Confused on the sentence "crederes senatores illum hominem timere"

[Cupcake28]

Hey!

I’m currently learning about the potential subjunctive and have the following sentence:

crederes senatores illum hominem timere.

My translation is: You would have believed senators (I guess) to fear that man.

I understand crederes, illum ad hominem here. Am I right in thinking senatores is accusative and then the subject of the present infinitive almost?

I saw a translation of You would have believed the senators feared that man but I’m confused here?

Thanks!

 

[cinefactus]

It is accusative with infinitive after crederes

 

[Pacifica]

Am I right in thinking senatores is accusative and then the subject of the present infinitive almost?

Yes, it's accusative and the subject of timere.

I saw a translation of You would have believed the senators feared that man but I’m confused here?

That's a less literal but more natural translation in English.

The Latin and English ways of constructing indirect statements typically differ: Latin uses the accusative and infinitive whereas English uses a clause with a conjugated verb, optionally introduced by "that".

You can take a look here for a fuller explanation.