202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



In clauses of mere subsequence, if the action of the main verb is 

 purely antecedent, Herodotus almost invariably uses the aorist stem in 

 the main clause ; if the action of the main verb is overlapping, he gen- 

 erally uses a tense of extensive action. In a few cases, however, the 

 present or imperfect is found in the main clause, though the action 

 described by it is purely antecedent. 



As would be expected, if the main verb expresses customary or gen- 

 eric action, the present or imperfect appears in the main clause ; as 



4, 180* OTeoicri Se to ndXai eKoapfov ras Trapd'evovs npiv rj u(f)i "EXXrjvas 

 TrapoiKi(jdr}vai, -ovk e^co elneiv, k.t.X. 



In a few cases where the main action is wholly antecedent, the imper- 

 fect is used to express some shade of meaning which could not be ex- 

 pressed by the aorist, as in 4, 134 : vvv a>u poi SoKeei, eVeae Ta^tcrra vvt; eneX8r) 

 . . . U)pds\ (i7T.i\\d(ro~eo~Bai., irpiv rj Kal enl Tov"lo~Tpov Idvaai ^Kvdas Xvo-ovras 



tyjv yecpvpav, k.t.X. It is quite evident that the speaker conceives of the 

 action of d7raXXdo-o-eo-8ai as taking place before the Scythians set out to 

 destroy the bridge, and one might expect the aorist dnaXXaxdrjvai. But 

 the present means not, " to depart," " to go away," but rather, " to set 

 about getting away," "to try to get away." As a matter of fact, the 

 army is in something of a strait, and is by no means sure that it can 

 get away. The meaning of the aorist is very aptly illustrated by the 

 passage 6, 45, where it is said of an army which had suffered many 

 disasters and much slaughter : ovtos pev vw 6 o-rdXos alaxpSa dycoviadpevos 

 dnrjWdxdrj es tt)v 'Acrirjv, i. e., actually made good its return. So in 4, 167 : 



TTp\v 8e f) aTTO(TT(ikni Tr)v (TTpaTir)vi 6 'Apvai/Sr/s Triplets is Tr)v BdpKrjv Kr)pvKa, 



envuddufTo n'y eXrj, k.t A., the verb cirwddveTo means ''he proceeded to find 

 out" (qucerebaf). In 9, 13 : tvvdopevos irdvra Xoyov, irp\v rj tovs pcra Havcra- 

 vUco is tou 'ladpov ecrfiaXelv, v-n(^x^P ee - k.t.X., the imperfect is rendered 

 correctly by Macaulay : " he began to retire" And in 9, 68 : S7/A0Z re poi 



on ndi'Tci tci Trpr/ypaTa tu>v (3apj3dpa>v ijpTrjTo €K Tlepcrfaiv, ei Ka\ tot€ ovtoi np\v i/ 

 Kal crvppi^ai. toIcti 7r(iXep[oiai <;'<fievyov, k t.X.. t(pevyov means not " they made 

 good their escape " (pffugerunt), but u they betook themselves to flight," 

 " turned to flee." 



Sometimes the fondness of a verb for the present stem outweighs the 

 demand of the temporal relation, as, e.g., in 6, "2'2 : idoKee 8e . . . irpiv r) 



. . . aTriKecrdai tov Tvpavvov . . . is dnoiKirjv eKnXteiv, k.t.X. Gf. lliUC, 6, 

 29, 1, and 61, 1.* ivupdopai, which is used in 1, 76 : irplu hi i^tXavvtiv 

 . . . eVeipdrd trcpeas dirb Kpolaov dmo-ravm, as a verb of effort, naturally 



* Cf. Warren, op. cit., p. 41. 



