1280. Verbs of accusing, convicting, condemning, and acquitting, take a
genitive of the charge: as,
#C. Verrem īnsimulat avāritiae#, _V._ 1, 128, _he charges Verres with
avarice_. #accūsātus est prōditiōnis#, N. 1, 7, 5, _he was charged with
treason_. #capitis arcēssere#, _D._ 30, _accuse on a capital charge_.
#prōditiōnis damnātus est#, N. 2, 8, 2, _he was convicted of treason_.
#Pollis pecūniae pūblicae est condemnātus#, _Flacc._ 43, _Pollis was
condemned for embezzlement of government money_. #maiestātis absolūtī
sunt permultī#, _Clu._ 116, _a good many were acquitted of high
treason_. With this genitive, an ablative, #crīmine#, #iūdiciō#,
#nōmine#, or #lēge#, is sometimes expressed (1377): as, #nē quem umquam
innocentem iūdiciō capitis arcēssās#, _Off._ 2, 51, _that you are never
to accuse any innocent man on a charge affecting his status as a
citizen_.
1281. The charge is sometimes denoted by a prepositional construction:
as, #sescentī sunt, quī inter sīcāriōs et dē venēficiīs accūsābant#,
_RA._ 90, _there are hundreds and hundreds that brought charges of
murder, by steel and by poison_. So also #dē āleā#, _of gambling_, in
Cicero regularly #dē pecūniīs repetundīs#, _of extortion_, and
necessarily #dē vī#, _of an act of violence_, as #vīs# has no genitive.
For the neuter accusative, see 1172.
1282. The penalty also is sometimes denoted by the genitive: as, #cupiō
octuplī damnārī Aprōnium#, _V._ 3, 28, _I want to have Apronius
condemned to a payment of eightfold_. #damnātusque longī Sīsyphus
Aeolidēs labōris#, H. 2, 14, 19, _and Sisyphus the Aeolid, amerced with
penance long_. Sometimes by the ablative: as, #capite#, _V._ 5, 109. So
usually from Livy on, when the penalty is a definite sum of money or
fractional part of a thing.