Perfect stems and short forms (norim, posuere)

The perfect active is built on its own stem (the third principal part), has a short 3rd plural in -ere for -erunt, and often drops v in shortened forms: posuere = posuerunt, norim = noverim.

Examples

• cum et naturam boni norim 2.1since I know the nature of the good
• eumve odisse 2.1or to hate him
• in ipsius arbitrio prorsus posuere 2.11they have placed it entirely in his own power
• colet autem, si affectibus immunem custodierit 2.13and he will honour it if he keeps it free from passions

In the text 81

• I.14 item quod per eundem Thraseam, Helvidium, Catonem, Dionem, Brutum nosse ceperim;nosse is the short form of novisse, perfect infinitive of nosco; since novi means "I know", nosse is "to know", and nosse coepi "I began to know", i.e. "I came to know". coepi "I began" has only perfect forms; Gataker spells it here without the diphthong, ceperim for coeperim.
• I.16 quod probe noverat, ubi vehementius, ubi remissius agere opus esset;noverat is the pluperfect of nosco "get to know". Since novi "I have got to know" means "I know", the pluperfect noveram means "I knew": "he knew well".
• I.16 ita quadrabat in illum, quod de Socrate perhibetur, quod et abstinere et frui rebus eis norat, quibus plerique nec per infirmitatem abstinere, nec frui citra intemperantiam possunt.The second quod is the conjunction "that", giving the report: "that he knew how both to abstain from and to enjoy …". norat is short for noverat, pluperfect of nosco, and means "he knew"; with an infinitive, "knew how to".
• I.17 quod liberi mihi neque ingenio tardi, nec corpore distorti obtigere,
• I.17 quod Apollonium, Rusticum, Maximum norim.Three of his Stoic teachers, each thanked in his own section of this book (8, 7 and 15). The names follow one another without 'and'. norim is short for noverim, perfect subjunctive of nosco 'get to know': 'that I came to know'.
• II.1 ego vero, cum et naturam boni norim, quod honestum, malique, quod inhonestum sit, ipsamque adeo delinquentis naturam, quod congener mihi sit, non tam quod sanguinis seminisque ejusdem, quam quod mentis ac portionis divinae mecum particeps;
• II.1 nec laedi posse me ab horum ullo compertum habeo; (neque enim inhonesta re aliqua me quisquam involverit) sed nec succensere congeneri possum, eumve odisse.odisse "to hate" is perfect in form but present in meaning, like memini and novi. eumve = vel eum "or him".
• II.9 Horum meminisse semper oportet: quae universi, quae tua natura sit; quomodo haec ad illam affecta, qualisque pars qualis universi existat:meminisse is the infinitive of memini: perfect in form, present in meaning, 'to remember'. With oportet it means 'one must remember'. Verbs of remembering often take the genitive: Horum 'these things', which the following questions spell out.
• II.11 et ne in ea, quae vere mala sunt, incidat quisquam, in ipsius arbitrio prorsus posuere.posuere = posuerunt 'they have placed', the other ending -ere of the 3rd plural perfect; the perfect stem posu- shows it is not an infinitive. The thing placed ('it', the matter) is understood.
• II.14 Etiamsi ter mille annos victurus esses, et totidem insuper myriadas, illud tamen meminisse debes, nec ullam aliam vitam ab ea, quam degit, amittere quenquam; nec aliam ab ea, quam amittit, degere.
• II.14 horum itaque duorum meminisse oportebit: alterius nimirum, quod omnia ab aeterno consimilia fuerint, et in orbem ferantur:
• III.2 proinde, siquis animum ac cogitationem norit altius defigere in ea quae in universo hoc fiunt,A future condition, finished in the next part by the future deprehendet "he will find". norit is the short form of noverit, future perfect of nosco: since novi "I have learned" means "I know", noverit "he will have learned" means "he knows". With an infinitive it is "knows how to": norit … defigere "knows how to fix".
• III.3 Hippocrates, ubi multos sustulerat morbos, morbo tandem et ipse sublatus est.Both forms come from tollo "lift, take away", whose perfect sustuli and participle sublatus look nothing like the present. tollere means "to remove" (a disease, i.e. to cure it) and also "to carry off" (a man, i.e. to kill him): the sentence plays on the two senses.
• III.3 Alexander, Pompeius, C. Caesar, cum tot urbes funditus evertissent, tot hominum myriades in praelio cecidissent, ipsi quoque tandem vita excesserunt.cecīdissent, with a long i, comes from caedo, caedere, cecīdī "cut down, kill", and has an object, myriades. Do not confuse it with cecĭdissent from cado, cadere, cecĭdī "fall", which would mean "had fallen" and take no object. Without the long mark the two forms look alike.
• III.3 Democritum pediculi; Socratem etiam pediculi, sed aliusmodi, sustulerunt.
• III.3 quorsum ista? navem conscendisti, navigasti, appulisti: egredere.navigasti is short for navigavisti "you have sailed": in perfects in -avi the -vi- or -ve- is often dropped (amasti, amarunt). appulisti is not shortened: it is the regular perfect of appello, appellere, appulī "bring to land", a different verb from appellare "to call".
• III.5 faxis vero, ut qui in te residet Deus, praeses sit animantis masculi, aetate provecti, reipublicae studiosi, Romani, principis;faxis is an old form of the perfect subjunctive of facio, = feceris, kept in solemn and legal language. Here it is a softened command, "see to it, make it so", and the ut clause says what is to be brought about.
• III.7 Nihil unquam in pretio pro utili habeas, quod eo te adigat, ut fidem fallas, modestiam deseras, oderis quenquam, suspectum habeas, execreris, simules, appetas quicquam, quod parietes circumjectos velamentaque desideret.Seven verbs follow with no connecting words, all subjunctive in the result clause. fidem fallere is "to break one's word"; oderis is the perfect subjunctive of odi, perfect in form but present in meaning; execreris comes from the deponent exsecror "curse", which Gataker spells execror, as he spells quemquam quenquam; suspectum habeas "hold (anyone) suspect" shares quenquam with oderis.
• III.10 meminerisque insuper, unumquemque praesens tantummodo aetatis spatium, quod puncti instar obtinet, vivere:
• III.10 eaque homuncionum morti celerrime concedentium, qui ne seipsos quidem probe norint, nedum jam olim defunctum quempiam, successionibus propagata.
• III.11 caeterum ego, cum norim, ideo adversus illum benevole justeque me gero, juxta societatis legem a natura latam.
• IV.3 quibus adjicias licet et, quae de dolore ac voluptate audieris aliquando, et assensu tuo comprobaveris.quae "the things which" has no antecedent: "what you have heard about pain and pleasure", the Stoic teaching that they are neither good nor evil. audieris (short for audiveris) and comprobaveris are perfect subjunctives, because the clause depends on the subjunctive adjicias. assensu tuo "with your assent": a Stoic term for the mind's acceptance of what it is told.
• IV.6 illud interim omnino memineris, brevi futurum; ut vestrum uterque defungatur: tum paulo post ne nomina quidem utriusque superfutura.
• IV.10 hoc itaque, prout cepisti, observare pergas; et quicquid feceris, bonum te praestes, quomodo bonus quis proprie dicitur.
• IV.14 Tanquam pars universi hujus, extitisti.extitisti "you have come into being, you arose" is the perfect of existo (exsisto) "come forth, arise": existo, existere, extiti. Gataker writes ext- for exst-. Tanquam pars "as a part": you exist not on your own account but as a part of the whole.
• IV.32 ita transiit, nec jam usquam est illorum vita:
• IV.32 illi vero cum primis sunt memoria recolendi, quos ipse noris aliquando se rebus inanibus distinuisse, cum id interim facere, quod conditioni propriae consentaneum erat, huic firmiter inhaerere, eodemque contentum esse, neglexerint.
• IV.48 quot philosophi, postquam de morte et immortalitate tam multa disseruissent: quot strenui bellatores, cum multos trucidassent:trucidassent is a short form of trucidavissent: perfect stems in -av- often drop the -vi- (amassent for amavissent). With cum and the pluperfect subjunctive: "when they had slaughtered many". multos "many" is used as a noun, "many men".
• IV.48 Percurre itidem quoscunque noveris ipse, qui vice frequenti, alii alios ubi sepelierant, et ipsi tandem elati sunt:Percurre "run through", in the mind: go over them one by one. quoscunque "all whom" (Gataker's spelling of quoscumque) is the object both of Percurre and of noveris. novi, the perfect of nosco "get to know", means "I know", so noveris is "you have known, you know"; it is perfect subjunctive here (the future perfect has the same form), as Gataker often puts "whoever" clauses.
• V.6 est, qui etiamsi imputare haud ita proclivis sit, pro debitore tamen apud se habet eum cui benefecit, quidque fecerit, novit.
• V.6 est et, qui, quid fecerit, quodammodo ne novit quidem;
• V.6 Verum est, fateor, quod dicis. Veruntamen, quod jam dictum est, si secius ceperis, ex eorum numero futurus es, quorum priore loco memineram.
• V.8 Cujusmodi illud est, quod dici solet, Aesculapium huic vel illi coordinasse, ut equitet, ut frigida proluatur, ut discalceatus incedat:
• V.9 illud autem memineris, philosophiam ea sola velle, quae natura tua ipsa velit.
• V.18 aliis eadem contigere, qui vel casuum suorum ignari, vel animi magni specimen dare cupidi, immoti illaesique manserunt.contigere is not the infinitive (that would be contingere, with an n) but the short form of the perfect contigerunt "they have happened": -ere for -erunt is common. Its subject is eadem "the same things", and aliis "to others" is the dative.
• V.28 siquidem enim te audiverit, sanasti eum, nec ira amplius opus jam erit.siquidem "if indeed" with the future perfect audiverit: "if he listens to you". The main verb is a perfect, sanasti, short for sanavisti: "you have cured him", as though the cure were complete the moment he listens. Short perfects like this drop -vi- or -ve-.
• V.33 istius tempus donec obvenerit, quid suffecerit, nisi ut Deos colas celebresque; hominibus benefacias, sustineas eos eisdemque abstineas; meminerisque ea omnia, quae extra corpusculi animulaeque tuae terminos consistunt, nec tua esse, nec in potestate tua sita?
• V.36 sed quemadmodum senex discedens alumni turbinem poscebat, cum turbinem tamen, hoc est, ludicrum quiddam, esse meminisset: ita et istic te geras.
• V.36 memini satis, inquis; verum ea sunt, in quibus isti pretium studiumque ponunt.
• VI.5 Novit mens universi rectrix, quomodo se habeat, quid faciat, et in qua materia versetur.novit is a perfect with present meaning: nosco is "get to know", so novi "I have got to know" means "I know". Its subject, mens universi rectrix "the mind that rules the universe", as in section 1, follows the verb.
• VI.15 Quaedam fieri properant, quaedam fuisse: et illius etiam quod fit, aliquid jam abscessit.
• VI.18 eos, qui eodem secum tempore vivunt, laudare cum renuant; ipsi a posteris, qui eos nec norint unquam nec viderint, celebrari plurimi faciunt.norint is the short form of noverint. noverint and viderint could be perfect subjunctives or future perfects; the sense here is future: posterity, not yet born, "will never have known or seen" the men who want its praise.
• VI.26 proinde et istic pari modo memineris, officium omne quasi numeris quibusdam absolvi:
• VI.30 utque nihil omnino praeterierit, priusquam sedulo considerasset et liquido perspexisset:considerasset is a short form of consideravisset: the -vi- of the perfect stem often drops out in the forms with -ss-.
• VI.32 corpusculo indifferentia sunt omnia. neque enim res distinguere novit.neque enim "for … not". novit is the perfect of nosco "get to know", so it means "knows"; with an infinitive, "knows how to": "for it does not know how to tell things apart".
• VI.37 Qui praesentia vidit, cuncta vidit, tum quae ab aeterno fuere, tum quae in aeternum futura sunt.fuere is the short form of fuerunt "they have been". futura sunt, the future participle with sunt, means "are going to be", "will be".
• VI.41 necesse erit, ut ubi istiusmodi vel in malum incideris, vel bono excideris, Deos incuses, oderis homines, qui horum alterutrius tibi vel autores fuerint, vel etiam fore suspicaris.
• VI.42 tu vero cave pars ejusmodi sis, qualis in fabula vilis et ridiculus versus ille, cujus meminit Chrysippus.
• VI.47 hos omnes jam olim occubuisse memineris.
• VII.6 Quam multi qui celebres admodum olim extitere, oblivioni nunc sunt traditi?extitere is extiterunt "they stood out, they were", with the short ending -ere for the third person plural perfect -erunt. Mind the long e: extitēre is a perfect, not an infinitive. existo (also spelt exsisto) "stand out, emerge" with a predicate means "prove to be, be": celebres admodum extitere "were very famous".
• VII.58 denique in utroque horum memineris, medium quiddam esse illud, circa quod actio versatur.
• VII.63 hoc jugiter meminisse cumprimis necessarium est.
• VII.64 illud etiam memineris, multa taedio nos afficere, quae non advertimus eandem cum dolore rationem habere, verbi gratia, dormitare, quando vigilare libet, aestu affici, fastidio laborare.
• VII.67 hoc semper memineris; sed et illud, paucissimis ad beate vivendum opus esse.
• VIII.15 Memineris, aeque turpe esse mirari quenquam tanquam de re insueta, quod ea mundus, quorum ferax est, profert; ac mirari quenquam, quod ficus ficus ferat, aut mirari medicum, quod quis febricitaverit, gubernatorem, quod ventus adversus flaverit.
• VIII.19 quid miraris? sol etiam ipse, Diique reliqui ad opus aliquod extitere.extitere is the short form of extiterunt, "came into being", from existo. The ending -ere with a perfect stem is a perfect, not an infinitive.
• VIII.25 Lucilla Verum extulit; mox et Lucilla ipsa elata est.efferre "to carry out" is the word for carrying the dead out of the house to burial, as in 4.48 and 4.50. Its parts are irregular, effero, efferre, extuli, elatum, so extulit is "carried out, buried" and elata est "was carried out, was buried". Every pair in this section follows the pattern: X buried Y, and soon X too was buried.
• VIII.42 Indignum censeo, ut me ipse vexem, qui neminem unquam volens vexarim.
• VIII.52 qui nescit ad quid natus sit, nec quis ipse, nec quid mundus sit, novit.
• VIII.52 qualis ergo tibi videtur is, qui vanos hominum eorum plausus vel aversatur vel aucupatur, qui nec ubi sint, nec qui sint ipsi, norunt?This second qui is plural: its antecedent is hominum eorum, the people who clap. Inside it are two indirect questions, ubi sint "where they are" and qui sint ipsi "who they themselves are", where qui is the interrogative "who", not the relative. norunt is the short form of noverunt "they know".
• IX.2 Gratius equidem foret, ut prius defungeretur quispiam, quam mendacitatem, simulationem, luxum, fastum delibasset.
• IX.11 si minus, memineris, hoc fine clementiam tibi datam esse. et Dii autem adversus tales clementer se gerunt.
• IX.15 Res ipsae foris apud semet consistunt; nec de se quicquam aut norunt ipsae, aut narrant nobis.nec … aut … aut is "not … either … or", i.e. "neither … nor". norunt is the short form of noverunt, the perfect of nosco "get to know", and so means "they know". quicquam "anything" is the object of both verbs. ipsae "themselves" stresses the subject again, as Res ipsae did: the things on their own know nothing of themselves.
• IX.27 Ubi te alii vituperaverint, vel oderint, vel ejusmodi aliquid oblocuti fuerint, adi animulas eorum, penitius introspice cujusmodi sint.
• IX.29 viderint illi, an quid natura communis poscat, norint, et ad hujus dictamen sese instituerint.
• IX.29 sin tragice semet ostentarint, quis ad illorum imitationem me addixit?
• IX.37 perinde habet annis centum an tribus ista noris.
• IX.39 quid ergo perturbaris? num menti dices, mortua es, corrumperis, egeris, armentitia es, pecudis instar pasceris, in feram belluam transiisti.
• X.3 memineris tamen, natura esse comparatum te, ad quidlibet ferendum, quod in opinione tua situm est, ut tolerabile faciat, vel conducere tibi, vel officii esse, ut illud facias, censendo.memineris is the perfect subjunctive of memini, a verb with only perfect forms but present meaning; used as a command it is "remember".
• X.6 ubi ergo meminerim, partem esse me universi istiusmodi, futurum est, ut quicquid evenerit, gratum mihi acceptumque sit.meminerim is the perfect subjunctive of memini, present in meaning: "I remember". The subjunctive treats the case as one that may arise: "whenever I remember".
• X.15 viderint, norintque homines, hominem verum, qui naturae convenienter vivat.
• X.31 praesertim, si simul fueris recordatus, quicquid semel mutarit, per spatium temporis infinitum non esse amplius futurum.
• X.36 non erat revera asper nostri cuiquam: sensi tamen, tacite illum damnasse nos.
• XI.8 porro ramum alius abscindit; homo vero se ipse a proximo suo separat, dum eum odit et aversatur:
• XI.8 quanquam hoc frequentius si fiat, dissociatio istiusmodi et difficilius resarcitur, et restitutio aegre procedere consuevit.
• XI.13 odit me quisquam? ipse viderit.The same pattern again. odit is perfect in form but present in meaning, since odi "I hate" has no present stem.
• XI.18 Quinto, quod nec an peccaverit etiam, nosti satis. multa enim per dispensationem geruntur.
• XII.16 Ubi obrepserit tibi cogitatio, peccasse aliquem, haec tu tibi, Unde novi, an peccatum hoc sit; aut si peccavit, an peccati ipse se reum peregerit?
• XII.16 hoc enim perinde est, acsi faciem sibi dilacerasset:
• XII.16 tum illud memineris, eum qui improbos delinquere non vult, parem esse illi, qui ficum in ficubus succum acrem gerere; et infantes vagire, et equum hinnire, aliaque ejusmodi quae necessaria sunt, nolit.
• XII.27 Eos apud te crebro recolas, qui de re aliqua vehementer indignati fuerint, qui vel in summa gloria, vel in insigni miseria, inimicitia, fortuna qualibet extitere.extitere is the short form of extiterunt; Gataker often uses the perfect ending -ere for -erunt, and he writes this verb without the s after the x (exstiterunt in other prints). existo here means "stand out, prove to be": these men were conspicuous, for good fortune or bad.