Hello all.
In my unending struggle with the subject of case in Latin, I have a question about the proper case to use for a noun as in the above-shown example, particularly where the verb is passive (in this case, perfect passive indicative). If one were to make the statement (ignoring the absurdity of that statement, for the moment): Gāius aegrōrem lētālem necāvit, "Gaius has killed a deadly disease", then Gāius definitely would take the nominative as the subject of the sentence and the agent of the active verb, and aegror lētālis would take the accusative as the direct object of the sentence. However, if one were to make the verb passive in order to say that "Gaius was/has been killed by a deadly disease", would he want to make "Gāius" take the accusative Gāium, so that the sentence reads: Gāium aegrōre lētālī necātus est? "Gāius" seems to be the object of the verb in this sentence when the verb is passive, but I remain unsure of that. Basically, I am unsure of whether changing the verb from active to passive makes the noun Gāius change from subject to object, and the noun phrase aegror lētālis from the direct object to a sentence subject in the ablative. Aegror lētālis would clearly have to be in the ablative herein the passive verb sentence, because it is the instrument of the verb when the verb is passive, but can the subject of a Latin sentence take the ablative (I had thought not)? A little guidance on this, if you please...
In my unending struggle with the subject of case in Latin, I have a question about the proper case to use for a noun as in the above-shown example, particularly where the verb is passive (in this case, perfect passive indicative). If one were to make the statement (ignoring the absurdity of that statement, for the moment): Gāius aegrōrem lētālem necāvit, "Gaius has killed a deadly disease", then Gāius definitely would take the nominative as the subject of the sentence and the agent of the active verb, and aegror lētālis would take the accusative as the direct object of the sentence. However, if one were to make the verb passive in order to say that "Gaius was/has been killed by a deadly disease", would he want to make "Gāius" take the accusative Gāium, so that the sentence reads: Gāium aegrōre lētālī necātus est? "Gāius" seems to be the object of the verb in this sentence when the verb is passive, but I remain unsure of that. Basically, I am unsure of whether changing the verb from active to passive makes the noun Gāius change from subject to object, and the noun phrase aegror lētālis from the direct object to a sentence subject in the ablative. Aegror lētālis would clearly have to be in the ablative herein the passive verb sentence, because it is the instrument of the verb when the verb is passive, but can the subject of a Latin sentence take the ablative (I had thought not)? A little guidance on this, if you please...