Future expressions in a sixth-century Latin translation of Josephus

Abstract

Abstract Over the history of Latin, a number of ways to express futurity evolve and disappear. Perhaps most notably, the future tense is lost in all Romance languages, replaced generally by periphrases with habeo. I present here the expressions of futurity present in the Latin translation of Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities and Against Apion, conducted in sixth-century CE Italy under the aegis of Cassiodorus. I first examine the use of the synthetic future tense, and then suggest that the translators deliberately avoid using habeo + infinitive in any sense. This contradicts recent claims that habeo + infinitive was characteristic of high register usage in Late Latin. I then analyse the use of the present tense to express futurity, the future participle + sum, gerundives as future passive participles and infinitives, and the curious use of debeo and possum. I show a number of changes in the system from Classical Latin, and suggest a new potential route for the development of debeo to express the future in certain Romance varieties.