qui hoc dixisset, errasset, the man who had said this would have been
    mistaken.

INDIRECT DISCOURSE (ORATIO OBLIQUA).

313.  When the language or thought of any person is reproduced without change, that is called Direct Discourse (Oratio Recta); as, Caesar said, ’The die is cast.’ When, on the other hand, one’s language or thought is made to depend upon a verb of saying, thinking, etc., that is called Indirect Discourse (Oratio Obliqua); as, Caesar said that the die was cast; Caesar thought that his troops were victorious.

  a.  For the verbs most frequently employed to introduce Indirect
  Discourse, see Sec. 331.

MOODS IN INDIRECT DISCOURSE.

Declarative Sentences.

314. 1.  Declarative Sentences upon becoming Indirect change their main clause to the Infinitive with Subject Accusative, while all subordinate clauses take the Subjunctive; as,—­

Regulus dixit quam diu jure jurando hostium teneretur non esse se senatorem, Regulus said that as long as he was held by his pledge to the enemy he was not a senator. (Direct:  quam diu teneor non sum senator.)

2.  The verb of saying, thinking, etc., is sometimes to be inferred from the context; as,—­

tum Romulus legatos circa vicinas gentes misit qui societatem conubiumque peterent:  urbes quoque, ut cetera, ex infimo nasci, then Romulus sent envoys around among the neighboring tribes, to ask for alliance and the right of intermarriage, (saying that) cities, like everything else, start from a modest beginning.

3.  Subordinate clauses which contain an explanatory statement of the writer and so are not properly a part of the Indirect Discourse, or which emphasize the fact stated, take the Indicative; as,—­

    nuntiatum est Ariovistum ad occupandum Vesontionem, quod est oppidum
    maximum Sequanorum contendere, it was reported that Ariovistus was
    hastening to seize Vesontio, which is the largest town of the Sequani.

4.  Sometimes a subordinate clause is such only in its external form, and in sense is principal.  It then takes the Infinitive with Subject Accusative.  This occurs especially in case of relative clauses, where qui is equivalent to et hic, nam hic, etc.; as,—­

dixit urbem Atheniensium propugnaculum oppositum esse barbaris, apud quam jam bis classes regias fecisse naufragium, he said the city of the Athenians had been set against the barbarians like a bulwark, near which (= and near it) the fleets of the King had twice met disaster.

5.  The Subject Accusative of the Infinitive is sometimes omitted when it refers to the same person as the subject of the leading verb, or can easily be supplied from the context; as,—­

    cum id nescire Mago diceret, when Mago said he did not know this (for
    se nescire).