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"Fiat justitia, ruat caelum" is often rendered as "May justice be done though heaven falls/may fall".

While I have no problem with the translation of "Fiat justitia", I do not recognise why one can render "ruat caelum" as "though heaven falls/may fall". As far, as I am aware one would need a "cum" to make a concessive statement with the conjunctive, i.e. to me it would make sense to render "cum ruat caelum" as "though heaven falls/may fall" but not merely "ruat caelum".

Can anybody explain what is going on here? Is this an ellipsis and "cum" has been dropped in it, is this a more "liberal/poetic" translation, or have I simply forgotten a function of the conjunctive that allows this translation?

Gratias ago in praeceptione!

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No ellipsis of cum needs to be assumed. A bare subjunctive can also be used with concessive force.

One example is Cicero, In Verrinem 2.5.4:

sit fur, sit sacrilegus, sit flagitiorum omnium vitiorumque princeps; at est bonus imperator, at felix et ad dubia rei publicae tempora reservandus.

Though he's a thief, a robber of temples, the contriver of every sort of crimine and vice; still, he's a good general, a fortunate one, and one who must be preserved for critical times for the republic.

Another example is Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.187:

omnia possideat, non possidet aera Mīnōs.

Though Minos has control over everything (else), he doesn't have control over the air.'

This use of the subjunctive is described in, e.g., Allen & Greenough, A new Latin grammar §440:

440. The Hortatory Subjunctive is used to express a concession.1 The Present is used for present time, the Perfect for past. The negative is nē.

1 Many scholars regard the concessive subjunctive as a development of the Optative Subjunctive in a wish.

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    Gratias ago! I had never heard of a bare conjunctive taking a concessive force and least of all in a main clause. I learned that the Hortatory conjunctive only applies to the first person plural and that the Optative conjunctive is used to express wishes. So maybe my German Latin book wasn't quite up to speed.
    – Moguntius
    Commented Jul 5, 2023 at 15:49
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    @Moguntius: "Das Quorum kann im Verlauf der Tagung nicht nur wegen einer – sei es auch nur vorübergehenden – physischen Abwesenheit eines Vertreters, sondern auch (bei unveränderter physischer Anwesenheit der Vertreter) je nach Gegenstand der Beratung wechseln, ..."
    – Cerberus ♦
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 0:00
  • @Cerberus, I am sorry, I do not follow or understand what you are trying to tell me.
    – Moguntius
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 13:50
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    @Moguntius: I thought the subjunctive could also be used concessively in other languages, like English and German. How would you feel about this one?
    – Cerberus ♦
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 17:14
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    @Moguntius: It took me quite a bit of time to find a real example from German that was 100% unambiguous. As to feeling 'subordinate': I think that is pretty normal for a concessive? A concessive is used to say, "I concede this minor thing, but the major thing is...". So it naturally has a subordinate degree of importance, as opposed to normal opposition/adversion. Here is an example from English: Finally! An update.. be it small. Albeit is also concessive (though al is concessive itself).
    – Cerberus ♦
    Commented Jul 13, 2023 at 22:28

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