W. M. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus

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The Subject of the Infinitive itself is put in the Accusative¹, even when it is also the Subject of the Finite Verb, in classical Latin with dico, etc., in Plautine Latin also with volo, etc., e.g.

• Pseud. 167 “magnufice volo me viros summos accipere, ut mihi rem esse reantur”,
• Pseud. 853 “an tu coquinatum te ire quoquam postulas”
• (contrast 851 “an tu invenire postulas quemquam coquum?”, and see Abraham Studia Plautina p. 189);

although we also find the Nominative in Plautus, not merely with volo, etc., but (as in Greek) with dico in Asin. 634 “quas hodie adulescens Diabolus ipsi daturus dixit” (unless we should read daturum). But it is often, especially with Present Infinitive, left unexpressed, e.g.

• Merc. 410 “uxori meae mihique obiectent lenocinium facere”,
• Epid. 238 “dissimulabam earum operam sermoni dare”,
• Men. 461 “quoi tam credo datum voluisse (sc. eum), quam me video vivere”.

Accordingly in Curc. 72 “vovi me inferre” ‘I made a vow that I would offer’ is by a quibble misapprehended as ‘I vowed that I would offer myself’ (the passage is quoted in II. 19).

On promitto dare, lit. ‘I promise giving,’ ‘I promise the gift,’ see 12 above.

(For a list of the Verbs with which we find Accusative and Infinitive in Plautus and Terence, see J. Reinkens: über den Accusative c. Infinitive bei Plautus und Terentius, Düsseldorf (Schulprogr.), 1886.)