Annoying accusative with infinitive

[ricelius]

While reading De sano homine by Celsus (in my Latin course) I stumbled on the following sentence:

Hunc oportet varium habere vitae genus

It's followed by a list of things that a healthy man should do, so out of context I can guess the meaning to be something like "one should have these different exercises in life".

I guess hunc in accusative refers to the things following the sentence, thus being the subject of the acc.w.inf. But what about the rest?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Skylax]

While reading De sano homine by Celsus (in my Latin course) I stumbled on the following sentence:

Hunc oportet varium habere vitae genus

It's followed by a list of things that a healthy man should do, so out of context I can guess the meaning to be something like "one should have these different exercises in life".

I guess hunc in accusative refers to the things following the sentence, thus being the subject of the acc.w.inf. But what about the rest?

Indeed, hunc is subject of the infinitive clause but it refers rather to the man who should do all that things : the gender is masculine singular. Varium agrees with genus, this phrase being direct object of habere : "it must be that this man has a various way of life."

[ricelius]

Thanks a lot. It seems so simple when you explain it like that. I forgot that hunc is only singular and that genus is also accusative (thought it would be generem in accusative, and I couldn't make any sense of it because it would then have to be nominative -- and a nominative didn't fit into that sentence at all). Thanks!