Heavy Construction

396.

• mé sententiam rogávit, he asked me my opinion.

  

• ótium dívós rogat (Hor. Od. ii. 16. 1), he prays the gods for rest.

  

• haec praetórem postulábás (Tull. 89), you demanded this of the praetor.

  

• aedilis populum rogáre (Liv. vi. 42), to ask the people [to elect] Aediles.

  

• docére puerós elementa, to teach children their A B C's.

NOTE: This construction is found in classical authors with óró, poscó, reposcó, rogó, interrogó, flágitó, doceó.

a. Some verbs of asking take the ablative of the person with a preposition instead of the accusative. So, always, peti (ab), quaeró (ex, ab, dé); usually poscó (ab), flágitó (ab), postuló (ab), and occasionaily others:

• pacem ab Romanis petierunt (B. G. ii 18), they sought peace from the Romans.

  

• quod quaesivit ex mé P. Apulêius (Phil. vi. 1), what Publius Apuleius asked of me.

b. With the passive of some verbs of asking or teaching, the person or the thing may be used as subject (cf. c. N. 2): Caesar sententiam rogátus est, Caesar was asked his opinion.

• id ab eó flágitabetur (B. C. i. 71), this was urgently demanded of him.

NOTE: The accusative of the thing may be retained with the passive of rogó, and of verbs of teaching, and occasionally with a few other verbs: -

• fuerant hoc rogiti (Cael. 64), they had been asked this.

  

• poscor meum Laelapa (Ov. M. vii. 771), I am asked for my Laelaps.

  

• Ciceró cúncta pedoctus (Sall. Cat. 45), Cicero, being informed of everything.

But with most verbs of asking in prose the accusative of the thing becomes the subject nominative, and the accusative of the person is put in the ablative with a preposition: as, - né postulautur quidem vírés á senectúte (Cat. M. 34), strength is not even expected of an old man (asked from old age).

c. The verb céló, conceal, may take two accusatives, and the usually intransitive lateó, lie hid, an accusative of the person:

• nón to célávi sermónem T. Ampí (Fam. ii. 16.3), I did not conceal from you the talk of Titus Ampius.

  

• nec latuére dolí frátrem Iúnónis (Aen. i. 180), nor did the wiles of Juno escape the notice of her brother.

NOTE 1: The accusative of the person with lateó is late or poetical (§388. C. N.1).

NOTE 2: All the double constructions indicated in § 306 arise from the wavering meaning of the verbs. Thus doceó means both to show a thing, and to instruct a person; céló to keep a person in the dark, and to hide a thing; rogó, to question a person, and to ask a question or a thing. Thus either accusative may be regarded as the direct object, and so become the subject of the passive (cf. b above), but for convenience the accusative of the thing is usually called secondary.