Latin indirect speech


Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, indirect discourse, or ōrātiō oblīqua, is the practice, common in all Latin historical writers, of reporting spoken or written words indirectly, using different grammatical forms. Passages of indirect speech can extend from a single phrase to an entire paragraph, and this style was generally preferred by Roman historians to the direct speech commonly found in Greek authors.
The main types of indirect speech in Latin are indirect statements, indirect commands, and indirect questions. Indirect statements in classical Latin usually use the accusative and infinitive construction. In this the main verb of the quoted sentence is changed to an infinitive, and its subject to the accusative case; this construction is also sometimes used for commands and rhetorical questions.
Indirect questions, most indirect commands, and most subordinate verbs in indirect statements use the subjunctive mood. Subjunctive mood tenses are divided into two groups, primary and historic. The historic tenses are used when the context is past time, although it is also possible sometimes to use a primary tense in a past context, a practice referred to as repraesentātiō tempōrum.
Although the term ōrātiō oblīqua strictly speaking refers to the reporting of spoken or written words, the same grammatical constructions are also used in sentences introduced by other verbs such as those of perceiving, showing, remembering, and thinking. These are also included in this article. In some cases, especially in longer passages of ōrātiō oblīqua, the verb of speaking is omitted, and the grammatical form alone shows that the words are indirect.

Main types of indirect speech

Indirect statement

The most common type of indirect speech is indirect statement, for which in classical Latin the usual grammatical form is the accusative and infinitive construction. In this the subject of the quoted sentence is put into the accusative case, and the verb is changed to an infinitive.
Four main tenses of the infinitive are used: the present, the perfect, the future participle with esse, and the future participle with fuisse. The present infinitive is used when the actions expressed by the subordinate sentence are contemporary to the actions expressed by the main sentence – the latter can have a past, a present or a future tense:
The perfect infinitive is used when the actions expressed by the subordinate sentence precede the actions expressed by the main sentence – the latter can have a past, a present or a future tense:
The future infinitive is used when the actions expressed by the subordinate sentence follow the actions expressed by the main sentence – the latter can have a past, a present or a future tense:
One verb, sum 'I am' has its own future infinitive fore, which may be used instead of futūrum esse. The verb possum 'I am able' on the other hand has no future infinitive or future participle.
The future participle combined with fuisse, which expresses a past or present potential :
Three other tenses are found in indirect statements: the supine with īrī, the perfect participle with fore, and the perfect participle with fuisse. However, these are rare.
The main verb introducing indirect statements does not have to be a verb of speaking; it can also be any of a range of other verbs, such as sēnsit 'he realised', simulāvit 'he pretended', cōnstat 'it is well known', spērō 'I hope', scrīpsit 'he wrote' and so on, which use the same construction.
The infinitive is used only for the main verb in an indirect statement; any other verbs are changed into the subjunctive mood, using one of the past tenses if the context is past:

Indirect question

Another kind of indirect speech is the indirect question, in which the verb is usually changed into the subjunctive mood:
When the context is past, one of the past tenses of the subjunctive is used.

Indirect command

The third main type of indirect speech is the indirect command, for which two constructions are possible. Some verbs, principally the verb iubeō 'I order' and its opposite vetō 'I forbid', use the accusative and infinitive construction, often with a passive infinitive:
Most other verbs use a clause introduced by the conjunction ut/utī or nē followed by a subjunctive verb. As with indirect questions, the tense of the subjunctive depends on whether the context is present or past. A present context requires the present subjunctive:
A past context usually has the imperfect subjunctive:

Change of person

Another of the characteristics of indirect speech is that the pronouns and persons of the verb change in accordance to the viewpoint of the new speaker. Thus in the following example, the original thought was 'he is very grateful to you'. In indirect speech this becomes:
Very often the viewpoint changes to the 3rd person, in which case the reflexive pronoun sē 'himself, herself, themselves' and its various derivatives suī, sibī, sēcum, suus etc. are used in order to refer to the speaker of the reported words:
When the subject of the verb of speaking is feminine or plural, sē will be translated as 'she' or 'they':
The reflexive pronoun sē can sometimes be used to refer to the speaker even when the speaker is not strictly the grammatical subject of the sentence, as in this example:
A third person which is not the subject is referred to by illum or eum 'him, that person'. To avoid ambiguity in English, it is often necessary to insert a name:
However, sē and suus can be ambiguous, since in addition to referring to the speaker, they can also refer reflexively to the subject of the nearest verb. Thus in these two indirect questions, the word sibī refers to Caesar but suās 'his' refers to the speaker, Ariovistus:
Similarly, in the following example, suum and sibī refer to the Roman ambassadors, while sēcum refers to the king :

Indirect statements

Constructions with the infinitive

Verbs of speaking

Often in historical writing there is no verb of speaking but it is implied by the context and by the use of the accusative and infinitive construction:
A future tense in indirect speech is turned into a future participle + esse. The infinitive esse is very often omitted:
A pronoun is usually used for the subject of an infinitive, even if it is omitted in direct speech. However, in some cases, when the pronoun is easily understood from the context, it can be dropped:
When the verb is impersonal, such as vidērī 'it seems' or oportēre 'it is fitting', there is no subject:
When the infinitive esse is combined with a future or perfect participle, a gerundive, or an adjective, esse is sometimes omitted:
The accusative and infinitive is also used for expressing what someone shows or pretends to be the case:

Verbs of perception

An accusative and infinitive can also be used to express a piece of information which someone has been told, or by extension which someone has learnt about, noticed, realised, seen, dreamed of, perceived or simply knows:
Verbs of perception such as videō 'I see' and inveniō 'I find' can also be followed by a present participle. In the following example, the two constructions are shown side by side:
Introductory verbs of speaking, thinking, realising, pretending etc. are known as verba dēclārandī, while those of learning, seeing, hearing, noticing, and knowing are known as verba sentiendī.
The accusative and present participle construction can also sometimes be found after verbs such as cognōscō 'I learn':

Verbs of thinking and feeling

Another reason to use the accusative and infinitive is to express someone's thoughts, such as the reasons for undertaking a certain course of action:
It can similarly be used with verbs such as cōnfīdō 'I am sure', meminī 'I remember', and oblīvīscor 'I forget':
Occasionally verbs of emotion such as 'I am glad' or 'I am sorry' can take an accusative and infinitive; although the more usual construction is a quod-clause:

Negative statements

When the reported sentence is negative, it is common to use the verb negō rather than dīcō... nōn:
Similarly nōn putō is used in preference to putō... nōn:
In the same way vetō 'I forbid' is used in place of iubeō... nōn.

Passive main verb

When the verb of speaking is passive, it can be used either personally or impersonally. A present tense such as dīcitur 'he is said' or vidētur 'he seems' is usually used personally:
When the verb of speaking is used personally, the subject of the reported statement, and hence any participles or nouns agreeing with it, are nominative:
However, when the verb uses a compound tense such as the perfect passive nūntiātum est, it is usually used impersonally, hence with an accusative and infinitive:

Nominative and infinitive

Sometimes an active verb of speaking can be used with a nominative and infinitive construction, but only in poetry. The word 'claim' is used in the same way in English:

Other indirect statement constructions

Although cōnfīdō 'I am sure that' takes the accusative and infinitive, the phrase nōn dubitō 'I do not doubt' is usually followed by quīn and a subjunctive verb, in the same way as an indirect question:
The construction with quīn can also be used after other negative phrases:
In the following example, however, nōn dubitō is followed by futūrum :

with the indicative

Another way of expressing the English conjunction 'that...' is to use a quod-clause, with the indicative. This is found whenever the meaning is 'the fact that...'; for example:
Quod is also used after verbs of adding or omitting:
It is also found after verbs of emotion such as 'I am glad that', 'I am sorry that', 'it turned out well that' and so on:

with the subjunctive

In later Latin, quod with the subjunctive could substitute for the accusative and infinitive in indirect statement, though this did not become common until the second century AD:
This type of clause with quod gradually took over from the accusative and infinitive construction and became the usual way of expressing indirect speech in modern Romance languages which are descended from Latin.