in book 30 of Ab urbe, section 12, there is the following passage:
....sed si captiuae apud dominum uitae necisque suae uocem supplicem
mittere licet, si genua, si uictricem attingere dextram, precor
quaesoque per maiestatem regiam, in qua paulo ante nos quoque fuimus,
per gentis Numidarum nomen, quod tibi cum Syphace commune fuit, per
huiusce regiae deos, qui te melioribus ominibus accipiant quam
Syphacem hinc miserunt, hanc ueniam supplici des ut ipse quodcumque
fert animus de captiua tua statuas neque me in cuiusquam Romani
superbum et crudele arbitrium uenire sinas.
the phrase that concerns me is:
'per huiusce regiae deos, qui te melioribus ominibus accipiant quam
Syphacem hinc miserunt'
If found this hard to translate. When I checked a couple of texts
against my attempt - they both give something like ' by the gods of
this palace that they may receive you with better omens than with
which they sent Syphax from here'
'accipiant' is clearly an optative subjunctive here but in all my
grammar books no mention is made of 'qui' + subjunctive being usable
like this.
Any thoughts on this would be welcome.
regards
Jules
|
