84 ROLFE— THE USE OF DEVICES FOR 



a long i Accius wrote ci, a usage which had come in before his time 

 and continued through the seventh and eighth centuries of the city. 

 The origin and history of this device, which was not very common in 

 Latin, are discussed with a full list of examples by Bersu in Bezzen- 

 berger's Beitrage, xxiii, 252 fif. 



In the time of Sulla a tall I came into use as the designation of 

 the long vowel, without at once displacing ei; and at about the same 

 time the apex was introduced to indicate the long quantity of the 

 other vowels. These two devices continued in use until the latter 

 part of the third century, the latest examples being found in v, 857, 

 of the time of Diocletian, where we have seven apices in five words, 

 three of which are over the diphthong (e. A much later instance, 

 Narses in XIV., 4059, of the year 565 A.D., represents a different 

 use of the apex, to be mentioned later (p. 79). 



The employment of these devices, their variation, and the results 

 deduced from them are discussed at length by Bersu^^ and Christian- 

 sen.^^ One point, however, is fully treated neither by them nor, so 

 far as I know, by anyone else : namely, the reason or reasons why 

 some long vowels are marked and others are left unmarked. Almost 

 the only contribution to this aspect of the phenomenon has been the 

 very easy one of exploding the idea that the apex designated the word 

 accent. In the light of the large number of apices on the final sylla- 

 bles of words, one can only wonder that that opinion was ever held 

 by anyone. I have never been able to convince myself that these 

 marks were put on at random, but I have thought that the examina- 

 tion of a large number of inscriptions would at least throw some light 

 upon the question. This paper presents the beginning of such an 

 investigation. In its entirety the problem is an enormous one, since 

 it involves the consideration not only of all the indicated quantities, 

 but also of many long vowels in inscriptions belonging to the period 

 from 100 B.C. to 300 A.D. of which the quantities are not indicated. 

 There is also the possibility, if not the probability, of a negative 

 result; but there are certain to be by-products of some interest and 

 value. 



"L. c. 



12 De Apicibus et I longis, Husum, 1889. 



