wherever, if resolved into an equivalent Indicative, it would be
historical; as,--
videor ostendisse quales dei essent, _I seem to have shown of what
nature the gods are_ (ostendisse here corresponds to an Indicative,
ostendi, _I showed_).
3. The Historical Present is sometimes regarded as a principal tense,
sometimes as historical. Thus:--
Sulla suos hortatur ut forti animo sint, _Sulla exhorts his soldiers to
be stout-hearted_;
Gallos hortatur ut arma caperent, _he exhorted the Gauls to take arms_.
4. Conditional sentences of the 'contrary-to-fact' type are not affected by
the principles for the Sequence of Tenses; as,--
honestum tale est ut, vel si ignorarent id homines, sua tamen
pulchritudine laudabile esset, _virtue is such a thing that even if men
were ignorant of it, it would still be worthy of praise for its own
loveliness_.
5. In conditional sentences of the 'contrary-to-fact' type the Imperfect
Subjunctive is usually treated as an Historical tense; as,--
si solos eos diceres miseros, quibus moriendum esset, neminem tu quidem
eorum qui viverent exciperes, _if you called only those wretched who
must die, you would except no one of those who live_.
6. In clauses of Result and some others, the Perfect Subjunctive is
sometimes used as an historical tense. Thus:--
rex tantum motus est, ut Tissaphernem hostem judicarit, _the king was
so much moved that he adjudged Tissaphernes an enemy_.
This construction is rare in Cicero, but frequent in Nepos and subsequent
historians. The Perfect Subjunctive in this use represents a result simply
_as a fact without reference to the continuance of the act_, and therefore
corresponds to an Historical Perfect Indicative of direct statement. Thus,
judicarit in the above example corresponds to adjudicavit, _he adjudged_.
To denote a result as _something continuous_, all writers use the Imperfect
Subjunctive after historical tenses.
7. Sometimes perspicuity demands that the ordinary principles of Sequence
be abandoned altogether. Thus:
a) We may have the Present or Perfect Subjunctive after an historical
tense; as,--
Verres Siciliam ita perdidit ut ea restitui non possit, _Verres so
ruined Sicily that it cannot be restored_ (Direct statement: non potest
restitui);
ardebat Hortensius dicendi cupiditate sic, ut in nullo flagrantius
studium viderim, _Hortensius burned so
|