Hellow, everyone. I just would to understand this excerpt. I don’t understand why “modus” is in the nominative ( i’m supposing “modus” would have to be an accusative-object depending on temptaturum) and i’m in doubt if ‘tempora’ is in the accusative ( that’s what i’m supposing : " sese temptaturum aditus et (temptaturum) tempora quae (sint) molissima fandi) or in the nominative ( in this last case i don’t understand why). I did some mess, if you can help me i would be very grateful. Thanks at once .
Aeneid 4.291
(statuit)“sese interea, quando optima Dido nesciat et tantos rumpi non speret amores, temptaturum aditus et quae mollissima fandi tempora, quis rebus dexter modus.”
As I see it, both quae tempora and quis modus are indirect interrogative clauses depending on temptaturum, with the verb sum implied:
(statuit) sese interea temptaturum aditus et quae (essent) mollissima fandi tempora, quis (esset) rebus dexter modus.
“(He decided) that in the meanwhile he would attempt an approach and test what times would be most favorable for talking and test what way would be suited to the circumstances.”
Shenoute has explained most of the syntax.
The indirect questions here are objects of “temptaturum” which in turn is an implied indirect statement dependent on vocat in line 288. Thus following the sequence of tenses isn’t it "temptaturum (esse)… quae ..tempora (sint)…quis modus (sit)? Present subjunctive rather than imperfect subjunctive.
Lucas20 you might find this helpful on indirect questions:
Meagan Ayer, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-947822-04-7.
http://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/questions-indirect-discourse
and on sequence of tenses:
http://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/sequence-tenses
Indeed. Without context I took statuit provided by lucas20 as a past tense, but if the whole passage is dependent on a present tense then I agree that it should be sit.
My wrong Shenoute, indeed the verb is “Vocat”. Thank you both for your answers.