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Some of the Plautine ‘Genitives of Respect’ would, if found in an Augustan poet, be called Graecisms, e.g. Rud. 213 “hac an illac eam incerta sum consili” (cf. Ter. Phorm. 578 “quod quidem me factum consili incertum facit”; Ennius trag. 142 V. “suarum rerum incerti”). But the imitation of a Greek construction1 is as suitable for the literary style of Augustan poetry as it is unsuitable for the every-day language of Plautus. Their Italic origin is proved by their occurrence in other dialects, e.g. (Oscan) “manum aserum eizazunc egmazum” ‘manum asserere earum rerum.’ Similarly the use (especially in Tacitus) of the Genitive of the Gerund and Gerundive to express purpose, e.g. Tac. Ann. 2, 59 “Germanicus Aegyptum proficiscitur cognoscendae antiquitatis”, is found in Umbrian, e.g. “ocrer peihaner” ‘arcis piandae.’ It is therefore a native construction, and, although not found in Plautus, is once used by Terence, Adelph. 270 “ne id adsentandi magis quam quo habeam gratum facere existumes”. (On Rud. 247 “me laborum levas”, see below, 14).
Syntax of Plautus. W. M. Lindsay. Anne Mahoney. edited for Perseus. Oxford. J. Parker and Co. 1907.
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