c) By subordinate clauses; as,—
eō cum advēnisset, castra posuit, having arrived there, he pitched a camp;
hostes quī in urbem irrūperant, the enemy having burst into the city.
3. The Latin agrees with English in the stylistic employment of the Second Person Singular in an indefinite sense (= 'one'). Cf. the English 'You can drive a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.' But in Latin this use is mainly confined to certain varieties of the Subjunctive, especially the Potential ([§ 280]), Jussive ([§ 275]), Deliberative ([§ 277]), and the Subjunctive in conditional sentences of the sort included under [§ 302], 2, and [ 303]. Examples:—
vidērēs, you could see;
ūtāre vīribus, use your strength,
quid hōc homine faciās, what are you to do with this man?
mēns quoque et animus, nisi tamquam lūminī oleum īnstīllēs, exstinguuntur senectūte, the intellect and mind too are extinguished by old age, unless, so to speak, you keep pouring oil into the lamp;
tantō amōre possessiōnēs suās amplexī tenēbant, ut ab eīs membra dīvellī citius posse dīcerēs, they clung to their possessions with such an affectionate embrace, that you would have said their limbs could sooner be torn from their bodies.
PECULIARITIES IN THE USE OF THE ACCUSATIVE.
[357]. 1. To denote 'so many years, etc., afterwards or before' the Latin employs not merely the Ablative of Degree of Difference with post and ante (see [§ 223]), but has other forms of expression. Thus:—
post quīnque annōs, five years afterward;
paucōs ante diēs, a few days before;
ante quadriennium, four years before;
post diem quārtum quam ab urbe discesserāmus, four days after we had left the city;
ante tertium annum quam dēcesserat, three years before he had died.
2. The Latin seldom combines both Subject and Object with the same Infinitive; as,—
Rōmānōs Hannibalem vīcisse cōnstat.
Such a sentence would be ambiguous, and might mean either that the Romans had conquered Hannibal, or that Hannibal had conquered the Romans. Perspicuity was gained by the use of the Passive Infinitive; as,—