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... diu sub imagine eadem crediderim: sic ad ferrum venistis...

'credideram': the subjunctive, the nightmare of how many students! Here ofcourse a subj. in a perf. tense. To my opinion the subj. in latin expresses often a polite way of speaking, eg. 'Would you want to do this/would you be willen to do this' - Do you want to do this' ; the first clause is a polite and cautious way of addressing - in Latin it would require a subjunctive; i believe, it is called 'potentialis': crediderim = I would believe; why not a praesens tense here then? I don't know.