Hello everyone
This excerpt is from Ad Atticum I,2:
Hoc tempore Catilinam, competitorem nostrum, defendere cogitamus. Iudices habemus, quos volumus, summa accusatoris voluntate. Spero, si absolutus > erit> , coniunctiorem illum nobis fore in ratione petitionis; sin aliter acciderit, humaniter feremus.
Spero normally opens an indirect discourse. Could someone explain why the bolded part is not in the subjunctive?
Thank you.
si absolutus erit (future perfect) is the protasis and spero is the apodosis of a conditional clause. If the apodosis were the indirect discourse, then the protasis would be in the subjunctive.
In other words, the if-clause, unlike the acc.&inf., is not grammatically dependent on spero—the reverse, in fact. It’s not “I hope that if he’s acquitted he’ll be …” but “If he’s acquitted I hope he’ll be …”. A small difference but a meaningful one. Cicero’s hope is contingent on Catiline’s acquittal. Latin is more precise in such matters than English, just as it is in expressing time relations (e.g. use of fut.perf.).