The verb in a Latin temporal clause is usually in the indicative mood, although sometimes, especially when the conjunction is cum, it is in the subjunctive.
The table below[7] shows the number of temporal clauses for some of the most common conjunctions in three historians of the republican period, Julius Caesar, Cornelius Nepos, and Sallust, and two poets of the following generation, Virgil and Ovid.
[8] The table shows that the narrative cum with the subjunctive is very common in Caesar and Nepos, but little used by the other three authors.
The conjunction antequam is more common than priusquam in Cicero, and was used to an extent by Livy, but is almost completely avoided by Caesar, Nepos, and Sallust.
Conversely, dōnec is hardly found at all in writers of the republican period, but became popular under the empire; in Tacitus it occurs 140 times.
It is also possible, in the case of separated prius ... quam, for the main verb to be placed in the middle of the conjunction.
[18] This is because the main information which the speaker wishes to communicate, or "focus" of the sentence, tends to be placed second.
The most commonly used conjunction in temporal clauses is cum; an older spelling was quom, showing its derivation from the relative pronoun quī.
One of the most common uses of cum, often found in historical writing, is with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive, giving the circumstances in which an action took place.
[27][28] When the tense is imperfect subjunctive, it usually describes a situation already happening when the main action took place.
[103] In this type of sentence, there is typically an adverb such as iam "by now", vix "scarcely", or modo "just" in the main clause, and often a word such as repentē or subitō "suddenly" in the cum-clause, as in the above examples.
[104] The phrase cum prīmum means "as soon as" and it usually takes the indicative mood, just like ut or simulatque.
[105] The following example has the perfect indicative: Sometimes, however, it takes a subjunctive verb, like the ordinary historic cum.
In the following sentence both verbs are in the historic present tense, the first one subjunctive: Another meaning, also with the indicative, is "at that time when first": A temporal cum clause can be used after meminī "I remember":[53] Meminī can also be followed by an accusative and infinitive construction, combined with a temporal cum clause: Alternatively, meminī can take an accusative and infinitive accompanied by a circumstantial cum clause with the subjunctive: The present infinitive (perturbārī, intrāre) is used in these last two examples, since the reminiscence is a personal one.
In one of Martial's poems, the goddess Venus describes her hold over her lover Mars: It is even possible to have a present tense in both halves of the sentence, as in the following example from a letter to Atticus, in which Cicero complains about how few letters he's been getting since he left Rome: Another possible translation in these sentences is "now that": The following example, in a past context, uses the pluperfect tense in the temporal clause: Postquam is not used of future time in most classical writers,[141] but is occasionally found in technical writers:[131] The original meaning of ubi or ubī is "where" (it is related to ibī 'there"), and in questions it always means "where?"
In poetry, the i is usually short, but occasionally the original pronunciation ubī with a long i is found: As with postquam, when ubi refers to a past event, it is usually followed by the perfect indicative: A subjunctive verb after ubi may indicate indirect speech, as in the following example, where the subjunctive datum sit indicates that the words "when the signal is given" are part of the order, that is, they indicate when the shout was to be raised, not when the order was given: The main verb following a non-iterative ubi clause in past time is almost always perfect or historic present.
[160] The conjunction ut "as", "as soon as" has various meanings; when it introduces a temporal clause it is followed by an indicative mood.
[141] The word utcumque usually means "in whatever way", but there are a few places where it is used in a temporal sense to mean "whenever", as in this hymn to the Muses: The conjunction simul atque or simul ac, also written as one word, is used in the same way as postquam or ubi.
When the sentence refers to a single occasion in the past, the tense in the temporal clause is perfect indicative, as in the following examples:[105] Sometimes simul alone is used, as in the following example:[127] The future perfect can be used in reference to future time.
[189] In some authors also, such as Livy and later writers, as well as poets such as Virgil, dum can take the same construction as circumstantial cum, even when not in indirect speech, using the imperfect subjunctive:[190] The imperfect indicative after dum usually means "as long as X was happening", referring to two situations which happened at an identical time:[192][193] In the above example, the perfect indicative tense fuit "it was" implies that the period of Sparta's greatness is now over.
Dōnec is never used by Caesar, and almost never by Cicero, but it is very common in later writers such as Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Tacitus.
In the following example, referring to a future situation, it is followed by a future perfect tense: Referring to the past, the perfect indicative may be used: As with dum, if there is some idea of waiting for something to happen, the subjunctive is used:[212] From the Augustan period onwards[217] it can also mean "while" or "as long as": In the above examples, the imperfect tense is used in the temporal clause, since it describes to a situation, but the perfect tense is used in the main clause, as is usual in Latin when the length of time a situation lasted is given.
[220] An early form of dōnec, but rarely used, was dōnicum (which is found in Cato, Plautus and once in Nepos).
[223] When referring to the past it is regularly followed by the perfect indicative tense: Another meaning is "until": When referring to the future, just as with cum clauses, the future or future perfect tense is used where English has a present tense: In the following sentence, the pluperfect subjunctive is used, as if the sentence is reported speech ("I will stay until I have learned"), known as "virtual ōrātiō oblīqua":[227] Another conjunction meaning "while" or "as long as" is quamdiū or quam diū.
In the following example, the verb is in the perfect tense: As with other conjunctions which mean "whenever", Livy tends to use the subjunctive in iterative clauses: The word quandō is often interrogative ("when?")
This is especially so if the priority is emphasised as in the following example: The separation is also common in negative sentences: When referring to the past, a temporal clause with priusquam or antequam usually has the subjunctive, especially from the time of the emperor Augustus onwards.
[260] However, the future perfect is used if the main verb is negative:[265] In indirect or reported speech, the subjunctive is used in the temporal clause.
However, in the following sentence the verb redīrent is understood from the context, and only an ablative absolute remains: The subjunctive is usual if the main verb is an imperative:[253] But the following has the indicative: The subjunctive may also be used if the main verb is itself subjunctive, expressing a wish:[259] However, the following wish has the present indicative in the temporal clause: As well as temporal clauses, Latin has other ways of expressing the time of the main action in a sentence, and which can substitute for a temporal clause.
In the following sentence, it is in the genitive case: Literally "he pierced with a spear the side of him (as he was) saying these things".
Such phrases most commonly use the perfect participle, but the present participle can also be used: In view of the lack of a present participle of the verb sum "I am" in Latin, sometimes an ablative phrase alone, without a verb, can stand for a temporal clause: A participle phrase can sometimes follow a preposition of time:[280] Some verbal nouns, such as adventus "arrival" and reditus "return", can be used in phrases of time: The ablative relative pronoun quō "on which" can be used to mean 'the day on which" or 'the time at which", and thus introduce a quasi-temporal clause, as in the following examples from the historian Curtius.