176 Austin Morris Harmon, 



endings 6: in all, 16 cases in 3272 clausulae, not one-fourth the 

 proportion that Meyer's figures assign to Ammianus. Furthermore, 

 a careful scrutiny of the preceding list will disclose that, in point 

 of fact, there is very little evidence for the occurrence of this clau- 

 sula in our author at all. 



Of the 10 instances in Book XXI, 4 are isolated ; in 2 of the 4 

 (nos. 6 and 27) the reading of the manuscript, which gives a reg- 

 ular clausula, is every wa}' preferable, and of the other two (10, 16) 

 we may say at least that transposition gives a better word-order 

 in view of Ammianus' excessive fondness for traiectio. The other 

 6 instances form 3 cases of apparent responsion. But 2 of these 

 cases must be ruled out of court, for in one of them (11—12) it is 

 unlikely that the irregular cadences precede pauses, and in the 

 other (25—26) the interpretation of the cadences as A is uncertain. 

 In the remaining case (2—3), we have two sentences ending in 

 Meyer's clausula, separated by about half a page of text : in this 

 interval there is a quotation from Cicero, in which the same clau- 

 sula terminates a sentence. At first sight this seems a striking ex- 

 ample of responsion, motivated b}' the Ciceronian cadence. It is 

 indeed the strongest example that I have been able to find in Am- 

 mianus, but it is not as satisfactory as it appears. For in the first 

 place, however natural such a procedure may appear to us, nowhere 

 else in Ammianus is an irregular cadence in a quotation balanced 

 by irregular cadences in the text.^ This case is therefore exceptional, 

 and the very fact that seems to argue in favor of it is in reality 

 an argument against it. Secondly, the first occurrence of the clau- 

 sula is easily disposed of l^y revising the punctuation. Thirdly, 

 the sentence that follows the quotation is a revocatio, marking a 

 return to the subject. But elsewhere in Ammianus these revocationes 

 always terminate in a regular cadence.^ Moreover, in the phrase 

 ad explicanda prospccta revertanmr we have a figurative use of pro- 

 specta which is unparalleled : the word usually emplo3'ed in this 

 sense is proposita. On all these grounds I consider that we should 

 read proposita here. 



1 Cf. XV. 5. 23 : XVI. 1. 5 ; XIX. 12. 18 ; XXII. 7. 4 ; XXIX. 5. 24. 



In the fu'st citation, however, the reader should be warned that ipshts 

 proniulgatafn does not correspond with fortnna revocatur^ but (in virtue 

 of Ammianus' pronunciation ipsius^ on which see p. 211) with the prece- 

 ding sententiam Tiillianam^ with which it also rhymes. 



* Cf. proposita veniaimis II. 126. 11 : proposittim revertanmr I. 14. 28 ; propo- 

 siti revertanmr II. 237. 22 ; propositi revertetur L 228. 29 (where Gardthausen 

 admits the mistaken conjecture rei^erteretur) \ restautia venianms I. 72. 3; 



