ut gaú|det īn|sitī́|va ‖ dē|cerpḗns | pira. (H. Epod. 2, 19.)
[2593.] (1.) The anapaest is rare in nearly all classical writers; Catullus does not admit it at all, and Horace only five times in all. The proceleusmatic is admitted in the first foot by Seneca, the author of the Octāvia, Phaedrus, Publilius Syrus and Terentianus Maurus; other writers exclude it altogether. Catullus keeps the fifth foot pure, and Horace does not admit the tribrach in the fifth foot.
[2594.] (2.) Catullus (4 and 29), Horace (Epod. 16), Vergil (Cat. 3, 4, 8), and the authors of the Priāpēa sometimes use the pure iambic trimeter, without resolutions or substitutions.
[2595.] (3.) Phaedrus follows in part the earlier usage, admitting the spondee, dactyl, and anapaest, in every foot except the last. The dactyl he employs chiefly in the first, third, and fifth feet, the anapaest in the first and fifth. The proceleusmatic he admits only in the first.
[2596.] The rhythm of the Senarius may be illustrated by the following lines:
But one amid the throng of eager listeners,
A sable form with scornful eye and look averse,
Out-stretched a lean fore-finger and bespake Haroun.
[2597.] The Choliambus is an iambic trimeter in which a trochee has been substituted for the final iambus. The penultimate syllable is therefore long instead of short. The caesura is generally the penthemimeral ([2544]). If it is hephthemimeral, there is regularly a diaeresis after the second foot. The scheme is: