[II. FIGURES OF PROSODY.]
[Hiatus.]
[2473.] For hiatus within a word, and the means by which it is avoided, see [114-120].
[2474.] Hiatus between two words is much more common in old Latin than in writers of the classical period. The precise extent to which it is allowed by the early dramatists is matter of dispute. The following cases may be mentioned in which the Latin poets admit hiatus:
[2475.] (1.) After interjections: as, hahahae homo, T. Ph. 411; ō et praesidium, H. 1, 1, 2.
[2476.] (2.) After proper names, and words of Greek origin: as, ancillam ferre Venerī aut Cupīdinī, Pl. As. 804; Thrēiciō Aquilōne, H. Epod. 13, 3.
[2477.] (3.) In the principal caesura of a verse. So especially in Plautus and Terence after the fourth foot of the iambic septenarius, and in Plautus in the principal break in the iambic octonarius, trochaic septenarius and trochaic octonarius.
[2478.] (4.) Often in the dramatists where there is a change of speakers: as, quī potuit vidēre? :: oculīs :: quō pactō? :: hiantibus, Pl. Merc. 182.
[2479.] (5.) Probably sometimes in cases of repetition, enumeration, or sharp antithesis, and where there is an important pause in the sense: as, eam volt meretrīcem facere: ea mē dēperit, Pl. Cur. 46; sī pereō, hominum manibus periisse iuvābit, V. 3, 606.
[2480.] Vergil sometimes admits hiatus when the final syllable ending in a vowel is preceded or followed (or both) by two short syllables: as, lāmentīs gemitūque et fēmĭnĕō ŭlŭlātū, V. 4, 667.