On the Asp
Latin Grammar: Passive Infinitives
Hoc expresse dicit Plinius libro octavo capite ultimo [Natural History, 8.93], dicit enim sicut quaedam animalia indigenis sunt innoxia qua interimunt alienos, sic serpentes parcunt mirifice illis, qui de terra oriuntur. Sic angues circa Euphratem terrae incolas non laedunt, nec infestant dormientes, alios autem cuiuscunque gentis homines cruciant eos avide occidentes. Dicit etiam ibidem Plinius [Natural History, 8.93] quod Aristoteles tradit in quodam monte a scorpionibus hospites non laedi, sed indigenas interimi et occidi.
Passive Infinitives
In the last sentence, there are three passive infinitives: laedi, interimi, and occidi. Because they occur in indirect discourse (“...Pliny says that Aristotle reports that on a certain mountain, visitors are not harmed by scorpions, but natives are destroyed and killed”) the sense is passive, but the verbs are not translated as the usual passive infinitive would be, i.e.: “to be harmed.”
Passive infinitives are formed from the present stem plus -ari, eri, i, iri, depending on what type of verb it is.
Change the following active infinitives to passive ones, and give their usual translations: