Sequence of tenses

In a subordinate clause with the subjunctive, the tense depends on whether the main verb is present or past and on whether the action is at the same time, earlier or later.

Examples

• Memento, quamdiu ista distuleris 2.4Remember how long you have been putting these things off
• Vides, quam pauca sint 2.5You see how few things there are
• quo in ipso situm foret, in istud quoque ne incideret 2.11so that it would lie in his own power not to fall into that either

In the text 20

• I.5 Ab educatore, ne in certamine equestri Prasinae, aut Venetae factioni, neve in gladiatorio Thraci aut secutori fautor fierem:
• I.8 Ab Apollonio, ut liber essem; firmumque ac certum citra fluctuationem omnem consilii ingeniique tenorem retinerem: neque aliud quicquam, vel minimum, praeter rationem solam, intuerer:
• I.13 A Catulo, ne insuper haberem amicorum querimonias, etiamsi ratio earum nulla subesset, sed in statum ipsos pristinum restituere anniterer:The subjunctives here are imperfect (haberem, subesset, anniterer), as after a past verb, "(I was taught) not to …"; in §12 Gataker used the present. After sed the clause turns positive with no new ut: "not to slight …, but to strive …".
• I.17 quodque nulla mihi unquam talis necessitas obtigerit, ut ab alio sumere cogerer.
• II.8 Vix, aut ne vix quidem quisquam, ideo infeliciter agere deprehensus est, quia in alienis animis quid ageretur non animadverterit.
• II.11 reliquorum siquid malum existeret, et de hoc utique pariter prospexissent, quo in ipso situm foret, in istud quoque ne incideret.
• II.11 nec errorem tam immanem admisisset unquam, sive per impotentiam, sive per imperitiam, ut bona ac mala, bonis malisque ex aequo hominibus, nullo facto discrimine, contingere pateretur.
• III.6 sin praestabilius nihil offenderis, genio in te collocato, cum ita fuerit comparatus, ut motus suos omnes sibi subjecerit, et visa quaeque diligenter exploret,The tenses alternate: the perfects (subjecerit, and next abstraxerit, permiserit) describe what the genius has done once for all, the presents (exploret, and next impendat) what it goes on doing.
• III.14 Ne diutius evageris. neque enim futurum est, ut commentarios tuos perlegas, aut Romanorum ac Graecorum priscorum res gestas, aut ex autoribus variis excerpta, quae, quo in senectute usui tibi essent, reposuisti.
• IV.46 illius quoque meminisse profuerit, qui quo via duceret, oblitus est.
• VI.30 utque nihil omnino praeterierit, priusquam sedulo considerasset et liquido perspexisset:praeterierit is perfect subjunctive: the main verb imitare is present, so a past act takes the perfect. The priusquam clause depends on that past act, so it moves into the pluperfect: considerasset, perspexisset "before he had considered, had seen through".
• VI.44 ut autem male mihi facerent, ecquid eos impelleret?
• VIII.31 dein reputa tecum, quam anxie egerint horum antecessores, ut successorem aliquem sibi superstitem relinquerent: cum necesse tamen fuerit, ut aliquis tandem ultimus existeret.relinquerent is imperfect because it depends on the past egerint (sequence of tenses). superstes "surviving" takes the dative: sibi superstitem "surviving them", that is, outliving them; sibi refers to the forebears, the subject.
• VIII.34 Verum benignitatem ejus considera, qua hominem cohonestavit: cum et in ipso posuerit, ne primitus ab universo revelleretur, et facultatem tribuerit, ubi fuerit revulsus, redeundi denuoque coalescendi, et partis ordinem, quem tenuerat, recuperandi.
• VIII.46 neque enim quicquam tibi tulisset natura communis, quod ferri non posset.A play on fero, which means both "bring" and "bear": nature would not have "brought" (tulisset) what cannot be "borne" (ferri). posset is imperfect subjunctive, following the past tulisset, in a relative clause of characteristic.
• VIII.56 alioqui vicini mei malitia malum me faceret: id quod Deo non est visum, ne alieni arbitrii esset miserum me facere.
• IX.35 nec penes Deos, qui tot fuerint, potentiam extitisse corrigendi ista, quo minus mundus ad mala ista addiceretur, quibus perpetim teneretur implicitus?
• IX.42 tu vide, annon te potius incusare debeas, quod non expectaveris fore, ut hoc ille delinqueret;
• XI.27 Pythagorei mane coelum suspicere praecipiebant, quo eorum commoneamur, quae eundem perpetuo cursum servant, eodemque modo peragunt opus suum; utque ordinem eorundem observemus, et puritatem, et nuditatem.
• XII.5 curare nempe, ne homines, boni cumprimis, quique frequentissima cum ipsis quasi commercia habuerint, atque per opera pia sacraque ministeria quam maxime familiares ipsis extiterint, ubi semel defuncti sunt, non existerent amplius, sed omnino extinguerentur?