[2545.] The Strophe. A fixed number of verses recurring in a regular order is called a Strophe. A strophe commonly contains verses of different kinds, but some strophes are composed of verses which are all alike. The most common strophes in Latin poetry are either distichs (i.e. groups of two lines each), tristichs (of three lines each), or tetrastichs (of four).
Strophes and verses are frequently named after some poet who made use of them. So the Alcaic strophe (named after Alcaeus), the Sapphic strophe (named after Sappho), the Glyconic verse (named after Glycon), the Asclepiadean (after Asclepiades), the Phalaecean (after Phalaecus), the Pherecratean (after Pherecrates), &c.
[2546.] A Stichic Series is a series of verses of the same kind not combined into strophes.
[2547.] The System. A group of rhythmical series (see [2532]) which is of greater extent than a verse is called a System. Long systems, such as are common in Greek poetry, are comparatively rare in Latin verse.
Few verses have more than two rhythmical series; none more than three.
[2548.] Although in all probability the Latin accent was mainly one of stress rather than of pitch, it seems to have been comparatively weak. Hence, when it conflicted with the metrical ictus, it could be the more easily disregarded. But accentual or semi-accentual poetry seems to have existed among the common people even in the Augustan age, and even in classical Latin verse in certain cases (as in the last part of the dactylic hexameter) conflict between ictus and accent was carefully avoided. After the third century A.D. the accent exerted a stronger and stronger influence upon versification, until in the Middle Ages the quantitative Latin verse was quite supplanted by the accentual.
[NUMERI ITALICI.]
[2549.] Some of the earliest remains of Latin literature are believed to show a rhythmical structure. These are chiefly prayers, imprecations, sacred songs and the like, couched in a set form of words. Of the rules according to which these carmina were composed, almost nothing is known. According to one theory, they are wholly accentual, and are composed of rhythmical series, each series containing four theses. Frequently an arsis is suppressed, and compensation for the omission is made by dwelling longer upon the thesis. As an example is given the prayer in Cato, Dē Rē Rūsticā, 141:
Mā́rs páter tḗ précor | quaésṓque útī síēs | vólēns própítiús