mittebant

Mittebant is a Latin verb form, specifically the imperfect active indicative, third-person plural, of the verb mittere, meaning to send. It translates roughly as "they were sending" or "they were dispatching." The form is built from the present stem mitte- (from mittere) with the imperfect endings -bam, -bas, -bat, -bamus, -batis, -bant; for the third-person plural this yields mittebant.

In use, mittebant describes an ongoing or habitual past action rather than a completed past event. It often appears in narrative to describe dispatches or sending actions that were in progress. The direct object is typically in the accusative, and the sentence can include accompanying ideas of place, time, or manner.

Examples:

- nuntios mittebant — they were sending messengers.

- Romam nuntios mittebant ut nuntios salutarentur — they were sending messengers to Rome to solicit greetings (illustrative construction).

Relation to other forms: the imperfect sich contrasts with the perfect form mīsērunt or misit, which would indicate a completed sending. The same verb appears in other tenses and voices (e.g., mitterent in the imperfect passive, mittunt in the present).

Origin and usage context: mittebant appears in Classical Latin texts and is part of the standard narrative toolkit for describing past sequences of action. The meaning of mittere encompasses several senses—sending, dismissing, releasing—so the exact sense of mittebant depends on context.