[§ 215.] The verb eo, ivi, itum, ire, is for the most part formed regularly, according to the fourth conjugation; only the present, and the tenses derived from it, are irregular.

In the passive voice it exists only as an impersonal, itur, itum est. Some compounds, however, acquire a transitive meaning; they accordingly have an accusative in the active, and may also have a complete passive: e. gr. adeo, I approach; ineo, I enter; praetereo, I pass by. Thus the present indic. pass. adeor, adiris, aditur, adimur, adimini, adeuntur; subjunct. adear; imperf. adibar; subj. adirer; fut. adibor, adiberis (e), adibitur, &c.; imperat. pres. adire, adimini; fut. adītor, adeuntor; participles, aditus, adeundus.

These and all other compounds, abeo, coëo, exeo, intereo and pereo (perish), prodeo, redeo, have usually only i in the perfect: perii, redii. Circumeo and circueo, I go round something, differ only in their orthography, for in pronunciation the m was lost; in the derivatives, circuitus and circuitio, it is therefore, with more consistency, not written. Veneo, I am sold, a neutral passive verb, without a supine, is compounded of venum and eo, and is accordingly declined like ire; whereas ambio, I go about, which changes the vowel even in the present, is declined regularly according to the fourth conjugation, and has the participle ambiens, ambientis, and the gerund ambiendi. The part. perf. pass. is ambitus, but the substantive ambitus has a short i. See the Commentators on Ovid, Metam. i. 37.

Note. A second form of the future, eam instead of ibo, is mentioned by Priscian, but is not found in any other writer. It is only in compounds, though chiefly in late and unclassical authors, that we find -eam, ies, iet, ient, along with ibo, ibis, &c. See Bünemann on Lactant. iv. 13. 20. Transiet in Tibull. i. 4. 27. is surprising. Veneo, I am sold, sometimes abandons the conjugation of eo, and makes the imperfect veniebam instead of venibam, for so, at least, we find in good MSS. of Cicero, Philip. ii. 37., and in Verr. III. 47. Ambio sometimes follows eo; e. g. ambibat in Ovid, Metam. v. 361.; Liv. xxvii. 18.; Plin. Epist. vi. 33.; Tac. Ann. ii. 19.; and ambibunt for ambient is said to occur in Pliny (H. N. viii. 35. ?).

[§ 216.] 8. Queo, I can. 9. Nequeo, I cannot.

These two verbs are both conjugated like eo: perfect, quivi, nequivi; supine, quitum, nequitum. Most of their forms occur;

but, with the exception of the present, they are not very frequent in prose, and some authors, such as Nepos and Caesar, never use this verb at all. Instead of nequeo, non queo also was used, and in Cicero the latter is even more frequent. Quis and quit are found only with non.

There is also a passive form of these verbs: quitur, nequitur, quita est, nequitum est, but it occurs very rarely, and is used, like coeptus sum, only when an infinitive passive follows; e. g. in Terence: forma in tenebris nosci non quita est, the figure could not be recognised.

[S 217.] 10. Fio, I become, or am made.

Fio is properly an intransitive verb, the Greek púw, without a supine. But owing to the affinity existing between the ideas of becoming and being made, it was used also as a passive of facio, from which it took the perfect factus sum, and the latter then received the meaning "I have become," along with that of "I have been made." In consequence of this transition into the passive, the infinitive became fieri instead of the original form fiere. Hence, with the exception of the supplementary forms from facere (factus, faciendus, factus sum, eram, &c.) and the passive termination of the infinitive, there is no irregularity in this verb. In the present, imperfect, and future, it follows the third conjugation; for the i belongs to the root of the word, and is long, except in fit and those forms in which an r occurs in the inflection.

INDICATIVE.

Present.

Sing. Fio, fis, fit.
Plur. fimus, fitis, fiunt.
Imperfect.

Sing. fiebam, as, at.

Plur. fiebamus, atis, ant.

Future.

Sing. fiam, fies, fiet.
Plur. fiemus, fietis, fient.

INFINITIVE.

fieri (factum esse, factum iri).

(See § 16.)

SUBJUNCTIVE.
Present

Note. Among the compounds the following must be noticed as defectives: infit, which is used only in this third person sing., he or she begins; e. g., loqui, or with the ellipsis of loqui; and defit, defiat, defiunt, defieri, which does not occur in prose. Respecting confit, see above, § 183.

THE term Defective Verbs is here applied to those only in which the defectiveness is striking, and which are found only in certain forms and combinations, for there is, besides, a very large number of defective verbs, of which certain tenses are not

found on account of their meaning, or cannot be shown to have been used by the writers whose works have come down to us. Many of them have been noticed in the lists of verbs in the preceding Chapters; with regard to others, it must be left to good taste cultivated by reading the best authors, as to whether we may use e. g. cupe from cupio, like cape from capio, and whether we may say dor, I am given, like prodor, or putatus sum like habitus sum. (Putatum est occurs in Cicero, p. Muren. 17.) We shall here treat of the verbs ajo and inquam, I say; fari, to speak; the perfects coepi, memini, novi and odi; the imperatives apage, ave, salve, vale; cedo and quaeso; and lastly of forem.

Note. In prose, as well as in poetry, ain'? do you think so? is frequently used for aisne, just as we find viden', abin' for videsne, abisne. See § 24. The comic writers, especially Terence, use the imperfect aibam, &c., as a word of two syllables.

[§ 219.] 2. Inquam, I say.

This verb is used only between the words of a quotation, while ait, ajunt, are found most frequently in the oratio obliqua.