NoDictionaries   Text notes for  
... armis retinere parta maioribus malueram. si cunctatione deliqui, virtute...

"I would have preferred," pluperfect indic. for subj., by analogy to such expressions of standard as "melius erat," "it would be better," and "melius fuerat," it would have been better," where the contingency is deduced from the context.