[1605.] The perfect definite expresses action which is already completed at the present time, and the effects of which are regarded as continuing: as,
scrīpsī, I have written. dīxērunt, Clu. 73, dīxēre, Quintil. 1, 5, 43, they have finished speaking. spectātōrēs, fābula haec est ācta, Pl. Most. 1181, ladies and gentlemen, this play is done.
[1606.] In old Latin, habeō with the perfect participle is sometimes equivalent to a periphrastic perfect: as, illa omnia missa habeō, Pl. Ps. 602, I’ve dropped all that, i.e. mīsī. But in classical Latin, the participle and a tense of habeō are more or less distinct in their force: as, Caesar aciem īnstrūctam habuit, 1, 48, 3, Caesar kept his line drawn up, not had drawn up. Compare 2297.
[1607.] With verbs of inceptive meaning the perfect definite is equivalent to the English present: as,
cōnsistō, take my stand, cōnstitī, stand, cōnsuēscō, get used, cōnsuēvī, am used, nōscō, learn, nōvī, know. Similarly meminī, remember, and ōdī, hate. The pluperfect of such verbs is represented by the English imperfect, and the future perfect by the English future.
[1608.] The perfect often denotes a present resulting state: as, vīcīne, periī, interiī, Pl. Most. 1031, my neighbour, I am dead and gone. Particularly in the passive voice: as, Gallia est omnis dīvīsa in partēs trēs, 1, 1, 1, Gaul, including everything under the name, is divided into three parts. Compare 1615.
[1609.] In the perfect passive, forms of fuī, &c., are sometimes used to represent a state no longer existing: as, monumentō statua superimposita fuit, quam dēiectam nūper vīdimus ipsī, L. 38, 56, 3, on the monument there once stood a statue which I saw not long ago with my own eyes, lying flat on the ground. Similarly, in the pluperfect, fueram, &c.: as, arma quae fīxa in parietibus fuerant, ea sunt humī inventa, Div. 1, 74, the arms which had once been fastened on the walls were found on the floor. Sometimes, however, forms of fuī, &c., fueram, &c., and fuerō, &c., are used by Plautus, Cicero, especially in his letters, Nepos, Sallust, and particularly Livy, in passives and deponents, quite in the sense of sum, &c.
[1610.] The perfect of some verbs may imply a negative idea emphatically by understatement, as:
fuit Īlium, V. 2, 325, Ilium has been, i.e. Ilium is no more. vīximus, flōruimus, Fam. 14, 4, 5, we have lived our life, we have had our day. fīlium ūnicum adulēscentulum habeō. āh, quid dīxī? habēre mē? immō habuī, T. Hau. 93, I have one only son, a growing boy. Ah me, what did I say, I have? Oh no, have had.