Let's say you want to translate the following English sentence to Attic Greek.
We believed that they were good friends, for whithersoever this one went, that one also went.
The first clause calls for indirect discourse with an accusativus cum infinitivo. The latter part, beginning with the conjunction "for", calls for a conditional relative clause.
αὐτοὺς ἐνομίσαμεν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς φίλους εἶναι, ὁπόθεν γὰρ ὁ μὲν ἔρχεται, ὁ δέ καὶ ἔρχεται.
I feel like my above translation is mostly correct, but there are a few points that leave me unsure.
- Is τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς φίλους a correct way of describing good friends? Would the adjective καλοὺς be a better choice here?
- Is my choice of tenses correct? I put the main verb ἐνομίσαμεν in the aorist tense, whereas the following verbs are in the present tense, since they are contemporaneous with the main verb.
- Should ἔρχεται be repeated twice, the way that "went" is repeated twice in the English sentence? Or is it better style to write it once? If so, where would it go, after μὲν or after δέ?
I hope it's okay to fit three questions into one. The third serves as my title question, although I am interested to hear your feedback on all three.