Caesar's commentaries. The following is typical: (Caesar) 'To this embassy Ariovistus replied: if he himself had been in need of Caesar, he would have come to him; if Caesar were to require anything of him, he, Caesar, ought to come to him. Besides, he did not dare to come without an army into those parts of Gaul which Caesar possessed, nor was it possible for him to gather an army into one location without a large supply train and effort. Moreover, it seemed to him strange what business either Caesar or the Roman People as a whole had in his own part of Gaul, which he had conquered in war.' The passage consists of five indirect statements with infinitive verbs (two of which, 'it is fitting' and 'it seems' are impersonal and have no subject), and an indirect question with the subjunctive (). Interleaved with these are two conditional clauses () and two relative clauses (), all of which use the subjunctive mood. All the subjunctive verbs are imperfect or pluperfect, except for , which is present subjunctive and thus breaks the sequence of tenses rule. Direct speech () In Latin historians, is very common. In Caesar's commentaries, there are some 190 instances of indirect speech, but only 21 examples of direct speech (). The direct speeches tend to be quite short, although there are some longer ones, such as Curio's speech to his troops before a battle. Quite often they mark dramatic moments, including several speeches made just before a battle, such as Caesar's own speech before the battle of Pharsalia, or the eagle-bearer's encouragement to his comrades before leaping into the sea when Caesar's invading force reached the coast of Britain. In some cases they are accompanied by phrases such as 'in a loud voice'. It is likely that during a public recitation of the work, such passages allowed the reciter to add extra drama to the recitation. In Livy too, direct speech is found sparingly but at dramatic moments. These include the words of the Delphic oracle announcing the future ruler of Rome, the words of the heroines Lucretia and Sophoniba before they committed suicide, and the announcement to the people of the tragedy of Lake Trasimene. Bibliography Andrewes, M. (1937). "Caesar's Use of Tense Sequence in Indirect Speech". The Classical Review, Vol. 51, No. 4 (September 1937), pp. 114–116. Andrewes, M. (1951). "The Function of Tense