\ Accentual Cursus in Byzantine Greek Prose. 435 
cursus rhythm were inspected with a view to determining just how 
far the best writers go in avoiding hiatus in clausule. To these is 
added the evidence of the Political Verses, which are of considerable 
importance, although they date from the latter part of the Byzantine 
period. 
In Zosimus, Book I, as printed in the Corpus Scr. Hist. Byz., there 
are only 37 cases of hiatus before all kinds of punctuation inside 
the clausule, that is, in general, between the last two words of 
a clause. Of these the following are cases of weak hiatus, but 
have bearing on the question whether crasis or apheresis are 
admissible in clausule: 
1. cdhous te zai ObekEeouavor, OS oe 
2. mootyoy zai e&wucte, 28, 8. 
3. avaoye te zal aBowdnte, 35, 6. 
4. Acorcon zai “Agetoiac 46, 6-7. 
5. avdo@y te xab tinny, 47, 14. 
6. adexta zai enopintea, 51, 19=20. 
7. 4 &* THyNs n Ex MOOVoias, 60) 22: 
It is noticeable that six of the seven cases involve zai. In every 
case except 1 and 4 crasis or apheresis (in 7) would destroy a 
plainly correct cursus rhythm, and even in 14 crasis would not pro- 
duce a regular cursus type, and would at the same time destroy the 
possibility afforded by the text as it stands, namely giving to Oi 
the consonant sound which appears in the Latin form of the name 
“Valerianus”. This small body of evidence, therefore, gives no 
suggestion that crasis or apheresis where possible should of neces- 
sity be read in clausule; on the other hand, it plainly indicates 
that hiatus is tolerated, even when the hiatus could be removed 
by either crasis or apheeresis. 
There are many more cases of hiatus after a short vowel, cases, 
namely, where elision might be expected. 
I. In ten cases a perfectly good cursus is made hopelessly irreg- 
ular by introducing elision or crasis in reading: 
gig Tvoavrida EsEVEYFELY, bite 240): 
. ce , > ce > ~ ~ a) 
dv vmowlaes éiyev 0 Avtwrivos, Jay) Alloy 
Pa 70 > y (be ~ 
za Oooyv ol0s TE HY, JLExWAvE,* 15, 18. 
aoLEwr yy oizéie Ertoiet, 18, 23. 


+ References to page and line in the Corpus. 
2 In this case it is not clear whether the clausula ends with #y or 
with dvexoidve; in the former case elision of te would make a regular 
form impossible. 
