W. M. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus

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The Partitive Genitive is as greatly affected by Plautus as by Cicero. He even prefers hoc negoti to hoc negotium in Trin. 578 (cf. Mil. 956) “dic hoc negoti quomodo actumst”; cf.

• Amph. 172 “non reputat laboris quid sit” ‘what a trouble it is,’
• Amph. 421 “signi dic quid est”,
• Amph. 463 “hoc operis”,
• Aul. 370 “rapacidarum ubi tantum siet in aedibus”.

Quid rerum is a common phrase, e.g.

• Aul. 54 “ne me observare possis quid rerum geram”,
• Pers. 513 “Persae quid rerum gerant”;

and ubi terrarum, nusquam gentium, etc., are as frequent in Plautus' time as they are later (cf. interea loci ‘meanwhile,’ postid locorum ‘afterwards’; minime gentium Merc. 419, Poen. 690). Of other Adverbs with the Genitive may be noticed

adfatim (lit. ‘up to satiety’; cf. fatigo), e.g.
• Mil. 980 “tibi divitiarum adfatimst”,
• Cist. 231 “aliorum adfatim est qui faciant”;
largiter, e.g.
• Rud. 1188 “credo edepol ego illic inesse argenti et auri largiter”,
• Rud. 1315 “largiter mercedis indipiscar”.

Along with parum (i.e. parvum, Neuter Singular) we find its equivalent, parva res (cf. I. 5), Amph. 633 “satin parva res est voluptatum in vita?” Cf. Cist. 777 “gaudeo tibi mea opera liberorum esse amplius”. Plautus apparently uses both copiae est and copia est, operae est and (in Merc. 286) opera est, e.g.

• Merc. 990 “ut aliter facias non est copiae”,
• Cas. 810 “illo morbo quo dirumpi cupio non est copiae” (-ae A, -a P);
• Capt. 216 “quom quae volumus nos copiast”,
• Mil. 1041 “multae idem istuc cupiunt quibus copia non est”;
• Truc. 883 “operae mi ubi erit, ad te venero”, Merc. 286 “dicam si videam tibi esse operam aut otium.”

This use of the Genitive is pushed to an extreme in phrases like

Poen. 641 (after quid boni, v. 640) “boni de nostro tibi nec ferimus nec damus”,
Most. 1018 (after quod negoti, v. 1017) “mecum ut ille hic gesserit, dum tu hinc abes, negoti?”,
• Ter. Phorm. 709 “ante brumam autem novi negoti incipere!”

Noteworthy too is Ter. Eun. 408 “A. immo sic homost, perpaucorum hominum. B. immo nullorum arbitror, si tecum vivit.”