Book 9
2.95
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.
2.96
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.
