INDICATING VOWEL LENGTH IN LATIN. 93 



forty-seven times in C. I. L., XIV., twenty-eight times in XII. and 

 eighteen times in V. 



There is a decided tendency, for which there seems to be no 

 obvious reason, to mark the penultimate or ultima, or both, in perfect 

 tenses : vici, feci, cepi ; auxi, f ui, iuvi, feci ; egi, ref eci, misi. To 

 this may be added over twenty examples of fecit, fecerunt, fecerit, 

 etc. (seven of fecit in the index to C. I. L., XIV.), nuncupavit, VI., 

 2042 d, 25; cooptaverunt, VI., 2078, 39; venerit, VI., 1932 a; de- 

 crevit, VI., 894, and many others. 



The use of an apex to indicate punctuation has already been 

 spoken of.^* There are in the M. A. a good many instances of a 

 mark on a final long vowel preceding a comma, a period, or a section 

 mark in the original ; in some of the places with section marks no 

 punctuation would be used in English. Noteworthy in this connec- 

 tion is the phrase in quo triginta rostratae naves triremes a(ut 

 birem)es, § (IV., 23), where the change from a penultimate accent 

 to one on the last syllable of biremes, whether accompanied by another 

 mark on the penult or not, is most easily explained as indicating a 

 comma. Also noteworthy is the sentence rivos . . . ref eci (IV., 

 20), quoted on p. 83, which is followed by a comma and a section 

 mark. 



We may now consider the speech of the emperor Claudius at 

 Lugdunum, of the year 48 A.D. (XIII., 1668). The total number 

 of long vowels is 498, of which 130 have indications of quantity, a 

 percentage somewhat smaller than in the M. A. There are but six 

 words with two marks and none with three. Of forty-five " hidden 

 quantities " eleven are marked, a relatively larger number than in the 

 M. A., but hardly enough to indicate a decided tendency. There are 

 forty-nine instances of I longa, and the apices are distributed as fol- 

 lows : a, 32; o, 20; e, 13; u, 12. This does not differ greatly from 

 the usage of the M. A., except that the I longa is relatively more 

 frequent. There seem to, be no short vowels which are marked with 

 the apex or the tall I, and Quintilian's rule is observed with greater 

 frequency than in the earlier inscription. 



The same tendency to mark vowels in successive words is to be 

 observed in the S. C. as in the M. A. Combinations of two words 



24 P. 80. 



