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396. Some verbs of asking and teaching may take two accusatives, one of the Person (direct object), and the other of the Thing (secondary object):—
  1. sententiam rogāvit, he asked me my opinion.
  2. ōtium dīvōs rogat (Hor. Od. 2.16.1) , he prays the gods for rest.
  3. haec praetōrem postulābās (Tull. 39) , you demanded this of the prœtor.
  4. aedīlīs populum rogāre (Liv. 6.42) , to ask the people [to elect] œdiles.
  5. docēre puerōs elementa, to teach children their A B C's.

Note.--This construction is found in classical authors with ōrō , poscō , reposcō , rogō , interrogō , flāgitō , doceō .

a. Some verbs of asking take the ablative of the person with a preposition instead of the accusative. So, always, petō ( ab ), quaerō (ex, ab, ); usually poscō ( ab ), flāgitō ( ab ), postulō ( ab ), and occasionally others:—

  1. pācem ab Rōmānīs petiērunt (B. G. 2.13) , they sought peace from the Romans.
  2. quod quaesīvit ex P. Apulêius (Phil. 6.1) , 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):—

  1. Caesar sententiam rogātus est, Cæsar was asked his opinion.
  2. id ab flāgitābātur (B. C. 1.71) , this was urgently demanded of him.

Note.--The accusative of the thing may be retained with the passive of rogō , and of verbs of teaching, and occasionally with a few other verbs:—

    fuerant hōc rogātī; (Cael. 64), they had been asked this.
  1. poscor meum Laelapa (Ov. M. 7.771) , I am asked for my Lælaps.
  2. Cicerō cūncta ēdoctus (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, “ postulantur quidem vīrēs ā senectüte(Cat. M. 34) , strength is not even expected of an old man (asked from old age).

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

    nōn cēlāvī sermōnem T. Ampī; (Fam. 2.16.3), I did not conceal from you the talk of Titus Ampius.
  1. nec latuēre dolī frātrem Iūnōnis (Aen. 1.130) , nor did the wiles of Juno escape the notice of her brother.

Note 1.--The accusative of the person with lateō is late or poetical (§ 388. c. N.1).

Note 2.--All the double constructions indicated in § 396 arise from the wavering meaning of the verbs. Thus doceō means both to show a thing, and to instruct a person; cēlō , to keep a person in the dark, and to hide a thing; rogō , 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.


Idiomatic Uses

hide References (3 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (3):
    • J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge, M. Grant Daniell, Commentary on Caesar's Gallic War, AG BG 1.16
    • J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge, M. Grant Daniell, Commentary on Caesar's Gallic War, AG BG 2.13
    • J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge, M. Grant Daniell, Commentary on Caesar's Gallic War, AG BG 2.4
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