsum ames oportet, non mea, si veri amici futuri sumus.

(C. Fin. 2. 26.) Hac, qua me prægressum videritis, agite, qui visuri domos, parentes, conjuges, liberos, estis, ite mecum. (L. 4. 28.)

Vos cum Mandonio et Indibili consilia communicastis et arma consociaturi fuistis. (L. 28. 28.)

Quod crediturus tibi fui, omne credidi. (Pl. Most. 437.)

Orator eorum, apud quos aliquid aget aut acturus erit, mentes sensusque degustet oportet. (C. Or. 1. 52.)

Taleas oleaginas, quas in scrobe saturus eris, tripedaneas decidito.
(Cato R. R. 45.)

Conclave illud, ubi rex mansurus erat si ire perrexisset, proxima nocte conruit. (C. Div. I. 15.)

Emilius Paulus Delphis inchoatas in vestibulo columnas, quibus inposituri statuas regis Persei fuerant, suis statuis victor destinavit. (L. 45. 27.)

The same form is resorted to for the subjunctive future; e.g. dicturus sim, &c. (Cf. §§ 1507, 1523.)

(B) TENSES OF IMPERATIVE MOOD.

The imperative mood is used to express a command or request. 1495 On its form see §§ 581, 584, and its difference from the subjunctive, § 1498.

The present is used of the present time, or without any implied reference to a defined future time.

The future is used with express reference to the time following, or to some particular case that may occur, and therefore is frequent in legal forms.

Cura ut valeas. (C. Fam. 16. 7.)

Cum hæc confessus eris, negato tum sane, si voles, te pecuniam accepisse. (C. Verr. 2. 32.)

(See other examples in §§ 1557, 1571, 1597—1603, and the treaty with Antiochus in L. 38. 38 throughout.)

CHAPTER XVIII.

Of the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD and ITS TENSES.

i. Of the Mood.

THE Subjunctive mood, as distinguished from the indicative, 1496 expresses an action or event, as thought or supposed, rather than as done or narrated. This general distinction is somewhat variously modified in different kinds of sentences.

These different kinds appear reducible to eight main classes, which may again be conveniently combined into four.

1. Hypothetical (A) and conditional (B) sentences (Chap. 1497 xx.), the former term being given to the apodosis only, the latter to the protasis only of what are often called, as a whole, conditional sentences. As here used therefore the hypothesis is the action treated as contingent on another, the condition is that other action, on which the first is contingent.

In these sentences, which readily admit of either the indicative or subjunctive mood, the subjunctive implies that the action spoken of is not a fact. Nothing is implied as to knowledge or want of knowledge, doubt or assurance, probability or improbability, possibility or impossibility, so far as the mood is concerned; but a nonreal past action is of course impossible, a non-real future action is (apart from intrinsic impossibilities) possible.

2. Sentences expressing a wish, or command (C), or purpose 1498 (D) (Chap. XXI.). In these the subjective character of the subjunctive is unmistakeable. The imperative mood, which is really an abrupt form of the indicative, speaks of an action commanded, as if it were an assertion of fact. In theory and origin the imperative is the language of an absolute master, the subjunctive is a suggestion to an equal or superior.

A peculiar use of a command is found in concessive sentences, where a person rhetorically commands, or supposes, a change of what he knows or believes to be the fact.

These sentences (C, D) are almost all characterised by the use, if a negative is required, of ne instead of non. Exceptions are comparatively few (see however § 1610), and are chiefly due to the negation being intimately connected with some one word, not with the whole predicate.

3. Sentences expressing the consequence or natural result (E), or 1499 attendant circumstances (F) of an action (Chap. XXII.). In these sentences the subjunctive does not in any way imply the nonreality of the action or event: indeed, the action is, or is assumed to be, a fact. But the subjunctive is still due to the accompanying thought as distinguished from the bare fact; viz. to the causal connexion which the sentence is intended to express, but which the particles (ut, cum) used in such sentences do not contain. They properly mean in which way, at what time, respectively, and gain the notion of result (so that), or modifying circumstances (since, whereas, notwithstanding), only by union with the subjunctive mood.

4. The next division (Chap. XXIV.) contains sentences expres- 1500 sive of definitions, reasons, questions (G), which are given not as the speaker's own but as some one's else.

With these may be classed (H) all sentences which are dependent on infinitive or subjunctive moods, and are regarded only as part of the action expressed substantivally by the infinitive, or as a thought by the subjunctive. In all these the subjunctive simply prevents the speaker being supposed to be responsible for the statements, &c. reported, or to be giving them as independent assertions.

In only two (A, C) of these eight classes is the subjunctive 1501 found in simple or principal sentences. In all the rest it is in subordinate sentences. And these subordinate sentences are mainly such as are introduced by the relative adjective qui, or the relative adverbs si, ut, cum, or by dum. As all of these relatives are also repeatedly found introducing subordinate clauses, which have the indicative mood, it is clear that the use of the subjunctive mood is not due to those relatives.

There are some cautions which should be borne in mind in discussing why the subjunctive mood has or has not been used in any particular sentence.