Salvete,
I was wondering if you could help me with a grammar point here.
During the dinner, two servants come in with skins of wine for the guests:
"Subinde intraverunt duo Aethiopes capillati cum pusillis utribus, quales solent esse qui harenam in amphitheatro spargunt . . ."
My question is - why is spargunt in the indicative? If the sense is 'they were like those who (generally) sprinkle sand in the arena' then surely the subjunctive of characteristic would apply here, since Petronius doesn't mean that these exact servants are the ones you who are sprinkling the sand?
Maybe I'm being too pedantic but just wondered if anyone can shed some light on this.
Gratias vobis
I was wondering if you could help me with a grammar point here.
During the dinner, two servants come in with skins of wine for the guests:
"Subinde intraverunt duo Aethiopes capillati cum pusillis utribus, quales solent esse qui harenam in amphitheatro spargunt . . ."
My question is - why is spargunt in the indicative? If the sense is 'they were like those who (generally) sprinkle sand in the arena' then surely the subjunctive of characteristic would apply here, since Petronius doesn't mean that these exact servants are the ones you who are sprinkling the sand?
Maybe I'm being too pedantic but just wondered if anyone can shed some light on this.
Gratias vobis