Er…historical infinitives. I get what they do, they act as an indicative with the nominative as the subject, but translation proves a bit tricky. A&G says they should be translated as imperfect indicatives, but then goes on to translate ‘ibi resistere ac propulsi’ as ‘there they would stand and fight.’ And it also translates ‘pars cedere’ as 'a part gives way." Hello, present tense.
Clarification would be much appreciated.
Yikes. I would just translate them as perfects: past time, simple aspect. Look at all the Livy and Sallust historical infinitves.
Perfects. Got it.
It’s really just a matter of what suits best in translation. When you are translating any latin into english you need to rephrase things a bit, just to make it correct english. Same thing with historical presents, whatever suits, perfects or otherwise.
In fact, ‘would’ in ‘there they would stand and fight.’ is a form of the imperfect. As in “When I was staying in La Jolla I would go down to the beach every day”. Which is another way of saying “I used to go” or “I went”.
I have no idea about 'pars cedere*.
Cheers,
Int