370 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



suppositions by the present indicative, the great distinction between 

 their indefinite time and real present time seems to have been forgot- 

 ten. The Greek regularly expresses these general suppositions by the 

 subjunctive, when they depend on a verb of present time (expressing 

 a repeated action or general truth) and can be translated by the Eng- 

 lish present ; as idv n fx B » ^ovXerai tovto doiivai, if he ever has anything, 

 he {always) wishes to give it. So f^v iyyvs 'i'^^Oji Oduaros, ovdeU iSoiJXerat 

 6vT]a-Kfiv, if death cornes near, no one is willing to die. Eur. Alcest. 671. 

 When they refer to the past, the Greek uses the optative ; as et rt exot, 

 f^ovXero TOVTO bovvai, if he ever had anything, he (always) wished to give 

 it. So, e\ 8i Tivas doau^ovfievovs alfrdoiTO, KaTacrjSfvvvvai ttjv Tapa^riv 

 ineiparo, if he saw any making a disturbance {at any time) he {always) 

 tried, &c. Xen. Cyr. V. 3, 55. In Latin we sometimes find the same 

 construction, the present and perfect subjunctive being used in the 

 sense of the Greek subjunctive, and the imperfect and pluperfect sub- 

 junctive in the sense of the optative. E. g. Si discordet eques, media 

 inter carmina poscunt aut ursum aut pugiles. HoR. Epist. II. 1, 185. 

 Neque aliter si facial, ullam in sues habet auctoritatem. Caes. B. G. 

 VI. 11. Si hastati profligare hostem non possent, eos retro cedentes 

 principes recipiebant. Liv. VIII. 8, 9. Si quis a domino prehende- 

 retur, concursu militum eripiebatur. Caes. Bell. Civ. III. 110. But 

 this was not a genuine Latin construction, being seldom found in Cicero 

 and earlier writers, who prefer the simple indicative (as we do in Eng- 

 lish) : it may perhaps be considered an imitation of the Greek. Thus 

 we find the following examples in Caesar, within a few pages of the 

 first example above quoted. Si qui ex reliquis excellit dignitate, suc- 

 cedit ; aut, si sunt plures pares, . . . . de principatu contendunt. 

 Bell. Gall. VI. 13. In the same chapter. Si quod est admissum faci- 

 nus, si caedes facta, si de hereditate, de finibus controversia est, idem 

 decernunt ; si qui aut privatus aut populus eorum decreto non stetit, 

 sacrificiis interdicunt. Again in Chapter XIX. : De morte si res in su- 

 spicionem venit, de uxoribus quaestionem habent ; et si compertum est, 

 excruciatas interficiunt. So in Horace, Serm. I. 4, 3, we find, Si quis 

 dignus erat describi, multa cum libertate notabant. These last exam- 

 ples illustrate the true Latin construction. The Greek sometimes uses 

 the indicative in the same way, but only as an exception ; of course it 

 is sometimes ditficult to draw the line between a supposition that is 

 thus general in its nature and one that is really present. 



III. We have seeii that the Greek can express a future condition 



