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vivacem, proleptic, ‘so as to make me live long.’ Cf. XIV. 104. differtis, ‘do you respite.’ For the use of a person cf. XII. 76, “decimum dilatus in annum Hector erat”, and for a similar expression in Greek, Soph. Aj. 476, “προσθεῖσα κἀναθεῖσα τοῦ γε κατθανεῖν”. posse, ‘could ever’ at any subsequent time. The same idiom which allows the use of the indicative mood of possum where the act (as distinguished from the possibility of the act) would need hypothetical expression (Roby, § 1535, R. § 643), also enables the present (imperfect) infinitive posse to be used where the act itself would be expressed by a future infinitive. Cf. Caes. B.G. I. 3, “totius Galliae se potiri posse sperant”, Liv.i. XXII. 4, “satis sciebat negaturum Albanum; ita pie bellum indici posse”. For the expression cf. XII. 607, “quod Priamus gaudere senex post Hectora posset, hoc fuit”.
Charles Simmons. Metamorphoseon XIII. xiv. The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII. and XIV. Edited, with introduction, analysis, and notes by Charles Simmons. New York. Macmillan. 1899.
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