This chapter completes the subjunctive system and adds two distinctively Latin tools: the impersonal passive, which reports an action without giving it a subject, and the future imperative, which states an instruction meant to remain in force. The military vocabulary also distinguishes an army on the march, agmen, from one drawn up, aciēs.
1. The active pluperfect subjunctive
The formation is regular: take the whole perfect active infinitive, then add the personal endings.
| perfect infinitive | + ending | result |
|---|---|---|
| audīvisse | -m | audīvissem |
| vēnisse | -s | vēnissēs |
| cēpisse | -t | cēpisset |
| scrīpsisse | -nt | scrīpsissent |
In a past narrative it marks an action already completed: Cum pontem vīdisset, ratēs parāvit — after he had seen the bridge, he prepared the rafts.
2. Present and past unreality
Latin distinguishes the time at which reality failed:
- Sī adessēs, gaudērem. — If you were here, I would rejoice: present unreality, so the imperfect.
- Sī adfuissēs, gāvīsus essem. — If you had been here, I would have rejoiced: past unreality, so the pluperfect.
- Utinam adessēs! — If only you were here!
- Utinam adfuissēs! — If only you had been here!
The tense does the work: no particle by itself means “contrary to fact”.
3. The impersonal passive
A verb without a direct object cannot turn that object into the subject of an ordinary passive. It can nevertheless be passive without a subject, only in the third person singular:
| personal | impersonal |
|---|---|
| Mīlitēs pugnant. | Pugnātur. — There is fighting. |
| Omnēs properābant. | Properābātur. — Everyone was hurrying. |
| Rōmānī pugnāvērunt. | Pugnātum est. — A battle was fought. |
| Cum diū pugnāvissent… | Cum diū pugnātum esset… — After a long fight… |
In compound tenses the participle stays neuter singular: pugnātum, properātum.
4. The future imperative
It need not demand action on the spot. It lays down an instruction to be carried out at the proper time, hence its use in rules and prescriptions.
| family | one person | several |
|---|---|---|
| vowel stem | properā-tō | properā-tōte |
| consonant stem | scrīb-itō | scrīb-itōte |
| esse | estō | estōte |
| ferre | fertō | fertōte |
The third person also exists: veniat expresses a wish or indirect command; venitō prescribes “let him come at the appointed time”.
5. Gerundive attraction
Two constructions can express the same idea:
- ars epistulās scrībendī;
- ars epistulārum scrībendārum.
The second is preferred: the former object becomes a noun in the case required by the sentence, and the gerundive agrees with it. After a preposition this attraction is standard: ad castra dēfendenda, not ad dēfendendum castra.
6. Distributive numerals
Cardinals count a total; distributives count for each group:
- dēnī mīlitēs — ten soldiers in each group;
- quīnī iuvenēs — five young men per group;
- sēnī virī — six men each time.
With a noun used only in the plural, Latin uses ūnī and trīnī: ūnae litterae means one letter, trīnae litterae three letters.
7. The vocabulary of military order
- agmen: the column moving forward;
- aciēs: the line drawn up for battle;
- legiō: the large unit;
- cohors: a division of a legion;
- ōrdō: a rank or order;
- imperātor: the commander;
- lēgātus: a person entrusted with a mission.
Finally, the ablative can say in what respect a comparison is true: numerō superior means “superior in number”, virtūte praestāns “outstanding in courage”.