[1791.] Relative constructions often have the appearance of indirect questions, and care must be taken not to confound the two. Thus, ut is a relative in hanc rem, ut factast, ēloquar, Pl. Am. 1129, I’ll tell this thing as it occurred, i.e. not how it occurred. nōstī quae sequontur, TD. 4, 77, you know the things that follow, i.e. not what follows.
[THE RELATIVE SENTENCE.]
[1792.] Relative sentences are introduced by relative words, the most important of which is the pronoun quī, who, which, or that. The relative pronoun may be in any case required by the context, and may represent any of the three persons.
[1793.] The relative adverbs, ubī̆, quō, unde, often take the place of a relative pronoun with a preposition, chiefly in designations of place, and regularly with town and island names. Less frequently of persons, though unde is not uncommonly thus used.
[1794.] In a wider sense, sentences introduced by any relative conjunctive particle, such as ubī̆, when, are sometimes called relative sentences. Such sentences, however, are more conveniently treated separately, under the head of the several conjunctive particles.
[1795.] (1.) The relative pronoun, like the English relative who, which, was developed from the interrogative. Originally, the relative sentence precedes, and the main sentence follows, just as in question and answer.
Thus, quae mūtat, ea corrumpit, Fin. 1, 21, what he changes, that he spoils, is a modification of the older question and answer: quae mūtat? ea corrumpit, what does he change? that he spoils. With adjective relatives, the substantive is expressed in both members, in old or formal Latin: as, quae rēs apud nostrōs nōn erant, eārum rērum nōmina nōn poterant esse ūsitāta, Cornif. 4, 10, what things did not exist among our countrymen, of those things the names could not have been in common use.
[1796.] (2.) The relative sentence may also come last. As early as Plautus, this had become the prevalent arrangement, and the substantive of the main sentence is called the Antecedent: as,
ultrā eum locum, quō in locō Germānī cōnsēderant, castrīs idōneum locum dēlēgit, 1, 49, 1, beyond the place in which place the Germans had established themselves, he selected a suitable spot for his camp. The three words diēs, locus, and rēs, are very commonly expressed thus both in the antecedent and the relative sentence. This repetition is rare in Livy, and disappears after his time.