LATIN INSCRIPTION AT CIRTA. 401 



Plautus and Terence. Praecilius too probably linked it on to centum. In celebravi the 

 first two unaccentuated syllables were slurred over as one. Compare Ut si peraeveraveris, 

 the beginning of one of Commodian's verses. Many other illustrations might be given. 

 The flow of this verse might be represented by the following fictitious one Natales venisse 

 per arma sacrare Jideles, the writer's favourite trochaic amble. 



V. 10 at first sight would appear to have eight feet ; but venit is a monosyllable, 

 as we find in the classical fert, vult ; and in late inscriptions feet for fecit, vitvt for vimit 

 and such like. Perhaps Praecilius could only thus distinguish the present vgnit from the 

 perfect venit. Dies is a monosyllable. This word probably soon became shortened in 

 familiar speech and unable to support an independent existence ; and so made way for the 

 jornus of middle Latin, and the giorno, jour etc. of the Romance languages. Commodian 

 uses diem for one short syllable and medius for a pyrrhic, and frequently Zabolus for 

 diabolus. Probably he and Praecilius pronounced dies xes. We know from Servius that 

 the d of medius was universally a sibilant in his day. Ut was quite atonic and therefore 

 absorbed in the strongly accentuated spiritus, contracted by its accent into a dissyllable. 

 Compare the spirto of Italian poetry and the French esprit. Their want of accent will 

 perhaps explain the curious fact that so many of the most serviceable Latin particles have 

 like ut disappeared from the Romance tongues, and been replaced by the awkward perche's 

 perciocches cependant''s, and the like. The line will therefore have this cadence Nunc it 

 arnica sed alius inania membra relinquat, the loved dactylico-trochaic run again. Compare 

 with this and tlie preceding verse such lines of Commodian as the following : 



ComponiUur alia I novitas cae\li terraeque perennis. 



V. 11 presents no difficulty. Titulos might be a dactyl to Praecilius as well as litora, 

 ■conderet, moenia. With legis compare lare; its position in the line makes it long. Mee is 

 for meae, as venitae on the other hand for venite, and the final ae is as short as the i in 

 mihi or the a in mea. This tendency to abbreviate final syllables was strong in all periods 

 of the language, even the most classical. The ablative morte was once as long as the 

 dative morti, the nominative musa as the ablative musd. 



V. 12, Deseruit has naturally the same quantity as exibui, and the me is probably 

 atonic, and attached to the verb like the mi, ti, si, me te, se's of the Romance lan- 

 guages. 



In v. 13 Sequvmini tales sounded to Praecilius exactly like Itdliam fato, Praeterea 

 supple.v, or the Praefatio nostra of Commodian. Its position in the verse determined the 

 quantity of sequimini. 



The end which I have proposed to myself in this paper, has been to shew by a real 

 visible example the essential difference between the old classical languages with their fully 

 developed quantity moving in harmonious combination with the light musical accents; and 

 their debased and degraded state, when they had forfeited the first and had transformed the 

 second into a stiff monotonous stress ; a stress inherited by ourselves, and the other chief 

 European nations, so that it is now difficult for us without much thought to bring the 

 reality fully before our minds and persuade ourselves that the capacity of a language for 



51—2 



