Institutio Oratoria

where we are met at the very outset with the opening of a hexameter, which is followed by a colon which can be scanned as an Anacreontic, or if you like, as a trimeter, while it is also possible to form what the Greeks call a πενθημιμερὲς (that is a portion of the hexameter composed of two feet and a part of a third): and all these instances occur within the space of three lines. Again Thucydides has allowed to slip from his pen a phrase of the most effeminate rhythm in ὑπὲρ ἥμισυ Κᾶρες ἐφάνησαν [*]( I, 8. Quintilian probably treats this as Sotadean or reminiscent of Sotadean rhythm. )

But, having stated that all prose rhythm consists of feet, I must say something on these as well. Different names are given to these feet, and it is necessary to determine what we shall call each of them. For my part I propose to follow Cicero [*](Or. ch. lxiv. 7. ) (for he himself followed the most eminent Greek authorities), with this exception, that in my opinion a foot is never more than three syllables long, whereas Cicero includes the paean [*]( For paean see § 96. The two varieties with which Quintilian is concerned are– u u u and u u u –. ) and the dochmiac (u – – u –), of which the former has four and the latter as many as five syllables.