scrībēbam, I was writing, or I wrote. ei mihi quālis erat, V. 2, 274, woe’s me, how ghastly he appeared. multōsque per annōs errābant āctī fātīs, V. 1, 31, and they for many a year were roaming round, by fates pursued.
[1595.] The imperfect often denotes past action lasting while something else occurred: as,
an tum erās cōnsul, cum mea domus ardēbat? Pis. 26, were you perhaps consul at the time my house was burning down? neque vērō tum īgnōrābat sē ad exquīsīta supplicia proficīscī, Off. 3, 100, and all the time he knew perfectly well that he was starting off to suffer studied torments.
[1596.] The imperfect is used to denote repeated or customary past action or condition: as,
commentābar dēclāmitāns cōtīdiē, Br. 310, I always practised speaking my compositions every day. noctū ambulābat in pūblicō Themistoclēs, TD. 4, 44, Themistocles used to promenade the streets nights.
[1597.] The imperfect, when accompanied by some expression of duration of time, is used to denote action which had been going on for some time, and was still going on.
This imperfect, which is translated by the English pluperfect, is analogous to the present in 1589: as, pater grandis nātū iam diū lectō tenēbātur, V. 5, 16, his aged father had long been bedridden. hōram amplius iam permultī hominēs mōliēbantur, V. 4, 95, something over an hour a good many men had been prizing away. But if the action is conceived as completed at a past time, the pluperfect is used: as, diem iam quīntum cibō caruerat, 6, 38, 1, four whole days he had gone without eating.
[1598.] In a few examples, the imperfect is used to denote action suddenly recognized, though going on before: as, ehem, Parmenō, tūn hīc erās? T. Hec. 340, why bless me, Parmeno, were you here all this time?
[1599.] In descriptions of place or in general truths, where the present might be expected, the imperfect is sometimes used, by assimilation to past action in the context: as, ipsum erat oppidum Alesia in colle summō, 7, 69, 1, Alesia proper was situated on the top of a hill. Often also in subordinate sentences.