Here are the first two lines of Horace, Odes, I, 18,
Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem
circa mite solum Tiburis et moenia Catili;
This ( “severis”) seems like a hortatory, or jussive, subjunctive, but I’m just guessing here. I don’t get the meaning of the perfect tense here, in the subjunctive.
This is a prohibition (negative command), which can be expressed by ne (or another negative word) + perfect subjunctive. Here the negative word is nullam.
Allen & Greenough sec. 450; see note 4:
- Prohibition is regularly expressed in classic prose (1) by nōlī with the Infinitive, (2) by cavē with the Present Subjunctive, or > (3) by nē with the Perfect Subjunctive:
(1) “ nōlī putāre” (Lig. 33) , do not suppose (be unwilling to suppose).
“ nōlī impudēns esse ” (Fam. 12.30.1) , don’t be shameless.
“ nōlīte cōgere sociōs ” (Verr. 2.1.82) , do not compel the allies.
(2) cavē “putēs” (Att. 7.20) , don’t suppose (take care lest you suppose).
“ cavē īgnōscās ” (Lig. 14) , do not pardon.
“ cavē festīnēs ” (Fam. 16.12.6) , do not be in haste.
(3) “ nē necesse habueris” (Att. 16.2.5) , do not regard it as necessary.
“ nē sīs admīrātus ” (Fam. 7.18.3) , do not be surprised.
“hōc facitō; hōc nē fēceris ” (Div. 2.127) , thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do that.
“ nē Apellae quidem dīxeris ” (Fam. 7.25.2) , do not tell Apella even.
“ nē vōs quidem mortem timueritis ” (Tusc. 1.98) , nor must you fear death.
All three of these constructions are well established in classic prose. The first, which is the most ceremonious, occurs oftenest; the third, though not discourteous, is usually less formal and more peremptory than the others.
Note 4.–> Other negatives sometimes take the place of nē > :—
“ nihil īgnōveris ” (Mur. 65) , grant no pardon (pardon nothing).
“ nec mihi illud dīxeris ” (Fin. 1.25) , and do not say this to me.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+450&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0001
seueris is from sero – to sow or plant
"Don’t plant any other tree before (you plant) the sacred vine . . "
Another ode – maybe the most famous of all, and in the same meter (“Greater Asclepiadean”) – begins with the ne + perfect subjunctive construction (1.11):
Tu ne quaesieris–scire nefas–quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe . . .
“Don’t you ask–it’s not right to know–what ending the gods have given me, have given you, Leuconoe . . .”
Leuconoe is apparently consulting Babylonios numeros, i.e., astrology.
The last line includes two words even people who know no Latin know:
. . . dum loquimur fugerit inuida
aetas. carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
“. . . even while we’re talking, jealous time will have fled. Pluck the day, putting as little faith as possible in the next one.”
Thank you Qimmik.
Would you believe I found A&G on the subjunctive with prohibition, but didn’t read far enough into the notes to catch the relevant point that other negatives sometimes replace the ne?
Do you have a print copy of A&G? They’re much more user-friendly than the on-line version, and they can be purchased at reasonable prices either used in good condition or in paperback. The print edition is much easier to find and access what you’re looking for in the index.
Avoid print on demand and don’t get an e-book.
The metrical section is serviceable if you disregard the musical notation, which is based on a discarded 19th century German theory that Greek and Latin meters could be fit within the framework of 19th century “Western” music, with regular measures. All the meters of Horace are listed.
I hope you try scanning Horace and reading the odes metrically. As I mentioned previously, the lyric meters are generally easier to scan than hexameters because long syllables can’t be resolved into two shorts.
I do have a print copy of A&G, Dover Books, but you made a good guess, for I’d mislaid it and was trying to use the Perseus version. Today I found the print version.
Print-on-demand: what’s wrong with this, poor print job? I’ve only used Dissertations Abstracts to get unpublished theses, and they do a fair job, more usable than microfilm.
On ebooks: I agree that they are not useful for reference books.
Metrics: I’m working on that. I copied out the list of numbered odes that deploy Alcaic stanzas from my Loeb version of Horace: Odes and Epodes, and copied the metric form on a 5x8 card.
I use Google fairly frequently to look up exact phrases. This often takes me to a book, often a 19th c. commentary or pony written for students.
In October I will have been working on Latin for six years. I haven’t skipped more than five or six days. When I think about it, I’m a little disappointed in my progress, but I attribute this mostly to self-instruction. I just keep hammering away, studying one real text after the other. Now and then I read a few pages of A&G.