How do you express an indirect statement in Latin?

The indirect statement is a subordinate sentence that acts as the object of the verb in the sentence that governs the indirect statement itself. As an example, we may consider the English: 'I think that Mary is pretty'. 'I think' is the verb of our main sentence, which governs the subordinate sentence: 'That Mary is pretty'. This indirect statement is the object of the thinking expressed by the verb in the main sentence. Latin expresses this subordinate with the accusative + infinitive construction, in which the subject of the indirect statement (and whatever refers to it) is in the ACCUSATIVE. If the subject of the two sentences (main and subordinate) is the same, the subordinate will take 'se' as a subject, without repeating who/what the subject is, as we already now from the main sentence. If the verb of the subordinate is the verb esse, to be, the subject will be nonetheless in the accusative. The verb of the indirect statement is in the INFINITIVE (in the present, if the action expressed in the subordinate is contemporary to the one in the main; in the past, if the action in the subordinate happened before the action in the main; in the future, if the action in the subordinate will happen after the action in the main).An indirect statement is usually introduced by verba dicendi (verbs of saying such as dico, I say; nego, I deny; scribo, I write); verba sentiendi (verbs expressing perceptions and thoughts, like video, I see; audio, I hear; scio, I know); verba affectuum (verbs of feeling and emotion: gaudeo, I rejoice; doleo, I feel pain); and, verba voluntatis (verbs of will: cupio, I desire; iubeo, I order; veto, I forbid). E.g.: Scis me haec dixisse per iocum. (Plautus) Transl.: You know that I have said these things as a joke. Scis is our main sentence, on which the indirect statement, me haec dixisse per iocum, depends. The indirect statement has the subject, me, expressed in the accusative, and the verb, dixisse, in the past infinitive, to denote an action that took place before the 'knowing' (scis).