Subjunctive

Latin Learning Latin
1

I’ve been going over a few of my translations of the Loci Antiqui from Wheelock, and I’m puzzled by the use of the subjunctive in one of the sentences. It reads as follows:

Pythagoras respondit multos homines gloriae aut pecuniae servire sed paucos quosdam esse qui cetera pro nihilo haberent sed naturam rerum congnoscere cuperent.

I don’t see any reason for “haberent” in the subjunctive. Any suggestions?


While I’m here, I might as well cofirm another translation.

amen dico vobis, receperunt mercedem suam

I have it, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. I’m almost 100% certain that it’s correct, and that I’m right to translate receperunt as perfect active indic, but for some reason it’s niggling at me! It just seems out of place with the rest of the text for some reason. So I need someone to put my mind at ease!!

2

Your translation of receperunt is fine.

The reason haberent and cuperent are subjunctives is because they are relative clauses of characteristic.
‘a certain few men OF THE SORT WHO WOULD CONSIDER… and WOULD WANT’
One does not need to translate it that way, but it gets across the idea of why the subjunctive is there.

3

“they have received their reward [already, because to be seen is what they really wanted // quià reverà videri est quod voluerunt]”