Matheson Collection > Cornelli Taciti annalium

INTRODUCTION
prose are usually followed by ut or ne with subjunctive, occur in
great numbers in Tacitus followed by infinitive, as orabant cavcre,
xiii 13, 4 ; mori adactus est, xiii 25, 2 ; perpulit suscipere, xiii 54, 3;
abire subegit, xiv 26, I ; see also the infinitives after mandavit,
XV 2, 5 ; monebat, xv 12, 3 ; placuit, xv 14, 5 ; scribitur, xv 25, 6;
imperavit, xv 28, 3 ; hortarentur, xv 59, i ; suadenti, xvi 9, 3.
32 [44]. The use of the accusative and infinitive is extended so
as to follow accusare, xiv 18, i, and dubitare negatived, xv j^, 3.
33 [45]- The infinitive depending on a verb in a personal con-
struction is used in some cases where an impersonal construction
would be usual in earlier classical prose, as deferuntur consensisse,
xiii 23, I ; baud creditus sufficere, xiii 30, 3 ; adnotatus . . . praeri-
guisse, xiii 35, 6 ; adventare audiebatur, xv 6, 4.
34 [46]. The historic infinitive is very frequent in lively descrip-
tions, as xiii 13, I and following; xiii 27, i; "Src. ; and is even used
in temporal clauses when the time at which a state of things began
has already been specified by a finite verb ; thus with cum, xiv 5, 2 ;
donee, xiii 57, 6.
35 [47]. The epexegetic infinitive, a Graecism common in Horace,
is employed, as factus . . . et exercitus . . . velare, xiv 56, 5.
B. Indicative.
36 [48]. The historic present is very common : it is so far treated
as a past tense as to be sometimes joined with a perfect, as in
xv 10, 5 ; and to have a subjunctive dependent upon it in the
imperfect tense, as ut omitteret maritum emercatur, xiii 44, i ; cf.
also XV 9, 2.
37 [49]. Parenthetical or explanatory clauses in the indicative
are inserted in the midst of oratio obliqua, as with dum, xiii 15, 7,
&c. ; quoties, xiv 64, 5 ; and relative, xv 61, 6.
38 [50]. The indicative is used rhetorically in place of subjunctive
in the apodosis of conditional clauses, stating what might have
happened as though it had actually occurred ; as exstimula-
verant . . . nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, xv 50, 7; or an in-
complete action or tendency, showing vividly what was on the
point of happening, as ibatur in caedes, nisi . . . obviam issent,
xiii 2, I ; or what would have been, in contrast to what did happen,
xviii