Learn Latin from the Romans A Complete Introductory Course Using Textbooks from the Roman Empire

Sometimes, however, relative clauses have verbs in the subjunctive (the tense is determined by normal sequence of tenses: see chapter 46.2, not chapter 54). These subjunctives can have a variety of meanings, which must be distinguished primarily by context. The most important of these meanings is a generalizing function known as the ‘relative clause of characteristic’; this is used to indicate that the subject has the characteristics that would cause the action of the verb, rather than that the subject necessarily does cause the action of the verb.