Argonautica

Histories III, 74: aramque posuit casus suos in marmore expressam and he placed an altar expressing his misfortunes on marble. The passage of Virgil, Eclogues III, 106, does not belong here: dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum nascantur flores tell in what lands the flowers grow inscribed with the names of kings; it is itself said after the Greek manner, which has an entirely different explanation. For just as according to the known law of the Greek language a statement such as ἀνθρώπῳ ἀποκόπτειν τὴν κεφαλήν, τὴν χεῖρα to cut off the head, the hand, of/from a man, converted into the passive, is expressed in this way: ἄνθρωπος ἀποκόπτεται τὴν κεφαλήν, τὴν χεῖρα a man has his head, his hand, cut off (see Kuehner, Grammatica Graeca II, § 378, 8, who nevertheless restricts this usage to overly narrow limits, and Krueger, Grammatica Graeca 52, 4, 2), so the Roman poets have spoken very often: to dispose of the matter with one cited example, in Virgil, Aeneid II, 273: perque pedes traiectus (Hector) lora tumentes Hector, having had the thongs drawn through his swollen feet, must be explained from the active construction Hectori per pedes lora traicere to draw thongs through the feet of Hector, converted into the passive by the Greek manner. And thus also in Eclogues III, 106, for the active floribus nomina inscribere to inscribe names on flowers, it is said in the passive: flores nomina (inscribuntur) inscripti sunt flowers are inscribed with names.