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[*] 714. （Optative.) When, however, the speaker implies that a cause was assigned by some other person, the principle of indirect discourse (694), after past tenses, allows the verb to stand in the optative, in the tense originally used by the person who assigned the cause (699). E.g. Τὸν Περικλέα ἐκάκιζον, ὅτι στρατηγὸς ὢν οὐκ ἐπεξάγοι, they abused Pericles, because being general he did not lead them out. THUC. ii. 21. (This states the reason of the Athenians for reproaching Pericles (ὅτι ἡμᾶς οὐκ ἐπεξάγει); if Thucydides had wished to assign the cause merely on his own authority, he would have used ὅτι οὐκ ἐπεξῆγεν. Cf. THUC. vii. 34 in 713.) Τοὺς συνόντας ἐδόκει ποιεῖν ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἀνοσίων, ἐπείπερ ἡ γήσαιντο μηδὲν ἄν ποτε ὧν πράττοιεν θεοὺς διαλαθεῖν (see 693). XEN. Mem. i. 4, 19. Οἶσθα ἐπαινέσαντα αὐτὸν (Ὅμηρον） τὸν Ἀγαμέμνονα, ὡς βασιλεὺς εἴη ἀγαθός, because (as he said) he was a good king. Symp. iv. 6. Ἐκάλεε . . . τὸν μὲν ἐπίστιον (Δία), διότι φονέα τοῦ παιδὸς ἐλάνθανε (694, 2) βόσκων, τὸν δὲ ἑταιρήιον, ὡς φύλακα συμπέμψας αὐτὸν εὑρήκοι πολεμιώτατον. HDT. i. 44. (Croesus would have said διότι ἐλάνθανον and ὡς εὕρηκα.)
Macmillan. London, Melbourne, Toronto. 1889. reprint edition:. St. Martin's Press. New York. 1965.
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