§396. Two Accusatives

Some verbs of asking and teaching may take two accusatives, one of the Person (direct object), and the other of the Thing (secondary object):—

• mē sententiam rogāvit, he asked me my opinion.
• ōtium dīvōs rogat (Hor. Od. 2.16.1), he prays the gods for rest.
• haec praetōrem postulābās (Tull. 39), you demanded this of the prœtor.
• aedīlīs populum rogāre (Liv. 6.42), to ask the people [to elect] œdiles.
• docēre puerōs elementa, to teach children their A B C's.

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, dē); usually poscō ( ab), flāgitō ( ab), postulō ( ab), and occasionally others:—

• pācem ab Rōmānīs petiērunt (B. G. 2.13), they sought peace from the Romans.
• quod quaesīvit ex mē 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):—

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

• fuerant hōc rogātī; (Cael. 64), they had been asked this.
• poscor meum Laelapa (Ov. M. 7.771), I am asked for my Lælaps.
• 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, —nē 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 tē cēlāvī sermōnem T. Ampī; (Fam. 2.16.3), I did not conceal from you the talk of Titus Ampius.
• nec latuēre dolī frātrem Iūnōnis (Aen. 1.130), nor did the wiles of Juno escape the notice of her brother.