Learn Hardcore Latin: Pater dicit bonum imperium iustitiam plus amare debere quam laudem. - Father says that good rule ought to love justice more than praise.

Pater dicit bonum imperium iustitiam plus amare debere quam laudem.

Father says that good rule ought to love justice more than praise.

Breakdown of Pater dicit bonum imperium iustitiam plus amare debere quam laudem.

Questions & Answers about Pater dicit bonum imperium iustitiam plus amare debere quam laudem.

Who is supposed to love justice here: pater or bonum imperium?

Pater is only the subject of dicit: Father says. The thing being reported is bonum imperium iustitiam plus amare debere quam laudem: that a good government ought to love justice more than praise. So bonum imperium is the one that is supposed to love justice.

Latin commonly does this with an accusative + infinitive construction after verbs like dicit.

If bonum imperium is the subject of the reported statement, why does it not look clearly accusative?

Syntactically, it is accusative because it is the subject of an indirect statement after dicit. But imperium is a neuter singular noun, and in Latin the nominative and accusative neuter singular forms are identical.

So bonum imperium can look the same in both cases:

nominative: bonum imperium
accusative: bonum imperium

The grammar of the sentence tells you its function, even when the form itself does not change.

Why are there two infinitives, amare and debere?

Because debere can take another infinitive. Literally, debere amare means to ought to love or more naturally to ought to love / should love.

In a direct statement, Latin would say: =