§586. Questions in Indirect Discourse

A Question in Indirect Discourse may be either in the Subjunctive or in the Infinitive with Subject Accusative.

A real question, asking for an answer, is generally put in the Subjunctive; a rhetorical question, asked for effect and implying its own answer, is put in the Infinitive:—

• quid sibi vellet? cūr in suās possessiōnēs venīret (B. G. 1.44), what did he want? why did he come into his territories? [Real question. Direct: quid vīs? cūr venīs?]
• num recentium iniūriārum memoriam [sē] dēpōnere posse (id. 1.14), could he lay aside the memory of recent wrongs? [Rhetorical Question. Direct: num possum?]
• quem sīgnum datūrum fugientibus? quem ausūrum Alexandrō succēdere (Q. C. 3.5.7), who will give the signal on the retreat? who will dare succeed Alexander? [Rhetorical. Direct: quis dabit ... audēbit.]

• utrum partem rēgnī petītūrum esse, an tōtum ēreptūrum (Liv. 45.19.15), will you ask part of the regal power (he said), or seize the whole?
• quid tandem praetōrī faciendum fuisse (id. 31.48), what, pray, ought a prætor to have done?
• quid repente factum [esse] cūr, etc. (id. 34.54), what had suddenly happened, that, etc.?

For the use of tenses, see § 585.