William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb

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[*] 162. The imperfect and aorist are sometimes used with the adverb ἄν to denote a customary action, being equivalent to our narrative phrase he would often do this or he used to do it. E.g.

Διηρώτων ἂν αὐτοὺς τί λέγοιεν, I used to ask them (I would ask them) what they said. PLAT. Ap. 22B. Εἴ τινες ἴδοιέν πῃ τοὺς σφετέρους ἐπικρατοῦντας, ἀνεθάρσησαν ἄν, whenever any saw their friends in any way victorious, they would be encouraged (i.e. they were encouraged in all such cases). THUC. vii. 71. “Πολλάκις ἠκούσαμεν ἄν τι κακῶς ὑμᾶς βουλευσάμενους μέγα πρᾶγμα,” “we used very often to hear you, etc.” AR. Lys. 511. Εἴ τις αὐτῴ περί του ἀντιλἐγοι μηδὲν ἔχων σαφὲς λέγειν, ἐπὶ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν ἐπανῆγεν ἂν πάντα τὸν λόγον, “he always brought the whole discussion back to the main point.” XEN. Mem. iv. 6, 13. Ὁπότε προσβλέψειέ τινας τῶν ἐν ταῖς τάξεσι, τοτὲ μὲν εἶπεν ἄν: ὦ ἄνδρες, κ.τ.λ. τοτὲ δ᾽ αὖ ἐν ἄλλοις ἂν ἔλεξεν. Id. Cyr. vii. 1, Id. Cyr. 10.So HDT. ii. 109, HDT. iii. 51 and 148.

This construction must be distinguished from the potential indicative with ἄν (243). See, however, 249. For the iterative imperfect and aorist with ἄν transferred to the infinitive, see 210.