Heavy Construction

388.

a. Many verbs apparently intransitive, expressing feeling, take an accusative, and may be used in the passive: -

• meum casum lúctumque doluérunt (Sest. 145), they grieved at my calamity and sorrow.

  

• sí nón Acrisium risissent Iuppiter et Venus (Hor. Od. iii. 16.5), Jupiter and Venus had not laughed at Acrisius.

  

• riditur ab omni conventú (Her. S. i. 7.22), he is laughed at by the whole assembly.

For the Cognate Accusative with verbs of taste, smell, and the like, see §390. a.

NOTE: Some verbs commonly intransitive may be used transitively (especially in poetry) from a similarity of meaning with other verbs that take the accusative: -

• geméns ignominiam (Georg. iii. 226), groaning at the disgrace. [Cf. doleó.]

  

• testinire fugam (Aen. iv. 575), to hasten their flight. [Cf. accelero.]

  

• cómptós Arsit crinis (Hor. Od. iv. 9.13), she burned with love for his well-combed locks. [Cf. adamo.]

b. Verbs of motion, compounds of circum, tráns, and praeter, and a few others, frequently become transitive, and take the accusative (cf. §370. b): -

• mortem obire, to die (to meet death).

  

• cónsulatum ineunt (Liv. ii. 28), they enter vpon the consulship.

  

• néminem convéní (Fam. ix. 14), I met no one.

  

• sí ínsulam adísset (B. G. iv. 20), if he should go to the island.

  

• transire flúmen (id. ii. 23), to cross the river (cf. §895).

  

• cívés quí circumstant senátum (Cat. i. 21), the citizens who stand about the senate.

NOTE: Among such verbs are some compounds of ad, in, per, and sub.

c. The accusative is used after the impersonals decet, dédecet, délectat, iuvat, oportet, fallit, fugit, praeterit: -

• ita ut vós decet (Plaut. Most. 729), so as befits you.

  

• mé pedibus délectat clandere verba (Hor. S. ii. 1. 28), my delight is (it pleases me) to arrange words in measure.

  

• nisi mé fallit, unless I am mistaken (unless it deceives me).

  

• iúvit mé tibi tuás litterás prófuisse (Fam. v.21.3), it pleased me that your literary studies had profited you.

  

• té nón praeterit (Fam. i. 8.2), it does not escape your notice.

NOTE 1: So after latet in poetry and post-classical prose: as, - latet plérósque (Plin. N. H. ii. 82), it is unknown to most persons.

NOTE 2: These verbs are merely ordinary transitives with an idiomatic signifi tion. Hence most of them are also used personally.

NOTE 3: Decet and latet sometimes take the dative :

• ita nóbís decet (Ter. Ad. 928), thus it befits us.

  

• hostíque Róma latet (Sil. It. xii. 614), and Rome lies hidden from the foe.

d. A few verbs in isolated expressions take the accusative from a forcing of their meaning. Such expressions are:

• feríre foedus, to strike a treaty (i.e. to sanction by striking down a victim).

  

• vincere itldicium (sponsi=onem, rem, h=oc), to prevail on a trial, etc. [As if the case were a difficulty to overcome; cf. vincere iter, Aen. vi. 688.]

  

• aequor navigere (Aen. I. 67), to sail the sea. [As if it were tr=ansire, §388. b.]

  

• maria aspera iúró (id. vi. 351), I swear by the rough seas (cf. id. vi. 324.) [The accusative with verbs of swearing is chiefly poetic.]

  

• noctia dormire, to sleep [whole] nights (to spend in sleep).

NOTE 1: These accusatives are of various kinds. The last example approach the cognate construction (af. the second example under §390).

NOTE 2: In early and popular usage some nouns and adjectives derived from transitive verbs retain verbal force sufficient to govern the accusative: -

• quid tibi istanc tactio est (Plaut. Poen. 1308), what business have you to touch her? [Cf. tango.]

  

• mirábundi béstiam (Ap. Met. iv. 16), full of wonder at the creature. [Cf. m=iror.]

  

• miro vitibundus castra (Liv. xxv. 13), trying to avoid the camp. [Cf. vita.]