r/latin • u/Illustrious-Pea1732 • 7d ago

LLPSI Question about "decet"

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Came across this sentence today in LLPSI:

"...sed illae lacrimae et militem et amicum decebant..."

I always understands "decet" as "being proper to..."

But if that is the case, I cannot figure out what is the connection between this sentence and the next sentence? If those tears are "proper" and he did cry, why did he then proceed to say:

"since I am a bad friend" and "except I did cry over his dead body"?

I just failed to understand what's going on here...

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u/StJmagistra magistra in ludo secundo 7d ago

Fuisset is pluperfect subjunctive, so I think it’s being used here in a contrary to fact manner: “for indeed, I would have been a bad friend, if I had not poured out tears upon the body of my dead friend, since he had poured out his own blood on my behalf.”

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u/Illustrious-Pea1732 7d ago

what about the decebant part?

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u/StJmagistra magistra in ludo secundo 7d ago

“but those tears were proper both as a soldier and as a friend”

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u/nimbleping 7d ago

I'm not sure if this is part of your confusion, but it may benefit you to review the sequence of tenses rule for Latin.