Indirect Discourse — All Infinitive Tenses + Subjunctive

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to translate complex indirect statement using all three infinitive tenses and recognize cum + subjunctive as an alternative to the accusative-infinitive construction.

Introduction

Indirect discourse (oratio obliqua) is one of the most frequent constructions in classical Latin prose. You already know the basic form: a verb of speaking or thinking introduces an accusative subject + infinitive. At B2, two things become more demanding: first, you must distinguish all three infinitive tenses and know how they relate to the main verb's time; second, you must recognize that Latin also uses cum + subjunctive to embed temporal, causal, and concessive clauses inside a narrative. Caesar uses both constructions on almost every page of the Bellum Gallicum.

Core Concept

The Three Infinitive Tenses in Indirect Statement

The tense of the infinitive is always relative to the introductory verb, not to the real-world clock:

Infinitive	Form	Time relative to main verb
Present	amare (active), amari (passive)	Same time
Perfect	amavisse (active), amatum esse (passive)	Before
Future	amaturum esse (active)	After

Examples with dicit (present) and dixit (past)

Latin	English
Dicit Caesarem pugnare.	He says Caesar is fighting.
Dicit Caesarem pugnavisse.	He says Caesar fought (has fought).
Dicit Caesarem pugnaturam esse.	He says Caesar will fight.
Dixit Caesarem pugnare.	He said Caesar was fighting.
Dixit Caesarem pugnavisse.	He said Caesar had fought.
Dixit Caesarem pugnaturam esse.	He said Caesar would fight.

Key insight: the Latin infinitive form does not change based on whether the introductory verb is present or past. English shifts ("will" → "would"); Latin does not.