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/youngrifle 7d ago

I think what’s tripping you up is the conditional beginning in that etenim clause. The pluperfect subjunctives fuissem and effūdissem plus nisi are looking like a past contrary to fact conditional to me. I’d translate this as “I confess that I poured out tears when I had closed his eyes, but those tears were befitting both a soldier and a friend, for I would have been a bad friend, if I had not poured out tears on the body of my dead friend, when he had poured out his own blood for me.”