Book 9
2.78
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.
2.79
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.
