#nōn potuit reperīre, sī ipsī sōlī quaerendās darēs, lepidiōrēs duās#,
Pl. _MG._ 803, _if you assigned the search to Sol himself, he couldn’t
have found two jollier girls_. #quō modo pultāre potuī sī nōn tangerem?#
Pl. _Most._ 462, _how could I have knocked, if I hadn’t touched the
door?_ #licitumst, sī vellēs#, Pl. _Tri._ 566, _you might have been, if
you’d wished_. #sī meum imperium exsequī voluissēs, interemptam
oportuit#, T. _Hau._ 634, _if you had been willing to follow my
commands, she should have been dispatched_. #cōnsul esse quī potuī, nisi
eum vītae cursum tenuissem ā pueritiā?# _RP._ 1, 10, _how could I have
been consul unless from boyhood I had taken that line in life?_ #sī eum
captīvitās in urbem pertrāxisset, Caesarem ipsum audīre potuit#, Ta.
_D._ 17, _if captivity had carried him to the city, he could have heard
Caesar himself_. #Antōnī gladiōs potuit contemnere, sī sīc omnia
dīxisset#, J. 10, 123, _Antonius’ swords he might have scorned, if all
things he had worded so_. #sī ūnum diem morātī essētis, moriendum
omnibus fuit#, L. 2, 38, 5, _if you had staid one day, you must all have
died_.
2104. (2.) Other verbs also sometimes have a past indicative apodosis,
usually an imperfect or pluperfect, to denote an action very near to
actual performance, which is interrupted by the action of the protasis.
Naturally such a protasis generally contains an actual or a virtual
negative; but positive protases are found here and there, chiefly in
late writers.