CASE OF THE SUBJECT: THE NOMINATIVE

The nominative is the case of the subject of a finite verb and of a predicate noun in agreement with the subject. Πρόξενος παρῆν Proxenus was present X. A. 1.2.3, Κλέαρχος φυγὰς ἦν Clearchus was an exile 1. 1. 9.

a. On the nominative subject of the infinitive, see 1973; in exclamations, 1288.

The nominative may be used independently in citing the names of persons and things: προσείληφε τὴν τῶν πονηρῶν κοινὴν ἐπωνυμίᾱν σῡκοφάντης he received the common appellation of the vile, i.e. ‘informer’ Aes. 2.99, τὸ δ᾽ ῡ̔μεῖς ὅταν λέγω, λέγω τὴν πόλιν when I say You, I mean the State D. 18.88. Cp. 908. (The accus. is also possible.) So in lists (cp. 904 c): τίθημι δύο ποιητικῆς εἴδη· θείᾱ μὲν καὶ ἀνθρωπίνη I assume two kinds of poetry: the divine and the human P. Soph. 266d.

A sentence may begin with the nominative as the subject of the thought in place of an oblique case: οἱ δὲ φίλοι, ᾱ̓́ν τις ἐπίστηται αὐτοῖς χρῆσθαι, τί φήσομεν αὐτοὺς εἶναι; but as for friends, if one knows how to treat them, what shall we call them? X. O. 1.14 (for τοὺς δὲ φίλους . . . τί φήσομεν εἶναι).

a. On the nominative in suspense see under Anacoluthon (Index).

In referring to himself in letters a man may use his own name in the nominative, either in apposition to the first person contained in the verb (976), or as subject of a verb in the third person: Θεμιστοκλῆς ἥκω παρὰ σέ I, Themistocles, have come to you T. 1.137, Ἀρταξέρξης νομίζει Artaxerxes thinks X. H. 5.1.31.

a. A speaker referring to himself in the third person usually soon reverts to the first person (D. 18.79).

When there is no danger of obscurity, the subject may shift without warning: μίαν μὲν ναῦν λαμβάνουσιν, τᾱ̀ς δ᾽ ἄλλᾱς οὐκ ἐδυνήθησαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀποφεύγουσιν they captured one ship; the rest they were unable to capture; but they (the ships) escaped T. 7.25, τῶν νόμων αὐτῶν ἀκούετε τί κελεύουσι καὶ τί παραβεβήκᾱσιν hear what the laws themselves command and what transgressions they (my opponents) have committed D. 59.115.