poterat

poterat is a Latin form of possum, meaning “be able, can”. It is the 3rd person singular imperfect active indicative.

Found 793 times in the Latin texts on Socratos.

Where it is used

Caesar, De Bello Gallico 1.9.3: Dumnorix gratia et largitione apud Sequanos plurimum poterat et Helvetiis erat amicus, quod ex ea civitate Orgetorigis filiam in matrimonium duxerat, et cupiditate regni adductus novis rebus studebat et quam plurimas civitates suo beneficio habere obstrictas volebat.

Seneca the Younger, De Tranquillitate Animi 5.1: … tus populusque senatui similis, coibat cotidie carnificum triste collegium et infelix curia tyrannis augusta. Poteratne illa ciuitas conquiescere, in qua tot tyranni erant quot satellites essent? Ne spes quidem ulla recipiendae …

All forms of possum (conjugation table)

Source: Socratos (socratos.org), a free reader for Ancient Greek and Latin. Grammar from the Perseus Treebank and Morpheus; dictionary entries from Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary (Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA). Counts are from the texts on Socratos.