LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Allen & Greenough · Part Second — Syntax › Indirect Discourse

§588. Commands in Indirect Discourse

All Imperative forms of speech take the Subjunctive in Indirect Discourse:—

  • reminīscerētur veteris incommodī; (B. G. 1.13), remember (said he) the ancient disaster. [Direct: reminīscere.]
  • fīnem faciat (id. 1.20), let him make an end. [Direct: fac.]
  • ferrent opem, adiuvārent (Liv. 2.6), let them bring aid, let them help.

a. This rule applies not only to the Imperative of the direct discourse, but to the Hortatory and the Optative Subjunctive as well.

J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.