The present paper examines the marking of the end of direct speech in five selected Late Latin texts. It shows that a range of strategies are employed in the texts, among which it analyses the use of particles, pronouns and participle constructions in greater detail. Although the end of direct speech tended to be signalled, none of the means can be viewed as a routinized marker of the end of direct speech in Late Latin -the particle et 'and' was found 19 % of instances in the examined texts. When an expression was used in a seemingly routine fashion, its higher occurrence was limited to one or two texts and attributed in the present analysis to the author's style. The most frequent expressions identified (the particles et and -que 'and', demonstrative and relative pronouns) do not carry any specific meaning with respect to direct speech but rather fulfil the function of cohesive device. The end of direct speech thus seems to be treated as a mere boundary in the discourse, lacking any specific marking in Late Latin.