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Allen & Greenough · Part Second — Syntax › Indirect Discourse

§593. Subjunctive of Integral Part (Attraction)

A clause depending upon a Subjunctive clause or an equivalent Infinitive will itself take the Subjunctive if regarded as an integral part of that clause:—1

  • imperat, dum rēs iūdicētur, hominem adservent: cum iūdicāta sit, ad sē ut addūcant (Verr. 3.55), he orders them, till the affair should be decided, to keep the man; when it is judged, to bring him to him.
  • etenim quis tam dissolūtō animō est, quī haec cum videat, tacēre ac neglegere possit (Rosc. Am. 32), for who is so reckless of spirit that, when he sees these things, he can keep silent and pass them by ?
  • mōs est Athēnīs laudārī in cōntiōne eōs quī sint in proeliīs interfectī; (Or. 151), it is the custom at Athens for those to be publicly eulogized who have been slain in battle. [Here laudārī is equivalent to ut laudentur.]

a. But a dependent clause may be closely connected grammatically with a Subjunctive or Infinitive clause, and still take the Indicative, if it is not regarded as a necessary logical part of that clause:—

  • quōdam modō postulat ut, quem ad modum est, sīc etiam appellētur, tyrannus (Att. 10.4.2), in a manner he demands that as he is, so he may be called, a tyrant.
  • nātūra fert ut eīs faveāmus quī eadem perīcula quibus nōs perfūnctī sumus ingrediuntur (Mur. 4), nature prompts us to feel friendly towards those who are entering on the same dangers which we have passed through.
  • nē hostēs, quod tantum multitūdine poterant, suōs circumvenīre possent (B. G. 2.8), lest the enemy, because they were so strong in numbers, should be able to surround his men.
  • sī mea in tē essent officia sōlum tanta quanta magis ā tē ipsō praedicārī quam ā mē ponderārī solent, verēcundius ā tē ... peterem (Fam. 2.6), if my good services to you were only so great as they are wont rather to be called by you than to be estimated by me, I should, etc.

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.