§467. Tenses of the Indicative
The Present sometimes denotes an action attempted or begun in present time, but never completed at all (Conative Present, cf. § 471. c):—
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iam iamque manū tenet
(Aen. 2.530), and now, even now, he attempts to grasp him. - dēnsōs fertur in hostīs (id. 2.511), he starts to rush into the thickest of the foe.
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dēcernō quīnquāgintā diērum supplicātiōnēs
(Phil. 14.29), I move for fifty days' thanksgiving. [Cf. senātus dēcrēvit, the senate ordained.]
Present for Future
J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.