Fieri solebat

Latin Learning Latin
1

Fieri solebat ut fetialis hastam ferratam sanguineam ad fines eorum ferret et — non minus tribus puberibus praesentibus — diceret: “Quod populus Latinus hominesque Latini adversus populum Romanum Quiritium fecerunt, deliquerunt, quod populus Romanus Quiritium bellum cum Latinis iussit esse senatusque populi Romani Quiritium censuit, consensit, conscivit ut bellum cum Latinis fieret, ob eam rem ego populusque Romanus populo Latino hominibusque Latinis bellum indico facioque!”

I’m interested in the phrase Fieri solebat.

Two questions:

  1. Is a clause before an ut taken to be self contained? Does the ut function as a conjunction or a break? And if so do we treat Fieri solebat as a single phrase having a self-contained meaning?

  2. If we do then we have an infinitive passive of the verb facio and we have a 3rd person imperfect of the verb soleo.

I’m sure it means something along the lines of ‘It became the custom’. My question is what is the implied subject of Fieri solebat? Is it impersonal - ie. it literally meaning ‘it was usual for it to happen that…’?

2

You could ask the sentence something along these lines: quid fieri solebat? What was wonted to happen? The answer is the gigantic ut clause.

Fieri requires a subject, which might be:

1 - a person/thing as in Julius adulescens fit;

2 - a complete sentence as in “ut pluat fit”

Solere is usually constructed with a infinitive clause and a subject:

3 - Julius filium verberare solet

or

4 - Filius Julii verberari solet.

The sentence you presented is a combination, of 2 and 4.

3

The ut clause is the subject. Grammars will variously call this a noun clause or substantive result clause.

4

Thank you both.