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I thought that normally relinquo takes the accusative, not the dative, so I am having a hard time figuring out the following sentence:

Ūsque ad vesperum currēbat, neque nocturnum tempus sibi ad quiētem relinquēbat...

"He ran until evening, and did not give himself up to rest (until night time???)..." seems to be the sense, but the grammar does not make any sense to me.

  • tempus seems to be nominative, but how could it be the subject of the sentence??? Also, since sibi is reflexive, I thought that means that the person doing the running (currebat), HAS to be the subject of relinquebat.

  • why would sibi be dative? I thought relinquo was supposed to take the accusative, so shouldn't it be se, not sibi?

  • even if tempus is not the subject of the sentence, it does not seem to make any sense unless maybe usque is understood? So, am I supposed to read it as neque (usque) nocturnum tempus ... with tempus as an accusative which is the subject of the missing usque?

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    Note that tempus is 3rd declination neuter, so its accusative and nominative are the same. In this case it is the accusative.
    – d_e
    Oct 25, 2020 at 5:53
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    @d_e Strictly speaking, the words "3rd declination" in your comment are superfluous :-)
    – Sebastian Koppehel
    Oct 25, 2020 at 6:32

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As pointed out by d_e in comments, nocturnum tempus is accusative here and is the direct (accusative) object of relinquebat, whereas sibi is the indirect (dative) object, so the sentence means He ran until evening, and did not even leave himself the night-time for rest.

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