Unit seven, Exercises Q3

Textbooks M&F's Latin: An Intensive Course
1

I’ve been studying M&F and have pretty much understood most answers to the exercises but I have a question about the translation for the following:

Dicit feminas quas viderimus in illo loco esse matres eorum puerorum qui Romam ex ASia venerunt ut sibi laetas vitas petant.

The M&F translation is:

He says that the women, whom we saw in that place, are the mothers of the children, who have come to Rome from Asia so that they may seek happy lives for themselves.

My problem is with the verb “viderimus”. That’s the future perfect indicative/perfect subjunctive, not the perfect indicative of videre. (The perfect indicative of videre, in this case, would be vidimus.) Why is the translation of this word not “will have seen” or “might have seen” instead of “saw”? In other words, why is the translation of “viderimus” in the perfect indicative?

2

It is perfect subjunctive. In indirect speech the subjunctive is used in clauses subordinate to the infinitive. Here quas viderimus is subordinate to feminas esse etc. However, when the subordinate is important and cannot be omitted without losing meaning (qui … venerunt) then the indicative is used.

3

Thank you very much for your reply.

I don’t remember reading your explanation in M&F but I’ll remember it. You’ve been very helpful.

4

Welcome. Have a look at Unit Seven, Sec. J, p. 116 in my 1977 edition.