Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, cap. XXVIII, pensum A (p. 230) begins by asking the reader to fill in the blank in this sentence, with the appropriate conjunctive imperfect conjugation:
Servus dominum ōrābat nē sē verberā–.
Should it be active (verberāret) or passive (verberārētur)?
Wiktionary and the Pronomina table on p. 308 of Ørberg suggest that sē cannot be nominative. That would imply that verberāre should be active, with dominus the implied subject.
But then why use the reflexive pronoun? The slave is not asking that the master not give himself a beating.* Does the reflexiveness arise from the slave's asking something about himself, i.e. in connection with ōrābat? I understand that sē (along with its other forms sibi, suus, etc.) is often a way to refer in a subordinate clause to the subject of the main clause. But then how would the slave beg the master not to give himself a beating (with passive verberārētur)?
* Hey, look, present subjunctive in English!