The Clausula in Ammiauiis Marcellimis. 121 



Type : (Js) agitans ignobilibu.s 



Clausulae in which three unaccented syllables come between 

 the accented syllables 



Only type : ille properabat. 



Far the most frequent of these forms in general use are I, II and 

 III, although their types are not all held in equal favor. Some 

 writers, as Sedulius, strenuously avoid I 8 and II tV {accipimns dictum, 

 animi poscitur) ; Ammianus, however, uses both of these clausulae 

 very freely. The common type in III is cV : for the clausula III ;' 

 Meyer cites only Ammianus. So too for the clausula IV reference 

 is made only to Ammianus. Meyer found 46 occurrences of III y 

 and IV (which he lumped together) among 800 sentence-endings. 

 As for the clausula A, it occurs only with the caesura after the first 

 unaccented syllable {ilk properabat), and is rare in most authors. 

 In Ammianus Meyer observed 15 cases among his 800 sentence- 

 endings, in Sedulius 11 among 1000; and he noted that the clausula 

 is in special favor with Ennodius and Gelasius.- 



These, then, are the accentual cadences upon which the rhythm 

 of late Latin prose is based. The history of their origin in earlier 

 quantitative clausulae and of their persistence through the Middle 

 Ages in the so-called cursiis has been discussed at length and in 

 detail by Meyer, and to have established the course of this long 

 development is not the least of the achievements that earn him the 

 title of bene meritus. Into this matter, however, we cannot enter 

 at present : we shall return to it later to consider the genesis of 

 the accentual clausula in the light of Ammianus' testimony, which 

 illuminates certain dark places. 



At the outset of our discussion it is well that we should recall to 

 mind a truth that has been voiced of late by Blass, to the effect that 

 the character of the prose-rhythm in any text can not be established 



* My object in not numbering this form consecutively with the others 

 is primarily to save the numbers V and VI for possible clausulae with 

 six unaccented syllables between tlie accents (v. p. 168 ff.) and secondarily 

 to emphasize its distinction both in origin and in rhythm from the other 

 four forms (v. p. 199). The reason for giving it the letter A is mani- 

 fested in the table of cadences, p. 168). 



* This statement, as regards Ammianus, stands in need of correction. 

 Type r/le properabat of A occurs in the text as we have it only about 

 once in 300 clausulae, hence it is to be eliminated as a characteristic of 

 Ammianus' style. V. p. 175. 



