Up sprang the flowrets from the ground, and Nature smiled o’er all the plain.

[2607.] (1.) The iambic octonarius is chiefly a comic verse. Terence has about eight hundred lines in this measure, Plautus only about three hundred, Varro a few.

[2608.] (2.) Substitutions are much less common than in the senarius, especially in the even feet.

[2609.] (3.) When there is a diaeresis after the fourth foot, so that the line is divided into two equal halves, the verse is asynartetic ([2535]). There seems, however, to be no certain instance of hiatus in the diaeresis in the Terentian plays.

[Iambic Septenarius.]

(A.) Early Usage.

[2610.] The Iambic Septenarius consists of seven and a half iambic feet. In any of the complete feet the substitutes mentioned in 2581 are admitted. There is usually a diaeresis after the fourth foot, which in that case must be a pure iambus. If there is not such a diaeresis, there is generally a caesura after the arsis of the fifth foot. The scheme of substitution is:—

⏑͐ –́⏑͐ –̇⏑͐ –́⏑͐ –̇⏑͐ –́⏑͐ –̇⏑͐ –́⏑͐ ⌅
⏑ ⏑́ ⏑⏑ ⏑̇ ⏑⏑ ⏑́ ⏑⏑ ⏑̇ ⏑⏑ ⏑́ ⏑⏑ ⏑̇ ⏑⏑ ⏑́ ⏑
> ⏑́ ⏑> ⏑̇ ⏑> ⏑́ ⏑> ⏑̇ ⏑> ⏑́ ⏑> ⏑̇ ⏑> ⏑́ ⏑
⏖ –́⏖ –̇⏖ –́⏖ –̇⏖ –́⏖ –̇⏖ –́
⏖ ⏑́ ⏑⏖ ⏑̇ ⏑⏖ ⏑́ ⏑⏖ ⏑̇ ⏑⏖ ⏑́ ⏑⏖ ⏑̇ ⏑⏖ ⏑́ ⏑

[2611.] Examples of the Septenarius are the lines:

Spērā́|bit sūm|ptum síbi | senex ‖ levā́|t(um) ess(e) hā|runc ábi|tū: