I could be wrong, but I would think 'verb'.
Hopes this helps!
He smacked him in the face
Romulus and Remus are recorded in Roman mythology as the founders of the city Rome. Legend has that the twins were born around 770BC, the sons of a mortal priestess, Rhea Silvia, and the Roman god of war, Mars. The boys were abandoned at birth and thrown into the River Tiber in a cradle
If the verb in the independent clause is in the present tense, the tense that the verb in the indirect quotation should be is <span>remain in its original tense.
</span>You don't have to shift tenses because it is present in the independent one.
For example:
He says: "I need to wash my hair."
He says that he needs to wash his hair.
You wouldn't say - he says that he needed to wash his hair.
