Institutio Oratoria

in itself Our accents also are less agreeable than those of the Greeks. This is due to a certain rigidity and monotony of pronunciation, since the final

syllable is never marked by the rise of the acute accent nor by the rise and fill of the circumflex, but one or even two grave accents [*](I.e. the last syllable and often the last two syllables have the grave accent. See I. v. sqq. ) are regularly to be found at the end. Consequently the Greek language is so much more agreeable in sound than the Latin, that our poets, whenever they wish their verse to be especially harmonious, adorn it with Greek words.