The Clausula in Ammia>/us Marcellinus. 189 



Antepenultimate Words 



long short total "/^ short 



663 390 1053 37 



In the dissyllables^ leaving out of account the three collocations 

 of which there are only two examples each, we observe that in 

 every position in which they occur the ratio of short penults is 

 approximately the same as the mean ratio of 23 per cent, the min- 

 imum being 20 and the maximum 26. Compare with this the state 

 of affairs in the antepenultimate words. Passing over for the moment 

 the figures for IV, we find that the lowest proportion of short syl- 

 lables under accent is 36, the highest 43, with a mean of 37.^ 

 Between the highest ratio of short accented syllables in dissyllabic 

 words and the lowest in antepenultimates there is a difference of 

 10 per cent, and between the two averages of 23 and 37 a difter- 

 ence of 14 per cent. The dissyllables accordingly present a very 

 constant ratio of approximatel}' three with long penult to one with 

 short, while the antepenultimate words present an equally constant 

 but considerably higher ratio of approximately three long accented 

 syllables to two short. 



On the supposition that Ammianus chose his words with any re- 

 ference to the quantity of their accented syllables the constanc}' of 

 each of these ratios and the fact that they differ from one an- 

 other cannot be explained. On the contrary, such a result is just 

 what we should look for if we knew him to have observed nothing 

 but accent. For it is obvious that in the Latin vocabulary the dis- 

 syllables with short penult must stand in a certain numerical relation 

 to those with long penult, and the words with short accented an- 

 tepenult to those with long ; and it is highly improbable that the 

 nvunerical relation would be the same in both cases. In any chance 

 collection of dissyllables or of antepenultimate words, the one ratio 



^ In IV the lai-ge proportion of short syllables in the first word is 

 due purely to chance ; the small proportion in the second word, on the 

 contrary, bears witness to the fact that the ratio is naturally smaller in 

 pentesyllables than in trisyllables and tetrasyllables. See below. 



