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94 wolfgang david cirilo de melo
should be obvious. There are six more tokens of non-reflexive, nominalised,
emphatic suum in Plautus. 34
Just as classical and even more common are occurrences where emphatic
suus is non-reflexive and adjectival:
(42) nunc eam vult suae matri et patri, quibus nata est, reddere ultro.
(Pl. Cist. 718)
Now, of her own accord, she wants to return her to her own mother and
father, the ones she was born to.
(43) ...eisuntnatifiliigeminiduo,
ita forma simili pueri uti mater sua
non internosse posset quae mammam dabat. (Pl. Men. 18–20)
Two twin sons were born to him, boys so much alike that their own wetnurse,
who was giving them her breast, could not distinguish between
them.
The subject of example (42) is the foster-mother of the girl referred to with
the pronoun eam. Now that the real parents are available, the foster-mother
has lost her role and refers to the natural parents as the girl’s own parents.
In example (43) the emphasis on sua should also be self-evident: not even
their own wet-nurse can tell the twins apart, so other people will find it
entirely impossible. This type is rather frequent in Plautus, who has ten
more tokens of it. 35 The following is similar:
(44) DO. salvus sis, adulescens. SAG. siquidem hanc vendidero pretio suo.
(Pl. Per. 579)
DO. Good afternoon, young man. SAG. I’ll have one if I sell this woman
for the price she deserves.
Here suus is also emphatic and indicates an inherent characteristic of the
woman, who is the object in the conditional clause: the price she deserves.
But whereas in all the cases above the reflexive possessive is fully expected,
there are also instances where its presence is against the classical rules. Two
of these involve interference from an intervening construction:
(45) iam de istoc rogare omitte – non vides nolle eloqui? –
ne suarum se miseriarum in memoriam inducas. (Pl. Per. 642–3)
Stop asking her about this now – can’t you see that she doesn’t want to
tell? – so you don’t remind her of her misery.
34 Capt. 400, Cur. 180, 488, 495, St. 693, Trin. 156.
35 Bac. 931, Capt. 91, Mer. 454, 973, Poen. 848, 1083, Ps. 185, St. 133, 200, Trin. 214.