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Allen & Greenough · Part Second — Syntax › Syntax of the Verb

§475. Tenses of the Indicative

The Perfect is sometimes used of a general truth, especially with negatives (Gnomic Perfect):—

  • quī studet contingere mētam multa tulit fēcitque (Hor. A. P. 412), he who aims to reach the goal, first bears and does many things.
  • nōn aeris acervus et aurī dēdūxit corpore febrīs (id. Ep. 1.2.47), the pile of brass and gold removes not fever from the frame.

a. The Perfect is often used in expressions containing or implying a negation, where in affirmation the Imperfect would be preferred:—

  • dīcēbat melius quam scrīpsit Hortēnsius (Or. 132), Hortensius spoke better than he wrote. [Here the negative is implied in the comparison: compare the use of quisquam, ūllus, etc. (§§ 311, 312), and the French ne after comparatives and superlatives.]

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.