Stultus es qui Ovidio credas:
You are a fool for believing Ovid.
Ut, for, postquam, after that, sicut, as, and quomodo, how, is joined to
an indicative mood; but when it signifies quanquam, although, utpote,
forasmuch as, or the final cause, to a subjunctive mood, as
Ut sumus in Ponto ter frigore constitit Ister:
Since that we are in Pontus the Danube has stood frozen three times.
Were skating and sliding classical accomplishments? Ambition, we know,
led many of the Romans to tread on _slippery_ ground: many of them
struck out new paths, but none (that we have heard of) ever struck out a
slide. Imagine Cato or Seneca "coming the cobbler's knock."
Te oro, domine, ut exeam:
Please, sir, let me go out.
Lastly, all words put indefinitely, such as are these, quis, who,
quantus, how great, quotus, how many, require a subjunctive mood, as
Cave cui incurras, inepte:
Mind who you run against, stupid.
[Illustration]
Such may have been the speech of a Roman cabman. A very curious specimen
of the _tessera_, or badge, worn on the breast by this description of
persons, has lately been discovered at Herculaneum.
[Illustration]