verb forms in narrative history

Latin Learning Latin
1

Source: Cornelius Nepos, “Miltiades”

Context: The Athenians have decided to send forth colonist, but before launching the expedition, they consult the oracle at Delphi on the question, who should command it?

Quotation:

His consulentibus nominatim Pythia praecepit, ut Miltiadem imperatorem sibi sumerent: id se fecissent, incepta prospera futura.

My translation: To the ones seeking advice Pythia declared, by name, that Miltiades should be made commander; and that, if they did this, their undertakings would succeed.

praecepit: perfect, active, indicative. It’s a simple event in the past. No problem for me.

sumerent: imperfect, active, subjunctive. This is the verb of a conditional (dependent) clause in indirect discourse, an if-clause. I’m unsure the rule for making it imperfect.

fecissent: why pluperfect?

futura: I suggest the reader is expected to supply esse to make the future infinitive, futura esse. In this way, the main clause would be an infinitive + subject-accusative, which is regular for indirect discourse.

Historical narrative floods my defenses, because it presents so many cases of indirect speech, combined with causal clauses, result causes, and conditional clauses. I usually get the sense right, but sometimes I stumble, because I don’t have mastery of these forms.


Incidentally when I read this to my wife Anita she declared, “That’s straight talk, considering it’s the oracle at Delphi.”

2

You’re right about the futura. An “esse” is implied; this is relatively common.

Concerning the fecissent, I was surprised as well. I’d be expecting a “facerent”. It seems to me that the consecutio temporum would demand that. Regardless, the meaning is clear, so I wonder if there’s a technical explanation for it in this particular context.

3

id se fecissent, incepta prospera futura.

This is a future condition in indirect discourse; the oracle is speaking. The speaking verb praecepit is perfect (a past tense), so we’re in the “secondary sequence.”

First, think about what this would be in direct speech The Pythia said: id si feceritis, incepta prospera erunt. Thus,

–The main clause (apodosis) of the conditional is future.

–Since the action of the if-clause (protasis) will occur before the action of the main clause, the verb in direct speech must be future perfect, not future. This is a feature of Latin that isn’t paralleled in English. We would say “If you do this [present tense], you’ll get off to a propitious start,” but in Latin you have to say the equivalent of “If you will have done this, you’ll get off to a propitious start” because the expectation is that Miltiades will be appointed before the colonists get off to a start.

In indirect discourse, after a past tense verb of speaking (secondary sequence)–

–The future tense verb in the main clause of the conditional in direct discourse erunt becomes a future infinitive futura [esse] in indirect discourse. Easy enough.

–A verb in a subordinate clause that would be present or future indicative in direct discourse would be imperfect subjunctive.

–A verb in a subordinate clause that would be perfect, pluperfect or future perfect (indicative) in direct discourse, I.e., in this case, feceritis, becomes pluperfect subjunctive, i.e., in this case, fecissent, which marks it as occurring before the verb of the main clause, whatever the tense of the main verb.

4

ut Miltiadem imperatorem sibi sumerent

This is an indirect command, not a conditional.

In direct discourse it would be imperative: Miltiadem imperatorem sumite.

In indirect discourse, in secondary sequence, it becomes imperfect subjunctive, praecepit ut sumerent.

5

Thanks to anphph for supporting my guess.

For Hylander: I have to think through your post carefully. The area of sequence of tenses, conditional sentences, and so on, has long been difficult for me, and I want to work this out. You have been most generous to write at such length.

I intend to read Cornelius Nepos for a while; he should give me plenty of practice, as well as problems to ask about here.

6

Thanks for reminding me of this. It’s an important detail that had completely vanished from my mind.