[172] In nouns the cases were distinguished, the nominative, according to Ammon. l.c. being called ὄνομα, and the other five cases πτώσεις· a statement, however, which does not agree with the common use of those terms. In Diog. 65, the cases (γενικὴ, δοτικὴ, αἰτιατικὴ) are called πλάγιαι πτώσεις. Chrysippus wrote a distinct treatise on the five cases, Diog. 192. Similar were the divisions of the κατηγόρημα. According to Diog. 65, the Stoics distinguished between transitive verbs (ὀρθὰ), such as ὁρᾷ, διαλέγεται· passive verbs (ὕπτια), such as ὁρῶμαι· neuter verbs (οὐδέτερα), such as φρονεῖν, περιπατεῖν· and verbs which, with a passive form, do not express a passive relation (ἀντιπεπονθότα), κείρεσθαι, πείθεσθαι, &c. Consult on this point Philo, De Cherub. 121, c; Orig. C. Cels. vi. 57. On the ὀρθὰ and ὕπτια, also Dionys. Thrax, § 15, p. 886, Bekk.; Simpl. Categ. 79, α, ζ; Diog. 191; and respecting all three divisions, Lersch, ii. 196; Steinthal, Gesch. der Sprachw. i. 294. They also distinguished between σύμβαμα and παρασύμβαμα—a verb, when used with a nominative, being called σύμβαμα or κατηγόρημα, and παρασύμβαμα when used with an oblique case; περιπατεῖ is a σύμβαμα, μεταμέλει a παρασύμβαμα, περιπατεῖ requiring a nominative (Σωκράτης), μεταμέλει requiring a dative (Σωκράτει). If an oblique case is necessary to complete a sentence, besides the subject, the verb is called ἔλαττον ἢ σύμβαμα or ἔλαττον ἢ κατηγόρημα, as in the sentence Πλάτων φιλεῖ, φιλεῖ is so called; for these words only make a complete sentence by the addition of an object thus: Πλάτων φιλεῖ Δίωνα. If this is necessary with a παρασύμβαμα, it is called ἔλαττον ἢ παρασύμβαμα· such, for instance, is the word μέλει, for to complete the sentence it is not enough to say Σωκράτει μέλει, but the object must be added, as in the sentence: Σωκράτει μεταμέλει Ἀλκιβιάδους. This difference is explained by Porphyr. in Ammon. l.c., 36, b, whom Lersch, ii. 31, misunderstands and then blames. See Diog. 64 where the text is evidently corrupt. Without great temerity we might substitute for the meaningless οἷον τὸ διὰ πέτρας πλεῖν—τὰ δὲ παρασυμβάματα, which at least gives a better meaning than the proposals of R. Schmidt, Sto. Gramm. 66, 91, and Lersch, l.c. 33. Apollon. De Const. iii. 32, p. 299, Bekk.; Suid. σύμβαμα (very inaccurate); Priscian, xviii. p. 1118, who, in his equally inaccurate account, has ἀσυμβάματα. The example which Lucian, Vit. Auct. 21 employs to ridicule the Stoic hair-splitting anent σύμβαμα and παρασύμβαμα proves, of course, nothing. [173] There is nothing whatever on record which serves to show the position held by the categories. By several, definition and division were treated of most improperly under the head of language.