§388. Direct Object

Certain special verbs require notice.

a. Many verbs apparently intransitive, expressing feeling, take an accusative, and may be used in the passive:—

• meum cāsum lūctumque doluērunt (Sest. 145), they grieved at my calamity and sorrow.
• sī nōn Acrisium rīsissent Iuppiter et Venus (Hor. Od. 3.16.5), if Jupiter and Venus had not laughed at Acrisius.
• rīdētur ab omnī conventū; (Hor. S. 1.7.22), he is laughed at by the whole assembly.

For the Cognate Accusative with verbs of taste, smell, and the like, see § 390. a.

• gemēnsīgnōminiam (Georg. 3.226), groaning at the disgrace. [Cf. doleō.]
• festīnāre fugam (Aen. 4.575), to hasten their flight. [Cf. accelerō.]
• cōmptōsārsit crīnīs (Hor. Od. 4.9.13), she burned with love for his well-combed locks. [Cf. adamō.]

b. Verbs of motion, compounds of circum, trāns, and praeter, and a few others, frequently become transitive, and take the accusative (cf. § 370. b):—

• mortem obīre, to die (to meet death).
• cōnsulātum ineunt (Liv. 2.28), they enter upon the consulship.
• nēminem convēnī; (Fam. 9.14), I met no one.
• sī īnsulam adīsset (B. G. 4.20), if he should go to the island.
• trānsīre flūmen (id. 2.23), to cross the river (cf. § 395).
• cīvēs quī circumstant senātum (Cat. 1.21), the citizens who stand about the senate.

c. The accusative is used after the impersonals decet, dēdecet, dēlectat, iuvat, oportet, fallit, fugit, praeterit:—

• ita ut vōs decet (Plaut. Most. 729), so as befits you.
• mē pedibus dēlectat claudere verba (Hor. S. 2.1.28), my delight is (it pleases me) to arrange words in measure.
• nisi mē fallit, unless I am mistaken (unless it deceives me).
• iūvit mē tibi tuās litterās prōfuisse (Fam. 5.21.3), it pleased me that your literary studies had profited you.
• tē nōn praeterit (Fam. 1.8.2), it does not escape your notice.

• ita nōbīs decet (Ter. Ad. 928), thus it befits us.
• hostīque Rōma latet (Sil. It. 12.614), and Rome lies hidden from the foe.

d. A few verbs in isolated expressions take the accusative from a forcing of their meaning. Such expressions are:—

• ferīre foedus, to strike a treaty (i.e. to sanction by striking down a victim).
• vincere iūdicium (spōnsiōnem, rem, hōc), to prevail on a trial, etc. [As if the case were a difficulty to overcome; cf. vincere iter, Aen. 6.688.]
• aequor nāvigāre (Aen. 1.67), to sail the sea. [As if it were trānsīre, § 388. b.]
• maria aspera iūrō; (id. 6.351), I swear by the rough seas (cf. id. 6.324). [The accusative with verbs of swearing is chiefly poetic.]
• noctīs dormīre, to sleep [whole] nights (to spend in sleep).

• quid tibi istanc tāctiō est (Plaut. Poen. 1308), what business have you to touch her? [Cf. tangō.]
• mīrābundī bēstiam (Ap. Met. 4.16), full of wonder at the creature. [Cf. mīror.]
• vītābundus castra (Liv. 25.13), trying to avoid the camp. [Cf. vītō.]