“Both in time and at first in order” case came before prepositions (Robertson 567). From the point of view of historical development, prepositions did not “govern” the case of a noun but rather helped to define more precisely the distinctions indicated by the case forms or were added to recapture original meanings; the accusative basically denoted direction (“Whither?”); the genitive, separation (“Whence?”); and the dative, location (“Where?”). That is, cases found in prepositions