your strength_,

quid hoc homine facias, _what are you to do with this man_?

mens quoque et animus, nisi tamquam lumini oleum instilles,
exstinguuntur senectute, _the intellect and mind too are extinguished
by old age, unless, so to speak, you keep pouring oil into the lamp_;

tanto amore possessiones suas amplexi tenebant, ut ab eis membra
divelli citius posse diceres, _they clung to their possessions with
such an affectionate embrace, that you would have said their limbs
could sooner be torn from their bodies_.

PECULIARITIES IN THE USE OF THE ACCUSATIVE.

357. 1. To denote '_so many years, etc., afterwards or before_' the Latin
employs not merely the Ablative of Degree of Difference with post and ante
(see Sec. 223), but has other forms of expression. Thus:--

post quinque annos, _five years afterward_;

paucos ante dies, _a few days before_;

ante quadriennium, _four years before_;

post diem quartum quam ab urbe discesseramus, _four days after we had
left the city_;

ante tertium annum quam decesserat, _three years before he had died_.

2. The Latin seldom combines both Subject and Object with the same
Infinitive; as,--

Romanos Hannibalem vicisse constat.

Such a sentence would be ambiguous, and might mean either that the Romans
had conquered Hannibal, or that Hannibal had conquered the Romans.
Perspicuity was gained by the use of the Passive Infinitive; as,--

Romanos ab Hannibale victos esse constat, _it is well established that
the Romans were defeated by Hannibal_.

PECULIARITIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE DATIVE.

358. 1. The English _for_ does not always correspond to a Dative notion in
Latin, but is often the equivalent of pro with the Ablative, viz. in the
senses--

a) _In defense of_; as,--

pro patria mori, _to die for one's country_.

b) _Instead of_, _in behalf of_; as,--

unus pro omnibus dixit, _one spoke for all_;

haec pro lege dicta sunt, _these things were said for the law_.

c) _In proportion to_; as,--

pro multitudine hominum eorum fines erant angusti, _for the population,
their territory was small_.

2. Similarly, English _to_ when it indicates motion is rendered in Latin by
ad.

a. Note, however, that the Latin may say either scribere ad aliquem, or
scribere alicui, according as the idea of motion is or is not
predominant. So in several similar expr