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Aeneas' observation of Carthago (where he sees the industrious energic landscape of the City and its dwellers.) culminates in a very known verse: 'O fortunati, quorum iam moenia surgunt!' (Aeneid I.437). It might be noted this is an exclamatory "O" and not a direct speech towards to forunati

Had I to chose a mood, I would go with the subjunctive surgant, pretty much without sparing a second thought, as it seems a book case for the subj. of cause. Like this example Virum simplicem quī nōs nihil cēlet! (Or. 230) (A&G 535.e). Are they not fortunati since they have walls already? Was virgil trying to emphasize something or, more likely, I am missing something. I haven't seen any note about about the mood from the accessible commentators .

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    I might be missing something, but why couldn't it be just a regular relative clause? Also, it seems that some translations do take this as direct address. Commented 20 hours ago
  • @JoonasIlmavirta, I guess it can, but what do you understand to be the difference between regular relative clause and the subjunctive? With respect to the "direct address" -- I don't read fortunati as vocative here -- but even if it is, Aeneas is clearly not starting a conversation here; that is, it is him speaking to himself about them in the form of addressing them. If it is a indeed a vocative, it does perhaps makes little difference to me. but still not sure. Commented 20 hours ago

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I agree that a subjunctive would work here, either of cause or perhaps consecutive / of definition ("O, fortunate ones, such that their walls now/already rise": perhaps, from the perspective of Aeneas, only those who had walls were fortunate). Here I agree that causal would make more sense. I can see no reason why it shouldn't be used.

Often, in Latin literature, such 'special' rules are more or less compulsory, i.e. a classical author would choose the special rule (subjunctive in defining or causal relative clause) over a general rule (relatives clauses have the indicative by default).

Since the subjunctive was not chosen here, perhaps Virgil fell back to the default for a relative clause because the causal rule is weaker than we were taught in school.

Or—even more speculatively—perhaps the indicative is used to enhance our impression that Aeneas is looking at the walls being built up right under his eyes, "now" (iam). Cf. a few verses above, as Aeneas first sees Carthage: instant ardentes Tyrii; pars ducere muros ("the Tyrians are eagerly busy; some erect walls, ..."). Although the erection of the walls is still the cause of their fortunate state, perhaps Virgil wanted to express how vivid the view of activity was to Aeneas right now, even more so than expressing the causal relation.

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