Renæssanceforum 7

		Renæssanceforum 7 • 2011 Camilla Plesner Horster Perotti's Use of the Subjunctive: Semantic Ornamentation in the Latin Genus Sublime close window

		An examination of Perotti's moods and tenses in subordinate clauses with quoniam, dum, si, cum, quamquam, and postquam and a comparison to Cicero's linguistic practice reveal that Perotti sometimes uses the subjunctive where Cicero does not, and that Perotti varies the choice of tense within the subjunctive clauses more than Cicero does, the latter occasionally causing Perotti to choose a tense that breaks with the classical Latin sequence of tenses. These findings indicate that Perotti's use of the subjunctive – especially frequent within the richly varied language of the genus sublime – serves linguistic variation and expression rather than grammatical, obligatory rules.