Can someone help me to understand the use of the subjunctive in the following sentence?
Equidem etiam illud animadverto, quod, qui proprio nomine perduellis esset, is hostis vocaretur, lenitate verbi rei tristitiam mitigatam. (Cicero, de officiis I, 37)
This seems to translate to something like: 'I in any case observe that, since he who should properly be called a 'public enemy' is called a 'foreigner', the harshness of the thing has been softened by the expression.'
Now, what I don't get is 1) the use of the subjunctive in the quod clause and 2) the fact that it's an imperfect subjunctive (though I'm guessing that the quod clause is dependent on the infinitive construction 'tristitiam mitigatam [esse]' which is in the past, so the imperfect is used to indicate contemporaneity with that?).
Any help would be much appreciated! All the more so if you can steer me to the right section of Allen & Greenough's New Latin Grammar!
cinoc
Equidem etiam illud animadverto, quod, qui proprio nomine perduellis esset, is hostis vocaretur, lenitate verbi rei tristitiam mitigatam. (Cicero, de officiis I, 37)
This seems to translate to something like: 'I in any case observe that, since he who should properly be called a 'public enemy' is called a 'foreigner', the harshness of the thing has been softened by the expression.'
Now, what I don't get is 1) the use of the subjunctive in the quod clause and 2) the fact that it's an imperfect subjunctive (though I'm guessing that the quod clause is dependent on the infinitive construction 'tristitiam mitigatam [esse]' which is in the past, so the imperfect is used to indicate contemporaneity with that?).
Any help would be much appreciated! All the more so if you can steer me to the right section of Allen & Greenough's New Latin Grammar!
cinoc