W. M. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus

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The Concord of Number is violated in the Old Latin phrases praesente nobis, e.g. Amph. 400, absente nobis, e.g. Ter. Eun. 649, the Ablative Singular praesente, absente having apparently become a stereotyped form, much as qui, Ablative, or rather Instrumental, Singular of the Relative Pronoun (3rd Declension) became a stereotyped ‘whereby,’ e.g.

• Rud. 1110 “ubi sunt signa qui parentes noscere haec possit suos, quibuscum periit parva Athepis?”,
• Ter. Andr. 511 “multa concurrunt simul, Qui coniecturam hanc nunc facio” (so with quo in Poen. 905 “omnia memoras quo id facilius fiat”; from which has come the use of que for ut with a comparative following; see VIII. 2).

We have often a Singular Verb with two Subjects, e.g.

• Pseud. 1097, “epistula atque imago me certum facit”,
• Mil. 225 “qua cibatus commeatusque ad te et legiones tuas tuto possit pervenire”,
• Ter. Adelph. 340 “tum fama et gnatae vita in dubium veniet”;

and occasionally in Old Latin we get a Plural Verb with ‘A cum B,’ e.g. Ter. Heaut. 473 “Syrus cum illo vostro consusurrant” (cf. Cato Orat. 51 “si sponsionem fecissent Gellius cum Turio”, Claud. Quadrig. 85 “sagittarius cum funditore utrimque summo studio spargunt fortissime”), a construction with which we may connect a line like Most. 560 “sed Philolachetis servom eccum Tranim, qui mihi neque faenus neque sortem argenti danunt” (cf. Amph. 731 “cur igitur praedicas te heri me vidisse, qui hac noctu in portum advecti sumus?”). Slightly irregular too is Naev. trag. 40 “egone an ille iniurie facimus?”

A Plural Verb is common not only with

• uterque, e.g. Curc. 187 “uterque insaniunt”,
• alius alium, e.g. Curc. 378 “habent hunc morem plerique argentarii, ut alius alimu poscant, reddant nemini”,
• quisque, e.g. filios suos quisque visunt, Poen. 107 “omnis meretrices, ubi quisque (Feminine) habitant, invĕnit”,
• uter and neuter, e.g. Men. 779 “loquere uter merdistis culpam”, Men. 785 “neuter ad me iretis”,

but also with quisquam, e.g.

• Amph. 1071 “neque nostrum quisquam sensimus”,
• Pers. 56 “nam numquam quisquam meorum maiorum fuit, quin parasitando paverint ventris suos”,
• Men. 192 “ut superior sis mihi quam quisquam qui impetrant”,
Ter. Andr. 627,

and very often with aliquis in commands like aperite aliquis Merc. 131, etc., “exite huc aliquis” Epid. 399, Accius 425 “Oeneum aliquis cette in conspectum.”

And a collective Noun like pars often takes a Plural Verb, e.g.

• Most. 114 “sed magua pars morem hunc induxerunt”,
• Truc. 105 “fit pol hoc et pars spectatorum scitis pol haec vos me hand mentiri”;
• cf. Poen. 619 “sed quid huc tantum hominum incedunt?”
• and even Epid. 213 “tumm meretricum numerus tantus, quantum in urbe omni fuit, obviam ornatae occurrebant.”

Est = Fr. ‘il y a’ is suggested by Pers. 137 “sicut istic leno non sex menses Megaribas huc est quom commigravit”, but menses is Accusative, as we see from Aul. prol. 4 “hanc domum iam multos annos est quom possideo et colo”, and corresponds to an Adverb of Time like diu in e.g. Amph. 302 “iam diu est quom ventri victum non datis”, dudum in e.g. Trin. 1010. With Nominative, sunt is used, e.g. Most. 470 “septem menses sunt quom . . . tetulit”; and editors change est of the MSS. (A n. l.) to em in Pseud. 245 “mane, est conloqui qui volupt te”, since we have elsewhere sunt qui, e.g. Pseud. 462 “sunt quae te volumus percontari”. A change from a Singular to a Plural Verb is seen in phrases with age, e.g.

• Cas. 488 “age modo, fabricamini”,
• Stich. 221 “logos ridiculos vendo; age, licemini”.

The same change of Number in a Noun is seen in the two divisions of a sentence like Trin. 237 “numquam Amor quemquam nisi cupidum hominem postulat se in plagas conicere; eos petit, eos sectatur” (cf. Curc. 494, Mil. 887, 993) and is often found with a Relative like quisquis and its Antecedent, e.g. Poen. 505 “qui, quidquid agit, properat omnia” (cf. Rud. 1140, Trin. 1168), Men. 560 “ubi vir compilet clanculum quidquid domist atque ea ad amicam deferat”; cf. Ter. Heaut. 393.