Heavy Construction
The Allen and Greenough is still under construction;
so some links may not work quite the way you would expect.
301.
Special uses of the Reflexive are the
following: -
a. The reflexive in a Subordinate clause
sometimes refers to the subject of a suppressed main clause: -
- Paetus omnís librós
quós fráter suus relíquisset mihi
dónávit (Att. ii. 1), Paetus gave me all the books
which (as he said in the act of donation) his brother had left
him.
b. The reflexive may refer to any noun or
pronoun in its own clause which is so emphasized as to become the subject
of discourse: -
- Sócratem
cívés suí interfécérunt,
Socrates was put to death by his own fellow-citizens.
- quí poterat salús sua
cuiquam nón probárí (Mil. 81), how can
any one fail to approve his own safety? [In this and the preceding
example the emphasis is preserved in English by the change of voice.]
- hunc sí secutí erunt
suí comités (Cat. ii. 10), this man, if his
companions follow him.
NOTE: Occasionally the clause to which the reflexive really
belongs is absorbed: as, - studeó
sánáre sibi ipsós (Cat. ii. 17), I
am anxious to cure these men for their own benefit (i.e. ut sání sibi sint).
c. Suus is used for one's own as
emphatically opposed to that of others, in any part of the Sentence
and with reference to any word in it: -
- suís flammís
déléte Fídénás (Liv. iv. 33),
destroy Fidenae with its own fires (the fires kindled by that city, figuratively). [Cf. Cat. i. 32.]
d. The reflexive may depend upon a verbal
noun or adjective: -
- suí laus,
self-praise.
- habétis, ducem memorem
vestrí, oblítum suí (Cat. iv. 19),
you have a leader mindful of you, forgetful of himself.
- perdití hominés cum
suí similibus servís (Phil. i. 5),
abandoned men with slaves like themselves.
e. The reflexive may refer to the Subject
implied in an infinitive or verbal abstract used indefinitely: -
- contentum suís
rébus esse maximae sunt dívitiae (Par. 51), the
greatest wealth is to be content with one's own.
- cui próposita sit
cónservátió suí (Fin. v. 37),
one whose aim is self-preservation.
f. Inter
sé (nós, vós), among themselves (ourselves, yourselves), is
regularly used to express reciprocal action or relation: -
- inter sé cónflígunt (Cat. i. 26), contend
with each other.
- inter sé continentur (Arch. 2), are joined to each
other.