Dative of Person Interested in a Statement.—The Person interested in a Statement is also put in the Dative : eccĕ tĭbĭ, m{subst:a-}}nĕ accēpi littĕrās tŭās look you, the-first-thing-in-the- morning I received your letter; quid mĭhĭ Celsŭs ăgit what pray is Celsus doing?
This is called the Ethic Dative, mĭhĭ, tĭbĭ, nōbīs, vōbīs alone are so used.
Dative of Person Judging.—For this Dative see § 310.
Dative of Person Possessing.—Generally with essĕ to be: est mĭhĭ frātĕr there-is a brother for-me, that is, I have a brother.
Dative of Person Concerned in an Action.—With the Gerund and Gerundive, and sometimes Adjectives in -bĭlĭs, and Past Participles: hōc mĭhĭ est mĕtŭendum this is for-me to-be-feared, that is, I have to fear this.
This Dative is often most conveniently translated by, and hence it has been called the Dative of the Agent. But the real Agent is expressed by ā or ăb with the Ablative (§ 149*).
§ 139. Dative of Indirect Object.—The person whose interests are involved in any action is often the Indirect Object of the action. This Dat. is generally translated to.
As we have already seen (§ 115), the sense of the Verb is often incomplete without such an addition.
This Dative is found with :
{a) Transitive Verbs which take an Accusative of the Direct Object : grātĭāsăgĭt mĭhi he gives thanks to me.
(b) Intransitive Verbs and Adjectives : nŏcent ălĭis they are harmful to-others, ămīcŭs tĭbĭ friendly to-you.
The English has only one oblique case, the Objective; and this is used to translate both the Latin Dative and Accusative; thus in I give him it, we must put him in the Dat. in Latin, and it in the Ace. Hence many Verbs which seem to be Transitive when translated into English, are really Intransitive, and take a Dative: pārĕō tĭbĭ I-obey you, lit. I am-obedient to-you.
