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.

He does not, however, conceal the fact that some regard these as rhythms rather than feet: and they are right in so doing, since whatever is longer than three syllables involves more than one foot. Since then there are four feet which consist of two syllables, and eight composed of three, I shall call them by the following names: two long syllables make a spondee; the pyrrhic or pariambus, as some call it, is composed of two shorts; the iambus of a short followed by a long; its opposite, that is a long followed by a short, is a choreus, for I prefer that term to the name of trochee which is given it by others.

Of

whereas, if the long syllables come first the foot is called a palimbacchius. Three shorts make a trochee, although those who give that name to the choreus call it a tribrach: three longs make a molossus.

Every one of these feet is employed in prose, but those which take a greater time to utter and derive a certain stability from the length of their syllables produce a weightier style, short syllables being best adapted for a nimble and rapid style. Both types are useful in their proper place: for weight and slowness are rightly condemned in passages where speed is required, as are jerkiness and excessive speed in passages which call for weight.

It may also be important to remark that there are degrees of length in long syllables and of shortness in short. Consequently, although syllables may be thought never to involve more than two time-beats or less than one, and although for that reason in metre all shorts and all longs are regarded as equal to other shorts and longs, they none the less possess some undefinable and secret quality, which makes some seem longer and others shorter than the normal. Verse, on the other hand, has its own peculiar features, and consequently some syllables may be either long or short.

Indeed, since strict law allows a vowel to be long or short, as the case may be, when it stands alone, no less than when one or

For both a and gres are short, but the latter lengthens the former, thereby transferring to it something of its own time-length. But how can it do this, unless it possesses greater length than is the portion of the shortest syllables, to which it would itself belong if the consonants st were removed? As it is, it lends one time-length to the preceding syllable, and subtracts one from that which follows. [*]( This theory involves the allotment of a time-value to consonants: gres gives the time-value of gr to a, and itself borrows an equivalent time-value from st. This view is more explicitly expressed by the fifth-century grammarian Pompeius (112. 26k), who allots the value of half a time-length to each consonant. Therefore to ă (= one time-length) are added the two half time-lengths represented by gr (see Lindsay, Lat. Language, p. 129). ) Thus two syllables which are naturally short have their time-value doubled by position.

I am, however, surprised that scholars of the highest learning should have held the view that some feet should be specially selected and others condemned for the purposes of prose, as if there were any foot which must not inevitably be found in prose. Ephorus may express a preference for the paean (which was discovered by Thrasymachus and approved by Aristotle) and for the dactyl also, on the ground that both these feet provide a happy mixture of long and short; and may avoid the spondee and the trochee,

condemning the one as too slow and the other as too rapid; Aristotle [*](Rhet. iii. 8. ) may regard the heroic foot, which is another name for the dactyl, as too dignified and the iambus as too commonplace, and may damn the trochee as too

but for all they say, these feet will force themselves upon them against their will, and it will not always be possible for them to employ the dactyl or their beloved paean, which they select for special praise because it so rarely forms part of a verse rhythm. It is not, however, the words which cause some feet to be of more common occurrence than others; for the words cannot be increased or diminished in bulk, nor yet can they, like the notes in music, be made short or long at will; everything depends on transposition and arrangement.

For a large proportion of feet are formed by the connexion or separation of words, which is the reason why several different verses can be made out of the same words: for example, I remember that a poet of no small distinction writing the following line:

1. Astra tenet caelum, mare classes, area messem,
[*](The heaven holds the stars, the sea the fleets, and the threshing-floor the harvest.messem area, classes mare, caelum tenet astra is identical in scansion with the Sotadean which follows, save that it opens with a spondee instead of an anapaest. )

1. caput exeruit mobile pinus repelita.
[*]( The sense is uncertain. It appears to refer to a pine beam or trunk floating half-submerged. The pine-beam caught afresh put forth its nimble head. )

while care must be taken that the majority are of a pleasing character, and that the inferior feet are lost in the surrounding crowd of their superior kindred. The nature of letters and syllables cannot be changed, but their adaptability to each other is a consideration of no small importance. Long syllables, as I have said,

When a short syllable is followed by a long the effect is one of vigorous ascent, while a long followed by a short produces a gentler impression and suggests descent. It is therefore best to begin with long syllables, though at times it may be correct to begin with short, as in the phrase novum crimen: [*](pro Lig. i. 1. ) a gentler effect is created, if we commence with two shorts, as in the phrase animadverti iudices: but this opening, which comes from the pro Cluentio, is perfectly correct, since that speech begins with something similar to partition, which requires speed. [*](pro Cluent. i. 1. The speech begins: I note, gentlemen of the jury, that the whole speech of the accuser falls into two parts, of which one, etc. It is this which is described as similar to partition. lenius a dabaas Capperonnier for levibus (AG). )

Similarly the conclusion of a sentence is stronger when long syllables preponderate, but it may also be formed of short syllables, although the quantity of the final syllable is regarded as indifferent. I am aware that a concluding short syllable is usually regarded as equivalent to a long, because the time-length which it lacks appears to be supplied from that which follows. But when I consult my own ears I find that it makes a great difference whether the final syllable is really long or only treated as the equivalent of a long. For there is not the same fullness of rhythm in diccre incipieniem timere [*]( pro Mil. i. 1. To show fear when beginning to speak. ) as there is in ausus est confiteri. [*](pro Lig. i. 1. )

But if it makes no difference whether the final syllable be long or short, the concluding feet in these two instances must be identical: and yet somehow or other one gives the impression of sitting down and the other of a simple halt. This fact has led some critics to allow three timebeats for a final long syllable, adding the extra

It is not, however, necessary to go back further than three feet, and only that if the feet contain less than three syllables, for we must avoid the exactitude of verse: on the other hand, we must not go back less than two: otherwise we shall be dealing with a foot and not with rhythm. But in this connexion the dichoreus may be regarded as one foot, if indeed a foot consisting of two chorei can be considered as a single foot.

The same is true of the paean composed of the choreus and a pyrrhic, a foot which is regarded as specially suitable to the beginning of a sentence, or of the other paean, formed of three shorts followed by a long, to which the conclusion is specially dedicated. It is of these two forms that writers on rhythm generally speak. Some, however, call all feet containing three short syllables and a long by the name of paean, irrespective of the position of the long syllable, and merely taking into account the total number of time-lengths that it contains.

The dochmiac, again, which consists of a bacchius and an iambus, or of an iambus and a cretic, forms a solid and severe conclusion. The spondee, so frequently employed in this position by Demosthenes, is used with varying effect. It is most impressive when preceded by a cretic, as in the following instance: De qua ego nihil dicam, nisi depellendi criminis causa. [*](pro Cael. xiii. 31. Concerning which I will say nothing except for the purpose of refuting the charge. ) Again there is a point, of the importance of which I spoke above, namely that it makes a considerable difference whether two feet are contained in a single word