  In the debate about the conditional (sunêmmenon) the point of disagreement concerned the right truth-conditions of a conditional (Cicero, Academics II 143). This controversy was played out against the background of a common acceptance of what counts as a conditional, and what its function is. Conditionals were understood to be non-simple propositions containing one proposition as antecedent and one as consequent. The antecedent has the particle ‘if’ prefixed to it; the standard form is ‘If p, q’. A conditional serves to manifest the relation of consequence (akolouthia): it announces that its consequent follows from (akolouthein) its antecedent (Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians 2.110-112). This relation of consequence was also commonly taken to manifest the relation between premises and conclusion in a valid argument.