[*] 578. A Direct Quotation gives the exact words of the original speaker or writer ( Ōrātiō Rēcta ). An Indirect Quotation adapts the words of the speaker or writer to the construction of the sentence in which they are quoted ( Ōrātiō Oblīqua ).
[*] Note.--The term Indirect Discourse ( ōrātiō oblīqua ) is used in two senses. In the wider sense it includes all clauses—of whatever kind—which express the words or thought of any person indirectly, that is, in a form different from that in which the person said the words or conceived the thought. In the narrower sense the term Indirect Discourse is restricted to those cases in which some complete proposition is cited in the form of an Indirect Quotation, which may be extended to a narrative or an address of any length, as in the speeches reported by Cæsar and Livy. In this book the term is used in the restricted sense.