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The Trisyllabic Ending of the Pentameter: Its Treatment by Tibullus, Propertius, and Martial
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
It is well known that the trisyllabic ending of the pentameter, which, with the Augustan elegists, declines in popularity until it is practically rejected by Ovid, meets with a revival in Martial. His pentameters show a considerably higher proportion of trisyllabic endings than those of either Tibullus or Propertius.1 Is it possible to dis-cover any reasons, conscious or instinctive, that conditioned the revival of this type of ending?
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1948
References
page 68 note 1 Approximate figures are 3½ per cent, in Tibullus, 2 per cent, in Propertius, 4½ per cent. in Martial. Six examples only occur in Ovid, all from Ex Ponto: 1.6.26; 1.8.40; 3.6.46; and 1.1. 66; 1.8.20;4.9.26. The last three are doubtful.
page 68 note 2 Postgate, , Propertius, Introduction, p. cxxxGoogle Scholar.
page 68 note 3 Tibullus 2. 1—2. 4; Propertius 2. 1—2. 9.
page 68 note 4 About 20 per cent, of all trisyllabic endings In the Copa 27½ per cent., while in Catalepton none occur.
page 68 note 5 Tibullus 1.1. 72; 2. 1. 60. About 9 per cent, of all trisyllabic endings. Propertius, 1.15. 36.
page 68 note 6 There is a doubtful example in Ovid, Ex P. 66; 1. 8.20
page 68 note 7 Tibullus 1. 3. 32; 1. 5. 72; 1. 10. 66, under 14 per cent. In the Copa 25 per cent., in Cataleplon 50 per cent.
page 68 note 8 Under 14 per cent.
page 68 note 9 Tibullus 1. 3. 30; 1.6. 34; 2. 6. 20.
page 69 note 1 In Catullus 44 per cent.; in Catalepton 50 per cent.
page 69 note 2 36½per cent, in Catullus.
page 69 note 3 1. 92. 12; 2. 32. 6; 3. 72. 8; 3. 83. 2; 6. 51. 4; 6. 89. 8; 8. 27. 2.
page 69 note 4 1.92.12, which contains a pun on a disyllable, and 2. 32. 6.
page 69 note 5 Postgate, (Prosodia Latina, p. 85)Google Scholar remarks that the trisyllabic ending is often used to give point to an epigram. This is true, but give the whole story: 69 per cent. occur as the last word of an epigram, more than a quarter of them in distichs. But there remain close on a third that are found in any position of the poem and in company with normal endings.
page 70 note 1 Figures are: Catullus 82 trisyllabic, 15 of 
, 
type. Copa 19 pentameters, 8 trisyllabic, 3 of these of 
, 
type, Catalepton 65 pentameters, 16 trisyllabic, none of 
, 
type.
page 70 note 2 1.1. 72; 2.1. 60, also [Tib.] 3.19. 22.
page 70 note 3 1.15. 36 is the only instance.
page 70 note 4 See above, p. 69.
page 71 note 1 Ovid, , Her. 1—2Google Scholar. 84 shows about 42 per cent. ofhexameters without accent in the fourth foot, 37 per cent, with ictus-accent concord.
page 71 note 2 Odora canum vis and procumbit humi bos are famous examples of this notoriously rare rhythm.
page 71 note 3 The only lines that can be held to show an accented final monosyllable are Mar. 1. 32. 2, 10.17.8,12.68.6. In each of these three examples some weight is taken off the final monosyllable by accent on the previous word— 
page 72 note 1 See above, p. 68, nn. 5 and 6.
page 72 note 2 C.R. lvii. 98.
page 72 note 3 Plessis, , Metrique Grecque et Latins, par. 132 and 119Google Scholar.
page 72 note 4 Surely Plessis's 54 per cent, for trihemimeral caesura is not an overwhelming preponderance.
page 72 note 5 Cf., for example, Ovid's recurrent refrain in Am. 1. 6: ‘Tempora noctis eunt: excute poste seram.’
page 72 note 6 C.Q. xxxiv. 38.
page 72 note 7 L. P. Wilkinson, loc. cit.
page 72 note 8 115.2.
page 72 note 9 Elided disyllables are included with mono syllables.
page 72 note 10 (Tib.) 3. 6.10.
page 73 note 1 5. 53.4.
page 73 note 2 10.64.6.
page 73 note 3 10.81.4.
page 74 note 1 For this double accent in the fifth foot cf. relicto 
page 74 note 2 Cat. 74. 6: 81. 6: 91. 10.
page 74 note 3 Other examples are Mart. 1. 33. 2; 1. 92. 12; 3. 83. 2; 6..71. 6.
page 74 note 4 See above on florida tier ageret, p. 6.
page 74 note 5 Assuming secondary accent on the first syllable.
page 75 note 1 Cf.F. Vollmer, in Gercke-Norden, Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft, I3. 8. 6, p. 14.
page 75 note 2 Of the six examples of trisyllabic endings in Ex Ponto, three belong to the fourth-foot diaeresis type, and one, the emended Ex P. 1.1. 66, is an unusually successful line.