Institutio Oratoria

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