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MATERIALS

FOR

GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION.

BY THE

REV. PERCIVAL FROST, M.A.,

LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

SECOND EDITION.

HEC

LONDON:

G. BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1876.

304. g. 41.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS

PREFACE.

THE plan of this book is the same as that of "Materials for Latin Prose."

The work consists of selections from English authors, many of the Exercises having been set in different Examinations, chiefly in the Senate House at Cambridge, or in the various Colleges, or for University Scholarships. The Exercises have been graduated in difficulty, and hints for the best way of rendering particular phrases are given in the Notes, as much as possible indirectly, by quoting passages which suggest appropriate methods of turning the sentence in question. A few general rules are prefixed to the Exercises.

For two of the translations in the Key, I am indebted to a friend.

First. After onшs and oπшs μn, it is very usual to have the future indicative instead of the subjunctive or optative mood: Καλὸν παρασκευάζειν ὅπως ὡς βέλτισται ἔσονται τῶν πολιτῶν αἱ ψυχαί; and Αἰσχίνης τὸ καθ ̓ αὑτὸν ὅπως ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἡ πόλις ἔσται παρεσκεύασεν. By this plan the result is viewed more independently; as a thing that will really occur, rather than as a matter of mere intention.

Secondly. That even after a main verb in the past, the final sentence is sometimes put in the subjunctive, in order to depict the fact, not as part of a representation belonging to the past, but as present: Οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τοὺς ξυμμάχους ἐδεδίεσαν σφῶν μὴ ἀποστῶσιν. This is to be attributed to the desire of the Hellenic mind to represent events dramatically as actually passing at the period of the writer's account of them.

After a past tense of a verb of declaring, thinking, and the like, the present, perfect, and future infinitive are used to express these times, with reference to the time indicated by the principal verb; just as in Latin dixit se esse means, he said that he was, at the time of saying this. So Οὐκ ἔφασαν τὰς ναῦς Tapeîvaι is, they said the ships were not present then, at the time of their saying this: Τοὺς στρατιωτὰς ἥξειν ἐνόμιζον, Αρμόδιος καὶ ̓Αριστογείτων ἐνόμισαν μεμη vôoat. These tenses in English are equivalent to the imperfect, future past, and pluperfect.

After verbs of asserting, thinking, and the like, the aorist infinitive has a past meaning: Πατρὸς λέγεται

ὁ Κῦρος γενέσθαι Καμβύσου, but otherwise it has no past meaning, and is used to denote a single action, as distinguished from the repeated or lasting act conveyed by the present infinitive.

Verbs denoting hope, promise, surmise, and the like, generally take the future: Ανέλπιστος ὢν σωθήσεσθαι. Also sometimes verbs of intending, asking, &c., take a future, if it is desirable to point out that the action implied in the infinitive is future or impending, compared to the time of the main verb.

II. The Oratio Obliqua.

In a dependent sentence, after verbs of asserting, thinking, and the like, with ὡς or ὅτι, where a thought, opinion, &c., is conveyed, belonging to a principal verb in the past, the optative mood is used. "Edeyev ὅτι ἡ ὁδὸς ἔσοιτο προς βασιλέα μέγαν, Ἔγνωσαν οἱ στρατιῶται ὅτι κενὸς ὁ φόβος εἴη. If the principal verb is in the present, then the indicative is used, not the optative.

Observe, however, that very often the Oratio Obliqua merges into the Oratio Directa, for the sake of more liveliness, Ἔλεγον οἱ ἐπιτήδειοί μου ὡς ἐλπίζουσι, Ἔγνω ̓Αρχίδαμος ὅτι οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι οὐδὲν ἐνδώσουσιν. Sometimes these forms are used promiscuously, Ἔλεγον ὅτι Κῦρος μὲν τέθνηκεν, Αριαῖος δὲ πεφευγὼς εἴη.

III. Participles.

The absolute case is the genitive; but a common

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