seditio repressa est, the mutiny was checked.

3.  But when a predicate noun is of different gender or number from its subject, the verb usually agrees with its nearest substantive; as,—­

    Tarquinii materna patria erat, Tarquinii was his native country on his
    mother’s side;

    non omnis error stultitia est dicenda, not every error is to be called
    folly.

  a.  Less frequently the verb agrees with an appositive; as,—­

    Corioli, oppidum Volscorum, captum est, Corioli, a town of the Volsci,
    was captured.

4.  Construction according to Sense.  Sometimes the verb agrees with its subject according to sense instead of strict grammatical form.  Thus:—­

  a) In Number; as,—­

    multitudo hominum convenerant, a crowd of men had gathered.

  b) In Gender; as,—­

    duo milia crucibus adfixi sunt, two thousand (men) were crucified.

With Two or More Subjects.

255. 1.  Agreement in Number.  With two or more subjects the verb is regularly plural; as,—­

    pater et filius mortui sunt, the father and son died.

2.  But sometimes the verb agrees with the nearest subject; viz.,—­

  a) When the verb precedes both subjects or stands between them; as,—­

    mortuus est pater et filius;

    pater mortuus est et filius.

  b) When the subjects are connected by aut; aut ... aut; vel ... vel;
  neque ... neque; as,—­

    neque pater neque filius mortuus est, neither father nor son died.

3.  When the different subjects are felt together as constituting a whole, the singular is used; as,—­

    temeritas ignoratioque vitiosa est, rashness and ignorance are bad.

  a.  This is regularly the case in senatus populusque Romanus.

4.  Agreement in Person.  With compound subjects of different persons the verb always takes the first person rather than the second, and the second rather than the third; as,—­

    si tu et Tullia valetis, ego et Cicero valemus, if you and Tullia are
    well, Cicero and I are well.

5.  Agreement in Gender.  With subjects of different genders the participle in the compound tenses follows the same principles as laid down for predicate adjectives.  See Sec. 235, B, 2.

VOICES.

256. 1.  The Passive Voice sometimes retains traces of its original middle or reflexive meaning; as,—­

    ego non patiar eum defendi, I shall not allow him to defend himself.

2.  In imitation of Greek usage many perfect passive participles are used by the poets as indirect middles, i.e. the subject is viewed as acting not upon itself, but as doing something in his own interest; as,—­