Heavy Construction

GENITIVE WITH VERBS.

Verbs of Remembering and Forgetting.

350.

a. Memini takes the Accusative when it has the literal sense of retaining in the mind what one has seen, heard, or learned. Hence the accusative is used of persons whom one remembers as acquaintances, or of things which one has experienced.

So oblívíscor in the opposite sense,to forget literally, to lose all memory of a thing (very rarely, of a person).

• Cinnam memini (Phil. v. 17), I rernember Cinna.

  

• utinam avum tuum meminissés (id. i. 34), oh! that you could remember your grandfather! (but he died before you were born).

  

• Postumium, cuius statuam in Isthmó meminisse té dícis (Att. xiii. 32), Postumius, whose statue you say you remember (to llave seen) on the Isthmus.

  

• omnia meminit Síron Epicurí dogmata (Acad. ii. 106), Siron remembers all the doctrines of Epicurus.

  

• multa ab aliís audíta meminérunt (De Or. ii. 355), I remember many things that they have heard from others.

  

• tótam causam oblitus est (Brut. 217), he forgot the whole case.

  

• hiuc iam oblívíscere Grâiós (Aen. ii. 148), from henceforth forget tke Greeks (i.e. not merely disregard them, but banish them from your mind, as if you had never known them).

b. Meminí takes the Genitive when it means to be mindful or regardful of a person or thing, to think of somebody or something (often with special interest or warmth of feeling).

So oblívíscor in the opposite sense, to disregard, or dismiss from the mind, and the adjective oblitus, careless or regardless.

• ipse suí meminerat (Verr. ii. 136), he was mindful of himself (of his own interests).

  

• faciam ut hûius locí diéíque méíque semper memineris (Ter. Eun. 801), I will make you remember this place and this day and me as long as you live.

  

• nec mé meminisse pigébit Elissae, dum memor ipse mei (Aen. iv. 335), nor shall I feel regret at the thought of Elissa, so long as I remember myself.

  

• meminerint verecundiae (Off. i. 122),let them cherish modesty.

  

• humanae ínfirmitátis memim (Liv. xxx. 31. 6), I remember human weakness.

  

• oblívíscí temporum meórum, meminisse áctiónum (Fam. i. 9. 8), to disregard my own interests, to be mindful of the matters at issue.

  

• nec tamen Epicúrí licet obllvíscí (Fin. v. 3), and yet I must not forget Epicurus.

  

• oblívíscere caedis atque incendiorum (Cat. i. 6), turn your mind from slaughter and conflagrions (dismiss them from your thoughts).

NOTE 1: With both meminí and oblívíscor the personal and reflexive pronouns are regularly in the Genitive; neuter pronouns and adjectives used substantively are regularly in the Accusative; abstract nouns are often in the Genitive. These uses come in each instance from the natural meaning of the verbs (as defined above).

NOTE 2: Meminí in the sense of mention takes the Genitive: as, eundem Achillam cûius supra meminimus (B. C. iii. 108), that same Achilles whom I mentioned above.

c. Reminiscor is rare. It takes the Accusative in the literal sense of call to mind, recollect; the Genitive in the more figurative sense of be mindful of:

• ulcís moriéns reminíscitur Argós (Aen. x. 782), as he dies he calls to mind his beloved Argos.

  

• reminiscerétur et ceteris incommodí populí Romání et prístinae virtútis Helvétiórum (B. G. i. 13), let him remember both the former discomfiture of the Roman people and the ancient valor of the Helvetians. [A warning, let him bear it in mind (and beware)!]

d. Recordor, recollect, recall, regularly takes the Accusative: -

• recordáre consensum illum theatrí (Phil. i. 30), recall that unanimous agreement of the [audieuce in the] theatre.

  

• recordáminí omnís civílís dissénsiónés (Cat. iii. 24), call to mind all the civil wars.

NOTE: Recordor takes the genitive once (Pison. 12); it is never used with a personal object, but may be followed by de with the ablative of the person or thing (cf. § 351. N.): -

• te recordor (Scaur. 49), I remember about you.

  

• de illís (lacrimís) recordor (Planc. 104), I am reminded of those tears.