3. Caesura.
a) The favorite position of the caesura in the Dactylic Hexameter is after the thesis of the third foot; as,—
arma virumque canō || Trōjae quī prīmus ab ōrĭs.
b) Less frequently the caesura occurs after the thesis of the fourth foot, usually accompanied by another in the second foot; as,—
inde torō || pater Aenēās || sīc ōrsus ab altō est.
c) Sometimes the caesura occurs between the two short syllables of the third foot; as,—
Ō passī graviōra || dabit deus hīs quoque fīnem.
This caesura is called Feminine, as opposed to the caesura after a long syllable, which is called Masculine (as under a and b)
d) A pause sometimes occurs at the end of the fourth foot. This is called the Bucolic Diaeresis, as it was borrowed by the Romans from the Bucolic poetry of the Greeks. Thus:—
sōlstitium pecorī dēfendite; || jam venit aestās.
DACTYLIC PENTAMETER.